The Articles of Confederation
159
States. These were the powers that formed the basis of the dispute with
England, and the States were therefore not of a mind to surrender them
to another central government. Denied the power of tax, Congress was
obliged to rely upon the system of State appropriations that had proved
to be hopelessly inadequate in the colonial period. Many of the States
failed to cooperate, as might be expected, and the Confederation was almost invariably in a chronic state of near bankruptcy.
Because the States retained their sovereignty, the Articles made no
provision for an executive or judicial branch, and all of the functions of
the confederation government were concentrated in one legislative body.
A separation of powers was not deemed necessary since the confederation had so little power in the first place. The threat of legislative tyranny
was indeed exceedingly remote. The executive function was therefore exercised by various committees of the Congress. At one point there were
ninety-nine such committees, with overlapping jurisdiction and rival
claims of authority. Consequently, there was no executive unity in the
confederation, and not infrequently the government spoke in a babble of
voices.
Having no judiciary of its own, the confederation authorized the Congress to settle a narrow range of disputes through ad hoc courts. If two or
more States, for example, disagreed over a boundary line, any one of the
parties to the dispute was free to appeal to Congress for relief. Congress
settled some six disputes of this nature during the Confederation period.
The Articles further provided that Congress could establish courts to try
cases of piracy and felony committed on the high seas and to determine
ownership of vessels and cargo in ‘‘cases of capture’’ or prize cases.
Otherwise, the Confederation relied upon the State judiciaries for the
enforcement of national laws and treaties. Although certain provisions of
the Articles seemed to indicate that they were to be accorded the status
of law and ‘‘inviolably observed by every State,’’ there was no provision
comparable to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution requiring the
State courts to treat the Articles or any of the laws and treaties of the Confederation as the law of the land. This was perhaps the fatal weakness of
the system. Answerable to the State legislatures that controlled their salaries and tenure, and often lacking any real independence because most
of the early State constitutions were based upon legislative supremacy,