Summary—The Committee of the States
When Congress is not in session, a committee
called the Committee of the States has the full
authority to act in its place, and take on
additional powers as necessary if nine of the
states agree. However, the Committee of the States
can never adopt any powers that specifically
require the consent of nine states while Congress
is in session.
Commentary
Under John Dickinson's draft of the Articles
of Confederation, this body was called the
Council of State, and was endowed with permanent
bureaucratic and executive control over a variety
of matters. It was changed to the Committee of the
States and vested with minimal powers to sufficient
only to simply manage the affairs under the
authority of Congress when Congress was not in
session.
Dickinson's Council would have been in charge of
any matter agreed upon by nine of thirteen states,
and was probably inspired by the bureaucratic
committees that had existed during the war to help
with administrative duties. Dickinson's Council
could have been empowered to administer matters of
commerce, trade, education, or any other area that
Congress deemed appropriate. However, radicals
viewed this vague extension of congressional
authority as threatening to the state's
sovereignty.
Therefore, the Committee of the States, as
described in the final draft of the Articles, had
even stricter restrictions placed on it than Congress.
The Committee could never make war or peace, could
never coin or regulate money, and could never
appoint the military commanders. In their zeal to protect
themselves from centralized power falling into the
hands of a body not directly controlled by the
states, the radicals also stripped the national
government of the only semblance of executive
authority it had.
Under the guise of managing matters that fell under the authority of Congress,
bureaucratic committees operated both during and after the
war. Originally, delegates to Congress were
required to sit on committees. Over time, this policy evolved toward
bureaucracy, first to the establishment of committees or boards that included
appointed outsiders, and then to the appointment of a non-delegate as single
head of each department. This secretary system outlasted the Continental
Congress, and the Confederation Congress appointed a Secretary of War and
Foreign Affairs, a Secretary of the Post Office, and a Secretary of Finance.
The Committee of the States met only once during the summer of 1784 and suffered
the same low attendance as Congress. It never reached its required quorum to
accomplish any of the administrative tasks assigned to it.
