What was the government in the United States before the U.S. Constitution was written?
It was the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, introduced into the Continental Congress on July 12, 1776, a little over a week after the Declaration of Independence.
After a long debate, the Articles of Confederation were approved on Nov. 15, 1777 and sent to the states for ratification. The states finally ratified them on March 1, 1781.
A little over six years later, May 25, 1787, Congress met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, but while there they ended up replacing them with the U.S. Constitution.
The Articles of Confederation were signed by such statesmen as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Roger Sherman, John Witherspoon, Richard Henry Lee, Robert Morris, John Dickinson, Daniel Carroll, and Gouverneur Morris.
The Articles of Confederation were an attempt to loosely knit the 13 states together, giving the national government absolutely no power to tax, leaving authority under each individual state’s constitution.
In his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861, Lincoln cited the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union to justify his opinion not let southern states leave the Union: “The Union is much older than the Constitution. … The faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778.”
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 of Confederation 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.”
Virginia was the first to ratify the Articles of Confederation on Dec. 16, 1777. At that time, Virginia’s Constitution, adopted 1776, stated in its Bill of Rights: “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.”
South Carolina was the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, Feb. 5, 1778. At that time, South Carolina’s Constitution, adopted 1778, stated: “We, the people of the State of South Carolina … grateful to God for our liberties … No person shall be eligible to sit in the House of Representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion. … All persons and religious societies who acknowledge that there is one God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, and that God is publicly to be worshiped, shall be freely tolerated. The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed … the established religion of this State. That all denominations of Christian Protestants in this State … shall enjoy equal religious and civil privileges. … That every society of Christians … shall have agreed to … the following five articles. …(See Locke’s Constitution, Article 97-100):
1. That there is one eternal God, and a future state of rewards and punishments.
2. That God is publicly to be worshiped.
3. That the Christian religion is the true religion
4. That the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are of Divine inspiration, and are the rule of faith and practice.
5. That it is lawful and the duty of every man being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to the truth …
“No person shall officiate as minister … until the minister … shall have … subscribed to the following declaration…: That he is determined by God’s grace out of the Holy Scriptures, to instruct the people committed to his charge, and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation but that which he shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved from the Scripture; That he will use both public and private admonitions, as well to the sick as to the whole within his cure, as need shall require and occasion shall be given, and that he will be diligent in prayers, and in reading of the same;
“That he will be diligent to frame and fashion his own self and his family according to the doctrine of Christ, and to make both himself and them, as much as in him lieth, wholesome examples and patterns to the flock of Christ.”
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New York was the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. At that time, New York’s Constitution, adopted 1777, stated: “Whereas the Delegates of the United American States … solemnly … declare, in the words following; viz: ‘… Laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them. … All men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights … Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions … with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence. …’
“This convention doth further … declare, that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever hereafter be allowed, within this State, to all mankind: Provided, That the liberty of conscience, hereby granted, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness.”
Rhode Island was the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, Feb. 9, 1778. At that time, Rhode Island was continuing to use its 1663 charter, which stated: “That they, pursuing … religious intentions, of Godly edifying themselves, and one another, in the Holy Christian faith and worship. … Together with the gaining over and conversion of the poor ignorant Indian natives, in those parts of America, to the sincere profession and obedience of the same faith and worship … by the good Providence of God … there may, in due time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, be laid a sure foundation of happiness to all America … that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in religious concernements; and that true piety rightly grounded upon Gospel principles, will give the best and greatest security. …
“To secure them in the free exercise and enjoyment of all their civil and religious rights, appertaining to them, as our loving subjects; and to preserve unto them that liberty, in the true Christian faith and worship of God … and because some of the people and inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their private opinions, conform to the … ceremonies of the Church of England … our royal will and pleasure is, that no person within the said colony … shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion … not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness …that they may be in the better capacity to defend themselves, in their just rights and liberties against all the enemies of the Christian faith … and … by their good life and orderly conversations, they may win and invite the native Indians of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God, and Savior of mankind.”
Connecticut was the fifth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, Feb. 12, 1778. At that time, Connecticut was continuing to use its 1662 charter, which stated: “Our said people inhabitants there, may be so religiously, peaceably and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may win and invite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true GOD, and the Savior of Mankind, and the Christian Faith, which … is the only and principal End of this Plantation.”
Georgia was the sixth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, Feb. 26, 1778. At that time, Georgia’s Constitution, adopted 1777, stated: “Representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county … and they shall be of the Protestant religion. … Every person entitled to vote shall take the following oath. …’I, A B. do voluntarily and solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I do owe true allegiance to this State, and will support the constitution thereof; So Help Me God.'”
New Hampshire was the seventh state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, March 4, 1778. At that time, New Hampshire’s Constitution, adopted 1784, stated: “As morality and piety, rightly grounded on evangelical principles will give the best and greatest security to government … the people of this state … empower the legislature to … make adequate provision … for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality. …
“Every denomination of Christians demeaning themselves quietly, and as good subjects of the state, shall be equally under the protection of the law. … No person shall be capable of being elected a Senator who is not of the Protestant religion. … Every member of the House of Representatives … shall be of the Protestant religion. … The President (Governor) shall be chosen annually; and no person shall be eligible to this office, unless … he shall be of the Protestant religion.”
Pennsylvania was the eighth State to ratify the Articles of Confederation, March 5, 1778. At that time, Pennsylvania’s Constitution, adopted 1776, stated: “Government ought to … enable the individuals … to enjoy their natural rights, and the other blessings which the Author of Existence has bestowed upon man. … That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. … Nor can any man, who acknowledges the being of a God, be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right. …
“Each member, before he takes his seat, shall make … the following declaration, viz: ‘I do believe in one God, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, the Rewarder of the good and the Punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration. And no further or other religious test shall ever hereafter be required. … Laws for the encouragement of virtue, and prevention of vice and immorality, shall be made and constantly kept in force. … All religious societies … shall be encouraged.”
To read the rest of Bill Federer’s breakdown on the Articles of Confederation, click here.
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