Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was the assembly of delegates from the thirteen colonies that met in Philadelphia from 1774, declared independence in 1776, conducted the war, and governed the new nation until the Constitution replaced it in 1789. The Articles of Confederation, drafted in 1777 and ratified in 1781, were its constitution: a league of sovereign states with a Congress that could not tax, regulate trade or compel obedience, whose weaknesses the Federalist Papers catalogued and the Convention of 1787 was called to fix. The lists read the Articles to see what the Constitution was written against.