Talk:Articles of Confederation

A question on authorship
Maybe someone knows the answer to this. On Samuel Adams' page (I'm working up a template for the fellow) it says he was a co-drafter of the Articles. Unless I'm missing it, the page here doesn't list the members of the committee that drafted it, just that one was formed. Seems common knowledge that John Dickinson was the principal drafter, but was Samuel Adams in on that? He at least signed the thing. Thanks. Randy Kryn 21:12 23 January, 2015 (UTC)

Ratification Date is Wrong in Infobox
Per the article itself, ratification of the articles was complete on 2 February 1781. THat done, the Articles came into force on 1 March 1781. The effective date is completely different from the ratification date. Likewise, the U.S. Constiutiton was fully effective from 4 March 1789, but it was ratified and ni effect between the 9 ratifieying states in June 1788. That piece of information in teh infobox should be changed. Either the word "Ratified" should be changed to "Effective" or the date should be changed from 1 March to 2 February. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:645:C300:3950:F819:A71C:F331:A716 (talk) 16:21, 3 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Some lawyers disagree with your assertion about March 4, 1789. The Constitution itself says it is to be effective when ratified by nine states. That happened in June 1788. Michael Hardy (talk) 04:54, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: In addition to 'date ratified', the Infobox now includes 'date effective' and 'date superseded' fields. Drdpw (talk) 16:56, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Intresting.
 * -Feliz Taylor 2600:8807:268A:5800:C06D:98FF:FEEE:691F (talk) 17:34, 7 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I love your comment i think your suggestion is quite appropriate 2601:602:8800:6410:C5F9:E012:989B:72AB (talk) 05:07, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

About commerce
In section "Article summaries" the text says "the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically relinquished to the national Congress, which was empowered to make war and peace, negotiate diplomatic and commercial agreements with foreign countries" and again, at point 6, "Only the central government may declare war, or conduct foreign political or commercial relations".

However, in "Taxation and commerce" section the text says "Congress had also been denied the power to regulate either foreign trade or interstate commerce". Also in Confederation period article incipit, the text says Congress lacked the power to levy taxes, regulate foreign or interstate commerce''". It seems there is a contradiction, where is the truth? Did Congress have the exclusive authority to regulate trade with foreign powers or not? Lone Internaut (talk) 00:45, 19 March 2022 (UTC)


 * At first glance, the paragraph appears to be about treaty-type agreements, not taxes and regulations. BilCat (talk) 01:02, 19 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I kinda understand the difference but I think "Congress had also been denied the power to regulate either foreign trade or interstate commerce" might lead to confusion, it doesn't seem to be referring explicitly to "taxes and regulations", it seems to claim Congress did not had power in general commerce area, in contrast to what is read above. Perhaps rewording may be necessary. The reader must understand in what area, during the Confederal period, Congress had the sole authority to do something and if so. Lone Internaut (talk) 01:50, 19 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Sorry, but getting any deeper than that is beyond me. However, I.wouldn't recommend changing any wordings before checking the sources in the article. Hopefully someone more versed on the period will come along in time. In the meanwhile, you might tag the sections in question with clarify me tags. BilCat (talk) 02:12, 19 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Sure, eventually someone will help explain this out. I'll add the Template:Clarify meanwhile. Lone Internaut (talk) 02:37, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

Revision and Replacement
The author of the article is bit disingenuous to the nature of the United States in 1787. First, the Articles of Confederation operated in the form of an international treaty as it had no supranational legislative power over the States. The States operated as independent nations at that point. Any laws passed by Congress at the time did not supercede/invalidate the laws of the individual States. Secondly, the Articles of Confederation did not specify any formal process for amending it. Third, the Annapolis Convention held at Mount Vernon in 1786 made the declaration that there should be another Convention held in Philadephia in May of 1787 to "render the constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union." Six State legislatures independently passed resolutions to authorize delegates to attend the Convention before Congress passed their own version of the resolution that contained the language "render the Articles of Confederation adequate to the exigencies of the Union". Fourthly, at the time, the term constitution held the connotation of "form of government" as drawn from the original Latin not a specific document. Fifthly, the phrase "the render the constitution adequate" can either mean amend the form of government or wholesale structural replacement. The Convention of 1787 was not secret and the delegates from only 10 States actually voted on the new constitution. Other States either neglected to send delegates or the delegates were recalled home as they were not authorized to vote on the new constitution. The Convention actually did create an amendment proposal to the Articles of Confederation to revise the ratification process. The amendment proposal revised the ratification requirement from 13 States to 9 States and revised the approvers from the States Legislatures to State Ratifying Conventions. This amendment to the Articles of Confederation were sent to the States in 1787 and the amendment proposal was ratified by the 13th State, the Rhode Island Legislature in March of 1788. This allowed the new ratification process to have binding effect BETWEEN the States even though a number of States had already ratified the new constitution through the new process beforehand. 204.98.36.162 (talk) 15:59, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Infobox constitution
Rather than infobox document, shouldn't this article be using infobox constitution? That's what the Articles were, after all. 165.23.203.13 (talk) 19:10, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Templates for discussion/Log/2024 April 3
This discussion affects this page and may be of interest to topic editors. It related to the navbox Historical American Documents. Thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:51, 3 April 2024 (UTC)