U.S. Congress Submits Articles of Confederation

Context

The Second Continental Congress had assumed the role of a provisional national government after the outbreak of hostilities in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. Delegates recognized that coordinated action against Britain required some form of union, yet most states jealously guarded their independence and feared any central authority that might replicate the overreach of the British Crown. A committee chaired by John Dickinson had begun drafting articles of confederation as early as June 1776, but progress stalled amid disputes over voting power in Congress, the apportionment of war expenses, and especially the fate of western lands claimed by several states.

By the autumn of 1777 the military situation added new pressure. British forces captured Philadelphia in September, compelling Congress to flee first to Lancaster and then, on September 30, to the small Pennsylvania town of York. There, in the York County Courthouse, the delegates resumed work under more urgent conditions while the Continental Army prepared for its winter encampment at Valley Forge.

What Happened

Final debates on the Articles took place in York during the first half of November 1777. On November 15 the Congress approved the document titled the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Two days later, on November 17, President Henry Laurens of South Carolina and Secretary Charles Thomson affixed their signatures to a cover letter that accompanied printed copies sent to each of the thirteen states. The text established a “firm league of friendship” in which each state retained its “sovereignty, freedom, and independence,” while granting the central Congress authority only over war, foreign affairs, and the postal service.

The submission marked the end of more than sixteen months of intermittent negotiation. Although Congress had operated without a formal charter since 1775, the transmission of the Articles formalized the framework under which the states would conduct their common business for the remainder of the war.

Aftermath

Ratification proceeded slowly. Virginia approved the Articles on December 16, 1777, followed by most other states within the next year. Maryland, however, withheld consent until the larger states agreed to cede their western land claims to the United States, a concession finally secured in 1780. Maryland’s signature on March 1, 1781, brought the document into full legal effect, by which time the Revolutionary War was nearing its conclusion.

In the interim the Continental Congress continued to function under the Articles as a de facto government, securing foreign alliances and directing military operations despite its limited powers.

Legacy

The Articles guided the United States through the final years of the Revolution and the immediate postwar period, yet their structural weaknesses soon became apparent. Congress lacked the power to tax or to regulate commerce, and the requirement of nine-state majorities for major decisions often paralyzed action. Economic distress and events such as Shays’ Rebellion in 1786–87 exposed the fragility of the confederation.

These shortcomings prompted the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the replacement of the Articles by the U.S. Constitution, which shifted the balance toward a stronger federal government while retaining elements of state autonomy. Historians regard the Articles as the nation’s first experiment in written constitutional union and as a revealing chapter in the evolution of American federalism.