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Reaction to Rebellion

I believe in Washington’s words that the United States Government was closing in on anarchy and confusion. The government under the Articles of Confederation was very unstable, as the central government was designed so that it would not be that powerful. This was thought to be a good thing, but turned out to be a very bad one. States were competing fiercely amongst each other because it did not seem as if they were the same country, but instead small separate nations. Each state wanted the other’s business, territory, or power. States would cheat on each other as there was no national court system, and none of the governments, whether it is of the state or the nation, had any spare money to use for paying former soldiers or to establish a currency. Had the Articles of Confederation been in effect any longer, wars between states could have easily begun. It might have been a simple issue of one state not tolerating the other taking advantage of it in court that could have led to a huge war between the states that would have eventually led to the downfall of the United States as a whole. It could have been one state ignoring a treaty that the national government that led to the nation the treaty was with coming to capture the United States and making them into colonies once again. Years of work easily could have gone down the drain if England had come and recaptured the United States. This is what Washington meant when he said that, “there are combustibles in every state which a spark might set fire to.” It would have been so easy for this new nation to fall apart, and it may be considered a miracle that it made it through.