Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 21. The Articles of Confederation.—The first important step toward the organization of a national government was the formation of the Continental Congress. The second step was the adoption of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were framed by the Congress and proposed to the legislatures of the several States. These bodies then considered and approved them, and authorized their delegates to ratify them in Congress. On July 9, 1778, the delegates of eight States signed a form of ratification that had been drawn up previously. These States were: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. The other States ratified the articles on the following dates: North Carolina, July 21, 1778; Georgia, July 24, 1778; New Jersey, November 26, 1778; Delaware, May 5, 1779; Maryland, March 1, 1781. Maryland had wished to withhold her ratification until Virginia and other States should surrender to the Confederation their claims to northwestern lands. The cession of these lands was, however, not completed and accepted until much later. With the ratification of Maryland, the Articles of Confederation became the Constitution, or the fundamental law, of the new nation. The need of a general constitution was seen even before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. On July21, 1775, Franklin submitted to Congress a draft of Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. This project was not adopted; but a year later, June 12, 1776, Congress appointed a committee of thirteen, one member from each colony, " to prepare and draft the form of a confederation to be entered into." This committee reported about a month after its appointment. During the follow...