These colonists had come for many purposes. Some had come to make their fortune. Others because of trouble at home. Most had come to be free, to worship God in the way they chose, to form their own government, to make their own laws, to govern themselves; and in the early days, they had met with success. But as time went on, as more people came, as ships were built, and trade and commerce increased, the government of England became more and more tyrannical. The English people may not have favored this, but they did not direct the acts of their king and his officers. Taxes were placed on the colonists without their consent. They were forced to accept laws not of their own choosing. The king refused them the right to select their own judges. They could not trade where they pleased. If you will read the Declaration of Independence you will see how their liberties were restricted.(41) All this time the various colonies were as separate as so many distinct countries. They did not know each other. There was little travel from one to another. They were quite different. But they were alike in the fact that each wanted liberty, and that each was subject to oppression from the English king. So from time to time we find them sending delegates to some common meeting place to discuss a plan of action. In 1754 a group met at Albany to suggest a plan of union. In 1765 England passed the Stamp Act which put a tax upon certain articles such as books, newspapers, and playing cards. A person could not sell one of these articles without pasting upon it one of these stamps, the money from which went to England as a tax. It was much like our war tax upon tooth paste, shaving soap, and playing cards. The difference was this. The colonists had never given the right to make this tax. It had been imposed upon them by England; and further, if a person were accused of selling a book or newspaper without this stamp, he could be severely punished.(42) This enraged the colonists, and in New York in the following year, there met a group of delegates from nearly all the colonies to discuss ways and means of meeting this. Again in 1774, conditions having become worse, delegates from twelve colonies met at Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress to consider the grievances against Great Britain. The Second Continental Congress following it carried on the first years of the Revolutionary War. It drafted and adopted the Declaration of Independence. It raised and provided for the armies, and brought the States together. But it needed a kind of constitution. So in 1777 the Articles of Confederation were drawn up and adopted by Congress and by 1781 all the States had finally adopted them. But they were inadequate. Each of the thirteen States wanted all the power in its own hands.(43)