American Minute with Bill Federer: Mar. 1 - Articles of Confederation & Original State Constitutions

What was the government in the United States before the U.S. Constitution was written? It was the Articles of Confederation, ratified by the States MARCH 1, 1781. Signed by such statesmen as John Hancock and Samuel Adams, it was an attempt to loosely knit the thirteen States together, leaving most of the authority under State Constitutions.


The Articles of Confederation declared:

"Whereas the delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the Year of Our Lord 1777, and in the second year of the independence of America agree on certain Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the States...

The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force...or attacks made upon them...on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense."

The Articles end with the line:

"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."

The original State Constitutions acknowledged religion, as cited in the book, The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States:

1776, CONSTITUTION OF NORTH CAROLINA, DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, ARTICLE 19. That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. FORM OF GOVERNMENT, ARTICLE 32. That no person, who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the Divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office... ARTICLE 34. That there shall be no establishment of any one religious Church or denomination in this State, in preference to any other

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