<P> On March 1, 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were signed by delegates of Maryland at a meeting of the Second Continental Congress, which then declared the Articles ratified . As historian Edmund Burnett wrote, "There was no new organization of any kind, not even the election of a new President ." The Congress still called itself the Continental Congress . Nevertheless, despite its being generally the same exact governing body, with some changes in membership over the years as delegates came and went individually according to their own personal reasons and upon instructions of their state governments, some modern historians would later refer to the Continental Congress after the ratification of the Articles as the Congress of the Confederation or the Confederation Congress . (The Congress itself continued to refer to itself at the time as the Continental Congress .) </P> <P> The Congress had little power and without the external threat of a war against the British, it became more difficult to get enough delegates to meet to form a quorum . Nonetheless the Congress still managed to pass important laws, most notably the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 . </P> <P> The War of Independence saddled the country with an enormous debt . In 1784, the total Confederation debt was nearly $40 million . Of that sum, $8 million was owed to the French and Dutch . Of the domestic debt, government bonds, known as loan - office certificates, composed $11.5 million, certificates on interest indebtedness $3.1 million, and continental certificates $16.7 million . </P> <P> The certificates were non-interest bearing notes issued for supplies purchased or impressed, and to pay soldiers and officers . To pay the interest and principal of the debt, Congress had twice proposed an amendment to the Articles granting them the power to lay a 5% duty on imports, but amendments to the Articles required the consent of all thirteen states: the 1781 impost plan had been rejected by Rhode Island and Virginia, while the revised plan, discussed in 1783, was rejected by New York . </P>

Who accepted the old debt of the confederation