The Articles of Confederation: The History and Legacy of America's First Governing Document

Around the very same time that Congress was drafting the Declaration of Independence, it also had a committee drafting a constitution for the United States. The committee was led by John Dickinson, who presented the committee's conclusion on July 12, 1776. Drafting the document was no easy task: as with the writing of the Declaration of Independence, the individual states were often reluctant to hand sovereignty over to a greater confederate power.

After the Revolution, the new United Stat...