For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by these arguments.  But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to yield.  In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the Ohio River.  Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781, her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation.  As all the other states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a form of government the states were pledged to obey.

%165.  Government under the Articles of Confederation.%—­The form of government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to end.  There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature.  Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected each year by the members from among their own number.  The delegates to Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent them.  Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became members of a secret body.  The doors were shut; no spectators were allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on deliberating day after day.  All voting was done by states, each casting but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had.  The affirmative votes of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was called, “ordinance.”

To this body the Articles gave but few powers.  Congress could declare war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between states.  But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay any tax for any purpose.

%166.  Origin of the Public Domain%.—­In 1784 Massachusetts ceded her strip of land in the west, following the example set by New York (1780), and Virginia (1781).

As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 given their land to Congress, that body came into possession of the greater part of the vast domain stretching from the Lakes to the Ohio and from the Mississippi to Pennsylvania.[1] Now this public domain, as it was called, was given on certain conditions: 

1.  That it should be cut up into states.

2.  That these states should be admitted into the Union (when they had a certain population) on the same footing as the thirteen original states.

3.  That the land should be sold and the money used to pay the debts of the United States.

[Footnote 1:  The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress in October, 1789, but not accepted.  It still belonged to Connecticut in 1785.  In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and accepted.]