Paper21

Nicole Tourangeau Other Defects of the Present Confederation\ Wednesday, December, 12, 1787 Publius-[Alexander Hamilton] To the People of the State of New York:

Previously Hamilton wrote about the pros and cons of government under the Articles of Confederation and in this essay he writes primarily about the defects of the Confederation. But before solutions (The Constitution) are to come into place, one must understand why the Confederation was so bad for the country.
 * Summary**

The country holds no power or authority; no forceful acts can be made if the government is disobeyed. The duties are unclear for states and federal government due to Article Two, which claims that states are sovereign and anything not mentioned in the Confederation is left up for the states to manage. He states that the United States is the only government that can’t enforce its own laws. There is no guarantee if a state goes against its citizens that the national government can do anything. The national government is powerless because there’s nothing that exists to ensure the security of the state’s government. The state government is valued too highly, but for the Anti-Federalist they like how there’s no security of a federal government. The security of a Federal government is as rational as those against a situation of an illegal seizure.

No two states are alike in size, wealth and population and it is impossible for proportionate taxes, under the Confederation in which no Federal taxes could be mandated. The earnings of every state are different due to geography which affects crops and even the nature of the government which affects the society there which is why a common income for the whole United States would vary. Under state government, taxes are to be seen as a burden (mostly for the poor). If the Federal government ran taxes it would be based on consumption (to preserve proportions). Therefore, each citizen would have full control over their taxes based on their limit of living; if taxes became too high then they would lower their consumption, land would withhold a standard tax based on value. If the government (Federal) had power, the taxes would be based on fixed rules, the long term affect would be more of a convenience to citizens, then allowing state governments to impose taxes, in which Federal taxes is feared by the Anti-Federlists.

The essay was predominantly written to promote the Constitution; therefore Hamilton (Publius) addressed the negative sides of the Articles of Confederation. He introduced the idea how Federal government should have control of taxes and base them off of citizen’s value of life which can not be done under the Confederation. The strongest argument was how congress could not enforce taxes on citizens or the states Pre-Constitution; which proposed the idea on taxes would be to preserve proportionate taxes. The idea of giving Federal government the power to tax (as described) would put a lesser burden on citizens because the amount one would owe would be justice.
 * Main Objective and Strongest Arguments**

As to suppose many questions came up about the idea of Federal government, especially by the Anti-Federalists. Even though Federal taxes would be based off your possession, Anti-Federalists believed they would still exceed their limit to tax. For they thrived on not having a Federal government that protected the security of the people because they believed the more power, the less rights for the people. Therefore, they would not want the involvement of the Federal government to propose taxes for the fear of too much involvement which leads to corruption, which in this case would be higher taxes. However, a tax system based on your value of life would be fair and not exceeding too much power in any way. Anti-Federalists views would not supply a correct argument because the reasons for Federal taxes is to maintain a proportionate collection of taxes between citizens.
 * The Opposing Side**

Everyone in America applies to the Internal Revenue to see if they must pay Federal taxes annually which follows through with the idea of a Federal tax. Out of one's paycheck comes out money for a Federal tax which is refunded. The amount of Federal tax one owes is based off of your investments, as stated by Publius.
 * Today’s World**