Up to this point, colonies had been governed directly by Great Britain, which had, however, prior to the French and Indian War (1754–1763), often allowed for considerable colonial autonomy by exercising a policy now known as "salutary neglect." Given the separate histories and identities that the colonies had developed, it is not surprising that their first attempt at continental government, or at least government over that part of the continent represented by the thirteen former colonies, reflected relative jealousy of individual states' powers. This jealousy ultimately doomed the Articles to failure, but the Articles served a useful purpose during the period of transition between British rule and the inauguration of the new Constitution in 1789.
John Dickinson of Delaware was the primary author of the Articles of Confederation, but Congress was so preoccupied by war, that it took more than a year for the Second Continental Congress to send the proposal to the states (1777). During debates in Congress, Thomas Burke of North Carolina was particularly successful in seeing that the new government primarily embodied the principle of state sovereignty. Because of a running dispute between states like Maryland that did not have western land claims and those like Virginia that did, the Articles were not ratified by the final state (Maryland) until March 1, 1781, and, by 1787, states were meeting to reformulate the document.
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