Editing Articles of Confederation (section)

==Ratification==
The Articles of Confederation was submitted to the states for ratification in late November 1777. The first state to ratify was [[Virginia]] on December 16, 1777; 12 states had ratified the Articles by February 1779, 14 months into the process.<ref name="MilestoneArticles">{{Cite web |title=Articles of Confederation, 1777–1781 |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/Articles |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230164242/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/Articles |archive-date=December 30, 2010 |access-date=January 3, 2011 |website=Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations |publisher=U.S. Department of State |location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref> The lone holdout, Maryland, refused to go along until the landed states, especially [[Virginia]], had indicated they were prepared to [[State cession|cede their claims]] west of the [[Ohio River]] to the Union.{{sfn|Williams|2012|p=1782}} It would be two years before the [[Maryland General Assembly]] became satisfied that the various states would follow through, and voted to ratify. During this time, Congress observed the Articles as its [[de facto]] frame of government. Maryland finally ratified the Articles on February 2, 1781. Congress was informed of Maryland's assent on March 1, and officially proclaimed the Articles of Confederation to be the law of the land.<ref name=MilestoneArticles/><ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Elliot |editor-first=Jonathan |editor-link=Jonathan Elliot (historian) |title=The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution |date=2010 |orig-date=1836 |publisher=[[J.B. Lippincott & Company]] |edition=2nd |volume=1 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pTAMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA98 98]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Mallory |editor-first=John |title=United States Compiled Statutes |date=1917 |publisher=[[West Publishing Company]] |volume=10 |location=St. Paul |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6cUZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA10605 13044–13045] }}</ref>

The several states ratified the Articles of Confederation on the following dates:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hough |first=Franklin Benjamin |url=https://archive.org/details/americanconstit00houggoog |title=American Constitutions |date=1872 |publisher=[[Weed, Parsons, & Company]] |location=Albany |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanconstit00houggoog/page/n25 10]}} References to a 1778 Virginia ratification are based on an error in the Journals of Congress: "The published Journals of Congress print this enabling act of the Virginia assembly under date of Dec. 15, 1778. This error has come from the MS. vol. 9 (History of Confederation), p. 123, Papers of the Continental Congress, Library of Congress." {{Cite book |last=Dyer |first=Albion M. |title=First Ownership of Ohio Lands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=byh58dkalw8C&pg=PA1 |orig-year=1911 |date=2008 |publisher=[[Genealogical Publishing Company]] |location=Baltimore |isbn=9780806300986 |page=10}}</ref>

{|class="sortable wikitable" style="align:left"
! colspan=2 | State
! Date
|-
| {{sort|13|1}}
| [[File:Seal of Virginia.svg|30px]] [[Virginia]]
| {{dts|1777|12|16}}
|-
| {{sort|12|2}}
| [[File:Seal of South Carolina.svg|30px]] [[South Carolina]]
| {{dts|1778|02|05}}
|-
| {{sort|08|3}}
| [[File:Seal of New York (1901-2020).svg|30px]] [[New York (state)|New York]]
| {{dts|1778|02|06}}
|-
| {{sort|11|4}}
| [[File:Seal of Rhode Island (pre 2022).svg|30px]] [[Rhode Island]]
| {{dts|1778|02|09}}
|-
| {{sort|01|5}}
| [[File:Seal of Connecticut.svg|26px]] [[Connecticut]]
| {{dts|1778|02|12}}
|-
| {{sort|03|6}}
| [[File:Seal of Georgia.svg|30px]] [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
| {{dts|1778|02|26}}
|-
| {{sort|06|7}}
| [[File:New Hampshire State Seal 1904.png|30px]] [[New Hampshire]]
| {{dts|1778|03|04}}
|-
| {{sort|10|8}}
| [[File:Seal of Pennsylvania.svg|30px]] [[Pennsylvania]]
| {{dts|1778|03|05}}
|-
| {{sort|05|9}}
| [[File:Seal of Massachusetts.svg|30px]] [[Massachusetts]]
| {{dts|1778|03|10}}
|-
| {{sort|09|10}}
| [[File:NorthCarolina-StateSeal.svg|30px]] [[North Carolina]]
| {{dts|1778|04|05}}
|-
| {{sort|07|11}}
| [[File:Seal of New Jersey.svg|30px]] [[New Jersey]]
| {{dts|1778|11|19}}
|-
| {{sort|02|12}}
| [[File:Seal of Delaware.svg|30px]] [[Delaware]]
| {{dts|1779|02|01}}
|-
| {{sort|04|13}}
| [[File:Seal of Maryland (1794–1817).png|30px]] [[Maryland]]
| {{dts|1781|02|02}}
|}