You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week episode 281 ratifying the Articles of Confederation.

It's been a while since we discuss the Continental Congress specifically.

By this time, when we're talking about early 1781, many of the more memorable delegates had moved on to other duties.

Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were in France, Thomas Jefferson was serving as governor of Virginia.

Former President Henry Lawrence had left for a diplomatic assignment in the Netherlands,

but had been captured by the British.

His successor, John Jay, had become a delegate to Spain, and John Hancock

had become Governor of Massachusetts. Samuel Huntington had become President of Congress in 1779 after Jay left for Spain.

Huntington was a lawyer from Connecticut.

He had served in the colonial legislatures and the governor's council before the war and had arrived in Congress in 1776 in time to sign the Declaration of Independence.

As President Huntington spent his time

corresponding with General Washington, who was constantly asking for more men and

supplies, he also corresponded with all of the state governors asking them for more men and supplies,

and usually being turned down. A Congress had always struggled with running a government.

The government lacked any sort of civilian bureaucracy or an executive

branch to execute the laws that Congress passed. Delegates found it impossible to run the

government while also trying to legislate.

On January 10th, 1781, Congress voted to create a Department of Foreign Affairs.

A month later, on February 7th it voted to create

departments of finance, war, and marine. Congress would appoint secretaries to run each

department and would provide each secretary with a staff.

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