They acted
as they existed through State as they had previously acted
through colonial organization, for in throwing off the British
authority there was no other organization through which they
could act. The States, or people of the States, severally sent
their delegates to the Congress of the United States, and these
delegates adopted the rule of voting in Congress by States, a
rule that might be revived without detriment to national unity.
Nothing was more natural, then, than that Congress, composed of
delegates elected or appointed by States, should draw up articles
of confederation rather than articles of union, in order, if for
no other reason, to conciliate the smaller States, and to prevent
their jealousy of the larger States such as Virginia,
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
Moreover, the Articles of Confederation were drawn up and adopted
during the transition from colonial dependence to national
independence. Independence was declared in 1776, but it was not
a fact till l782, when the preliminary treaty acknowledging it
was signed at Paris. Till then the United States were not an
independent nation; they were only a people struggling to become
an independent nation. Prior to that preliminary treaty, neither
the Union nor the States severally were sovereign. The articles
were agreed on in Congress in 1777, but they were not ratified by
all the States till May, 1781, and in 1782 the movement was
commenced in the Legislature of New York for their amendment.
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