Creating the United States

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Plans to Revise the Articles of Confederation

Plans to Revise the Articles of Confederation (051.03.00)

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Rufus King (1755–1827), a member of the Confederation Congress and a delegate to the Federal Constitution Convention of 1787, expressed concern for a 1785 Massachusetts legislative call for a national convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. In his letter to Nathan Dane (1752–1835), a Massachusetts delegate to the Confederation Congress and architect of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, King correctly predicted that any new government would be less republican and that the larger states would want more control of the new government. The Massachusetts delegates refused to submit the request to Congress or to the other states.

(Transcription)

“if the confederation is generally submitted to a revision, I foresee many and important Difficulties—the report will certainly be a confederation less republican than the present one.”


Rufus King (1755–1827), a member of the Confederation Congress and a delegate to the Federal Constitution Convention of 1787, expressed concern for a 1785 Massachusetts legislative call for a national convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. In his letter to Nathan Dane (1752–1835), a Massachusetts delegate to the Confederation Congress and architect of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, King correctly predicted that any new government would be less republican and that the larger states would want more control of the new government. The Massachusetts delegates refused to submit the request to Congress or to the other states.