the magnitude of the event with which they were connected. He should pause to render honor to the illustrious deeds of that great community which first generously withdrew the impediment of its territorial claims, and to the no less gallant confidence of those smaller states which trusted to the future for the final and complete removal of the inequality of which they complained. He should render honor to the state of New York for the surrender of a territory to which she believed her legal title to be complete; a title which nothing but the paramount equity of the claims of the whole Confederacy ought to have overcome. That equity she acknowledged. She threw aside her charters and her title-deeds; she ceased to use the language of royal grants, and discarded the principle of succession. She came forth from among her parchments into the forum of conscience, in presence of the whole American people; and-recognizing the justice of their claim to territories gained by their common efforts-to secure the inestimable blessings of union, for their good and for her own, she submitted to the national will the determination of her western boundaries, and devoted to the national benefit her vast claims to unoccupied territories.

Equal honor should be rendered to New Jersey, to Delaware, and to Maryland. The two former, without waiting for the action of a single state within whose reputed limits these public domains were situate, trusted wholly to a future sense of justice, and ratified the union in the confidence that justice would be done. The latter waited; but only until she saw that the common enemy was encouraged, and that friends were disheartened, by her reserve. Seeing this, she hesitated no longer, but completed the union of the states before Virginia had made the cession which afterwards so nobly justified the confidence that had been placed in her.'

The student of American constitutional history, therefore, cannot fail to see that the adoption of the first written constitution was accomplished through great and magnanimous sacrifices. The very foundations of the structure of government since raised

After the Confederation had thus been formed, by subsequent cessions of their claims by the other states, to use the language of Mr. Justice Story, "this great source of national dissension was at last dried up."

rest upon splendid concessions for the common weal, made, it is true, under the stern pressure of war, but made from the noblest motives of patriotism. These concessions evince the progress which the people of the United States were then making towards both a national character and a national feeling. They show that, while there were causes which tended to keep the states apart -the formation of state constitutions, the conflicting interests growing out of the inequalities of these different communities, and the previous want of a national legislative power-there were still other causes at work which tended to draw together the apparently discordant elements, and to create a union in which should be bound together, as one nation, the populations which had hitherto known only institutions of a local character. The time was indeed not come when these latter tendencies could entirely overcome the former. It was not until the trials of peace had tested the strength and efficiency of a system formed under the trials of war-when another and a severer conflict between national and local interests was to shake the republic to its centrethat a national government could be formed, adequate to all the exigencies of both. Still, the year 1781 saw the establishment of the Confederation, caused by the necessities of military defence against an invading enemy. But it was accomplished only through the sacrifice of great claims; and the fact that it was accomplished, and that it led the way to our present Constitution, proves at once the wisdom and the patriotism of those who labored for it.

The great office of the Confederation, in our political history, will be a proper topic for consideration after the analysis of its provisions. But we should not omit to observe here, that, when the union of the states was thus secured, the motives on which it was formed, and the concessions by which it was accompanied and followed, created a vast obstacle to any future dissolution. The immediate object of each state was to obtain its own independence of the crown of Great Britain, through the united, and therefore more powerful, action of all the states. But, in order to effect such a union, that immense territory over which, in the language of Maryland, "free, convenient, and independent govwere afterwards to be formed, was to be ceded in advance, or to be impliedly promised to be ceded, to the use and

ernments

benefit of the whole Confederacy. A confederacy of states which had become possessed of such a common property was thus bound together by an interest, the magnitude and force of which cannot now be easily estimated. The Union might incur fresh dangers of dissolution after the war had ceased; its frame of government and its legislative power might prove wholly inadequate to the national wants in time of peace; the public faith might be prostrated and the national arm enfeebled; still, while the Confederacy stood as the great trustee of property large enough for the accommodation of an empire, a security existed against its total destruction. No state could withdraw from the Confederation without forfeiting its interest in this grand public domain; and no human wisdom could devise a satisfactory distribution of property ceded as a common fund for the common benefit of sovereign states without any fixed ratio of interest in the respective beneficiaries, and without any clear power in the government of the Confederation to deal with the trust itself.'

'One of the great inducements to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States was to give the general government adequate constitutional power to dispose of the western territory and to form new states out of it. Congress, under the Confederation, had no express authority to do this, although they proceeded both to dispose of the lands and to erect new states, by the Ordi nance of 1787. See The Federalist, No. 38, 42, 43. Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, III. 184-190, 1st edition. Appendix to the present volume, Note on the Ordinance of 1787.

I.-7

CHAPTER VI.

NATURE AND POWERS OF THE CONFEDERATION.

THE nature of the government established by the Articles of Confederation can be understood only by an analysis of their provisions. For this purpose the instrument must here be examined with reference to three principal topics: first, the union which it established between the different members of the Confederacy; second, the form of the government which it created; and third, the powers which it conferred, or omitted to confer, upon that government.

I. The parties to this instrument were free, sovereign, and independent political communities-each possessing within itself all the powers of legislation and government, over its own citizens, which any political society can possess. But, by this instrument, these several states became united together for certain purposes. The instrument was styled " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States," and the political body thus formed was entitled "The United States of America." The articles declared as would, indeed, be implied, in such circumstances, without any express declaration--that each state retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right not expressly delegated by the instrument itself to the United States in Congress assembled. The nature and objects of this union were described as a firm league of friendship between the states, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare; and the parties bound themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or under any pretence whatever.

It was also provided that the free inhabitants of each state should be entitled to all the privileges of free citizens in the sev

eral states; that there should be an open intercourse and commerce between the different states; that fugitives from justice from one state to another should be delivered up; and that full faith and credit should be given in each state to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of every other state."

II. The government established by the Articles of Confederation consisted of a single representative body, called a General Congress. In this body were vested all the powers, executive, legislative, and judicial, granted to the United States. The members of it were to be chosen by the states, in such manner as the legislature of each state might determine; no state to be represented by more than seven delegates, or by less than two. No delegate was eligible for more than three years in a period of six; and no delegate could hold any office of emolument under the United States. Each state was to maintain its own delegates, and in the determination of questions the voting was to be by states, each state having one vote.

III. It should be remembered that the objects and purposes of the Confederation related chiefly to the defence of the states against external attacks; and it was, therefore, as it purported to be, a league for mutual defence and protection, through the combined powers of the whole, operating in certain forms and under certain restrictions. For the manner in which this new authority was to be exercised, we are to look at the powers conferred upon "the United States in Congress assembled." These powers related to external and to internal affairs.

With regard to the external relations of the country, Congress was invested with the sole and exclusive right of determining on peace and war, unless in case of an invasion of a state by enemies, or an imminent danger of invasion by Indians; of sending and

1 That is to say, that a citizen of any state might go and reside in any other state, and be there entitled to all the privileges of a citizen of that state.

* The meaning of this is, that, on the production in any state of a law passed or of a judgment rendered in any other state, properly authenticated, it should be admitted that such a law had been passed or such a judgment rendered in the state whose act it purported to be, and that all the legal consequences should follow.