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American
History Leaflets

COLONIAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL.

EDITED BY

'ALBERT BUSHNELL HART AND EDWARD CHANNING
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

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Entered at the New York Post Office as second class matter.

COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY A. LOVELL & COMPANY.

May 1913

TO LENOX.

HISTORY, AND SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.

Handbook of Dates. By HENRY CLINTON BROWN. 12 mo. Cloth. viii+182 pp. Price....

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Arranged alphabetically and chronologically, comprising all the important events from the earliest ages to within the present decade.

The Honors of the Empire State in the War of the Rebellion.
BY THOS. S. TOWNSEND. Large 12 mo. Cloth. 416 pp. Price...2 50
A history of the military operations of the Empire State during the Civil War.
Who? When? And What ? Six Centuries of Men and Events.
In Chart form. Price, in Duck case, 50 cents; Leather case........
Political Economy for American Youth. By J. HARRIS PATTON.

12 mo.

Cloth. viii+298 pp. Price.....

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It advocates the adoption and maintenance of an economic system suited to American conditions, while at the same time recognizing at their full value commercial and industrial relations with foreign nations. The principles advanced are re-enforced by citations from our national history.

The Eight Hours Day. By SIDNEY WEBB and HAROLD COX.
12 mo. viii+280 pp. Paper covers.
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The question is discussed in its historical, economic, and social aspects, and contains a bibliography for further research.

Civics for Young Americans. By Wм. M. GIFFIN. Large 12 mo. 132 pp. With an illustration. Cloth. Price...

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The author shows in a strikingly novel and interesting way, and in language intelligible to a ten-year-old boy, the necessity of government, the different forms of government and the advantages of our government over all others. Civil Government. By R. E. CLEMENT. 12 mo. Cloth. xiv+ 232 pp. Price.....

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A brief and lucid treatise on the Federal Constitution, and the Colonial, Revolutionary and Confederate Governments which preceded it.

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84

English Political Orations from Wentworth to Macaulay.
Edited, with Introduction, by William Clarke. 12 mo. xvi+312
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Great speeches on great themes by famous English statesmen. The selection
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PUBLIC LIBRARY

P 4205

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1897.

American History Leaflets.

COLONIAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL.

No. 20.-MARCH, 1895.

EXACT TEXT OF

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION,

WITH THE

FRANKLIN AND DICKINSON DRAFTS.

From the Original Manuscripts.

The Articles of Confederation have been so discredited by the weakness of the country while they were in force, and have been so overshadowed by the later Federal Constitution, that their constitutional history has been neglected. Yet those Articles were a greater advance on the old state of things, than the Constitution was over the Confederation. They defined, by a bold experiment, a federal government in many respects better than of any the European federal systems which had preceded; and a considerable part of the Articles was incorporated by the Convention of 1787 into the new instrument of government.

The first appearance of a systematic plan of a federal government in Franklin's draft of 1775. Franklin had already shown in the Albany Plan of 1754 (Text in American History Leaflet No. 17), his readiness to sketch out a Colonial federal government. As soon as it became evident that the Second Continental Congress would stand by the Massachusetts people in their armed resistance, Franklin foresaw the necessity of a formal Union; and drew up the plan printed below, which was presented to Congress July

TO LENC

21, 1775. In the manuscript journals there is no reference to the submission of the plan, but the manuscript is preserved in the State Department in Franklin's firm and unmistakable hand, with the date of its reception endorsed upon it. From the impossible terms of adjustment which he suggests in the last paragraph, it is clear that he wished to create a permanent and independent Union. The manuscript has several interlineations, one of which—“ upon the continent of North America ”—is manifestly contradictory to some of the words which follow.

A year later, after the ignoring of the petition of Congress and the steady drifting into a general war, Congress came to see the necessity of both independence and union. On June 11, 1776, a committee was created to draw up a Declaration of Independence; and another committee was provided for to frame the form of a Confederation; the two plans were meant to stand together. The first committee reported on July 1, and its report was adopted July 4. The other reported ten days later in a draft in the handwriting of John Dickinson of Delaware, chairman of the Committee. This draft was printed for the benefit of the members and then underwent searching and repeated debate. Notwithstanding the need of a settled government, it was not adopted by Congress till November 15, 1777, when the Secretary of Congress made up a new draft, including all amendments; and it was therefore submitted to the States for ratification. July 9, 1778, the members then in Congress from States which had already ratified, signed an engrossed roll of the Articles; and, as other States ratified, their members also signed; last of all the delegates from Maryland, March 1, 1781.

The three formal stages in the development of the document are, therefore, Franklin's suggestion (which was evidently before the committee of 1776), Dickinson's committee report, and the amended instrument of 1777, officially engrossed in 1778. The legal date of the instrument is that of the signatures attesting the thirteenth ratification, March 1, 1781.

All the manuscripts are preserved in the archives of the State Department; and by the courtesy of Mr. A. H. Allen, Chief Clerk of the Bureau of Rolls and Library, and of Mr. S. M. Hamilton, in charge of the archives, one of the editors has made up the copy from these manuscripts. Franklin's draft is a little injured, and lacunæ are indicated by [italics in brackets]. All other brackets appear in the manuscript. Dickinson's manuscript has been marked over, parts struck out, and later amendments written in, but fortunately, by a comparison with the copy printed for the use of Congress before the original was defaced, it is possible to restore it and to correct the printed copy. The official Articles of Confederation are in a parchment roll about ten feet long, the only one existing in the "Bureau of Rolls." It is

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