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George William Van Cleve’s “We Have Not a Government” offers a detailed and insightful look at the Articles of Confederation and the road to the Constitution. Van Cleve does an excellent job of tracing the origins of the Articles of Confederation and examining their strengths and weaknesses. He also provides a concise analysis of the Constitutional Convention and the debates that led to the adoption of the Constitution. Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone interested in learning more about the founding of the United States Constitution. The book is a retrospective introduction to the early days of Constitution-Making in the United States government that lasted seven years (1781-1788).
The first chapter describes economic sabotage and the political landscape. The chapter gives an overview of the Confederation period explaining how the first system of government collapsed in the United States. In the first few chapters, the author reflects on the struggles of the American government—explaining the economic sabotage influenced by the adoption of the Confederation Article. Through the Philadelphia Convention, the Article of Confederation was witnessed between 1783 and 1787. Van Cleve reveals how the Confederation failed to work as a national government despite the uproar from Federalists for better constitutional conventions, leading to the emergence of ratification debates.
Van Cleve has given a standpoint regarding the credibility of Federalist propaganda relating to the effects of the Articles of Confederation. He investigates the Article’s impact, such as its influence on Americans’ welfare, security, and independence. The details of this account are shown in chapter 4. The challenges of debt and taxation are referenced in chapters 2 and 3. In the two chapters, Van Cleve concludes that the Federalists claim the crisis in governance was orchestrated by the debt crisis and post-war recession during the Confederation period. These further pushed Van Cleve to re-examine the failure of the United States to respond against attacks and restrictions from foreign governments on the internal welfare of the country. This examination enabled Van Cleve to identify foreign influence and unfavorable trade policies as the leading cause of the crisis.
The Author agrees with George Washington about the core weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Washington argued that a government that cannot levy a tax is illegitimate. Van Cleve subscribes to these sentiments because he knew that a ‘stale’ government instigates anarchy and confusion. During the Confederation period, the ratification of the Articles of Confederation was marred with self-interest as the Authorities could not find solutions for the already crumbling government.
In the investigation, Van Cleve further discovers similar wrangles and internal divisions in the westward expansion, therefore, agreeing that the Federalist’s warnings were credible. In this view, Van Cleve suggests that the Federalist movements were legitimate to defend the gains of the patriots after the Revolutionary War. However, this observation contradicts the twentieth-century historian’s argument that such a Federalist movement was a counterrevolution to conceal the elite’s economic interests.
This book is essential to me because it explicitly elucidates how the Confederation failed. The dysfunctional government could not pay debts, protect its economic welfare from foreign interference or protect its people from Indians and a foreign power. After the end of the Revolutionary War, the frustration continued to hurt the citizen as the Confederation was unequal to the task because it plunged the American economy into recession (Van Cleve, 2017). The government collapsed terribly, given that it could not solve issues, for example, financial insolvency, protecting the American currency, safeguarding the Americans from commercial aggregations, and even maintaining internal peace.
The epilogue compares the various governments, which serves as an essential corrective to America’s tendency to blame the Confederation era as the most embarrassing (Van Cleve, 2017). The book resonates with the Federalist ideas, enabling readers to connect the historical tales, and enhancing their understanding of the American historical trajectory. Logically, the Confederation prepared the Americans to gather the experience to usher in the Constitution in 1787. Therefore, the experience was a ‘grand bargain’ for a better system of governance. After perusing the first chapter, the preliminary conclusion is that the failures of the Articles of Confederation led to the establishment of the Constitution. Nonetheless, this might not be the best book covering the Revolutionary War and the making of the Constitution. Van Cleve only explains the specific period of the Revolutionary War and acquiring the Constitution.
Even though the book gives an account of the events that happened to build the American Government, Van Cleve borrowed the theories of other historians, which at times enriches the book with academic history. The author cites economic data in the first few chapters, depicting the economic challenges faced by the nation. Suggestively, attention is required to track the changing economic trends. However, it is interesting to read the last chapters because it gives the literature on the solutions and strategies deployed to build a better Constitution.
I was disappointed that the author did not explain the creation of the Confederation. The author would have explained the origins of the Confederation Article. This could give a clue regarding the history of the Confederation instead of starting over with the assumption that the readers know about the history of the Confederation. Given that the book is around 300 pages, the author should have expanded the book by a few pages giving a brief history of the Confederation’s origin. It is noticeable that the book has an academic tone preoccupied with historical theories, which requires critical analysis to demystify the facts about the periods compared in the book.
As a historian, I confirm that this is an informative book that unveils the turn of events after the Revolutionary War and the establishment of the Constitution. Van Cleve mastered the art of explaining the facts about past events. The book’s conclusion elucidates the solutions to the weaknesses and challenges of the Confederation’s Articles and how the Federalists fought for a better Constitution that brought a paradigm to American leadership. The most significant gain from reading this book is how the author appreciated the importance of linking and appreciating each process, pointing out that the Confederation Article informed the creation of a new Constitution. Patriotism is witnessed in this book, making it easy for the reader to see the value in preserving and improving the history created in 1787.
Reference
Van Cleve, G. W. (2017). We have not a government: The Articles of Confederation and the road to the Constitution. University of Chicago Press.
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