Just how long did it take the framers to write the Constitution? What role did the drafting process play? Scholars examine various drafts from the Constitutional Convention to gain a better understanding of its formation. Interactive...

The original Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between thirteen states, created in 1777 and ratified in 1781. It preceded the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

A copy of the Articles of Confederation broken down into its 13 sections. You will also find a list of the signers of the document.

The Our Documents group presents information on the Articles of Confederation, including its history, an enlarged image of the document, and a printer-friendly version of the text. Includes PDFs (require Adobe Reader).

View the complete text of the New England Articles of Confederation 1643, an alliance of the English colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.

Primary source document of the Articles of Confederation with explanatory text and photograph of the Assembly Room at the Pennsylvania State House

The original text of the Articles of Confederation is provided at this site.

Read the full text of the Articles of Confederation followed by the list of the signers of this important document.

A copy of the original Articles of Confederation presented by Yale Law School. Includes Thomas Jefferson's written discussion on the Articles of Confederation plus early drafts.

At this site from the University of Groningen's page of "From Revolution to Reconstruction", you can read the Articles of Confederation, written in 1781. Authors listed with the states for which they were writing.

This site provides the full text of the Articles of Confederation.

University of Chicago Press provides a letter from John Jay to Thomas Jefferson in which Jay explains the need to reform the government existing under the Articles of Confederation.

Primary source documents (letters) concerning the need for a central government written by Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and others.

Direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society, a core group of current and historical Government publications.

With this resource, you can search by keyword for particular subjects within the Federalist Papers, or you can access by number each of the Papers. Also available are links to four related documents: The Annapolis Convention, Articles of...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This website documents the United States through its struggles to become a new nation. Site includes primary source documents for the Articles of Confederation, US Constitutional Convention, and George...

The University of Chicago provides a letter from Richard Henry Lee to George Mason in which Lee describes the financial problems the Confederation has run into and suggests minor reforms be made.

Read the text of the Land Ordinance of 1785, which was written to manage the land controlled by the Confederation government west of the Appalachian Mountains, land that became part of the United States after the Revolutionary War.

The original text of a letter from Alexander Hamilton to Governor George Clinton of New York in 1778 complaining of inadequate material for the U.S. armed forces and perception of weakness by foreign powers.

The original text from the University of Chicago Press of a 1780 letter from Alexander Hamilton to James Duane, who later became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, on the weaknesses of the existing U.S. government under the...

The Constitution was written in the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by delegates from 12 states, in order to replace the Articles of Confederation with a new form of government. It created a federal system with a national...

Our Documents is home to one hundred milestone documents that influenced that course of American history and American democracy. Includes full-page scans of each document, transcriptions, background information on their significance, and...

This site from the Library of Congress offers descriptions of multiple events, people and beliefs that helped shape the government and culture of the U.S. Links to views of historical documents and pictures depicting the religious...

See transcripts of the debates of the Federal Convention of 1787, the draft of the Constitution, or see the facsimiles of the original documents. Trace the progress of the Constitution using the historical documents themselves.