Articles of Confederation
ON the 11th of June, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that a committee should be appointed to prepare, and properly digest, a form of confederation to be entered into by the several States. The committee appointed under the resolution consisted of one delegate from each State. (The committee consisted of Messrs. Bartlett, Samuel Adams, Hopkins, Sherman, R. R. Livingston, Dickenson, McKean, Stone, Nelson, Hewes, Edward Rutledge, and Gwinnett.) John Dickenson of Pennsylvania was chosen chairman, and through him the committee reported a draft of Articles of Confederation on the 12th of July. Almost daily debates upon the subject ensued until the 20th of August, when the report was laid aside, and was not taken up again for consideration until the 8th of April, 1777. In the meanwhile, several of the States had adopted constitutions for their respective government, and Congress was practically acknowledged the supreme head in all matters appertaining to the war, public finances, etc. It emitted bills of credit, or paper money, appointed foreign ministers, and opened negotiations with foreign governments.
From the 8th of April until the 15th of November following, the subject was debated two or three times a week, and several amendments were made. As the confederation might be a permanent bond of union, of course local interests were considered prospectively. If the union had been designed to be temporary, to meet the exigencies arising from the state of war in which the colonies then were, local questions could hardly have had weight enough to have elicited debate; but such was not the case, and of course the sagacious men who were then in Congress looked beyond the present, and endeavored to legislate accordingly. From the 7th of October until the 15th of November the debates upon it were almost daily, and the conflicting interests of the several States were strongly brought into view by the different speakers. On that day the following draft, containing all of the amendments, was laid before Congress, and after a spirited debate was adopted:
ARTICLE 1. The style of this confederacy shall be, "The United States of America."
ARTICLE 2. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.
ARTICLE 3. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare; binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.
ARTICLE 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any State to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided, also, that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State on the property of the United States, or either of them.
If any person guilty of or charged with treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall upon demand of the governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offence.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.
ARTICLE 5. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the Legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year.
No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emoluments of any kind.
Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the States, and while they act as members of the committee of the States.
In determining questions in the United States, in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote.
Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress; and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.