ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

The compact which was made by the original thirteen states of the United States of America, bore the name of the Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between, the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. It was adopted and went into force on the first day of March, 1781, and remained as the supreme law until the first Wednesday of March, 1789. 5 Wheat. R. 420. The following analysis of this celebrated instrument is copied from Judge Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Book 2, c. 3. 2. In pursuance of the design already announced, it is now proposed to give an analysis of the articles of confederation, or, as they are denominated in the instrument itself, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States, as they were finally adopted by the thirteen states in 1781.