The Articles of Confederation was a constitution which was written for the purpose of forming a confederacy to govern the United States of America. John Dickson drafted the bulk of the document. The document was passed in 1777 by Congress. It was created in order to establish ‘a firm league of friendship’ among the American states. The states retained all sovereign power unless there were issues relating to national importance. This created a weak federal government due to the power of states. In order to pass laws a majority vote (which was nine out of the thirteen colonies) was needed to pass laws and unanimous voting required for amendments of the Articles of Confederation. The system was unworkable due to fighting among the states and this lead to the Annapolis and Philadelphia Conventions to create a new Constitution.