Greeting to one and all. I am Robert Cody: Known by most as The Grunt
I will be doing a blog and post here but first I wanted to start with this subject which many do not know about, and that is “Before The United States Constitution of Independence”: There was The Articles of Confederation. this is not of my own words but pieces put together from research and I believe that in the times that we are now faced with and those who are doing their best to destroy our nation from with in should know our begining. This is a long post but worth every moment it takes to read. Thank You
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, customarily referred to as the Articles of Confederation, was the first constitution of the United States of America and legally established the union of the states. The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Articles in June 1776 and sent the draft to the states for ratification in November 1777. The ratification process was completed in March 1781, legally federating the sovereign and independent states, already cooperating through the Continental Congress, into a new federation styled the “The United States of America”. Under the Articles the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically relinquished to the central government.
On June 12, 1776, a day after appointing a committee to prepare a draft declaration of independence, the Second Continental Congress resolved to appoint a committee of thirteen to prepare a draft of a constitution for a confederate type of union. The last draft of the Articles was written in the summer of 1777 and the Second Continental Congress approved them for ratification by the States on November 15, 1777, in York, Pennsylvania after a year of debate. In practice the final draft of the Articles served as the de facto system of government used by the Congress (“the United States in Congress assembled”) until it became de jure by final ratification on March 1, 1781; at which point Congress became the Congress of the Confederation. The Articles set the rules for operations of the “United States” confederation. The confederation was capable of making war, negotiating diplomatic agreements, and resolving issues regarding the western territories. An important element of the Articles was that Article XIII stipulated that “their provisions shall be inviolably observed by every state” and “the Union shall be perpetual”.
The Articles were created by the chosen representatives of the states in the Second Continental Congress out of a perceived need to have “a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States.” Although serving a crucial role in the victory in the American Revolutionary War, a group of reformers,[1] known as “federalists”, felt that the Articles lacked the necessary provisions for a sufficiently effective government. Fundamentally, a federation was sought to replace the confederation. The key criticism by those who favored a more powerful central government (i.e. the federalists)[citation needed] was that the government (i.e. the Congress of the Confederation) lacked taxing authority; it had to request funds from the states. Also various federalist factions wanted[citation needed] a government that could impose uniform tariffs, give land grants, and assume responsibility for unpaid state war debts (“assumption”.) Those opposed to the Constitution, known as “anti-federalists,” considered these limits on government power to be necessary and good.[dubious – discuss][2] Another criticism of the Articles was that they did not strike the right balance between large and small states in the legislative decision making process. [dubious – discuss] Due to its one-state, one-vote plank, the larger states were expected to contribute more but had only one vote.
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