Unit 7:: Debating, Defining, and Ratifying a Constitution (1783–1791)

Although the thirteen onetime North American colonies had declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, the Battle of Yorktown was not fought until 1781, and the treaty ending the war was not signed until 1783. Two years previously, the final state had ratified the Articles of Confederation, which had been drafted by the Second Continental Congress and proposed to the states in 1777, but the Articles had required unanimous state consent, and Maryland had refused to sign until some of the larger states gave up their western land claims. In current parlance, this was a confederal government (like that later adopted by the Confederate States of America). Most power accordingly rested with the individual states, and the central authority could not act directly on individuals (as in raising troops or taxes) other than by directing requests to the states, whose representatives met in Congress almost as though they were members of different countries.