took a most notable position in recommending that new forms of
government should be established in the several States. By the year 1777
ten States had framed new constitutions. It furthered independence by
appointing a committee to draft resolutions based on the ideas of
independence then everywhere present. The Declaration of Independence
was the result.

The Articles of Confederation.--Franklin early saw the need for a
more effective government than that of a revolutionary assembly. On July
21, 1775, he presented to Congress a plan for "perpetual union." Nearly
a year elapsed before a committee was appointed to prepare some form for
confederation to be entered into between the colonies. Another period of
a year and five months was to go by before the report of this committee
was adopted by the Continental Congress. It was then submitted to the
State legislatures for approval. After three years and a half, on March
1, 1781, Maryland, the last State, was induced to ratify the Articles of
Confederation. The adoption of these articles is one of the most
important events in the history of our nation. While the Articles of
Confederation must always be regarded as a weak instrument of
government, we must not forget that the Continental Congress was then
working out problems in the province of government that were almost
wholly new. The solution, faulty as it was, went far to establish the
place of the written Constitution as a basis for government.


Said John Fiske: "Almost everything else in our fundamental
institutions was brought by our forefathers in a more or less
highly developed condition from England; but the development of the
written Constitution, with the consequent relation of the courts to
the law-making power, has gone on entirely upon American soil."