The power to tax allows central governments to provide for their citizens in ways that states cannot. Furthermore, large populous states were at an advantage economically over smaller states. For these reasons and more the Federal Government voted to abolish one of the documents list below. Which of the documents listed below did the Federal Government vote to abolish?

The locus and scope of the authority to tax were prominent issues in the debates leading up to the American revolution. Fiscal matters continued to loom large during and subsequent to the war for independence. Having cast off the fetters of monarchy, the citizens of 13 independent republics turned to local representative institutions to preserve their liberties, giving little sustained thought to the viability of a larger, unified nation. A growing number of nationally-oriented citizens, however, began to realize that the exigencies of war and peace required a more vigorous central government than many Whig patriots had contemplated. Challenging a number of radical conventions that had fueled the recent revolution, the framers of the Constitution of 1787 designed a federal government to address these needs. Broad constitutional powers to raise revenue were central to the Federalists’ conceptions of nationhood. Following ratification, their blueprint dictated how the country responded to fiscal challenges, both foreign and domestic, during its first three decades.

1777 On November 15, the Continental Congress passed the fledgling nation’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederation [external link]. The Articles, like most republican state constitutions written around this time, shunned vigorous executive power in favor of a more decentralized form of government constructed around a powerful legislative body. The first national government consisted of a loose confederation of independent states that retained their sovereignty in most matters, with the exception of diplomacy and defense. Each state had one vote in Congress, regardless of population, and unanimous consent was required to enact measures of major import. This arrangement severely circumscribed Congress’s fiscal capacity. The Articles did not grant Congress the power to tax; it could only request funds that states might eventually get around to remitting. Given the history of their past relationship with Britain, the states were understandably loathe to sacrifice their own autonomy and vest powerful fiscal authority in a distant centralized government.

State officials tended to print money rather than resort to increased taxation in order to raise war revenue. As a consequence, most state currencies depreciated quickly and severely. The Continental Congress relied on loans from the French, Dutch, and wealthy Americans at first, but soon turned to the printing press as well, with similar results.

Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance1781 Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris attempted to expand governmental powers beyond the limits set by the Articles of Confederation. He released a Report on Public Credit, calling for the Confederation government to assume the entire national debt, issue new interest-bearing debt certificates, and impose tariffs and internal taxes to pay the interest costs. This plan essentially prefigured Alexander Hamilton’s later fiscal program.

Morris’s attempts to raise revenue were rebuffed at every turn. Rhode Island, for example, objected to his proposal for a national tariff (an import duty of 5 percent on foreign goods), leading to its defeat in Congress.

1783 Other states like New York joined in vetoing similar tariff measure. Having resisted British import duties, they were not about to accede to new sets of duties, even those sanctioned by their own government. Key commercial states like New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania determined their own trading policies.

1786 Government inefficiencies encountered during and after the Revolutionary war, particularly with respect to matters of taxation and finance, frustrated a growing number of influential public figures. This group of nationalists George Washington, Robert Morris, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, to name a few advocated a stronger central government to administer fiscal and commercial policies directly, rather than devolving control to the individual states. Nationalists had several concerns.