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to raise taxes. The states were accordingly all
delinquent, and there was no resource left for Con-
gress but to issue its promissory notes. Congress
already owed more than forty million dollars, and
during the first half of the year 1778 the issues of
paper money amounted to twenty-three millions.
The depreciation had already become alarming,
and the most zealous law-making was of course
powerless to stop it.

Until toward the close of the Revolutionary War,
indeed, the United States had no regularly organ-
ized government. At the time of the Declaration
of Independence a committee had been appointed
by Congress to prepare articles of confederation,
to be submitted to the states for their approval.
These articles were ready by the summer of 1778,
but it was not until the spring of 1781 that all the
states had signed them. While the thirteen dis-
tinct sovereignties in the United States were visi-
ble in clear outline, the central govern-
ment was something very shadowy and
ill-defined. Under these circumstances, the mili-
tary efficiency of the people was reduced to a min-
imum. The country never put forth more than
a small fraction of its available strength. Every-
thing suffered from the want of organization. In
spite of the popular ardour, which never seems to
have been deficient when opportunities came for
testing it, there was almost as much difficulty in
keeping up the numbers of the army by enlistment
as in providing equipment, sustenance, and pay
for the soldiers when once enlisted. The army of
80,000 men, which Congress had devised in the

Lack of or-
ganization.

-26-

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Publication Information: Book Title: The American Revolution. Volume: 2. Contributors: John Fiske - author. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin. Place of Publication: Boston. Publication Year: 1891. Page Number: 26.
    
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