WI: The Articles of Confederation are Adopted, Successful

[Flush]

WI the U. S. adopts the failed Articles of Confederation as their Constitution. What role would Canada play?

1. Establishes the name of the confederation as "The United States of America."
2. Asserts the precedence of the separate states over the confederation government, i.e. "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated."
3. Establishes the United States as a league of states united ". . . for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them . . . ."
4. Establishes freedom of movement–anyone can pass freely between states, excluding "paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice." All people are entitled to the rights established by the state into which he travels. If a crime is committed in one state and the perpetrator flees to another state, he will be extradited to and tried in the state in which the crime was committed.
5. Allocates one vote in the Congress of the Confederation (United States in Congress Assembled) to each state, which was entitled to a delegation of between two and seven members. Members of Congress were appointed by state legislatures; individuals could not serve more than three out of any six years.
6. Only the central government is allowed to conduct foreign relations and to declare war. No states may have navies or standing armies, or engage in war, without permission of Congress (although the state militias are encouraged).
7. When an army is raised for common defense, colonels and military ranks below colonel will be named by the state legislatures.
8. Expenditures by the United States will be paid by funds raised by state legislatures, and apportioned to the states based on the real property values of each.
9. Defines the powers of the central government: to declare war, to set weights and measures (including coins), and for Congress to serve as a final court for disputes between states.
10. Defines a Committee of the States to be a government when Congress is not in session.
11. Requires nine states to approve the admission of a new state into the confederacy; pre-approves Canada, if it applies for membership.
12. Reaffirms that the Confederation accepts war debt incurred by Congress before the Articles.
13. Declares that the Articles are perpetual, and can only be altered by approval of Congress with ratification by all the state legislatures.

[Codae]

We did.
filler

[Zizon]

If the Articles of Confederation were successful, I see the United States as developing into more of an alliance per say instead of a nation. Each state would have more autonomy and threats of succession would be be realized more times than in OTL. Under the Democratic-Republicans, there would probably still be the Louisiana Purchase but after that what would 'American' politics look like?

[Nytram01]

Originally Posted by Codae

We did.
filler

Technically you didn't.

The original idea of the United States of America was to create an entity on the world stage similar to the EU today in that each state within the United States of America remained independent and got to run itself how it wished to but there would also exist a higher body made up of representatives from each state who would decide policies for all the states where it would be needed. In that system each State would retain the right to withdraw from the Union should they wish to.

In stead of that system the Untied States was a single country and rather than the individual States being independent entities unto themselves joined in a mutually beneficial Union they became simply geographical markers within one single country with fewer individual rights and no right to self-government.

So it's an entirely different system and the argument between factions as to what version the United States of America actually employed would be one that would, in OTL, be sorted once and for all when the American Civil War came to an end. The Union won, thus making it clear to all and sundry that the Union was unbreakable and always had been and that the States did not have the right to govern themselves outside of the Untied States itself.

[Jape]

Well the fact is hardly workable doomed the Confederation, if however certain state interests veto moving to a more federal model, it might remain.

I have a feeling youd end up with mini-unifications, border wars over slavery and certainly fighting over the Western expanses.