The legislature of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations rejects an article of amendment to the Articles of Confederation that would authorize Congress to levy a five-percent tax on imports. Amendments to the Articles of Confederation must be unanimous.
NOTE: Passage of this amendment would allowed Congress to pay of the Continental debt, and might have rendered the Constitution for the united States unnecessary.
[updated 7/12/2026]
Subsequent Events:
Authority:
Articles of Confederation, Article XIII
ccc-2point0.com/Articles-of-Confederation
References:
“Chronology of Events, 1774-1804,” from The Debate on the Constitution, two volumes, Bernard Bailyn, ed., (New York: Library of America, 1992), 2:1037.
Irwin H. Polishook, Rhode Island and the Union: 1774 – 1795, (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1969), 57-60, 78-80.
Current U.s. National Debt:
