Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, was the first
governing document, or constitution, of the United States of America. It was written in !!" and adopted #y the
Second Continental Congress on $ovem#er %, !!!, after a year of de#ate.
In practice it served as the de facto system of government used #y the Congress &'the United States in Congress
assem#led'( until it #ecame de )ure #y final ratification on *arch , !+. At that point Congress #ecame Congress of
the Confederation.
The Articles set the rules for operations of the United States. The confederation was capa#le of making war,
negotiating diplomatic agreements, and resolving issues regarding the western territories, and the a#ility to print
money and #orrow inside and outside the US.
,ne ma)or weakness was it lacked ta-ing authority.
A second weakness was one.state, one.vote.
The larger states were e-pected to contri#ute more #ut had only one vote.
It was initially intended only as a weak national government designed to manage an emergency, and as such,
following the conclusion of the /ar and the onset of new priorities, its many conspicuous inade0uacies #ecame
glaringly o#vious. It was replaced #y the much stronger United States Constitution upon its ratification on 1une 2,
!++.
Background
The political push for the colonies to increase their cooperation, and in fact unite, #egan in the 3rench and Indian /ars
in the mid !%4s. The opening of the American 5evolutionary /ar in !!% accelerated the push for union, and the
Second Continental Congress starting !!% acted as a de facto national government that ran the war. Congress
presented the Articles for enactment #y the states in !!!, while prosecuting the American 5evolutionary war against
the 6ingdom of 7reat 8ritain.
Ratification
Congress #egan to move for ratification of the Articles in !!!9
The articles can always #e candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of com#ining in one general system the
various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many sovereign and independent communities, under a
conviction of the a#solute necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength, to maintain and defend our
common li#erties...:2;
The document could not #ecome officially effective until it was ratified #y all thirteen states. The first state to ratify
was <elaware on 3e#ruary %, !!+. The process dragged on for several years, stalled #y the refusal of some states to
rescind their claims to land in the /est. *aryland was the last hold.out= it refused to go along until >irginia and $ew
?ork agreed to cede their claims in the ,hio 5iver valley. A little over three years passed #efore *aryland@s ratification
on *arch , !+.
Article summaries
Aven though the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution were esta#lished #y many of the same people, the two
documents were very different. The original five paged Articles contained thirteen articles, a conclusion, and a
signatory section.
Asta#lishes the name of the confederation as 'The United States of America' and says it is a 'perpetual
Union.'
A-plains the rights possessed #y any state, and the amount of power to which any state is entitled.
Asta#lishes the United States as a league of states united '. . . for their common defense, the security of their
li#erties, and their mutual and general welfare, #inding themselves to assist each other, against all force
offered to, or attacks made upon them . . .'
Asta#lishes freedom of movementBanyone can pass freely #etween states, e-cluding 'paupers, vaga#onds,
and fugitives from )ustice.' All people are entitled to the rights esta#lished #y the state into which he travels.
If a crime is committed in one state and the perpetrator flees to another state, he will #e e-tradited to and
tried in the state in which the crime was committed.
Allocates one vote in the Congress of the Confederation &United States in Congress Assem#led( to each state,
which was entitled to a delegation of #etween two and seven mem#ers. *em#ers of Congress were appointed
#y state legislatures= individuals could not serve more than three out of any si- years.
,nly the central government is allowed to conduct foreign relations and to declare war.
$o two states can form an alliance without permission of Congress.
$o states may have navies or standing armies, or engage in war, without permission of Congress &although
the state militias are encouraged(
/hen an army is raised for common defense, colonels and military ranks #elow colonel will #e named #y the
state legislatures.
A-penditures #y the United States will #e paid #y funds raised #y state legislatures, and apportioned to the
states #ased on the real property values of each.
<efines the rights of the central government9 to declare war, to set weights and measures &including coins(
Congress serves as a final court for disputes #etween states.
<efines a Committee of the States to #e a government when Congress is not in session.
5e0uires nine states to approve the admission of a new state into the confederacy= pre.approves Canada, if it
applies for mem#ership.
5eaffirms that the Confederation accepts war de#t incurred #y Congress #efore the articles.
<eclares that the articles are perpetual, and can only #e altered #y approval of Congress with ratification #y
all the state legislatures.
Still at war with the 6ingdom of 7reat 8ritain, the colonists were reluctant to esta#lish another powerful national
government. 1ealously guarding their new independence, the Continental Congress created a loosely structured
unicameral legislature that protected the li#erty of the individual states at the e-pense of the confederation. /hile
calling on Congress to regulate military and monetary affairs, for e-ample, the Articles of Confederation provided no
mechanism to ensure states complied with re0uests for troops or revenue.
The end of the war
The Treaty of Paris &!+C(, which ended hostilities with 7reat 8ritain, languished in Congress for months #ecause state
representatives failed to attend sessions of the national legislature. ?et Congress had no power to enforce attendance.
Function
The Articles supported the Congressional direction of the Continental Army, and allowed the C states to present a
unified front when dealing with the Auropean powers. 8ut as a tool to #uild an effective wartime government, they
were largely a failure. Congress could make decisions, #ut had no power to enforce them. Perhaps an even larger
set#ack was retained in the fact that unanimous approval was re0uired #y all C states #efore any modifications could
#e made to the Articles. This prohi#ited many necessary changes from taking place until the later ratification of the
Constitution.
Perhaps the most important power that Congress was denied was the power of ta-ation9 Congress could only re0uest
money from the states. Understanda#ly, the states did not generally comply with the re0uests in full, leaving the
confederation chronically short of funds. The states and the national congress had #oth incurred de#ts during the war,
and paying congressional de#ts #ecame a ma)or issue.
$evertheless, the Continental Congress did take two actions with lasting impact.
The Dand ,rdinance of !+% esta#lished the general land survey and ownership provisions used throughout later
American e-pansion.
The $orthwest ,rdinance of !+! noted the agreement of the original states to give up western land claims and
cleared the way for the entry of new states.
,nce the unity demanded #y the 5evolutionary /ar #ecame unnecessary, the Continental Army was largely
dis#anded. A very small national force was maintained to man frontier forts and protect against Indian attacks.
*eanwhile, each of the states had an army &or militia(, and of them had navies. The wartime promises of #ounties
and land grants to #e paid for service were not #eing met. In !+C, /ashington defused the $ew#urgh conspiracy, #ut
riots #y unpaid Pennsylvania veterans forced the Congress to leave Philadelphia on 1une 2.
5evision and replacement
In *ay !+", Charles Pinckney of South Carolina proposed that Congress revise the Articles of
Confederation.Unanimous approval was necessary to make the alterations, however, and Congress failed to reach a
consensus.
In Septem#er, five states assem#led in the Annapolis Convention &!+"( to discuss ad)ustments that would improve
commerce. Under their chairman, Ale-ander Eamilton, they invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to
discuss improvements to the federal government. After de#ate, Congress endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of
Confederation on 3e#ruary 2, !+! #ut then later decided #ecause of continuous arguments to finally ratify them on
,cto#er + !+F.
According to their own terms for modification, the Articles were still in effect until !F4, when every one of the C
states had ratified the new Constitution. The Congress under the Articles continued to sit until late in !++, though
seldom with a 0uorum near the end.
5akove &F++( identifies four factors that e-plain the collapse of the Confederation9
The first involved the demonstra#le, overt defects of the Articles as a federal
constitution..1ames *adison said the defects were sins of omission that its framers could hardly have avoided
making. The lack of a financial #ase was devastating, #ut inevita#le since Congress had no administrative
infrastructure. It could not collect customs during the war #ecause the 8ritish #lockade shut down the ports, and
after the war tariffs were vetoed #y 5hode Island. 5akove notes that after !!" the state governments acted as
administrative au-iliaries of Congress. ,n the whole, 5akove concludes, their failure to implement national
measures during the war 'stemmed not from a heady sense of independence #ut rather from the enormous
difficulties that all the states encountered in collecting ta-es, mustering men, and gathering supplies from a war.
weary populace.' :G;
The second derived from the su#stantive nature of the pro#lems the Continental
Congress especially the ina#ility to create a strong foreign policy. The original circumstances of the Confederation@s
adoption help to e-plain why the Anti.3ederalists emphasiHed securing amendments to the Constitution rather than
attempting to retain the Articles as the fundamental charter of the union. 3inally, the failure to achieve widespread
popular allegiance to the Confederation was due to its ina#ility to mo#iliHe a class of leaders who could identify its
future with their own political advancement.
Signatures
The Second Contintental Congress approved for distri#ution to the states, on $ovem#er %, !!!. ,n 1uly F, !!+ the
ratification was completed. ,n that date, delegates present from $ew Eampshire, *assachusetts, 5hode Island,
Connecticut, $ew ?ork, Pennsylvania, >irginia, and South Carolina signed the articles. $ew 1ersey, <elaware, and
*aryland could not, since their states had not ratified. $orth Carolina and 7eorgia also didn@t sign that day, since their
delegations were a#sent.
After the first signing, some delegates signed at the ne-t meeting they attended. 3or e-ample, 1ohn /entworth of $ew
Eampshire added his name on August +. 1ohn Penn was the first of $orth Carolina@s delegates to arrive &on 1uly 4(,
and the delegation signed the Articles on 1uly 2, !!+.
The other states had to wait until they ratified the Articles, and notified their Congressional delegation. 7eorgia signed
on 1uly 2G, $ew 1ersey on $ovem#er 2", and <elaware on 3e#ruary 2, !!F. *aryland refused to ratify the Articles
until every state had ceded its western land claims.
,n 3e#ruary 2, !+, the much awaited decision was taken #y the *aryland State Degislature in Annapolis. As the last
piece of #usiness during the afternoon Session, 'among engrossed 8ills' was 'signed and sealed #y 7overnor Thomas
Dee in the Senate Cham#er, in the presence of the mem#ers of #oth Eouses...an Act to empower the delegates of this
state in Congress to su#scri#e and ratify the articles of confederation' and 'perpetual union among the states.' The
Senate then ad)ourned 'to the first *onday in August ne-t'. The signing of the Articles #y the *aryland delegates took
place in Philadelphia at noon time on *arch , !+. /ith these events, the Articles entered into force and the United
States came into #eing as a united, sovereign and national state.
Congress had de#ated the Articles for over a year and a half, and the ratification process had taken nearly three and a
half years. *any participants in the original de#ates were no longer delegates, and some of the signers had only
recently arrived. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were signed #y a group of men who were never
present in the Congress at the same time.