<P> 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 . 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 . 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". </P> <P> John Dickinson's and Benjamin Franklin's handwritten drafts of the Articles of Confederation are housed at the National Archives in Washington, DC . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> In 1788, with the approval of Congress, the Articles were replaced by the United States Constitution and the new government began operations in 1789 . </P>

Was there a president in the articles of confederation