The Articles of Confederation were entered on within four days after the
second anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, by the same body
which adopted that instrument, and about nine years before the adoption
of the Constitution in convention. The three years which just elapsed
had been a season of singular and searching trial. While unity of
feeling was compelled in the face of a powerful and aggressive foe, and
in the defence of liberties held and prized in common, the mutual
relations of the colonies were so indefinitely ascertained, and
authority was so loosely bestowed, that unity of action was impossible;
there was no power to do the very things which necessity and desire
alike dictated. Having taken up arms against the most powerful nation of
the time, whose system enabled it to concentrate vast energies on the
subjugation of this dozen revolted colonies scattered along the Atlantic
coast, they found themselves in so helplessly disorganized a condition,
that, separated from the mother country, they could hardly, for any
length of time, have successfully pursued the quiet life of peace.
Under these circumstances, they bound themselves together by Articles of
Confederation. These were, what similar articles had always been, a
species of treaty, having peculiar objects, seeking them in a peculiar
way, and declared perpetual, but having an obligation no stronger than
that of a treaty, and practically dissoluble at the will of the parties.
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