Articles of Confederation | "The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship"

Articles of Confederation

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. Lancaster, (Pennsylvania,) Printed: Boston, Re-printed by John Gill, Printer to the General Assembly, 1777

Folio (344 x 210 mm, uncut). Contemporary annotations on pages 12 & 13; top margin of title-page torn away just catching s of Articles, margins frayed and chipped, some browning and dampstaining throughout, dampstaining severe to final four pages. Bound with: Massachusetts. General Court. House of Representatives. To the inhabitants of the state of Massachusetts-Bay. Friends and fellow countrymen! It is with concern and attention that the House of Representatives find that an act, intitled An act for drawing in the bills of credit of the several denominations, &c. passed the last session, has given uneasiness to any of the good people of this state. … [Boston: Printed by John Gill, 1777] (Evans 15439; ESTC W8602). Severe dampstaining. The two publications stitched together as issued and folded once horizontally, with the final page of the Massachusetts House publication abraded to illegibility at the fold.

An early and rare edition of the Articles of Confederation, one of the great documents of American history and the vital stepping-stone to the United States Constitution.

"In 1776, to defend themselves against one of the world's most fearsome military powers, the thirteen colonies entered into a solemn alliance with one another. It did not take long for some Americans to propose that this 'continental' polity needed a constitution of its own" (CCC, p. 55), and the Continental Congress began to draft the present "firm league of friendship," in which each state retained "its sovereignty, freedom, and independence."

After more than a year of debate, Congress approved the text of the Articles of Confederation on 15 November 1777. The Congress immediately adopted a circular letter urging quick action on the articles: "This business has, in its progress, been attended with uncommon embarrassments and delay, which the most anxious solicitude and persevering diligence could not prevent. To form a permanent union, accommodated to the opinion and wishes of the delegates of so many states, differing in habits, produce, commerce, and internal police, was found to be a work which nothing but time and reflection, conspiring with a disposition to conciliate, could mature and accomplish. Hardly is it to be expected that any plan, in the variety of provisions essential to our union, should exactly correspond with the maxims and political views of every particular State. Let it be remarked, that, after most careful inquiry and the fullest information, this is proposed as the best which could be adopted to the circumstances of all; and as that alone which affords any tolerable prospect of a general ratification." This congressional resolve—together with another asking the states to contribute cash (not bills of credit) for the prosecution of the war and by a resolution by the Massachusetts House submitting the Articles for consideration—is appended by Gill to the text of the Articles.

Final ratification of the Articles was not achieved until March 1781, but despite this delay in being formally adopted, the Articles served as the basis of the system of government for the thirteen states throughout the Revolutionary War. The Articles granted the federal government the ability to wage war, to negotiate treaties and other international diplomatic alliances, and to resolve state disputes over land. By the close of 1786, however, they were widely discredited, with many national leaders eager to refashion the charter into a stronger central government. But in spite of its insufficiencies, as the first written constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation cannot be dismissed as entirely unsuccessful since it had yoked the individual states together in a “confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States” and offered a basis for what would become the Constitution as we know it.

The Convention called in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation ended by replacing it with the Constitution. First printed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, while Congress met there during the British occupation of Philadelphia, this is the official Massachusetts printing and the fifth edition overall listed by Evans.

This copy has some contemporary marginal figuring on page 13, where the text of the congressional resolve asking the states to contribute cash for the prosecution of the war is printed, together with the comment "Each State to Pay thare Equal Proportion of Money to have Justice done them in the End." A similar sentiment is written on facing page 12.

REFERENCE:

Colonists, Citizens, Constitutions 10; Evans 15623; ESTC W4587; Church 1142; Sabin 2142; Streeter sale 1:787