Articles of Confederation - Ratification, The end of the war, Function, Revision, Presidents of the Congress

The organizing document of the USA from 1781 to 1788. It established a single-house Congress, with one vote for each state and with no executive, courts, or independent revenue. Its weaknesses quickly became obvious, and it was replaced by the present Constitution.

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, was the first governing document of the United States of America.

The Articles united the new thirteen American states into a loose confederation, a nation capable of making war, negotiating diplomatic agreements, and resolving issues regarding the western territories, but little more. It was replaced by the much stronger United States Constitution upon its ratification on June 21, 1788.

Ratification

Congress began to move for ratification of the Articles in 1777:

be candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of combining 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 absolute necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength, to maintain and defend our common liberties...

The document could not become officially effective until it was ratified by all thirteen states. The process dragged on for several years, stalled by the refusal of some states to rescind their claims to land in the West.

Establishes the name of the confederation as "The United States of America". Explains the rights possessed by any state, and the amount of power to which any state is entitled. Establishes the United States as a league of states united ". . . If a crime is committed in one state and the perpetrator flees to another state, he will be extradited 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 Assembled) to each state, which was entitled to a delegation of between two and seven members. Members of Congress were appointed by state legislatures; When an army is raised for common defense, colonels and military ranks below colonel will be named by the state legislatures. Expenditures by the United States will be paid by funds raised by state legislatures, and apportioned to the states based on the real property values of each. Defines the rights of the central government: to declare war, to set weights and measures (including coins), and for Congress to serve as a final court for disputes between states. Defines a Committee of the States to be a government when Congress is not in session. Requires nine states to approve the admission of a new state into the confederacy; Declares that the articles are perpetual, and can only be altered by approval of Congress with ratification by all the state legislatures. Jealously guarding their new independence, the Continental Congress created a loosely structured unicameral legislature that protected the liberty of the individual states at the expense of the confederation. While calling on Congress to regulate military and monetary affairs, for example, the Articles of Confederation provided no mechanism to ensure states complied with requests for troops or revenue.

The end of the war

The Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended hostilities with Great Britain, languished in Congress for months because state representatives failed to attend sessions of the national legislature. Writing to George Clinton in September 1783, George Washington complained:

Function

The Articles supported the Congressional direction of the Continental Army, and allowed the 13 states to present a unified front when dealing with the European powers. Perhaps an even larger setback was retained in the fact that unanimous approval was required by all 13 states before any modifications could be made to the Articles.

Perhaps the most important power that Congress was denied was the power of taxation: Congress could only request money from the states. Understandably, the states did not generally comply with the requests in full, leaving the confederation chronically short of funds. The states and the national congress had both incurred debts during the war, and paying congressional debts became a major issue. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 noted the agreement of the original states to give up western land claims and cleared the way for the entry of new states.

Revision

In May 1786, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina proposed that Congress revise the Articles of Confederation. Recommended changes included granting Congress power over foreign and domestic commerce, and providing means for Congress to collect money from state treasuries.

In September, five states assembled in the Annapolis Convention (1786) to discuss adjustments that would improve commerce.

According to their own terms for modification, the Articles were still in effect until 1790, when every one of the 13 states had ratified the new Constitution.

September 28, 1787 - Congress sends Constitution to States for ratification July 2, 1788 - Ratification of Constitution formally announced by Congress, following ratification by ninth state, New Hampshire, on June 21, 1788 November 1, 1788 - Congress under Articles of Confederation adjourns April 1, 1789 - House of Representatives under Constitution reaches a quorum

According to some historians, the Articles were flawed; in particular, the confederal government was unable to settle state disputes on issues like trade and had no power to tax directly.

Although replaced in 1788 by the United States Constitution, the Articles of Confederation provided stability during the American Revolutionary War years. A copy was made for each state and one was kept by the Congress. The copies sent to the states for ratification were unsigned, and a cover letter had only the signatures of Henry Laurens and Charles Thomson, who were the President and Secretary to the Congress. They also requested each of the remaining states to notify its delegation when ratification was completed. On that date, delegates present from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina signed the articles to indicate that their states had ratified. New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland could not, since their states had not ratified.

The other states had to wait until they ratified the Articles, and notified their Congressional delegation. Maryland refused to ratify the Articles until every state had ceded its western land claims, her delegates signed the Articles on March 1, 1781 after this happened.

Congress had debated the Articles for over a year and a half, and the ratification process had taken nearly three and a half years.

The signers and the states they represented were:

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett and John Wentworth Jr. Massachusetts Bay: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, James Lovell, and Samuel Holten Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: William Ellery, Henry Marchant, and John Collins Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott, Titus Hosmer, and Andrew Adams New York: James Duane, Francis Lewis, William Duer, and Gouverneur Morris New Jersey: John Witherspoon and Nathaniel Scudder Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Daniel Roberdeau, Jonathan Bayard Smith, William Clingan, and Joseph Reed Delaware: Thomas McKean, John Dickinson, and Nicholas Van Dyke Maryland: John Hanson and Daniel Carroll Virginia: Richard Henry Lee, John Banister, Thomas Adams, John Harvie, Francis Lightfoot Lee and John Socha North Carolina: John Penn, Cornelius Harnett, and John Williams South Carolina: Henry Laurens, William Henry Drayton, John Mathews, Richard Hutson, and Thomas Heyward Jr. Georgia: John Walton, Edward Telfair, and Edward Langworthy

Presidents of the Congress

The following list is of those who led the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation as the Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled. He was not the chief executive, as is the President of the United States under the Constitution.

Samuel Huntington Thomas McKean John Hanson Elias Boudinot Thomas Mifflin Richard Henry Lee John Hancock Nathaniel Gorham Arthur St. Clair Cyrus Griffin

For a full list of Presidents of the Congress Assembled and Presidents under the two Continental Congresses before the Articles, see President of the Continental Congress.