Representatives from each colony were already working on draft Articles of Confederation beginning one day after Thomas Jefferson, et.al. started work on the Declaration of Independence.

The first draft Articles were presented to the Congress on July 12, and this day was another day of discussion and debate. The ultimate disposition of the articles discussed today is a little bit amusing, as you learn from the episode itself.

The Founding Fathers were looking for a relatively weak central government, which is why the finished document is relatively short and can actually be boiled down to a dozen brief paragraphs. It took a while to realize it, but this wasn’t the best idea, which explains why the Articles of Confederation were abandoned for a new Constitution.

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