The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler
The Articles of Confederation were passed by the Continental Congress in 1777, but were not ratified by the states until 1781. This first governing document of America put the new country in good stead, but it had some shortcomings, including the creation of a weak central government. It was replaced by the U.S. Constitution in 1789.