The Founding Document Of The 13 Colonies Constitution

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, which served as the first constitution of the United States and established a league of friendship for the 13 colonies. The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 colonial states. The Constitution of the United States, on the other hand, came into effect in 1789 and is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.

Explore related products

Articles of Confederation (Books of American Wisdom)

$12.95

Articles of Confederation of The United States, 1778. 14 x 16 Replica on Genuine Antiqued Parchment

$11.99 $13.99

The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments; The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Confederation

$4.5

Founding Documents of the United States of America: Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and Amendments 11-27 (America Series)

$11.99

The Articles of Confederation: Classic Literature

$13.98

We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution

$23

The Articles of Confederation

A central and guiding principle of the Articles was the establishment and preservation of the independence and sovereignty of the original 13 states. The Articles consciously established a weak confederal government, affording it only those powers the former colonies recognized as belonging to the British Crown and Parliament during the colonial era. Each state retained "every Power... which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States". The Articles also outlined a Congress with representation not based on population – each state would have one vote in Congress.

Ratification by all 13 states was necessary to set the Confederation into motion. Because of disputes over representation, voting, and the western lands claimed by some states, ratification was delayed. When Maryland ratified it on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation came into being. However, the government's weaknesses soon became apparent, especially after Shays's Rebellion, and several prominent political thinkers began asking for changes to the Articles that would strengthen the powers afforded to the central government.

In May 1787, the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. By mid-June, the delegates had decided to completely redesign the government. After three months of highly charged debate, the new Constitution was signed, which remains in effect today.

The first constitution

The Articles of Confederation also outlined a Congress with representation not based on population – each state would have one vote in Congress. Ratification by all 13 states was necessary to set the Confederation into motion. Because of disputes over representation, voting, and the western lands claimed by some states, ratification was delayed. When Maryland ratified it on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation came into being.

The Articles of Confederation were superseded by the Constitution of the United States, which came into force on March 4, 1789. The Constitution was drafted by the Constitutional Convention, which assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation. The delegates to the Convention quickly decided that the defects in the Articles of Confederation could not be remedied by simple revision, and so they decided to completely redesign the government. The new Constitution was signed after three months of highly charged debate.

The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world. It consists of seven articles, the first three of which embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, dividing the federal government into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article I); the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers (Article II); and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts (Article III). The remaining articles embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relation to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment.

Weak central government

The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was the first constitution of the United States, serving as the nation's first frame of government during the American Revolution. It was finalized by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 colonial states.

The Articles of Confederation established a weak central government, with each state retaining "every Power... which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States." This meant that the central government had limited power to regulate commerce, assemble delegates, and raise funds. The states were largely able to conduct their own foreign diplomacy, as the central government lacked the power to prevent them from doing so. For instance, the national government could not stop the state of Georgia from pursuing its own independent policy regarding Spanish Florida, including occupying disputed territories and threatening war if Spanish officials did not curb Indian attacks or refrain from harbouring escaped slaves.

The weaknesses of the central government became apparent, especially after Shays's Rebellion, and several prominent political thinkers began calling for changes to strengthen the powers of the central government. The Articles also did not provide Congress with sufficient authority to enforce provisions of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which allowed British creditors to sue debtors for pre-Revolutionary debts. This led to British forces continuing to occupy forts in the Great Lakes region.

The limitations of the central government under the Articles of Confederation convinced national leaders of the need for a more powerful central authority. In 1786, leading statesmen called for a special convention to revise the Articles, resulting in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which proposed a new constitution establishing a much stronger national government. This new constitution, which remains in effect today, replaced the Articles of Confederation in 1789.

Explore related products

The Constitution of the United States of America: The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights

$9.99

The Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Articles of Confederation

$3.99

The First Constitution: The Articles of Confederation

$5.99

The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation

$4.95

The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781

$22.95

The Constitution of the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation

$17.96

Ratification by 13 states

The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution for the 13 colonies. It was adopted by the Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 colonial states.

The Articles of Confederation established a "league of friendship" for the 13 sovereign and independent states. Each state retained "every Power... which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States". The document also outlined a Congress with representation not based on population – each state held one vote.

However, the Articles of Confederation soon proved to have several weaknesses. For instance, it required that all amendments be ratified by each of the 13 states, and that all important legislation be approved by nine states. This meant that a single state could defeat legislative proposals of major importance.

By the mid-1780s, it had become clear that the Articles of Confederation were insufficient, and that a stronger, more centralized government was required for future stability. This led Alexander Hamilton to call for a constitutional convention to reevaluate the nation’s governing document.

The Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in May 1777, and by mid-June, the delegates had decided to completely redesign the government. After three months of highly charged debate, the new Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. Under Article VII, it was agreed that the document would not be binding until its ratification by nine of the 13 existing states.

Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution on December 7, 1787, followed by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify the Constitution, thus establishing it as the new framework of governance for the ratifying states. By the end of July 1788, 11 of the 13 states had ratified the new Constitution. The Constitution was not ratified by all states until May 29, 1790, when Rhode Island finally approved the document.

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies with some executive functions for the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain in North America and the newly declared United States. The term refers to the First and Second Continental Congresses of 1774–1781, and also describes the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789.

The First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in 1774 in response to escalating tensions between the colonies and the British, which resulted in the passage of the Intolerable Acts by the British Parliament. The Stamp Act of that year, the first direct internal tax imposed on the colonists by the British Parliament, inspired concerted resistance within the colonies. Nine colonial assemblies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress, which was an extralegal convention that coordinated the colonies' response to the new tax. The First Continental Congress included Patrick Henry, George Washington, John and Samuel Adams, John Jay, and John Dickinson.

The Second Continental Congress served as the provisional government of the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. It was an era of constitution writing, and leaders felt the new nation must have a written constitution. The Second Continental Congress debated the Articles of Confederation inside present-day Independence Hall in Philadelphia between July 1776 and November 1777. The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first frame of government during the American Revolution. It was finalized by the Congress on November 15, 1777, and came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 colonial states.

The Continental Congress adopted the New England military forces that had converged upon Boston and appointed Washington commander-in-chief of the American army on June 15, 1775. It also acted as the provisional government of the 13 colony-states, issuing and borrowing money, establishing a postal service, and creating a navy. The Congress also prepared the Articles of Confederation, which, after being sanctioned by all the states, became the first U.S. constitution in March 1781.

The Articles of Confederation established a weak confederal government, affording it only those powers the former colonies recognized as belonging to the British Crown and Parliament during the colonial era. The document provided clearly written rules for how the states' league of friendship, known as the Perpetual Union, was to be conducted. The Articles of Confederation proved an imperfect instrument for a nation at peace with the world, and in 1787, the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. The delegates at the convention decided to scrap the Articles of Confederation and create a new system of government. In 1789, the new U.S. Constitution went into effect, and the Continental Congress adjourned forever and was replaced by the U.S. Congress.

Frequently asked questions