Articles of Confederation Tidbit

Polymaths are not people who know various types of math. They are those with a diverse knowledge of a range of subjects. I try to be one, but have my limitations. But, I often am left wanting on the knowledge of certain topics. For instance, I would be reading a news article or something, and feel unsatisfied. It is unclear how I survived life before the Internet.

One area of interest that I have found lacking in resources available is the Articles of Confederation. I wrote a brief summary on it here. And, it is usually covered as something that was ratified and then found lacking. But, not much is said about it specifically. Plus, I could not find any good books on the Articles of Confederation.  For instance, one was independently published by Joshua Mawhorter and is only fifty pages long.  

(Last year, some historian on Twitter said she was writing one.)

I am interested in something akin to the material available on the U.S. Constitution.  This would be both the act of writing the document and its application.  It was ratified in 1781 with the U.S. Constitution ratified in mid-1788 and firmly in place (with a new government) in 1789.  That is long enough to be a notable period of application.  And, did this application (there are clauses that were retained, for instance) influence later law?

I happened to skim my copy of Seriatim: The Supreme Court Before John Marshall, a collection of essays published in 1998.  It's a very interesting look at an often forgotten period of constitutional law, broken down by the justices of the Supreme Court at the time.  

And, one subheading of the chapter on the short tenure of John Blair was entitled "Blair Upholds the Power of the Confederation." The case involved dealt with a significant issue for that time period -- settlement of prize disputes arising from seized ships.  

And, involved in the case (Penhallow v. Doane) was the powers of the Congress during the 1770s and 1780s as well as courts that the Articles of Confederation gave Congress power to create.  The book's summary has the case turn on the power of Congress over prize issues, be it as an inherent feature of sovereignty or a power clearly delegated to it by the states.  This is in a pre-constitutional, weaker national government.

The chapter on John Blair also briefly discusses how the courts created by Congress acted, noting how they often ruled differently than state courts.  This provides an insight on how federal courts, more expansively created by the U.S. Constitution would act, including as a contrast to local courts and having a tendency to favor certain types of litigants more in practice. This might not be a bias necessary, but arising from the nature of things.

It also provides an example of what a book on the Articles of Confederation would cover.  I would note this sort of thing is not atypical. For instance, the Civil War provides loads of literature, but how much talks about Southern law?  I did years back read a book on the Confederate Constitution, which is different from ours in a few notable ways.  Also, the Confederacy never got around to set up a Supreme Court.  Did have local federal courts -- read an article on the issue some time back.  

Anyway, Confederation courts alone would (and I assume people wrote some articles on the topic) provide some fodder. Note how state courts in the 1780s began to apply the practice of judicial review.  And, how did the states and federal government apply other aspects of the Articles of Confederation?  There would be various ways that would arise. 

Little bits can be found in places, often providing something new in books on similar topics, that provide interesting bits that make me go "huh" and want to read more. On this topic, I already did.