document_title: Articles of Confederation

question_text: what group had the most power under the articles of confederation

question_tokens: what group had the most power under the articles of confederation

text: Articles of Confederation

text: Background and context

text: The political push to increase cooperation among the then-loyal colonies began with the Albany Congress in 1754 and Benjamin Franklin's proposed Albany Plan, an inter-colonial collaboration to help solve mutual local problems. The Articles of Confederation would bear some resemblance to it. Over the next two decades, some of the basic concepts it addressed would strengthen and others would weaken, particularly the degree of deserved loyalty to the crown. With civil disobedience resulting in coercive, and what the colonials perceived as intolerable acts of Parliament, and armed conflict resulting in dissidents being proclaimed rebels and outside the King's protection, any loyalty remaining shifted toward independence and how to achieve it. In 1775, with events outpacing communications, the Second Continental Congress began acting as the provisional government that would run the American Revolutionary War and gain the colonies their collective independence.

text: It was an era of constitution writing—most states were busy at the task—and leaders felt the new nation must have a written constitution, even though other nations did not. During the war, Congress exercised an unprecedented level of political, diplomatic, military and economic authority. It adopted trade restrictions, established and maintained an army, issued fiat money, created a military code and negotiated with foreign governments.[5]

text: To transform themselves from outlaws into a legitimate nation, the colonists needed international recognition for their cause and foreign allies to support it. In early 1776, Thomas Paine argued in the closing pages of the first edition of Common Sense that the “custom of nations” demanded a formal declaration of American independence if any European power were to mediate a peace between the Americans and Great Britain. The monarchies of France and Spain in particular could not be expected to aid those they considered rebels against another legitimate monarch. Foreign courts needed to have American grievances laid before them persuasively in a “manifesto” which could also reassure them that the Americans would be reliable trading partners. Without such a declaration, Paine concluded, “[t]he custom of all courts is against us, and will be so, until, by an independence, we take rank with other nations.”[6]

text: Beyond improving their existing association, the records of the Second Continental Congress show that the need for a declaration of independence was intimately linked with the demands of international relations. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution before the Continental Congress declaring the colonies independent; at the same time he also urged Congress to resolve “to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances” and to prepare a plan of confederation for the newly independent states. Congress then created three overlapping committees to draft the Declaration, a Model Treaty, and the Articles of Confederation. The Declaration announced the states' entry into the international system; the model treaty was designed to establish amity and commerce with other states; and the Articles of Confederation, which established “a firm league” among the thirteen free and independent states, constituted an international agreement to set up central institutions for the conduct of vital domestic and foreign affairs.[7]

text: Drafting

text: On June 12, 1776, a day after appointing a committee to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress resolved to appoint a committee of 13 to prepare a draft of a constitution for a union of the states. The committee met repeatedly, and chairman John Dickinson presented their results to the Congress on July 12, 1776. There were long debates on such issues as sovereignty, the exact powers to be given the confederate government, whether to have a judiciary, and voting procedures.[8] The final draft of the Articles was prepared in the summer of 1777 and the Second Continental Congress approved them for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777, after a year of debate.[9] In practice, the Articles were in use beginning in 1777; the final draft of the Articles served as the de facto system of government used by the Congress ("the United States in Congress assembled") until it became de jure by final ratification on March 1, 1781; at which point Congress became the Congress of the Confederation. Under the Articles, the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically relinquished to the national government. The individual articles set the rules for current and future operations of the United States government. It was made capable of making war and peace, negotiating diplomatic and commercial agreements with foreign countries, and deciding disputes between the states, including their additional and contested western territories. Article XIII stipulated that "their provisions shall be inviolably observed by every state" and "the Union shall be perpetual".

text: John Dickinson's and Benjamin Franklin's handwritten drafts of the Articles of Confederation are housed at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

text: Operation

text: The Articles were created by delegates from the states in the Second Continental Congress out of a need to have "a plan of confederacy for securing the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the United States." After the war, nationalists, especially those who had been active in the Continental Army, complained that the Articles were too weak for an effective government. There was no president, no executive agencies, no judiciary and no tax base. The absence of a tax base meant that there was no way to pay off state and national debts from the war years except by requesting money from the states, which seldom arrived.

text: In 1788, with the approval of Congress, the Articles were replaced by the United States Constitution and the new government began operations in 1789.[10]

text: Ratification

text: Congress began to move for ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1777:

text: Permit us, then, earnestly to recommend these articles to the immediate and dispassionate attention of the legislatures of the respective states. Let them be candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of combining in one system the various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many sovereign and independent communities, under a conviction of the absolute necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength, to maintain and defend our common liberties...[11]

text: The document could not become officially effective until it was ratified by all 13 states. The first state to ratify was Virginia on December 16, 1777; the thirteenth state to ratify was Maryland on February 2, 1781. A ceremonial confirmation of this thirteenth, final ratification took place in the Congress on March 1, 1781, at high noon.[12][13][14] Twelve states had ratified the Articles by February 1779, 14 months into the process. Maryland, however, refused to go along until the landed states, especially Virginia, had indicated they were prepared to cede their claims west of the Ohio River to the Union.[15] It would be two years before the Maryland legislature became satisfied that they would follow through, and voted to ratify. The various states ratified the Articles of Confederation on the following dates:[16]

text:
#
State
Date

7000100000000000000♠1
Virginia
000000001777-12-16-0000December 16, 1777

7000200000000000000♠2
South Carolina
000000001778-02-05-0000February 5, 1778

7000300000000000000♠3
New York
000000001778-02-06-0000February 6, 1778

7000400000000000000♠4
Rhode Island
000000001778-02-09-0000February 9, 1778

7000500000000000000♠5
Connecticut
000000001778-02-12-0000February 12, 1778

7000600000000000000♠6
Georgia
000000001778-02-26-0000February 26, 1778

7000700000000000000♠7
New Hampshire
000000001778-03-04-0000March 4, 1778

7000800000000000000♠8
Pennsylvania
000000001778-03-05-0000March 5, 1778

7000900000000000000♠9
Massachusetts
000000001778-03-10-0000March 10, 1778

7001100000000000000♠10
North Carolina
000000001778-04-05-0000April 5, 1778

7001110000000000000♠11
New Jersey
000000001778-11-19-0000November 19, 1778

7001120000000000000♠12
Delaware
000000001779-02-01-0000February 1, 1779

7001130000000000000♠13
Maryland
000000001781-02-02-0000February 2, 1781

tag: table

text: Article summaries

text: The Articles of Confederation contain a preamble, thirteen articles, a conclusion, and a signatory section. The preamble declares that the states "agree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Union." What follows here summarizes the purpose and content of each of the thirteen articles.

text:
Establishes the name of the confederation with these words: "The stile of this confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'"
Asserts the sovereignty of each state, except for the specific powers delegated to the confederation government: "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated."
Declares the purpose of the confederation: "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."
Elaborates upon the intent "to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this union," and to establish equal treatment and freedom of movement for the free inhabitants of each state to pass unhindered between the states, excluding "paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice." All these people are entitled to equal rights established by the state into which they travel. If a crime is committed in one state and the perpetrator flees to another state, he will be extradited to and tried in the state in which the crime was committed.
Allocates one vote in the Congress of the Confederation (the "United States in Congress Assembled") to each state, which is entitled to a delegation of between two and seven members. Members of Congress are to be appointed by state legislatures. No congressman may serve more than three out of any six years.
Only the central government may declare war, or conduct foreign political or commercial relations. No state or official may accept foreign gifts or titles, and granting any title of nobility is forbidden to all. No states may form any sub-national groups. No state may tax or interfere with treaty stipulations already proposed. No state may wage war without permission of Congress, unless invaded or under imminent attack on the frontier; no state may maintain a peacetime standing army or navy, unless infested by pirates, but every State is required to keep ready, a well-trained, disciplined, and equipped militia.
Whenever an army is raised for common defense, the state legislatures shall assign military ranks of colonel and below.
Expenditures by the United States of America will be paid with funds raised by state legislatures, and apportioned to the states in proportion to the real property values of each.
Powers and functions of the United States in Congress Assembled.

Grants to the United States in Congress assembled the sole and exclusive right and power to determine peace and war; to exchange ambassadors; to enter into treaties and alliances, with some provisos; to establish rules for deciding all cases of captures or prizes on land or water; to grant letters of marque and reprisal (documents authorizing privateers) in times of peace; to appoint courts for the trial of pirates and crimes committed on the high seas; to establish courts for appeals in all cases of captures, but no member of Congress may be appointed a judge; to set weights and measures (including coins), and for Congress to serve as a final court for disputes between states.
The court will be composed of jointly appointed commissioners or Congress shall appoint them. Each commissioner is bound by oath to be impartial. The court's decision is final.
Congress shall regulate the post offices; appoint officers in the military; and regulate the armed forces.
The United States in Congress assembled may appoint a president who shall not serve longer than one year per three-year term of the Congress.
Congress may request requisitions from the states in proportion with their population, or take credit.
Congress may not declare war, enter into treaties and alliances, appropriate money, or appoint a commander in chief without nine states assented. Congress shall keep a journal of proceedings and adjourn for periods not to exceed six months.

When Congress is in recess, any of the powers of Congress may be executed by "The committee of the states, or any nine of them", except for those powers of Congress which require nine states in Congress to execute.
If "Canada" (as the British-held Province of Quebec was also known) accedes to this confederation, it will be admitted.[17] No other colony could be admitted without the consent of nine states.
Reaffirms that the Confederation accepts war debt incurred by Congress before the existence of the Articles.
Declares that the Articles shall be perpetual, and may be altered only with the approval of Congress and the ratification of all the state legislatures.

tag: ol

text: While still at war with Britain, the revolution's leaders were divided between forming a national government with powers either strong and centralized (the "federalists"), or strictly limited (the "anti federalists"). The Continental Congress compromised by dividing sovereignty between the states and the central government, with a unicameral legislature that protected the liberty of the individual states. It empowered Congress to regulate military and monetary affairs, for example, but provided no mechanism to compel the States to comply with requests for either troops or funding. This left the military vulnerable to inadequate funding, supplies, or even food.[18]

text: End of the Revolutionary War

text: The Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended hostilities with Great Britain, languished in Congress for months because several state representatives failed to attend sessions of the national legislature to ratify it. Yet Congress had no power to enforce attendance. In September 1783, George Washington complained that Congress was paralyzed.[19] Many revolutionaries had gone to their respective home countries after the war, and local government and self-rule seemed quite satisfactory.

text: Function

text: The Army

text: The Articles supported the Congressional direction of the Continental Army, and allowed the states to present a unified front when dealing with the European powers. As a tool to build a centralized war-making government, they were largely a failure: Historian Bruce Chadwick wrote:

text: George Washington had been one of the very first proponents of a strong federal government. The army had nearly disbanded on several occasions during the winters of the war because of the weaknesses of the Continental Congress. ... The delegates could not draft soldiers and had to send requests for regular troops and militia to the states. Congress had the right to order the production and purchase of provisions for the soldiers, but could not force anyone to supply them, and the army nearly starved in several winters of war.[20]

text: The Continental Congress, before the Articles were approved, had promised soldiers a pension of half pay for life. However Congress had no power to compel the states to fund this obligation, and as the war wound down after the victory at Yorktown the sense of urgency to support the military was no longer a factor. No progress was made in Congress during the winter of 1783–84. General Henry Knox, who would later become the first Secretary of War under the Constitution, blamed the weaknesses of the Articles for the inability of the government to fund the army. The army had long been supportive of a strong union.[21] Knox wrote:

text: The army generally have always reprobated the idea of being thirteen armies. Their ardent desires have been to be one continental body looking up to one sovereign. ... It is a favorite toast in the army, "A hoop to the barrel" or "Cement to the Union".[22]

text: As Congress failed to act on the petitions, Knox wrote to Gouverneur Morris, four years before the Philadelphia Convention was convened, "As the present Constitution is so defective, why do not you great men call the people together and tell them so; that is, to have a convention of the States to form a better Constitution."[22]

text: Once the war had been won, the Continental Army was largely disbanded. A very small national force was maintained to man the frontier forts and to protect against Native American attacks. Meanwhile, each of the states had an army (or militia), and 11 of them had Navies. The wartime promises of bounties and land grants to be paid for service were not being met. In 1783, George Washington defused the Newburgh conspiracy, but riots by unpaid Pennsylvania veterans forced Congress to leave Philadelphia temporarily.[23]

text: The Congress from time to time during the Revolutionary War requisitioned troops from the states. Any contributions were voluntary, and in the debates of 1788 the Federalists (who supported the proposed new Constitution) claimed that state politicians acted unilaterally, and contributed when the Continental army protected their state's interests. The Anti-Federalists claimed that state politicians understood their duty to the Union and contributed to advance its needs. Dougherty (2009) concludes that generally the States' behavior validated the Federalist analysis. This helps explain why the Articles of Confederation needed reforms.[24]

text: Foreign policy

text: Even after peace had been achieved in 1783, the weakness of the Confederation government frustrated the ability of the government to conduct foreign policy. In 1789, Thomas Jefferson, concerned over the failure to fund an American naval force to confront the Barbary pirates, wrote to James Monroe, "It will be said there is no money in the treasury. There never will be money in the treasury till the Confederacy shows its teeth. The states must see the rod.”[25]

text: Furthermore, the Jay–Gardoqui Treaty with Spain in 1789 also showed weakness in foreign policy. In this treaty — which was never ratified due to its immense unpopularity — the United States was to give up rights to use the Mississippi River for 25 years, which would have economically strangled the settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains. Finally, due to the Confederation's military weakness, it could not compel the British army to leave frontier forts which were on American soil — forts which, in 1783, the British promised to leave, but which they delayed leaving pending U.S. implementation of other provisions such as ending action against Loyalists and allowing them to seek compensation. This incomplete British implementation of the Treaty of Paris (1783) was superseded by the implementation of Jay's Treaty in 1795 under the new U.S. Constitution.

text: Taxation and commerce

text: Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government's power was kept quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers. Implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures.[26]

text: Congress was denied any powers of taxation: it could only request money from the states. The states often failed to meet these requests in full, leaving both Congress and the Continental Army chronically short of money. As more money was printed by Congress, the continental dollars depreciated. In 1779, George Washington wrote to John Jay, who was serving as the president of the Continental Congress, "that a wagon load of money will scarcely purchase a wagon load of provisions."[27] Mr. Jay and the Congress responded in May by requesting $45 million from the States. In an appeal to the States to comply, Jay wrote that the taxes were "the price of liberty, the peace, and the safety of yourselves and posterity."[28] He argued that Americans should avoid having it said "that America had no sooner become independent than she became insolvent" or that "her infant glories and growing fame were obscured and tarnished by broken contracts and violated faith."[29] The States did not respond with any of the money requested from them.

text: Congress had also been denied the power to regulate either foreign trade or interstate commerce and, as a result, all of the States maintained control over their own trade policies. The states and the Confederation Congress both incurred large debts during the Revolutionary War, and how to repay those debts became a major issue of debate following the War. Some States paid off their war debts and others did not. Federal assumption of the states' war debts became a major issue in the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention.

text: Accomplishments of the Confederation

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Nevertheless, the Confederation Congress did take two actions with long-lasting impact. The Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance created territorial government, set up protocols for the admission of new states and the division of land into useful units, and set aside land in each township for public use. This system represented a sharp break from imperial colonization, as in Europe, and provided the basis for the rest of American continental expansion through the 19th Century.

text: The Land Ordinance of 1785 established both the general practices of land surveying in the west and northwest and the land ownership provisions used throughout the later westward expansion beyond the Mississippi River. Frontier lands were surveyed into the now-familiar squares of land called the township (36 square miles), the section (one square mile), and the quarter section (160 acres). This system was carried forward to most of the States west of the Mississippi (excluding areas of Texas and California that had already been surveyed and divided up by the Spanish Empire). Then, when the Homestead Act was enacted in 1867, the quarter section became the basic unit of land that was granted to new settler-farmers.

text: The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 noted the agreement of the original states to give up northwestern land claims, organized the Northwest Territory and laid the groundwork for the eventual creation of new states. While it didn't happen under the articles, the land north of the Ohio River and west of the (present) western border of Pennsylvania ceded by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, eventually became the states of: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi River. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 also made great advances in the abolition of slavery. New states admitted to the union in said territory would never be slave states.

text: No new states were admitted to the Union under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles provided for a blanket acceptance of the Province of Quebec (referred to as "Canada" in the Articles) into the United States if it chose to do so. It did not, and the subsequent Constitution carried no such special provision of admission. Additionally, ordinances to admit Frankland (later modified to Franklin), Kentucky, and Vermont to the Union were considered, but none were approved.

text: The United States of America under the Articles

text: The peace treaty left the United States independent and at peace but with an unsettled governmental structure. The Articles envisioned a permanent confederation, but granted to the Congress—the only federal institution—little power to finance itself or to ensure that its resolutions were enforced. There was no president and no national court.[30][31] Although historians generally agree that the Articles were too weak to hold the fast-growing nation together, they do give credit to the settlement of the western issue, as the states voluntarily turned over their lands to national control.[32]

text: By 1783, with the end of the British blockade, the new nation was regaining its prosperity. However, trade opportunities were restricted by the mercantilism of the British and French empires. The ports of the British West Indies were closed to all staple products which were not carried in British ships. France and Spain established similar policies. Simultaneously, new manufacturers faced sharp competition from British products which were suddenly available again. Political unrest in several states and efforts by debtors to use popular government to erase their debts increased the anxiety of the political and economic elites which had led the Revolution. The apparent inability of the Congress to redeem the public obligations (debts) incurred during the war, or to become a forum for productive cooperation among the states to encourage commerce and economic development, only aggravated a gloomy situation. In 1786–87, Shays' Rebellion, an uprising of dissidents in western Massachusetts against the state court system, threatened the stability of state government.[33]

text: The Continental Congress printed paper money which was so depreciated that it ceased to pass as currency, spawning the expression "not worth a continental". Congress could not levy taxes and could only make requisitions upon the States. Less than a million and a half dollars came into the treasury between 1781 and 1784, although the governors had been asked for two million in 1783 alone.[34]

text: When John Adams went to London in 1785 as the first representative of the United States, he found it impossible to secure a treaty for unrestricted commerce. Demands were made for favors and there was no assurance that individual states would agree to a treaty. Adams stated it was necessary for the States to confer the power of passing navigation laws to Congress, or that the States themselves pass retaliatory acts against Great Britain. Congress had already requested and failed to get power over navigation laws. Meanwhile, each State acted individually against Great Britain to little effect. When other New England states closed their ports to British shipping, Connecticut hastened to profit by opening its ports.[35]

text: By 1787 Congress was unable to protect manufacturing and shipping. State legislatures were unable or unwilling to resist attacks upon private contracts and public credit. Land speculators expected no rise in values when the government could not defend its borders nor protect its frontier population.[36]

text: The idea of a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation grew in favor. Alexander Hamilton realized while serving as Washington's top aide that a strong central government was necessary to avoid foreign intervention and allay the frustrations due to an ineffectual Congress. Hamilton led a group of like-minded nationalists, won Washington's endorsement, and convened the Annapolis Convention in 1786 to petition Congress to call a constitutional convention to meet in Philadelphia to remedy the long-term crisis.[37]

text: Signatures

text: The Second Continental Congress approved the Articles for distribution to the states on November 15, 1777. A copy was made for each state and one was kept by the Congress. On November 28, the copies sent to the states for ratification were unsigned, and the cover letter, dated November 17, had only the signatures of Henry Laurens and Charles Thomson, who were the President and Secretary to the Congress.

text: The Articles, however, were unsigned, and the date was blank. Congress began the signing process by examining their copy of the Articles on June 27, 1778. They ordered a final copy prepared (the one in the National Archives), and that delegates should inform the secretary of their authority for ratification.

text: On July 9, 1778, the prepared copy was ready. They dated it, and began to sign. They also requested each of the remaining states to notify its delegation when ratification was completed. On that date, delegates present from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina signed the Articles to indicate that their states had ratified. New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland could not, since their states had not ratified. North Carolina and Georgia also didn't sign that day, since their delegations were absent.

text: After the first signing, some delegates signed at the next meeting they attended. For example, John Wentworth of New Hampshire added his name on August 8. John Penn was the first of North Carolina's delegates to arrive (on July 10), and the delegation signed the Articles on July 21, 1778.

text: The other states had to wait until they ratified the Articles and notified their Congressional delegation. Georgia signed on July 24, New Jersey on November 26, and Delaware on February 12, 1779. Maryland refused to ratify the Articles until every state had ceded its western land claims.

text: On February 2, 1781, the much-awaited decision was taken by the Maryland General Assembly in Annapolis.[38] As the last piece of business during the afternoon Session, "among engrossed Bills" was "signed and sealed by Governor Thomas Sim Lee in the Senate Chamber, in the presence of the members of both Houses... an Act to empower the delegates of this state in Congress to subscribe and ratify the articles of confederation" and perpetual union among the states. The Senate then adjourned "to the first Monday in August next." The decision of Maryland to ratify the Articles was reported to the Continental Congress on February 12. The confirmation signing of the Articles by the two Maryland delegates took place in Philadelphia at noon time on March 1, 1781, and was celebrated in the afternoon. With these events, the Articles were entered into force and the United States of America came into being as a sovereign federal state.

text: Congress had debated the Articles for over a year and a half, and the ratification process had taken nearly three and a half years. Many participants in the original debates were no longer delegates, and some of the signers had only recently arrived. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were signed by a group of men who were never present in the Congress at the same time.

text: Signers

text: The signers and the states they represented were:

text:
Connecticut

Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
Oliver Wolcott
Titus Hosmer
Andrew Adams

Delaware

Thomas McKean
John Dickinson
Nicholas Van Dyke

Georgia

John Walton
Edward Telfair
Edward Langworthy

Maryland

John Hanson
Daniel Carroll

Massachusetts Bay

John Hancock
Samuel Adams
Elbridge Gerry
Francis Dana
James Lovell
Samuel Holten

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett
John Wentworth Jr.

New Jersey

John Witherspoon
Nathaniel Scudder

New York

James Duane
Francis Lewis
William Duer
Gouverneur Morris

North Carolina

John Penn
Cornelius Harnett
John Williams

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris
Daniel Roberdeau
Jonathan Bayard Smith
William Clingan
Joseph Reed

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

William Ellery
Henry Marchant
John Collins

South Carolina

Henry Laurens
William Henry Drayton
John Mathews
Richard Hutson
Thomas Heyward Jr.

Virginia

Richard Henry Lee
John Banister
Thomas Adams
John Harvie
Francis Lightfoot Lee

text: Roger Sherman (Connecticut) was the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.

text: Robert Morris (Pennsylvania) signed three of the great state papers of the United States: the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.

text: John Dickinson (Delaware), Daniel Carroll (Maryland) and Gouverneur Morris (New York), along with Sherman and Robert Morris, were the only five people to sign both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution (Gouverneur Morris represented Pennsylvania when signing the Constitution).

text: Presidents of the Congress

text: The following list is of those who led the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation as the Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled. Under the Articles, the president was the presiding officer of Congress, chaired the Committee of the States when Congress was in recess, and performed other administrative functions. He was not, however, an executive in the way the successor President of the United States is a chief executive, since all of the functions he executed were under the direct control of Congress.[39]

text:
President of Congress
Office Start
Office Exit

Samuel Huntington
March 1, 1781
July 9, 1781

Thomas McKean
July 10, 1781
November 4, 1781

John Hanson
November 5, 1781
November 3, 1782

Elias Boudinot
November 4, 1782
November 2, 1783

Thomas Mifflin
November 3, 1783
October 31, 1784

Richard Henry Lee
November 30, 1784
November 6, 1785

John Hancock
November 23, 1785
May 29, 1786

Nathaniel Gorham
June 6, 1786
November 5, 1786

Arthur St. Clair
February 2, 1787
November 4, 1787

Cyrus Griffin
January 22, 1788
November 2, 1788

text: For a full list of Presidents of the Congress Assembled and Presidents under the two Continental Congresses before the Articles, see President of the Continental Congress.

text: Gallery

text: Images of an original draft[clarification needed] of the Articles of Confederation stored at the United States National Archive.

text:
Preamble through Article V, ¶1

Article V, ¶2 through Article VI

Article VII through Article IX, ¶2

Article IX, ¶2 through ¶5

Article IX, ¶5 through Article XIII, ¶2

Article XIII, ¶2 through signatures

text: Revision and replacement

text: On January 21, 1786, the Virginia Legislature, following James Madison's recommendation, invited all the states to send delegates to Annapolis, Maryland to discuss ways to reduce interstate conflict. At what came to be known as the Annapolis Convention, the few state delegates in attendance endorsed a motion that called for all states to meet in Philadelphia in May 1787 to discuss ways to improve the Articles of Confederation in a "Grand Convention." Although the states' representatives to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia were only authorized to amend the Articles, the representatives held secret, closed-door sessions and wrote a new constitution. The new Constitution gave much more power to the central government, but characterization of the result is disputed. The general goal of the authors was to get close to a republic as defined by the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, while trying to address the many difficulties of the interstate relationships. Historian Forrest McDonald, using the ideas of James Madison from Federalist 39, describes the change this way:

text: The constitutional reallocation of powers created a new form of government, unprecedented under the sun. Every previous national authority either had been centralized or else had been a confederation of sovereign states. The new American system was neither one nor the other; it was a mixture of both.[40]

text: In May 1786, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina proposed that Congress revise the Articles of Confederation. Recommended changes included granting Congress power over foreign and domestic commerce, and providing means for Congress to collect money from state treasuries. Unanimous approval was necessary to make the alterations, however, and Congress failed to reach a consensus. The weakness of the Articles in establishing an effective unifying government was underscored by the threat of internal conflict both within and between the states, especially after Shays' Rebellion threatened to topple the state government of Massachusetts.

text: Historian Ralph Ketcham comments on the opinions of Patrick Henry, George Mason, and other Anti-Federalists who were not so eager to give up the local autonomy won by the revolution:

text: Antifederalists feared what Patrick Henry termed the "consolidated government" proposed by the new Constitution. They saw in Federalist hopes for commercial growth and international prestige only the lust of ambitious men for a "splendid empire" that, in the time-honored way of empires, would oppress the people with taxes, conscription, and military campaigns. Uncertain that any government over so vast a domain as the United States could be controlled by the people, Antifederalists saw in the enlarged powers of the general government only the familiar threats to the rights and liberties of the people.[41]

text: Historians have given many reasons for the perceived need to replace the articles in 1787. Jillson and Wilson (1994) point to the financial weakness as well as the norms, rules and institutional structures of the Congress, and the propensity to divide along sectional lines.

text: Rakove (1988) identifies several factors that explain the collapse of the Confederation. The lack of compulsory direct taxation power was objectionable to those wanting a strong centralized state or expecting to benefit from such power. It could not collect customs after the war because tariffs were vetoed by Rhode Island. Rakove concludes that their failure to implement national measures "stemmed not from a heady sense of independence but rather from the enormous difficulties that all the states encountered in collecting taxes, mustering men, and gathering supplies from a war-weary populace."[42] The second group of factors Rakove identified derived from the substantive nature of the problems the Continental Congress confronted after 1783, especially the inability to create a strong foreign policy. Finally, the Confederation's lack of coercive power reduced the likelihood for profit to be made by political means, thus potential rulers were uninspired to seek power.

text: When the war ended in 1783, certain special interests had incentives to create a new "merchant state," much like the British state people had rebelled against. In particular, holders of war scrip and land speculators wanted a central government to pay off scrip at face value and to legalize western land holdings with disputed claims. Also, manufacturers wanted a high tariff as a barrier to foreign goods, but competition among states made this impossible without a central government.[43]

text: Legitimacy of closing down

text: Political scientist David C. Hendrickson writes that two prominent political leaders in the Confederation, John Jay of New York and Thomas Burke of North Carolina believed that "the authority of the congress rested on the prior acts of the several states, to which the states gave their voluntary consent, and until those obligations were fulfilled, neither nullification of the authority of congress, exercising its due powers, nor secession from the compact itself was consistent with the terms of their original pledges."[44]

text: According to Article XIII of the Confederation, any alteration had to be approved unanimously:

text: [T]he 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.

text: On the other hand, Article VII of the proposed Constitution stated that it would become effective after ratification by a mere nine states, without unanimity:

text: The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

text: The apparent tension between these two provisions was addressed at the time, and remains a topic of scholarly discussion. In 1788, James Madison remarked (in Federalist No. 40) that the issue had become moot: "As this objection...has been in a manner waived by those who have criticised the powers of the convention, I dismiss it without further observation." Nevertheless, it is an interesting historical and legal question whether opponents of the Constitution could have plausibly attacked the Constitution on that ground. At the time, there were state legislators who argued that the Constitution was not an alteration of the Articles of Confederation, but rather would be a complete replacement so the unanimity rule did not apply.[45] Moreover, the Confederation had proven woefully inadequate and therefore was supposedly no longer binding.[45]

text: Modern scholars such as Francisco Forrest Martin agree that the Articles of Confederation had lost its binding force because many states had violated it, and thus "other states-parties did not have to comply with the Articles' unanimous consent rule".[46] In contrast, law professor Akhil Amar suggests that there may not have really been any conflict between the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution on this point; Article VI of the Confederation specifically allowed side deals among states, and the Constitution could be viewed as a side deal until all states ratified it.[47]

text: Final months

text: On July 3, 1788, the Congress received New Hampshire's all-important ninth ratification of the proposed Constitution, thus, according to its terms, establishing it as the new framework of governance for the ratifying states. The following day delegates considered a bill to admit Kentucky into the Union as a sovereign state. The discussion ended with Congress making the determination that, in light of this development, it would be "unadvisable" to admit Kentucky into the Union, as it could do so "under the Articles of Confederation" only, but not "under the Constitution".[48]

text: By the end of July 1788, 11 of the 13 states had ratified the new Constitution. Congress continued to convene under the Articles with a quorum until October.[49][50] On Saturday, September 13, 1788, the Confederation Congress voted the resolve to implement the new Constitution, and on Monday, September 15 published an announcement that the new Constitution had been ratified by the necessary nine states, set the first Wednesday in February 1789 for the presidential electors to meet and select a new president, and set the first Wednesday of March 1789 as the day the new government would take over and the government under the Articles of Confederation would come to an end.[51][52] On that same September 13, it determined that New York would remain the national capital.[51]


document_title: Discovery and exploration of the Solar System

question_text: who discovered that the planets orbit the sun

root

text: History[edit]

text: For many thousands of years, astronomers maintained a geocentric world view and did not recognize the existence of a Solar System. Most believed Earth was stationary at the center of the Universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated on a heliocentric reordering of the cosmos, Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century developed a mathematically predictive heliocentric system. His 17th-century successors, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton, developed a modern understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that govern Earth. In more recent times, this led to the investigation of geological phenomena such as mountains and craters and seasonal meteorological phenomena such as clouds, dust storms, and ice caps on the other planets.

tag: p

text: Antiquity and first observations[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2010)

text: Telescopic observations[edit]

text: The first exploration of the Solar System was conducted by telescope, when astronomers first began to map those objects too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

text: Galileo Galilei was the first to discover physical details about the individual bodies of the Solar System. He discovered that the Moon was cratered, that the Sun was marked with sunspots, and that Jupiter had four satellites in orbit around it.[2] Christiaan Huygens followed on from Galileo's discoveries by discovering Saturn's moon Titan and the shape of the rings of Saturn.[3] Giovanni Domenico Cassini later discovered four more moons of Saturn and the Cassini division in Saturn's rings.[4]

text: Edmond Halley realised in 1705 that repeated sightings of a comet were recording the same object, returning regularly once every 75–76 years. This was the first evidence that anything other than the planets orbited the Sun.[5] Around this time (1704), the term "Solar System" first appeared in English.[6]

text: In 1781, William Herschel was looking for binary stars in the constellation of Taurus when he observed what he thought was a new comet. Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first ever discovered.[7]

text: Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, a small world between Mars and Jupiter that initially was considered a new planet. However, subsequent discoveries of thousands of other small worlds in the same region led to their eventual reclassification as asteroids.[8]

text: By 1846, discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus led many to suspect a large planet must be tugging at it from farther out. Urbain Le Verrier's calculations eventually led to the discovery of Neptune.[9] The excess perihelion precession of Mercury's orbit led Le Verrier to postulate the intra-Mercurian planet Vulcan in 1859, but that would turn out to be an irrelevant thesis.

text: Although it is debatable when the Solar System was truly "discovered", three 19th century observations determined its nature and place in the Universe beyond reasonable doubt. First, in 1838, Friedrich Bessel successfully measured a stellar parallax, an apparent shift in the position of a star created by Earth's motion around the Sun. This was not only the first direct, experimental proof of heliocentrism, but also revealed, for the first time, the vast distance between the Solar System and the stars. Then, in 1859, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, using the newly invented spectroscope, examined the spectral signature of the Sun and discovered that it was composed of the same elements as existed on Earth, establishing for the first time a physical link between Earth and the heavens.[10] Then, Father Angelo Secchi compared the spectral signature of the Sun with those of other stars, and found them virtually identical. The realisation that the Sun was a star led to the hypothesis that other stars could have systems of their own, though this was not to be proven for nearly 140 years.

text: Further apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the outer planets led Percival Lowell to conclude that yet another planet, "Planet X", must lie beyond Neptune. After his death, his Lowell Observatory conducted a search that ultimately led to Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto in 1930. Pluto was, however, found to be too small to have disrupted the orbits of the outer planets, and its discovery was therefore coincidental. Like Ceres, it was initially considered to be a planet, but after the discovery of many other similarly sized objects in its vicinity it was reclassified in 2006 as a dwarf planet by the IAU.[9]

text: In 1992, the first evidence of a planetary system other than our own was discovered, orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. Three years later, 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet around a Sunlike star, was discovered. As of 2017, 2687 extrasolar systems have been found.[11]

text: Also in 1992, astronomers David C. Jewitt of the University of Hawaii and Jane Luu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered 15760 Albion. This object proved to be the first of a new population, which became known as the Kuiper belt; an icy analogue to the asteroid belt of which such objects as Pluto and Charon were deemed a part.[12][13]

text: Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz announced the discovery of Eris in 2005, a scattered disc object initially thought to be larger than Pluto, which would make it the largest object discovered in orbit around the Sun since Neptune.[14] New Horizons' fly-by of Pluto in July 2015 resulted in more-accurate measurements of Pluto, which is slightly larger, though less massive, than Eris.

text: Observations by spacecraft[edit]

text: Since the start of the Space Age, a great deal of exploration has been performed by robotic spacecraft missions that have been organized and executed by various space agencies.

text: All planets in the Solar System have now been visited to varying degrees by spacecraft launched from Earth. Through these unmanned missions, humans have been able to get close-up photographs of all the planets and, in the case of landers, perform tests of the soils and atmospheres of some.

text: The first artificial object sent into space was the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, launched in 1957, which successfully orbited Earth until 4 January the following year.[16] The American probe Explorer 6, launched in 1959, was the first satellite to image Earth from space.

text: Flybys[edit]

text: The first successful probe to fly by another Solar System body was Luna 1, which sped past the Moon in 1959. Originally meant to impact with the Moon, it instead missed its target and became the first artificial object to orbit the Sun. Mariner 2 was the first planetary flyby, passing Venus in 1962. The first successful flyby of Mars was made by Mariner 4 in 1965. Mariner 10 first passed Mercury in 1974.

text: The first probe to explore the outer planets was Pioneer 10, which flew by Jupiter in 1973. Pioneer 11 was the first to visit Saturn, in 1979. The Voyager probes performed a grand tour of the outer planets following their launch in 1977, with both probes passing Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980 – 1981. Voyager 2 then went on to make close approaches to Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. The Voyager probes are now far beyond Neptune's orbit, and are on course to find and study the termination shock, heliosheath, and heliopause. According to NASA, both Voyager probes have encountered the termination shock at a distance of approximately 93 AU from the Sun.[17]

text: The first flyby of a comet occurred in 1985, when the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) passed by the comet Giacobini–Zinner,[18] whereas the first flybys of asteroids were conducted by the Galileo space probe, which imaged both 951 Gaspra (in 1991) and 243 Ida (in 1993) on its way to Jupiter.

text: Launched on January 19, 2006, the New Horizons probe is the first man-made spacecraft to explore the Kuiper belt. This unmanned mission flew by Pluto in July 2015. The mission was extended to observe a number of other Kuiper belt objects, including a close flyby of (486958) 2014 MU69 on New Year's Day, 2019.[19]

text: As of 2011, American scientists are concerned that exploration beyond the Asteroid Belt will hampered by a shortage of Plutonium-238.[needs update]

text: Orbiters, rovers and landers[edit]

text: In 1966, the Moon became the first Solar System body beyond Earth to be orbited by an artificial satellite (Luna 10), followed by Mars in 1971 (Mariner 9), Venus in 1975 (Venera 9), Jupiter in 1995 (Galileo), the asteroid 433 Eros in 2000 (NEAR Shoemaker), Saturn in 2004 (Cassini–Huygens), and Mercury and Vesta in 2011 (MESSENGER and Dawn respectively). Dawn is orbiting the asteroid–dwarf planet Ceres as of 2015.

text: The first probe to land on another Solar System body was the Soviet Luna 2 probe, which impacted the Moon in 1959. Since then, increasingly distant planets have been reached, with probes landing on or impacting the surfaces of Venus in 1966 (Venera 3), Mars in 1971 (Mars 3, although a fully successful landing didn't occur until Viking 1 in 1976), the asteroid 433 Eros in 2001 (NEAR Shoemaker), and Saturn's moon Titan (Huygens) and the comet Tempel 1 (Deep Impact) in 2005. The Galileo orbiter also dropped a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere in 1995; because Jupiter has no physical surface, it was destroyed by increasing temperature and pressure as it descended.

text: To date, only two worlds in the Solar System, the Moon and Mars, have been visited by mobile rovers. The first robotic rover to visit another celestial body was the Soviet Lunokhod 1, which landed on the Moon in 1970. The first to visit another planet was Sojourner, which travelled 500 metres across the surface of Mars in 1997. The only manned rover to visit another world was NASA's Lunar rover, which traveled with Apollos 15, 16 and 17 between 1971 and 1972.

text: Spacecraft exploration[edit]

text: Overview of some missions to the Solar System.

text:
Examples of missions

#
Spacecraft
Launch
year
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Ceres
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
End
year

1
Pioneer 10
1972

Flyby

2003

2
Pioneer 11
1973

Flyby
Flyby

1995

3
Mariner 10
1973
Flyby
Flyby

1975

4
Voyager 1
1977

Flyby
Flyby

—

5
Voyager 2
1977

Flyby
Flyby
Flyby
Flyby

—

6
Galileo
1989

Flyby

Orbiter

2003

7
Ulysses
1990

Flyby

2009

8
Cassini
1997

Flyby

Flyby
Orbiter

2017

9
Mars Odyssey
2001

Orbiter

—

10
MER-A / B
2003

Rovers

2010 / —

11
Mars Express
2003

Orbiter

—

12
MESSENGER
2004
Orbiter
Flyby

2015

13
MRO
2005

Orbiter

—

14
Venus Express
2005

Orbiter

2014

15
New Horizons
2006

Flyby

Flyby
—

16
Dawn
2007

Orbiter

—

17
Juno
2011

Orbiter

—

18
Curiosity (MSL)
2011

Rover

—

text: See also the categories for missions to comets, asteroids, the Moon, and the Sun.

text: Crewed exploration[edit]

text: Crewed exploration of the Solar System is currently confined to Earth's immediate environs. The first human being to reach space (defined as an altitude of over 100 km) and to orbit Earth was Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut who was launched in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. The first human to walk on the surface of another Solar System body was Neil Armstrong, who stepped onto the Moon on July 21, 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission; five more Moon landings occurred through 1972. The United States' reusable Space Shuttle flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011. Five shuttles were built; two were destroyed in accidents.

text: The first orbital space station to host more than one crew was NASA's Skylab, which successfully held three crews from 1973 to 1974. The first true human settlement in space was the Soviet space station Mir, which was continuously occupied for close to ten years, from 1989 to 1999. It was decommissioned in 2001, and its successor, the International Space Station, has maintained a continuous human presence in space since then. In 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded vehicle to reach space on a suborbital flight. That year, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, which called for a replacement for the aging Shuttle, a return to the Moon and, ultimately, a crewed mission to Mars.

text: Exploration survey[edit]

text: Bodies imaged up close:

text:
Solar System

Sun
(star)
Jupiter
(planet)
Saturn
(planet)
Uranus
(planet)
Neptune
(planet)
Earth
(planet)
Venus
(planet)

Mars
(planet)
Ganymede
(moon of Jupiter)
Titan
(moon of Saturn)
Mercury
(planet)
Callisto
(moon of Jupiter)
Io
(moon of Jupiter)
Moon
(moon of Earth)

Europa
(moon of Jupiter)
Triton
(moon of Neptune)
Pluto
(Kuiper belt object)
Titania
(moon of Uranus)
Rhea
(moon of Saturn)
Oberon
(moon of Uranus)
Iapetus
(moon of Saturn)

Charon
(moon of Pluto)
Umbriel
(moon of Uranus)
Ariel
(moon of Uranus)
Dione
(moon of Saturn)
Tethys
(moon of Saturn)
Ceres
(belt asteroid)
Vesta
(belt asteroid)

Enceladus
(moon of Saturn)
Miranda
(moon of Uranus)
Proteus
(moon of Neptune)
Mimas
(moon of Saturn)
Hyperion
(moon of Saturn)
Phoebe
(moon of Saturn)
Janus
(moon of Saturn)

Amalthea
(moon of Jupiter)
Epimetheus
(moon of Saturn)
Thebe
(moon of Jupiter)
Lutetia
(belt asteroid)
Prometheus
(moon of Saturn)
Pandora
(moon of Saturn)
Mathilde
(belt asteroid)

Hydra
(moon of Pluto)
Helene
(moon of Saturn)
Nix
(moon of Pluto)
Ida
(belt asteroid)
Atlas
(moon of Saturn)
Telesto
(moon of Saturn)
Calypso
(moon of Saturn)

Phobos
(moon of Mars)
Eros
(near-Earth asteroid)
Pan
(moon of Saturn)
Deimos
(moon of Mars)
Gaspra
(belt asteroid)
Tempel 1
(comet)
Šteins
(belt asteroid)

Daphnis
(moon of Saturn)
Borrelly
(comet)
Churyumov–
Gerasimenko
(comet)
Wild 2
(comet)
Methone
(moon of Saturn)
Hartley 2
(comet)
Dactyl
(moon of Ida)

Closely imaged object with only non-free images: Toutatis, Itokawa
Objects imaged only at low resolution: Halley's Comet, Siding Spring, Styx, Kerberos, Braille, Annefrank, Nereid, and Larissa; see also the radar images at "near-Earth object"

This box:

view
talk
edit

text: Sample return[edit]

text:
Moon (Misc. missions including Apollo and Luna)
Comet dust (Stardust)
Solar wind (Genesis)
Asteroid (Hayabusa)

tag: ul

text: See also: Meteorites and Cosmic dust


document_title: Lab Rats: Elite Force

question_text: who plays skyler on lab rats elite force

text: Lab Rats: Elite Force

text: Plot[edit]

text: Davenport has come up with a plan to form an elite team of bionic heroes and superheroes to fight a common threat from their headquarters in Centium City. He puts his plan into action after villains have destroyed Mighty Med Hospital.

text: Cast and characters[edit]

text:
William Brent as Chase[note 1]
Bradley Steven Perry as Kaz[note 1]
Jake Short as Oliver
Paris Berelc as Skylar
Kelli Berglund as Bree

text: Notes[edit]

text: ^ Jump up to: a b William Brent and Bradley Steven Perry are given equal billing as lead actors in the series.

text: Production[edit]

text: Lab Rats: Elite Force is created by Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore, the duo who created Lab Rats. It is produced by Britelite Productions and It's a Laugh Productions for Disney XD. On September 3, 2015, it was announced that Lab Rats and Mighty Med would have a joint spinoff series called Lab Rats: Elite Force. Only William Brent, formerly credited as Billy Unger, and Kelli Berglund from Lab Rats and Bradley Steven Perry, Jake Short, and Paris Berelc from Mighty Med were announced as returning for the new spinoff series. Production on the series began in October 2015.[3] It was subsequently announced that Lab Rats: Elite Force would premiere on Disney XD broadcast services on March 2, 2016, and will be available for earlier viewing on the channel's video-on-demand services on February 29, 2016.[1]

text: In October 2016, actress Kelli Berglund reported on Twitter that there would not be a second season of Lab Rats: Elite Force.[4]

text: Broadcast[edit]

text: The series premiered in Canada on Disney XD on March 2, 2016,[5] and on Disney Channel on March 6, 2016.[6]

text: On October 13, 2016, series co-creator Bryan Moore posted on Twitter that there would be a Lab Rats marathon followed by the finale of Lab Rats:Elite Force, "The Attack", which aired on October 22, 2016.[7]

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
No.
Title [8][9]
Directed by
Written by
Original air date [8][9]
Prod.
code [8][10]
U.S. viewers
(millions)

1
"The Rise of Five"
Guy Distad
Chris Peterson & Bryan Moore
March 2, 2016 (2016-03-02)
101
0.52[11]

Following the events of the Lab Rats finale, Davenport introduces Chase and Bree to their new team's headquarters in Centium City and new teammates, Kaz, Oliver, and Skylar, and together they will form an Elite Force. Kaz immediately wants to find the people who recently destroyed Mighty Med, while the others want to come up with a plan first. A mysterious box then shatters their window, which contains a flash drive that shows a video of the two people who destroyed Mighty Med. The pair declares that Kaz, Oliver, and Skylar will be eliminated as well as anyone else who protects them. Kaz runs off to find the culprits and meets them in an alley, but he is surprised to find that they are shapeshifters Roman and Riker, the sons of a former superhero named Rodissius whose superpowers Kaz and Oliver had earlier taken away in order to save his life, and as such, Roman and Riker want to eliminate Kaz and Oliver to get revenge. A confrontation between the villains and the Elite Force takes place, but they are eventually knocked out cold and Roman and Riker take Skylar away. The remaining heroes later locate the villains and Skylar and Oliver freezes the cloud that Roman and Riker form into. As the Elite Force team celebrates with a team selfie, Roman and Riker escape.
Special guest star: Hal Sparks as Davenport
Guest stars: Booboo Stewart as Roman, Ryan Potter as Riker

2
"Holding Out for a Hero"
Guy Distad
Mark Brazill
March 9, 2016 (2016-03-09)
102
0.64[12]

Oliver works to master his superpowers after being outshined by Kaz during superhero training. Meanwhile, when Bree says Skylar is like a sister to her, they work out their new sisterhood. Later, Kaz discovers a new superpower, which enables him to shoot fire out of his mouth and Chase and Davenport are impressed; however, Oliver feels intimidated as he's still struggling with controlling his new superpowers. Meanwhile, Bree is having trouble bonding with Skylar as a sister because on her planet all girls roughhouse with their siblings as a way of having fun and showing love to them. Oliver later discovers a new superpower that he calls cyclone fingers, but when Oliver shows Davenport his new superpower, things go awry and he knocks him off his feet and Davenport is sent flying in the air and goes over the terrace railing. Rather than plummeting to the ground below, Davenport is able to hang off a bust of his head on the side of the skyscraper. Oliver goes to save him, while Kaz and Chase watch him with no backup plan. Oliver hangs from the head for a while, but he eventually saves Davenport. Later, Skylar and Bree finally form a bond in the meantime.
Special guest star: Hal Sparks as Davenport

3
"Power Play"
Guy Distad
Andy Schwartz
March 16, 2016 (2016-03-16)
103
0.58[13]

Oliver has always had a major crush on Skylar, and now that Oliver has superpowers, Skylar does not like it because she has lost her superpowers. Chase decides to come up with a solution to give Skylar her superpowers back, but he must inject coal into her body, though it is her one weakness. Oliver gets jealous because he wants to be the one to give Skylar her superpowers back, so Chase decides to let Oliver take the credit despite being reluctant to it. After injecting the cure, Skylar starts to become weak and ill from the coal and is coughing up vapor that can kill everyone in the building. Skylar pulls through and gets her superpowers back and learns that the illness was just a side effect. Meanwhile, Kaz goes behind Bree's back and agrees to babysit Mrs. Ramsey's pig; however, this is all just a scheme for the woman impersonating their neighbor to rob the penthouse. Later, the pig outsmarts both Kaz and Bree and locks them out on the balcony and they then watch Mrs. Ramsey stealing everything until Kaz notices an open window above them and flies back into the penthouse. Chase, Oliver, and Skylar come upstairs and Skylar stops Mrs. Ramsey with her newly restored superpowers.
Guest star: Patrika Darbo as Mrs. Ramsey

4
"The Superhero Code"
Victor Gonzalez
Julia Miranda
March 23, 2016 (2016-03-23)
106
0.44[14]

When Kaz's little brother, Kyle, visits, Kaz becomes jealous that Kyle seems to like Chase more than him, and Kaz cannot reveal his identity as a superhero due to the "superhero code". Chase's controlling attitude gets on Kaz's nerves and Kaz and Kyle explore the unauthorized areas of the base. Kyle ends up trapped after messing with the mainframe computer and Chase attempts to get him out of the cage, but he is knocked out by a shock from the cage. Kaz is forced to reveal his superhero identity and uses his firepower to break the cage open. As Kaz is about to reveal the truth, Kyle thinks they made Kaz bionic, with which he goes along. Oliver and Skylar agree they will also have to pass themselves off as bionic in public so that they can use their superpowers freely.
Guest star: Tristan DeVan as Kyle

5
"Need for Speed"
Victor Gonzalez
Greg Schaffer
March 30, 2016 (2016-03-30)
104
0.50[15]

Douglas comes to see the team and wants to start making the mission suits for them. Chase initially competes with Douglas to make the mission suits for the team and Chase and Kaz work together to make their version of mission suits while Oliver and Douglas work together to make their version of the mission suits. When Kaz and Oliver test out their mission suits, they fail to catch a fly, which proves their suits' impracticality. Chase and Douglas decide to put their differences aside and work together to make the best mission suits for the team. Meanwhile, Bree is filming a shoe commercial and she and Skylar compete in a super speed race. The shoe commercial is not successful as Bree and Skylar end up sabotaging each other in the super speed race.
Guest stars: Jeremy Kent Jackson as Douglas, Johnathan McClain as Tony

6
"Follow the Leader"
Guy Distad
Ken Blankstein
April 6, 2016 (2016-04-06)
105
0.58[16]

After Chase is left behind during a mission because Perry shot out the controls of the hyperlift, Skylar steps in as mission leader. However, this makes Chase jealous, and on the next mission, when Skylar is downstairs with Perry, Chase disables the hyperlift. Perry helps Skylar out of headquarters and to the mission site through the underground tunnels that Perry used to break into headquarters. At the mission location, the tunnel becomes unstable and almost collapses on Skylar and Perry, but Chase pushes them out of the way; however, it traps them in the process. Perry tells Skylar that Chase disabled the hyperlift before the mission so that he could be mission leader again and Chase later admits that he feared losing the respect of the entire team. On the other side of the rubble, Kaz manages to make a stable tunnel to where Chase, Skylar, and Perry are trapped and rescues Chase, Skylar, and Perry. Later, when Skylar is asked by the rest of the team as to why she missed the mission, she tells them that the hyperlift malfunctioned again. When Chase asks why she didn't say anything about the incident, she explains it was the exact same way she felt when she lost her superpowers and that she would not wish that to happen to anyone. Perry uses this opportunity to blackmail Chase into getting her a penthouse next door to theirs.
Guest star: Maile Flanagan as Perry

7
"The List"
Victor Gonzalez
Kenny Byerly
April 13, 2016 (2016-04-13)
107
0.62[17]

This episode's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The team receives a box from Davenport with all the gadgets they used back at Mission Creek. Chase hosts a team meeting and compiles a list of all the superheroes from Mighty Med and warns them that they are being hunted. Along with Skylar's mentor and first friend: Crossbow. Skylar wants to see her again, but Chase refuses. Skylar is worried that Crossbow did not get the message and she and Oliver set out to find her. When they leave, it's discovered that Roman and Riker had been eavesdropping on them as ravens. As soon as they start to leave, Roman shows up and attacks Crossbow who suffers a tough blow. When Bree talks about the dolls that Kaz was playing with, he does not remember it as he's not Kaz and transforms into Riker, who was looking for the list. Back at the park, Oliver tries to attack Roman, but he is easily defeated; then Skylar attacks him, but she is defeated as well. As Roman tries to walk away with Crossbow, Riker shows up and informs him that the other superheroes know of their presence. Chase and Bree follow Riker to the park and Roman and Riker try to form their deadly swarm. Bree informs Roman that Riker is locked in a freezer, causing Roman to make a deal. Skylar agrees and Bree brings back Riker; however, when Roman tosses the list to Riker, Crossbow destroys it and is defeated in the process. Skylar becomes upset and attacks Roman and Riker and defeats them. Roman and Riker retreat. Later, Kaz and Oliver are able to revive Crossbow.
Guest stars: Booboo Stewart as Roman, Ryan Potter as Riker, Eric Steinberg as Rodissius, Pepi Sonuga as Crossbow

8
"Coming Through in the Clutch"
Hal Sparks
Jason Dorris
July 25, 2016 (2016-07-25)
TBA
0.44[18]

This episode's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

When Oliver's hero is in town, he gets excited and wants to meet him at the Olympics Send-off Celebration at the park. Kaz, Oliver, and Skylar go to meet Clutch while Chase and Bree go to a mini-Olympics competition for children, where they run into Bob. He had signed up for the competition and would win by using his bionic abilities, but Bree convinces him not to cheat. Meanwhile, Oliver, Kaz, and Skylar are waiting for Clutch to arrive; when Clutch arrives, he shows off his skills, impressing Oliver. However, things go wrong when Oliver asks Kaz to hold his sign and Clutch notices Kaz instead and asks Kaz to be his spotter, which causes Oliver to become jealous. Clutch attempts to lift 1,000 pounds, but he quickly starts struggling; when Oliver attempts to help, he drops the weight on Clutch's foot. Meanwhile, Bree discovers that Chase has become Bob's coach and is upset that they are going to cheat. Later, Oliver feels sorry for hurting his hero and Skylar runs to the hospital and abducts Clutch. She brings Clutch back to the penthouse and Skylar pep talks Oliver to fix him with his old Mighty Med supplies. Oliver quickly responds by saying it is not possible, but he will try to help Clutch. Meanwhile, Bree has found a child named Zoe who was originally going to compete in the competition with her dad; however, something had come up and Bree decides to become her new coach, though her plan is also to use her bionics. During the final part of the competition, Chase tells Zoe that Bree does not think Zoe can win by herself and Zoe wants to do it without Bree's help; consequently, Chase agrees he will not help Bob. When Chase sees that Zoe is winning, he cheats and uses his bionics to hold Zoe back, so Bree uses her bionics and pushes Bob back. Chase and Bree start fighting while Bob and Zoe run to the finish line. Bob wins the mini-Olympics competition and Chase feels joyful and grabs the prize out of Bob's hands; however, Bob takes it back and hands it to Zoe as he wants her and her dad to run with the flame. Meanwhile, Oliver finds out a way to fix Clutch and freezes his foot while Kaz heats his foot.
Guest stars: Brandon Salgado-Telis as Bob, Justin Lopez as Clutch, Sanai Victoria as Zoe

9
"The Intruder"
Jody Margolin Hahn
Ken Blankstein
September 10, 2016 (2016-09-10)
112
0.41[19]

A ten-year-old computer genius boy living on the floor below the Elite Force manages to break into the penthouse, so Chase improves the security system by installing retina scanners, but the boy manages to get back in because he hacked Chase's chip. He later uses his tablet to make Chase disable the security system. Meanwhile, the others are having a contest to determine who can go longer without using superpowers or bionics and they make two teams: Oliver and Kaz versus Bree and Skylar. Bree uses her super speed when Oliver lies and says he sees Harry Styles from One Direction in front of their building. In retaliation, Bree asks to borrow Oliver's phone and throws it off from the terrace and Oliver uses his flying power to go after it, which gets him disqualified. Bree tries the same thing with Kaz by throwing off many of his valuables, but he resists using his superpowers. Meanwhile, Chase's magnetism app glitches because of what AJ did to his chip and every metal object starts flying toward Chase. As a result, Kaz and Skylar have to put the contest on hold to help Chase. AJ then realizes that Chase's capsule can reset his operating system and fix the glitch and Oliver and Bree quickly bring down his capsule. With Chase rescued, the contest is back on and Bree manages to trick Kaz into using his superpowers by using her cyber cloak to pretend to be Oliver and make him fire up the grill; as a result, the girls win the contest.
Guest stars: Jeremy Kent Jackson as Douglas, Elisha Henig as AJ

10
"The Rock"
Hal Sparks
Mark Brazill
September 17, 2016 (2016-09-17)
114
0.46[20]

AJ reveals that he knows that Kaz, Oliver, and Skylar are superheroes and compiles a list of the team's usefulness, causing hurt feelings with Chase and Bree. Meanwhile, Oliver discovers that Kaz has been keeping the Arcturion in storage, though he wasn't aware of it, and Chase tells Kaz and Oliver to take the Arcturion to Facility Y, which is one of Davenport's storage locations. However, they discover it is missing and suspect AJ who was fascinated by it earlier. Chase kicks AJ out of the penthouse in anger, but the team later realizes that Bree took it because she was jealous of the others. Meanwhile, Bree plans on touching the Arcturion to get more powers, but Skylar blasts the Arcturion before Bree can grab it; however, the blast redirects and hits Bree. Later, Chase is determined to raise his rank and builds a hover bike with AJ in order to get to missions faster; however, when the bike goes missing and it's discovered that AJ has taken it, Chase, Kaz, and Oliver go to his rescue. Meanwhile, Bree grows weak from the Arcturion's blast and Skylar is forced to touch the Arcturion to redirect its healing energy into Bree. However, it comes with a cost because Skylar loses a few of her superpowers. Since Bree made indirect contact with the Arcturion, she gains superpowers known as thermo touch and proton ring generation, which makes Bree the world's first bionic superhero hybrid, and Bree and Skylar agree to keep Bree's new powers a secret for now.
Guest star: Elisha Henig as AJ

11
"Home Sweet Home"
Victor Gonzalez

Greg Schaffer
Andy Schwartz

September 24, 2016 (2016-09-24)
110
0.54[21]

When Skylar's friend Scarlett from Caldera visits. She attempts to convince Skylar to come back to Caldera. But when she refuses, Scarlett kidnaps her and takes her to Caldera and imprisons her. Scarlett reveals that Caldera is having a civil war with ones wanting to help others and the opposition, who want to help themselves and she is part of the opposition. Bree and Oliver find out about Skylar and head to Caldera to rescue her. There Bree reveals her new superpowers to Oliver when they are attacked by Scarlett. Oliver and Bree find Skylar but are too imprison with Skylar. Scarlett threatens Oliver and Bree unless Skylar joins. Skylar agrees and is stripped of her powers. Bree send an email to Chase. Skylar reveals that she is leaving the team and joining the opposition. Meanwhile, Chase creates a robotic girlfriend named Sabrina. But she falls in love with Kaz. Chase creates multiple girlfriends but they all fall in love with Kaz. When they get Bree's message they head for Caldera. When Bree and Oliver try to leave Caldera, Oliver refuses to leave Skylar but is beaten by Scarlett, who imprisons them in a metal cage hovering over lava. Chase, Kaz and the robotic girls come and saves them. Bree reveals her superpowers to Kaz and Chase when she uses it to defeat Scarlett. Scarlett attempts to kill the group but falls to her death trying to do so. Once they get back home, Skylar is depressed over Caldera's civil war. But Bree informs her that Earth is her home. Kaz and Chase play a prank on Oliver using the robotic girls.
Guest stars: Angeline Appel as Christina, Alexxis Lemire as Scarlett Double, Melissa Christine as Skylar Double
Note: Premiered as a 1-hour episode.

12
"Sheep-Shifting"
Bradley Steven Perry
Maxwell Theodore Vivian
October 1, 2016 (2016-10-01)
115
0.41[22]

Chase attempts to learn more about Roman and Riker's shape-shifting abilities by developing a potion. While Chase is not around, Kaz drinks the potion to test it out on himself, and gains shape-shifting abilities. While demonstrating his abilities to Oliver and Skylar, Kaz turns himself into a sheep, but then does not revert to his human appearance. Chase discovers that Kaz drank the potion, and explains that when he became a sheep, he took on the mental capacity of the animal, preventing him from knowing how to change back. The effects of the potion eventually wear off and Kaz returns to his former self. Meanwhile, Perry reveals to Bree that she starred on a television series when she was a child, and that a cast or crew member has died on every Halloween since the show ended. Perry is the last surviving member of the series and fears for her life, so she has Bree protect her.
Guest star: Maile Flanagan as Perry

13
"Game of Drones"
Guy Distad
Mark Brazill
October 8, 2016 (2016-10-08)
108
0.34[23]

Oliver becomes jealous when Kaz begins spending time with Chase to build a drone for a drone race. Chase agrees to implement Kaz's unusual ideas into the drone design, but reveals to Oliver that he plans to remove the designs before the competition to increase the chances of winning. After Oliver tells Kaz about Chase's plans, they decide to take one of Davenport's drones to enter it in the competition against Chase. At the competition, Chase tells Kaz and Oliver that the drone they activated is an attack drone designed to destroy any threat it senses. Chase also reveals that he chose to leave Kaz's design ideas intact. Meanwhile, Perry reveals that she comes from a family of circus people, and that the women in her family were skilled tightrope walkers. Perry, feeling the need to achieve an accomplishment of her own, decides to tightrope-walk between two skyscrapers, which makes Bree nervous for Perry's safety. Perry dresses up with a circus outfit and umbrella for the stunt. Perry slips from the tightrope after the attack drone flies past her, although she manages to grab onto the rope before falling. The attack drone targets Perry, who destroys it with her umbrella.
Guest star: Maile Flanagan as Perry

14
"They Grow Up So Fast"
Paul Hoen
Julia Miranda
October 15, 2016 (2016-10-15)
113
0.27[24]

Chase becomes obsessed with developing an age-reversal device after Kaz uses a mobile phone app to show him a picture of what he will look like when he is older. Tasha brings her baby daughter Naomi to visit the Elite Force. Naomi cries whenever she is held by Bree, who becomes jealous when she sees that Naomi likes being held by Skylar. Tasha says she has had little free time since Naomi was born, and asks the children if they would like to watch the baby for a while. Despite that she is not well-liked by Naomi, Bree insists on taking care of the baby to show Tasha that she can be trusted. While Bree is distracted by cleaning baby food off of her shirt, Naomi wanders away and finds the mission command center, where she uses Chase's anti-aging device. However, the device was not finished and instead ages Naomi by 12 years. Tasha returns and meets the older Naomi, whom Bree and Skylar say is actually a friend of theirs. When Chase is unable to turn Naomi back into a baby, Bree realizes she must confess to Tasha. As Bree is about to tell Tasha, Chase realizes how to turn Naomi back, and successfully does so without Tasha finding out what happened.
Guest stars: Angel Parker as Tasha, Camille Hyde as Naomi

15
"The Attack"
William Brent
Chris Peterson & Bryan Moore
October 22, 2016 (2016-10-22)
116
0.55[25]

The Elite Force is surprised to see that Chase now has a girlfriend named Reese, who he just met at a library. They later learn that Roman and Riker are using their shape-shifting abilities to terrorize the city. Power goes out all over the city, and the Elite Force goes out to stop Roman and Riker. Reese is left at the penthouse with Douglas. Perry comes to be with Douglas as she is afraid of the chaos outside. Douglas leaves to activate the skyscraper's emergency generator, while Perry insists on her and Reese giving each other makeovers. The Elite Force arrives on the city streets to battle Roman and Riker, but they realize that they are actually up against a dozen shape-shifters. Rodissius arrives and reveals that the shape-shifters are his children, who are avenging him and the loss of his powers by attacking the city. Rodissius reveals that Reese is one of his children, and that his plan is for her to obtain the superhero list from the mission command center while it is unprotected by the Elite Force. Bree uses a new superhero ability to attack Rodissius. Douglas activates the generator, and then flees after seeing Perry's makeover, allowing Reese to enter the mission command center. Douglas retreats to the command center, where he is attacked by Reese. She escapes with the superhero list and then rescues her father. Perry and the Elite Force find Douglas badly injured, and discover that communications have been blocked, preventing them from warning the superheroes of Rodissius' plan. Chase declares war against Rodissius and his children.
Guest stars: Maile Flanagan as Perry, Jeremy Kent Jackson as Douglas, Eric Steinberg as Rodissius, Fivel Stewart as Reese

text: Ratings[edit]

text:
Season
Episodes
First aired
Last aired
Avg. viewers
(millions)

Date
Viewers
(millions)
Date
Viewers
(millions)

1
15
March 2, 2016 (2016-03-02)
0.52[11]
October 22, 2016 (2016-10-22)
0.55[25]
0.49

text: Reception[edit]

text: Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series four out of five stars.[26]