Why Americaβs First Union Almost Didnβt Happen
Published 22 days agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
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Hello, Reader!
This week's newsletter is a little different.β β Tomorrow I'm presenting at Boston History Camp 2025. Most of my week has been spent deep in my research on the Articles of Confederation and the origins of the American Union.
So instead of unpacking a headline, I'm giving you a preview of my talk. β
πΌοΈ The Big Picture
What's Happening: We're stepping back from present-day news to examine a foundational question: How did the 13 British American colonies, after 150+ years of failed attempts, finally form a union?
β οΈ Why It Matters: "The United States" wasn't inevitable. Before the 1787 Constitution, the colonies struggled with deep rivalries, competing cultures, and clashing interests.
π What History Reveals: The Articles of Confederation was the first blueprint for a national union, an experiment born in the middle of a revolution.
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π Historical Deep Dive
Why Was Union So Hard?
The colonists of British North America were never "one people."
New England: English Puritans and Separatists
The Mid-Atlantic: A patchwork of Dutch, German, Jewish, and English settlers.
The South: Deep ties to slavery, cash crops, and Caribbean economies.
Regional rivalries ran deep and flared over trade, land, slavery, and even currency.
The colonists had attempted to form intercolonial unions intermittently since the 1640s.
In 1643, four of the five New England colonies formed the New England Confederacy. [1]
In 1697, William Penn submitted a Plan for Union to the London Board of Trade. [2]
Both of these plans for union revealed a familiar pattern: unity between the English colonies was only possible when their interests were aligned. When they diverged--which was often--union failed.
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βοΈ Turning Points: When Colonies Tried (And Failed) at Union
The Albany Plan, 1754
In 1754, Benjamin Franklin proposed a new plan for union.
Franklin's plan included:
An intercolonial Grand Assembly with representatives apportioned by each colony's population and wealth
A President General appointed by the British Crown
Powers for these bodies to raise and command intercolonial armies and build forts
Powers for these bodies to raise taxes to support the raising of armies and forts
Powers for these bodies to regulate relations and treaties between the colonies and Indigenous peoples.
While the delegates to the Albany Congress unanimously agreed to submit and support the plan to their colonial legislatures, the colonial legislatures failed to pass it out of their fear of losing their autonomous power.
Likewise, the Crown also refused to allow the union out of fear it would grant its colonies too much independence. [3]
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Benjamin Franklin, "Join, or Die." Franklin created this image and printed it in his Pennsylvania Gazette to encourage colonies to vote for his plan of union.
βοΈ The Revolution Changed Everything
American colonists began to think more about union during the early days of the American Revolution.
1765: The Stamp Act Congress: A meeting of delegates from 9 of the 13 colonies to discuss a coordinated action against Parliament's Stamp Tax.
1774:The First Continental Congress: 12 of the 13 colonies sent delegates to Philadelphia in September to discuss how to respond to Parliament's Coercive Acts. The Congress produced the Continental Association, a non-importation/non-exportation agreement that the colonies agreed to participate in.
1775: The Second Continental Congress: A follow-up to the First Continental Congress, the Second Continental Congress quickly turned to the politics of managing a war. The needs of the war effort transformed this temporary congress into the United States' first governing body. But unity rested only on goodwill and military need.
1776: The Virginia Resolution: On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia issued a resolution that not only called for the united colonies to declare their Independence from Great Britain, but also for them to form foreign alliances and draft a plan for confederation--a governing union-- that could be presented to each colony. [4]
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π The Articles of Confederation
Drafted primarily by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, the United States' first constitution created a "perpetual union."
Unlike the Constitution of 1787, where only three-fourths of the states had to agree to it for its government to take effect, the Articles of Confederation required ratification by all 13 colonies.
The ratification process was slow. Maryland withheld its approval the longest, refusing to ratify until Virginia ceded its western land claims to the union in 1781. With Maryland's ratification, the Confederation's government went into effect on March 1, 1781.
Over the years, many Founders and scholars have written about the deficiencies of the Confederation's constitutional government and why these deficiencies demanded a stronger government under the Constitution of 1787. [5]
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π¬ Final Thoughts & Questions
No one has undertaken a full-length study of the Articles of Confederation on its own terms--as a product of the American Revolution--since Merrill Jensen in 1945.
And even Jensen wasn't too keen to write about the first Constitution. Jensen sought to write The New Nation: A History of the United States during the Confederation, 1781-1789. While providing an overview of the Articles of Confederation in an introduction for this work, Jensen realized he had another book on his hands and wrote The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774-1781.
Because so many historians have looked upon the United States' first constitution as a stepping stone to its second constitution, there are many questions to be explored.
First, how did early Americans overcome their many differences (cultural, political, economic) to form a union?
Second, what did the ratification of the Articles of Confederation look like, and was there even time for debate on this constitution during the War for Independence?
Third, how, after more than 150 years of failed attempts to unite, did the colonies finally come together to form a "perpetual union?" This is an idea we take for granted in the Constitution, but it was spelled out in the Articles of Confederation.
These are questions I have and am exploring in fits and starts as I have time.
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π§ Go Deeper
Curious about the history behind some of the events in this newsletter? Check out:
π³ Committees & Congresses of the American Revolutionβ βEpisode 153β Explore the governments and governance of the American Revolution.
π³John Dickinson: Life, Religion, Politicsβ βEpisode 258β Investigate the life and work of John Dickinson and his role in the Second Continental Congress.
π³ 1774: The Long Year of Revolutionβ βEpisode 294β 1774 was an important year in the American Revolution. Discover why in this conversation with Mary Beth Norton.
π³ Carpenters' Hall and the First Continental Congressβ βEpisode 396β Survey the work of the First Continental Congress and the history of Carpenters' Hall.
πΊπΈ The Early History of the United States Congressβ βEpisode 202β Join two historians from the House of Representatives History Office for a look at the history of the United States' early congresses.
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π¬ What Do You Think?
Have you ever thought about the Articles of Confederation? If so, what questions do you have about this first constitution?
[3] Benjamin Franklin, "Albany Plan of Union, 1754," The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library,https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/albany.asp, accessed August 7, 2025; Benjamin Franklin, "Albany Plan of Union, 1754," American Battlefield Trust, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/albany-plan-union-1754, accessed August 7, 2025; Timothy J. Shannon, Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002).
[4] Edmund Cody Burnett, The Continental Congress: A Definitive History of the Continental Congress from its Inception in 1774 to March, 1789, (New York: W.W. Norton, 1964); H. James Henderson, Party Politics in the Continental Congress, (New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1976); Richard Henry Lee, "Lee's Resolution (1776), U.S.National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/lee-resolution, accessed August 7, 2025; Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, (New York: Random House Books, 1988).
[5] Merrill Jensen, The Articles of Confederation (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1940); Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (New York: Random House Books, 1988).
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π Further Reading
Merrill Jensen, The Articles of Confederation (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1940).
Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress, (New York: Random House Books, 1988).
Timothy J. Shannon, Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002).
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