The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 THE CRITICAL PERIOD 617and lacking power to perform allottedfunctions.Government maintainspeace by having the respectof the decent, holding the irrationalin awe, and intimidating thelawless. A weak government ismore likely to be arbitrary, capricious,and even despotic than astrong one, for the uncertainstatus of its ability to use forceleads to unpredictable usages. Itwas the weakness of the Congresswhich set the stage for its inflationarypolicies. The weakness ofstate governments resulted in arbitrarypractices for raising suppliesfor the army duripg the war.A weak government .is prone topreying on the weak - those whomost need its protection - and thispenchant is probably aggravatedby popular governments which arecontinuously seeking popular support.The treatment of Loyalistsby the state governments duringand after the war is probably acase in point. Above all, weak governmentsinvite challenges to theirauthority which, when broughtforth, result in war or revolution.How critical the situation was inAmerica in the mid-1780's is andwill remain in doubt, but the portentof crisis follows necessarilyfrom the condition of the governments.That the state governments wereweak as well as the Congress isrevealed by analysis. Governorswere made nearly impotent bytheir dependence on the legislatures.Legislatures had considerablepower of making laws, butthey were not charged with executingthem. The Congress establishedby the Articles of Confederationhad little power at all. Itwas charged with major responsibilities,yet it had no independentexecutive, no courts of itsown, nor any direct sources ofrevenue. Moreover, the membersof Congress were made so dependentupon state legislatures fortheir tenure that they were mostreluctant to act.A Lack of ContinuityThe bane of republics is a lackof continuity of government becausethe government changeshands so often. Each election maybring a new set of rulers. Monarchydoes not suffer much fromthis defect, but it has others whichdisqualified it for Americans. Theconstitution-makers of the revolutionaryperiod aggravated thediscontinuity attendant upon republics.Not only did constitutionsfrequently call for annual electionsbut also there were sometimeslimitations on how frequentlywithin a period an individualcould serve. Members of Congresshad no assurance of continuationfrom one session to the next oreven that they might not be re-