The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Articles of Confederation
Annapolis Convention Madison Debates Federalist Papers U. S. Constitution
See Also Benjamin Franklin's Draft and John Dickinson's Draft
See Discussion of The Articles of Confederation in Jefferson's Autobiography
Art 1 Art 2 Art 3 Art 4 Art 5 Art 6 Art 7
Art 8 Art 9 Art 10 Art 11 Art 12 Art 13
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
I.
The Stile of this Confederacy shall be
"The United States of America".
II.
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
The Articles of Conferderation, ratified in 1781. ...
The Articles of Conferderation, ratified in 1781. ...
The Articles of Conferderation, ratified in 1781. ...III.
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 offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.
IV.
The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade...