Congress of the Confederation

And then we worked our way through the whole body.

So just to remind everybody, Article 1 is about the powers of Congress, Article 2 about the presidency, Article 3 about the courts, Article 4 is the – A relationship between the states and each other and the states and the federal government.

Five and six, we talk about amendments and some other stuff.

And Article 7, where we are now, is the clause that talks about how the Constitution got approved in the first place by the states that had declared their independence and won the Revolutionary War and then decided they need a better set of rules than the Articles of Confederation.

They couldn't run the government.

There was no way to settle disputes between the states.

So literally if New York and New Jersey disagreed about their border, disagreed about who got to do what in the Hudson river, the dispute was basically Congress would act as a final court of appeals.

Both States would put their dispute before Congress.

Both States would put their dispute before Congress.

The, and this is the continental Congress or the articles of confederation Congress, where each state got one vote.

Each state gets one vote.

So New York and New Jersey go before Congress, Congress appoints a committee.

There was no such thing as a Constitution.

So they were actually supposed to, under their authorization, so Congress at this time was not the Congress we have today.

It was basically the Continental Congress, and it became the Confederation Congress or the Articles of Confederation Congress, and each state got one vote.

It might have different numbers depending on the state's population, but within that, like Pennsylvania sends three people, Maryland sends three, New York sends five or whatever, but New York gets one vote, Connecticut gets one vote.

Both States would put their dispute before Congress.

The, and this is the continental Congress or the articles of confederation Congress, where each state got one vote.

Each state gets one vote.

So New York and New Jersey go before Congress, Congress appoints a committee.

There was no such thing as a Constitution.

So they were actually supposed to, under their authorization, so Congress at this time was not the Congress we have today.

It was basically the Continental Congress, and it became the Confederation Congress or the Articles of Confederation Congress, and each state got one vote.

It might have different numbers depending on the state's population, but within that, like Pennsylvania sends three people, Maryland sends three, New York sends five or whatever, but New York gets one vote, Connecticut gets one vote.

The first point I'd like to make is that after declaring independence, the new American states no longer recognized King George as their leader.

The United States would still have to fight hard for its independence in the Revolutionary War, but the king could not dissolve the National Confederation Congress or state legislatures.

And for that matter, Parliament could no longer legislate for the colonies.

The second point is that the Articles of Confederation, which preceded the Constitution, didn't create an independent national executive like a president.

The Articles established a national legislature, which we now sometimes refer to as the Confederation Congress, in which each state, through delegations appointed by that state's legislature, could cast one vote.

So, at least initially, there wasn't much concern about an all-powerful president dissolving the Confederation Congress or state legislatures.

And although the Confederation Congress could legislate for all of the states in certain enumerated areas, it arguably did so based on popular consent through representatives appointed by the state legislatures, which, in turn, had at least one house elected by qualified colonists.

To provide a further safeguard against dissolution of the national legislature, Article 5 of the Articles of Confederation required delegates to the Confederation Congress to meet on a specific day, the first Monday in November.

On September 17th, 39 delegates signed the document, sending it to the states for ratification.

One year later, the Confederation Congress certified 11 states' ratification, finalizing the Constitution's adoption.

Now here's a little bit about the stories we almost covered this week, but didn't.

As the week went on, the number of potential main story topics grew.

Welcome to Season 15 of American Political History, A Failed Nation, Soul and Express Purpose.

In February of 1787, in the city of New York, the Confederation Congress of the United States sat down to consider whether to authorize a meeting that might put it out of existence.

This was the corner into which the whole strange chain of events had driven it.

A dozen men at a failed trade convention in Annapolis had called for a grand convention at Philadelphia to overhaul the government.

The cautious wanted the convention bound.

The Massachusetts formula bounded it, and enough of the nationalists were willing to agree to some limits, confident that once the delegates were actually in the room at the convention, the limit would take care of itself.

And so, on February 21st, 1787, with nine states present, the Confederation Congress voted eight states in favor, only Connecticut against, to give the Philadelphia Convention its blessing.

The words they chose were carefully crafted, and everything that followed lived in the gap between what they said and what they meant.