Whois & Analysis for usconstitution.net

The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution.

Its drafting by a committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress began on July 12, 1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification on November 15, 1777.

The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states.

A guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states.

The federal government received only those powers which the colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament.

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America.

The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government.

Its first three articles entrench the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government.

Article Seven establishes the procedure subsequently used by the thirteen States to ratify it.

The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule.

Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America.

John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was passed on July 2 with no opposing vote cast.

A committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence.

The term "Declaration of Independence" is not used in the document itself.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) or Questions and Answers (Q&A), are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic.

The format is commonly used on email mailing lists and other online forums, where certain common questions tend to recur.

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide.

It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.

The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing.