The Engagements Clause of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

( Article VI, Clause 1) says that debts and other obligations of the federal government that were incurred during the years when the

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...

served as the constitution of the United States continue to be valid after the Articles were superseded by the new Constitution.

The role of the Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were proposed by the Continental Congress in 1777 and became effective upon ratification by all thirteen states. The thirteenth ratification was in March 1781. The Articles elevated the Congress to the status of a federal government. The

Congress of the Confederation The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States from March 1, 1781, until March 3, 1789, during the Confederation ...

commissioned the Constitutional Convention to meet in 1787 to propose improvements to the Articles of Confederation, with the result that they proposed the new Constitution, which superseded the Articles within the states ratifying it, upon ratification by nine of the thirteen states.

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The precursor in the Articles of Confederation

The twelfth Article of Confederation was also an engagements clause, committing the Confederation to honor promises made by the Continental Congress before the Congress of the Confederation convened. It stated that "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."Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, Article XII

References

Article Six of the United States Constitution Clauses of the United States Constitution Legal history of the United States {{US-law-stub