 Before the Constitution was drafted , the nearly 4 million inhabitants of the 13 newly independent states were governed under the Articles of Confederation , created by the Second Continental Congress . It soon became evident to nearly all that the chronically underfunded Confederation government , as originally organized , was inadequate for managing the various conflicts that arose among the states . As the Articles of Confederation could only be amended by unanimous vote of the states , any state had effective veto power over any proposed change . In addition , the Articles gave the weak federal government no taxing power : it was wholly dependent on the states for its money , and had no power to force delinquent states to pay . 
