Agreed by Congress 15 November 1777. In force after Maryland’s ratification, 1 March 1781. A perpetual union of sovereign states in Congress assembled. This university reads every article against the Great Binding Law, Ma'at, the Treaties of 1787 and 1836, and the Continental Congress of the Iroquois Confederation of Nations of Morocco.
Preamble
To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting.
Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Annotation Perpetual union of distinct nations is the Tree of the Great Peace (Wampum 1–2, 57–58). The delegates sit as the Continental Congress of this house (R-10, R-17). “Perpetual” is the same pledge as Wampum 55: the minds still in one spirit of unity. Ma'at names this order — a public thing that outlives the officer.
Article I
The Stile of this Confederacy shall be “The United States of America”.
Annotation Style of the confederacy, not a crown. In this university the sitting is the Iroquois Confederation of Nations of Morocco in Continental Congress assembled. One name, many nations — as the Longhouse is one house with six fires.
Article II
Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.
Annotation The five Council Fires still burn (Wampum 97). Internal government of a nation continues under the Great Peace (Wampum 84). Congress has only what is laid at the council fire. This is republican: power reserved, not swallowed. Ma'at: each beam of the house keeps its place (order), none taking more than was given (reciprocity).
Article III
The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.
Annotation Firm league of friendship is the Great White Roots (Wampum 2) and the five arrows bound (Wampum 57). Common defense is Wampum 91 — war in defense of the territory. Trade as a cause of attack is answered by the Moorish American Treaty of 1787/1836 (peace, friendship, and commerce). Ma'at: love of God in the world for the protection of the world (Law of Ma'at).
Article IV
The free inhabitants of each of these States (paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted) shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively…
If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the Governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up…
Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.
Annotation Free ingress and regress, and equal trade, is Treaty Article 14: citizens respected, full liberty to pass and repass country and seaports. Privileges of commerce are Treaty Articles 15–18 (interpreters, no forced sale, weights before loading). Full faith and credit is Ma'at — truth spoken and received between fires. Delivery of the accused is justice that does not lean, not sanctuary for isfet. Adoption and travel in the Longhouse: Wampum 66–75.
Article V
Delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislatures of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates… No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees or emolument of any kind.
In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote.
Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress…
Annotation Delegates sent and recalled is the Clan Mother sending the Hoyaneh and taking the antlers (Wampum 17–19, R-14). Term limits and no second salary are Ma'at against a crown of office. One vote per nation is the Longhouse: nations, not head-counts of a king. Speaker for the day (Wampum 14). Freedom of debate is the two sides of the fire speaking in a low tone within their body (Wampum 13) until the case is right.
Article VI
No State, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance or treaty with any King, Prince or State; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince or foreign State; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.
No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled…
No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded…
Annotation No title of nobility is R-13: no hereditary crown. No independent treaty or war is Wampum 25 (no authority independent of the Great Peace) and Wampum 79–91 (war through the Confederate War Chiefs). The 1787/1836 treaty is made in Congress assembled, not by a lone officer. Ma'at: propriety and order — no private compact that splits the arrows.
Article VII
When land forces are raised by any State for the common defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each State respectively, by whom such forces shall be raised…
Annotation Each nation keeps its War Chief (Wampum 36–37). The Confederacy does not swallow the nation’s own appointments for its own men. Republican: the part raises, the whole directs the common defense.
Article VIII
All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each State… The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several States…
Annotation Common bowl, not a king’s levy (Wampum 57: eat from one bowl, no sharp utensil). Contribution by the nation, laid by its own legislature — the fire of that nation still burns (Wampum 97). Ma'at reciprocity: take no more than is returned. Weights and measures of land are Treaty Article 18’s spirit: weigh before you load.
Article IX
The United States in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war (except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article) — of sending and receiving ambassadors — entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to…
…of establishing rules for captures… appointing courts for piracies on the high seas… last resort on appeal in disputes between two or more States… regulating the alloy and value of coin… fixing the standards of weights and measures… regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States, provided that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed… establishing post offices… appointing officers of the land and naval forces (excepting regimental officers)…
The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money… nor borrow money… nor appoint a commander in chief… unless nine States assent to the same…
Annotation Sole power of peace and war and treaty is the Grand Council (Wampum 9–11, 79–88). Commerce treaties must not strip a nation’s own impost — most-favored-nation in the 1787/1836 treaty (Art. 14) without erasing local fire. Weights and measures are Ma'at’s scale and Treaty Art. 18. Affairs with Indian nations not members of any State: this Confederacy reads that clause as a duty to treat nations as nations (Wampum 73–78), not as subjects. Nine States to war or treaty is a high threshold; the Longhouse asks still more — the two sides and the Firekeepers of one mind. Courts of appeal between states: Wampum 92–93, the people and the remaining faithful Lords.
Article X
The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of the nine States, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled be requisite.
Annotation Recess of Congress is Wampum 3: when the Confederate Council is not in session, the Firekeepers receive the case and decide whether to kindle the whole fire. No greater power in the small committee than the whole would give. Republican: the part cannot outrun the house.
Article XI
Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States.
Annotation Shelter under the Long Leaves (Wampum 2): a nation with a clean mind may trace the Great White Roots. Adoption of a foreign nation is Wampum 66–78 — temporary until the peace is kept, and the compact to spread peace (Wampum 78). Canada named is the northern root; Morocco on the eastern root is rafter R-6.
Article XII
All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed, and debts contracted by, or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States, and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.
Annotation Public faith is Ma'at — truth in the ledger, reciprocity, no isfet of unpaid word. The merchant’s treaty likewise restores goods and does not make slaves of persons found on enemy vessels (Treaty Art. 16). A republic keeps its debts as it keeps its wampum pledges (Wampum 23).
Article XIII
Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.
And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union… that the Union shall be perpetual.
Done at Philadelphia, 9 July 1778. Agreed to by Congress 15 November 1777. In force 1 March 1781.
Annotation Inviolable observation is Wampum 55 and 92: a nation that dissolves the Great Peace is treason to the Confederacy. Alteration only by Congress and then every legislature is Wampum 16 — Added to the Rafters — a new beam by the whole house, not by one officer. Perpetual union is the Tree replanted over the buried weapons (Wampum 65). The Great Governor of the World is named in the Thanksgiving of Wampum 7 and in the Law of Amen: a peace that nothing can disturb. This Confederacy receives these Articles as ancestral republican law of the Continental Congress, annotated to the Great Binding Law, Ma'at, and the Treaties of 1787 and 1836 (R-18).
English text after the Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, in force 1 March 1781 (Avalon / Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union, 1927). Annotations are the teaching of Pharaoh's University, Iroquois Confederation of Nations of Morocco.