ccordance with the experience of
twenty years, submitted it to the Continental Congress as a new plan of
government under which the colonies might unite.

Franklin's plan of 1775 seems to have attracted little attention in
America, and possibly it was not generally known; but much was made of
it abroad, where it soon became public, probably in the same way that
other Franklin papers came out. It seems to have been his practice to
make, with his own hand, several copies of such a document, which he
would send to his friends with the statement that as the document in
question was confidential they might not otherwise see a copy of it. Of
course the inevitable happened, and such documents found their war into
print to the apparent surprise and dismay of the author. Incidentally
this practice caused confusion in later years, because each possessor of
such a document would claim that he had the original. Whatever may have
been the procedure in this particular case, it is fairly evident that
Dickinson's committee took Franklin's plan of 1775 as the starting
point of its work, and after revision submitted it to Congress as their
report; for some of the most important features of the Articles of
Confederation are to be found, sometimes word for word, in Franklin's
draft.

This explanation of the origin of the Articles of Confederation is
helpful and perhaps essential in understanding the form of government
established, because that government in its main features had been
devised for an entirely different condition of affairs, when a strong,
centralized government would not have been accepted even if it had
been wanted. It provided for a "league of friendship," with the primary
purpose of considering preparation for action rather than of taking the
initiative. Furthermore, the final stages of drafting the Articles of
Confederation had occurred at the outbreak of the war, when the people
of the various States were showing a disposition to follow readily
suggestions that came from those whom they could trust and when they
seemed to be willing to submit without compulsion to orders from the
same source. These circumstances, quite as much as the inexperience of
Congress and the jealousy of the States, account for the inefficient
form of government which was devised; and inefficient the Confederation
certainly was. The only organ of government was a Congress in which
every State was entitled to one vote and was represented by a del