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shall be admitted into the same unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

Art. 12. All bills of credit emitted,* moneys borrowed, debts contracted, by or under the authority of congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

Art. 13. Every state shall abide by the determination of the United States in congress assembled, on all questions which, by this confederation, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislature of every state.

And whereas it has pleased the Great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in congress, to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union: KNOW YE, That we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained; and we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in congress assembled, on all questions which, by the said confederation, are submitted to them; and that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent; and that the union shall be perpetual.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, in congress. Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, and in the third year of the independence of America.

On the part and behalf of the state of New Hampshire. Josiah Bartlett,

John Wentworth, jun., Aug. 8, 1778.

• The bills of credit here referred to were the issues known as Continental money.

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On the part and behalf of the state of Rhode Island and Providence

William Ellery,

Plantations.

John Collins.

Henry Merchant,

Roger Sherman,

On the part and behalf of the state of Connecticut.

Samuel Huntington,

Oliver Wolcott,

Jas. Duane,

Fra. Lewis,

Titus Hosmer,

Andrew Adams.

On the part and behalf of the state of New York.

Wm. Duer,
Gouv. Morris.

On the part and behalf of the state of New Jersey.
Nath. Scudder, Nov. 26, 1778.

Jno. Witherspoon,

On the part and behalf of the state of Delaware.
Nicholas Van Dyke.

Tho, M'Kean, Feb. 13, 1779.

John Dickinson, May 5, 1779.

On the part and behalf of the state of Maryland.

John Hanson, March 1, 1781. Daniel Carroll, March 1, 1781.

On the part and behalf of the state of Virginia.

Richard Henry Lee,

John Banister,

Thomas Adams.

Jno. Harvie,
Francis Lightfoot Lee.

On the part and behalf of the state of North Carolina.

John Penn, July 21, 1778.

Corns. Harnett,

Jno. Williams.

On the part and behalf of the state of South Carolina.

Henry Laurens,

William Henry Drayton,

Richard Hutson,

Thas. Heywood, jun.

On the part and behalf of the state of Georgia.

Jno. Walton, 24th July, 1778.

Edwd. Telfair.

Edwd. Langworthy.

NOTE-These articles of confederation did not take effect until March, 1781, after all the states had approved and signed them. They continued in force until the 4th day of March, 1789, when the constitution of the United States took effect.

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SEC. 11. ACTION

OF THE COLONIES AND OF CONGRESS. FORMA-
TION OF STATE GOVERNMENTS.

The revolutionary movement was commenced in 1774, when the colonies sent delegates to the first continental congress, which met at Philadelphia, the 5th of September. It was a voluntary convention of delegates; some of whom were appointed by public meetings and informal conventions of the people, and some of them by the legislatures of the several colonies. They met to confer together, in relation to the common interests, and the common dangers of the colonies.

The information of the passage, by the British parliament, of the Boston Port Bill, and other arbitrary measures, received in America in May, 1774, caused a storm of excitement in all the colonies from New Hampshire to South Carolina. Public meetings were immediately held in the principal cities, committees of correspondence appointed, and correspondence opened between the patriots of the several colonies. There was an association in the City of New York, known as the "Sons of Liberty," who, in a letter to a committee in Boston, first suggested the idea of a general congress. Similar suggestions were made about the same time, (May 17th and 20th), by public meetings in the cities of Providence and Newport. The Connecticut legislature being then in session, passed a series of resolutions, in which they condemned the arbitrary and oppressive acts of parliament, and recommended a continental congress; but fixed no time nor place for holding it. Spirited meetings were held also in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina; strong resolutions were passed, and committees of correspondence appointed.

On the 7th of June, 1774, the colonial legislature of Massachusetts, known as the General Court, passed a series of resolutions, recommending an entire abstinence from the use of all British goods, and of all articles subject to duties imposed by parliament. They also adopted a resolution that "a meeting of committees from the several colonies on this continent is highly expedient and necessary, to consult upon the present state of the country, and the miseries to which we are and must be reduced by the operation of certain

acts of parliament; and to deliberate and determine on wise and proper measures to be recommended to all the colonies for the recovery and re-establishment of our just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and America, which is most ardently desired by all good men." September the first was designated as the time, and Philadelphia the place, of meeting. Thomas Cushing, James Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, were thereupon chosen delegetes. On being informed of the proceedings, the colonial Governor, (Gage), sent the provincial Secretary to adjourn the court.

On the third of June, the legislative assembly of Connecticut authorized the appointment of a delegation to a general congress; and they were appointed soon afterwards by the committee of correspondence.

On the fifteenth of June, the legislative assembly of Rhode Is land appointed delegates.

Delegates to the general congress were appointed for the colony of New Hampshire, by a convention of delegates, which met at Exeter on the eighth of June. Delegates were appointed for the colonies of Maryland and New Jersey by similar conventions, in June and July, of the same year.

In the City of New York, a poll was opened by the mayor and aldermen, and five delegates to the general congress were elected by the people, on the 28th of July. The delegates so chosen were adopted by public meetings in the City of Albany, and some towns in Dutchess aud West Chester counties. The counties of Orange, Kings, and Suffolk, severally sent delegates.

Delegates to congress were appointed by the colonial legislature of Pennsylvania, on the 21st of July; and by the legislature of Delaware on the 1st of August.

A convention of delegates from many of the counties of Virginia, appointed delegates to the continental congress on the 1st of August; and a similar convention assembled at Newbern, on the 25th of August, appointed delegates to represeut the colony of North Carolina.

A public meeting held at Charleston, July 6th, attended by persons from all parts of the province, appointed delegates to represent South Carolina in the first continental or general congress. The in

fluence of Gov. Wright prevented the appointment of any delegates for Georgia.

The first congress, among other measures, adopted an address to the people and a petiton to the King and parliament of Great Britain, for a redress of grievances. Very few, if any, at that time, entertained ideas of the independence of the colonies.

The time of the first congress and the most of the first session of the second congress, was taken up in consultation, in defending, and affirming their rights, and in memorializing the British government and people to respect their rights and redress their wrongs. But in the pride and consciousness of power, the government of the mother country disregarded the appeals and the natural and civil rights of the colonies, resolved to reduce them to submission by military force, and sent fleets and armies to effect their selfish purposes.

The war of the revolution commenced April, 1775; the most of the royal governors were soon after driven from the seats of government of the several colonies, and the colonial governments virtually dissolved.

The provincial legislatures of Massachusetts, New York, and some other colonies, appointed committees of their own members, to exercise the executive powers of the colony in place of the royal Governors, until their difficulties with the mother country might be settled. But some of the colonies were for some time without any government, after the royal governors had fled or been driven from the seat of government. New Hampshire being without a government, her delegates, on the 18th of October, 1775, asked the general congress to sanction the institution of a government by the people, for themselves, as the only means of preventing anarchy and confusion; and yet the majority of the members of congress, still dreaming of conciliation, hesitated to recommend such a proceeding. But the first of November brought over the King's proclamation, and information that the colonies were threatened with more troops and ships of war, and with more severe coercive measures.

On the 3d of November, congress took action upon the subject, and resolved, "That it be recommended to the provincial convention of New Hampshire, to call a full and free representation of

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