The Congress of the Confederation was the unicameral legislative body of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, operating from 1781 to 1789. It succeeded the Second Continental Congress and served as the sole branch of the national government; there was no separate executive or judiciary at the federal level. Each state delegation cast a single collective vote, regardless of population or size, and major decisions required the assent of nine of the thirteen states. The Congress dissolved upon the convening of the First Congress under the new Constitution of the United States in March 1789.

The Articles of Confederation were drafted by the Second Continental Congress and sent to the states for ratification in 1777, but did not take effect until Maryland's ratification on 1 March 1781. The Congress of the Confederation then formally superseded its predecessor. Delegates were appointed by state legislatures, served one-year terms, and could be recalled at any time. No individual could serve more than three years in any six-year period. The presiding officer held the title “President of the United States in Congress Assembled” - the origin of the “President of the United States” title - a position with no executive authority independent of the body itself.

The Congress met in several cities over its existence, including Philadelphia, Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, and New York, partly due to security concerns and partly due to the lack of a permanent federal seat.

The Congress of the Confederation held authority over foreign affairs, war and peace, treaty-making, coinage, postal services, and relations with Native American nations. It could not, however, levy taxes directly on individuals - it could only requisition funds from state governments, which were frequently ignored or underpaid. It also lacked the power to regulate interstate or foreign commerce, and it could not enforce its own legislation. Amendments to the Articles required unanimous consent of all thirteen states, making structural reform effectively impossible.

Despite these limitations, the Congress achieved several notable outcomes. It negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783), formally ending the American Revolutionary War with British recognition of American sovereignty. It also passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, establishing frameworks for surveying, selling, and governing the western territories, including provisions for the eventual admission of new states and restrictions on slavery in the Northwest Territory.

By the mid-1780s, the Congress faced mounting difficulties. States routinely failed to meet their financial requisitions, leaving the national government without reliable revenue. Trade disputes between states escalated without a federal authority to mediate or regulate commerce. Shays' Rebellion (1786-1787), an armed uprising of Massachusetts debtors, alarmed many political leaders who saw it as evidence that the existing framework could not maintain domestic order. Attendance at Congress sessions declined sharply, and quorums were frequently difficult to assemble.

These failures prompted the call for a convention to revise the Articles, which convened in Philadelphia in 1787 and ultimately produced an entirely new constitution. The Congress of the Confederation formally acknowledged the new Constitution and set dates for elections and the inaugural meeting of the new Congress, effectively arranging its own succession.

Interpretations of the Congress of the Confederation vary across several dimensions:

• Structural failure view: Many historians and political theorists regard the Confederation period as demonstrating that a functional national government requires independent revenue, enforcement authority, and executive capacity. This view tends to frame the Constitutional Convention as a necessary correction. See Structural Failure Viewpoint.

• States' rights and decentralization view: Some scholars and commentators argue that the Articles represented a more faithful expression of the revolutionary ideals of limited central authority, and that the Constitution's adoption represented a consolidation of power that undermined state sovereignty. See Decentralist Viewpoint.

• Transitional adequacy view: A minority position holds that the Congress of the Confederation performed adequately given the circumstances of the 1780s, and that its failures have been overstated by historians sympathetic to the Federalist project. See Transitional Adequacy Viewpoint.

• Congress of the Confederation - History
• Congress of the Confederation - Debate
• Articles of Confederation
• Second Continental Congress
• Constitutional Convention (1787)
• Northwest Ordinance
• Shays' Rebellion
• Treaty of Paris (1783)

1. Jensen, Merrill. The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781. University of Wisconsin Press, 1940.
2. Rakove, Jack N. The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress. Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
3. McDonald, Forrest. E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic, 1776-1790. Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
4. Morris, Richard B. The Forging of the Union, 1781-1789. Harper & Row, 1987.
5. “Northwest Ordinance.” Avalon Project. Yale Law School. avalon.law.yale.edu.
6. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. Library of Congress. loc.gov.