Document · July 12, 1776
Draft Articles of Confederation
congressional constitutional draft · Committee of one delegate from each state; principal draft associated with John Dickinson
Read in context
The constitutional work did not wait for military stability. Congress began designing a union while British forces gathered around New York and while state governments were still being remade. The draft’s long road to approval is evidence of disagreement, not institutional inactivity.
Why it matters
A campaign-centered story can make government appear to follow victory. The documentary sequence reverses that assumption: requisitions, diplomacy, western claims, and command forced delegates to decide what “United States” meant before they knew whether those states would survive.
Selected passage
That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.
Provenance and locator
The local documentary edition is volume 5 of the Journals of the Continental Congress. The June 7 resolution appears at printed pages 425–426; the June 11–12 committee sequence at pages 430–433; the draft laid before Congress on July 12 begins near printed page 546. Volume 6 records the continuing debate later in 1776.