Our government has been shaped and molded from an unsuccessful government to a highly sufficient government. There are many contributors to our government. Many of the major contributors include; The Articles of Confederation, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the first State Constitutions, the Annapolis Convention, and Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (the Preamble). In 1754, during the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress created the Articles of Confederation as a format for a United Government. The Articles of Confederation linked the 13 states together to address common problems, but in practice they did more than provide a legal basis for the limited authority the Continental Congress was already exercising. Each state had only one vote regardless of population. Nine of the states' thirteen votes were needed to pass a bill concerning war, treaties, coinage, finances, or the military. The Articles of Confederation caused a number of problems, due to the limited authority granted to the central government. Despite its weakness, the Articles of Confederation functioned like a government. By creating the United States, the Articles of Confederation gave the colonies an identity for the first time. In 1776, numerous documents emerged that influenced our current government. 1774-1776 The Annapolis Convention served as the government of the colonies during the Revolutionary War. In 1774 the Conference of Committees was born, in all the colonies, which were called to support Boston. While they reacted by closing the ports and increasing the occupying military force. Massachutes requested a meeting to consider joint action. The Convention met in Massachutes, after a year the convention... at the center of the charter... of humanity. The Preamble outlines the general purposes of the Constitution and establishes the general objective of the Constitution, which "is to form a more perfect Union". This is the main reason the Constitution was drafted: to correct the flaws in the Articles of Confederation. The preamble also included Locke's contention that people have the right to overthrow their government when the government abuses their fundamental rights. These documents are what brought the American government to what it is today. The Preamble, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, Common Sense, and so much more have each had their own impact on our society, enough to know that this is not how government should be. Over time we have taken past governments and extracted the positive aspects from them to obtain our own government.