President George Washington
This imperfect and deeply flawed
arrangement sought to create "a single child by thirteen separate
fathers.' Lessons from this failure would eventually guide
the wisest founders (James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin
Franklin, James Wilson, John Adams and George Washtington) to argue
forcefully for a centralized federal government during the
Constitutional Convention, six years later.
The Articles of Confederation
gave the Continental Congress the exclusive authority to make
treaties and manage affairs with Indian tribes living inside state
boarders and beyond (the same claim made by King George III in
1763). These same powers would later be placed in the hands
of the U.S. Congress by the ratified Constitution.