Antifederalist No. 21

WHY THE ARTICLES FAILED


    This essay is composed of excerpts from "CENTINEL" letters 
appearing in the (Philadelphia) Independent Gazetteer, October 5 
and November 30, 1787. 



    That the present confederation is inadequate to the objects 
of the union, seems to be universally allowed.  The only question 
is, what additional powers are wanting to give due energy to the 
federal government?  We should, however, be careful, in forming 
our opinion on this subject, not to impute the temporary and 
extraordinary difficulties that have hitherto impeded the 
execution of the confederation, to defects in the system itself.  
For years past, the harpies of power have been industriously 
inculcating the idea that all our difficulties proceed from the 
impotency of Congress, and have at length succeeded to give to 
this sentiment almost universal currency and belief.  The 
devastations, losses and burdens occasioned by the late war; the 
excessive importations of foreign merchandise and luxuries, which 
have drained the country of its specie and involved it in debt, 
are all overlooked, and the inadequacy of the powers of the 
present confederation is erroneously supposed to be the only 
cause of our difficulties.  Hence persons of every description 
are revelling in the anticipation of the halcyon days consequent 
on the establishment of the new constitution.  What gross 
deception and fatal delusion!  Although very considerable benefit 
might be derived from strengthening the hands of Congress, so as 
to enable them to regulate commerce, and counteract the adverse 
restrictions of other nations, which would meet with the 
concurrence of all persons; yet this benefit is accompanied in 
the new constitution with the scourge of despotic power. . . . 
    Taxation is in every government a very delicate and difficult 
subject.  Hence it has been the policy of all wise statesmen, as 
far as circumstances permitted, to lead the people by small 
beginnings and almost imperceptible degrees, into the habits of 
taxation.  Where the contrary conduct has been pursued, it has 
ever failed of full success, not unfrequently proving the ruin of 
the projectors.  The imposing of a burdensome tax at once on a 
people, without the usual gradations, is the severest test that 
any government can be put to; despotism itself has often proved 
unequal to the attempt.  Under this conviction, let us take a 
review of our situation before and since the revolution. From the 
first settlement of this country until the commencement of the 
late war, the taxes were so light and trivial as to be scarcely 
felt by the people.  When we engaged in the expensive contest 
with Great Britain, the Congress, sensible of the difficulty of 
levying the monies necessary to its support, by direct taxation, 
had resource to an anticipation of the public resources, by 
emitting bills of credit, and thus postponed the necessity of 
taxation for several years. This means was pursued to a most 
ruinous length.  But about the year 80 or 81, it was wholly 
exhausted, the bills of credit had suffered such a depreciation 
from the excessive quantities in circulation, that they ceased to 
be useful as a medium.  The country at this period was very much 
impoverished and exhausted; commerce had been suspended for near 
six years; the husbandman, for want of a market, limited his 
crops to his own subsistence; the frequent calls of the militia 
and long continuance in actual service, the devastations of the 
enemy, the subsistence of our own armies, the evils of the 
depreciation of the paper money, which fell chiefly upon the 
patriotic and virtuous part of the community, had all concurred 
to produce great distress throughout America.  In this situation 
of affairs, we still had the same powerful enemy to contend with, 
who had even more numerous and better appointed armies in the 
field than at any former time.  Our allies were applied to in 
this exigency, but the pecuniary assistance that we could procure 
from them was soon exhausted.  The only resource now remaining 
was to obtain by direct taxation, the moneys necessary for our 
defense.  The history of mankind does not furnish a similar 
instance of an attempt to levy such enormous taxes at once, nor 
of a people so wholly unprepared and uninured to them-the lamp of 
sacred liberty must indeed have burned with unsullied lustre, 
every sordid principle of the mind must have been then extinct, 
when the people not only submitted to the grievous impositions, 
but cheerfully exerted themselves to comply with the calls of 
their country.  Their abilities, however, were not equal to 
furnish the necessary sums-indeed, the requisition of the year 
1782, amounted to the whole income of their farms and other 
property, including the means of their subsistence. Perhaps the 
strained exertions of two years would not have sufficed to the 
discharge of this requisition.  How then can we impute the 
difficulties of the people to a due compliance with the 
requisitions of Congress, to a defect in the confederation?  Any 
government, however energetic, in similar circumstances, would 
have experienced the same fate.  If we review the proceedings of 
the States, we shall find that they gave every sanction and 
authority to the requisitions of Congress that their laws could 
confer, that they attempted to collect the sums called for in the 
same manner as is proposed to be done in future by the general 
government, instead of the State legislatures.... 
     The wheels of the general government having been thus 
clogged, and the arrearages of taxes still accumulating, it may 
be asked what prospect is there of the government resuming its 
proper tone, -unless more compulsory powers are granted?  To this 
it may be answered, that the produce of imposts on commerce, 
which all agree to vest in Congress, together with the immense 
tracts of land at their disposal, will rapidly lessen and 
eventually discharge the present encumbrances.  When this takes 
place, the mode by requisition will be found perfectly adequate 
to the extraordinary exigencies of the union.  Congress have 
lately sold land to the amount of eight millions of dollars, 
which is a considerable portion of the whole debt. 
     It is to be lamented that the interested and designing have 
availed themselves so successfully of the present crisis, and 
under the specious pretence of having discovered a panacea for 
all the ills of the people, they are about establishing a system 
of government, that will prove more destructive to them than the 
wooden horse filled with soldiers did in ancient times to the 
city of Troy. This horse was introduced by their hostile enemy 
the Grecians, by a prostitution of the sacred rites of their 
religion; in like manner, my fellow citizens, are aspiring 
despots among yourselves prostituting the name of a Washington to 
cloak their designs upon your liberties. 
     I would ask how was the proposed Constitution to have 
showered down those treasures upon every class of citizens, as 
has been so industriously inculcated and so fondly believed by 
some?  Would it have been by the addition of numerous and 
expensive establishments?  By doubling our judiciaries, 
instituting federal courts in every county of every state?  By a 
superb presidential court?  By a large standing army?  In short, 
by putting it in the power of the future government to levy money 
at pleasure, and placing this government so independent of the 
people as to enable the administration to gratify every corrupt 
passion of the mind, to riot on your spoils, without check or 
control? 
     A transfer to Congress of the power of imposing imposts on 
commerce, the unlimited regulation of trade, and to make 
treaties, I believe is all that is wanting to render America as 
prosperous as it is in the power of any form of government to 
render her; this properly understood would meet the views of all 
the honest and well meaning. 
     What gave birth to the late continental Convention?  Was it 
not the situation of our commerce, which lay at the mercy of 
every foreign power, who, from motives of interest or enmity, 
could restrict and control it without risking a retaliation on 
the part of America, as Congress was impotent on this subject? 
Such indeed was the case with respect to Britain, whose hostile 
regulations gave such a stab to our navigation as to threaten its 
annihilation, it became the interest of even the American 
merchant to give a preference to foreign bottoms; hence the 
distress of our seamen, shipwrights, and every mechanic art 
dependent on navigation. 
     By these regulations too, we were limited in markets for our 
produce; our vessels were excluded from their West India islands; 
many of our staple commodities were denied entrance in Britain.  
Hence the husbandman were distressed by the demand for their 
crops being lessened and their prices reduced. This is the source 
to which may be traced every evil we experience, that can be 
relieved by a more energetic government. Recollect the language 
of complaint for years past; compare the recommendations of 
Congress, founded on such complaints, pointing out the remedy; 
examine the reasons assigned by the different states for 
appointing delegates to the late Convention; view the powers 
vested in that body-they all harmonize in the sentiment, that the 
due regulation of trade and navigation was the anxious wish of 
every class of citizens, was the great object of calling the 
Convention. 
    This object being provided for by the Constitution proposed 
by the general Convention, people overlooked and were not 
sensible of the needless sacrifice they were making for it.  
Allowing for a moment that it would be possible for trade to 
flourish under a despotic government, of what avail would be a 
prosperous state of commerce, when the produce of it would be at 
the absolute disposal of an arbitrary unchecked general 
government, who may levy at pleasure the most oppressive taxes; 
who may destroy every principle of freedom; who may even destroy 
the privilege of complaining.... 
    After so recent a triumph over British despots, after such 
torrents of blood and treasure have been spent, after involving 
ourselves in the distresses of an arduous war, and incurring such 
a debt, for the express purpose of asserting the rights of 
humanity, it is truly astonishing that a set of men among 
ourselves should have had the effrontery to attempt the 
destruction of our liberties.  But in this enlightened age, to 
dupe the people by the arts they are practising, is still more 
extraordinary. . . 
                              CENTINEL