America Had a Government Before the Constitution

Americans have started paying more attention to the Constitution in recent times, in part to see what wisdom it might hold, and also to better understand what constraints might bind our current executive branch. I thought I would take this historical interest one step further and read the original Articles of Confederation, the foundational document for American government from 1781 to 1789.1487728168871

The Articles have been much maligned since the inception of the subsequent Constitution, but most of the material in them remains relevant and also insightful. For instance, although there are only 13 Articles, the lead part of Article VI is a version of the emoluments clause, about American officeholders not accepting “any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince or foreign State…” That was truly important to our Founding Fathers.