ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION—1 777.* ]b all fa whom these Presents- a}¢aU zvmw. we the l/ll(b‘f‘8l·glI{°({ De]e·{/afe.¤ Q f {be States a_jh`:red fa our .`2UII¢’8 ,w.··m{ {yreefmg. “rhBf88S the Delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventyseven, and in the Second 1 ear of the Independence of America aglree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Enion between the States of New ampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,Virginia, North·Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia in the \\’ords following, viz. "Art£cle.s· of Gmjédemtzon andpne3>etuaZ_Mzz}»rr between the Slater ofZVewhaonpshire,]l[at¤sa— chuaetta-bay, R/mdezsland a Pmmdence Pltzzztqfaons, Comaecticut, bbw- Y 0173, New- Jersey. Pemasylvanza, Delaware, Jfaryland. l'7}‘Ql7U·(1, J?n·th· Carolina, South- Carolina and Georgie. Amucu: I. The stile of this confederacy shall be “"l`he United States of America}` ARTICLE Il. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, ]urisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled. Dred Scott r. Sanford, 19 How., 393; Texas r. White, 7 Wall., 725.
- Congress Resolved, on the 11th of June, 1776, that a committee should be appointed to prepane and
digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between the Colonies; an on the day following, after it had been determined that the committee should consist of a member from each Colony, the following persons were appointed to perform that duty, to wit: Mr. Bartlett, Mr. S. Adams, Mr. Hoplkins, Mr. sherman, Mr. R. R. Livingston, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. I\I’Kean, Mr. Stone, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Hewes, . r. E. Rutledge, and Mr. Gwinnett. Upon the report of this committee, the subject was, from time to time, debated, until the 15th of November, 1777, when a copy of the confederation being made out, and sundry amendments made in the diction, without alterieg the sense, the same was finally agreed to. Congress, at the same time, directed that the articles should be proposed to the legislatures o all the l`nited States, to be considered, and if approved of by them, they were a vised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in the Congress of the United States; which being done, the same should become conclusive. Three hundred copies of the Articles of Confederation were ordered to be printed for the use of Congress; and on thee17th of November, the form of a circular letter to accompany them was brought in by a committee appointed to prepare it, and being agreed to, thirteen copies of it were ordered to be made out, to be signed by the president and forwarded to the several States, with copies of the confederation. On the 29th of November ensuing, a committee of three was appointed, to procure a translation of the articles to be made into the French anguage, and to report an addrem to the inhabitants of Canada, &c. Ori the 26th of June, 1778, the form of a ratifimtion of the Articles of Confederation was adolpted, and, it having been engrossed on parchment, it was signed on the 9th of July on the part and in beha fof their respective States, by the delemtes of New Hampshire, Massachusett Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New ork, Pexmsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina, agreeably to the powers vested in them. The delegate of North Carolina signed on the 21st of July, those of Georgia on the 24th of July, and those of New Jersey on the' 26th of November followin . On the 5th of May, 1779, Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Van Dyke signed in behalf of the State of Delaware Mr. M’Kean having fpreviously signed in February, at which time he produced a power to that effect. Maryland did not rati y until the year 1781. She had instructed her delegates, on the 15th of December, 1778, not to agree to the confederation until matters respecting the western lands should be settled on principles of equity and sound policy; but, on the 30th of January, 1781, finding that the enemies of the countr took advantage of the circumstance to disseminate opinions of an ultimate dissolution of the Union, the legislature of the State passed an act to empower their delegates to subscribe and ratify the articles, which was accordingly done by Mr. Hanson an Mr. Carroll, on the lst of March of that year, which completed the ratifications of the act; and Congress assembled on the 2d of March under the new wers. Nora.-—-The proof of this document, as publishgd above, was read by Mr. Ferdinand Jefferson, the Keeper of the Rolls of the Department of State, at Washixgtéon, who compared it with the original in his custody. He says: “The initial letters of many of the wo in the original of this instrument are caprtals, but as no system appears to have been observed, the same words sometimes beginning with a capital and sometimes with a small letter, I have thought it best not to undertake to follow the original in this micular. Moreover, there are three forms of the letter s: the capital S, the small s, and the long l`, the being used indiscriminately to words that should begin witbampital and those that shoul begin with a small s." 7
