Why do you still refer to the Articles of Confederation if they have been abolished?

The United States of America were not united immediately after the Revolutionary war. The truth is the country was governed for about 12 years after the end of the war under a document called the Articles of Confederation. Its main point was that there was a weak central government and the states were gathered together as a Confederation which gave each state a major role in their own governance than the central government had. Although it did not work, and eventually the states ratified the Constitution of the United States in 1789, which made the central government strong, and the powers of the states were those not claimed by the central government in the Constitution.

Some 70 years later when the 11 southern states tried to secede from the Union, it caused the American Civil War. These southern states again joined together in a Confederation trying to war against the Union. They claimed states rights which was the reason for forming the Confederate States of America, but after the end of the war they were brought back into the Union and were forced to relinquish states rights.