under different grants of two or more states, whose jurisdiction as they may respect such lands, and the states which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to the congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different states. 4. The United States in congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states; fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States; regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the states, provided that the legislative right of any state within its ownl imits be not infringed or violated; establishing and regulating postoffices from one state to another throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office; appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States; making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations.

5. The United States in congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee to sit in the recess of congress, to be denominated "A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each state; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for mangaging the general affairs of the United States under their direction; to appoint one of their number to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half-year to the respective states an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each state for its quota in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such state, which requisitions shall be binding; and thereupon the legislature of each state shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, clothe, arm, and equip them in a soldierlike manner at the expense of the United States; and the officers

and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in congress assembled; but if the United States in congress assembled shall on consideration of circumstances judge proper that any state should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other state should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such state, unless the legislature of such state shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States in congress assembled.

6. The United States in congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter in any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defence and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine states assent to the same; nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States in congress assembled.

7. The congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each state on any question shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a state or any of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay bebefore the legislatures of the several states.

ARTICLE X.

The committee of the states or any nine of them shall be authorised to execute, in the recess of congress, such of the powers of congress as the United States in congress assembled, by the con

sent of nine states, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with, provided that no power be delegated to the said com. mittee for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine states in the congress of the United States assembled is requisite.

ARTICLE XI.

Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of this union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

ARTICLE XII.

All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts con. tracted by or under the authority of congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction, whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

ARTICLE XIII.

Every state shall abide by the determination of the United States in congress assembled, in all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislature of every state.

And whereas it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in congress to approve of and to authorise us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union: Know ye that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemLly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in congress assembled, in all

questions which by the said confederation are submitted to them; and that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent, and that the union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in congress.

Done at Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania, the 9th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1778, and in the third year of the Independence of America.

The document we now introduce is the fundamental law of America, but strange to say in its original meaning and intent has never been desired, recognised, or acted upon by the American States or people, from the period it was put upon record, down to the outbreak of the late terrible war, so that, if the Federal administrators or government attempt to convict any of the citizens of the States for treason, it will be on the principle of thief convicting thief, since all political parties and religious sects have ignored its claims, trampled down its authority, and prostituted it to the vilest and basest of purposes.

By the introduction of the Compromises the Constitution had a secondary meaning and application, one completely antagonistical to its primary, which converted it into a slave document, made the Federal government a slave oligarchy, and turned our administrators and people into a Congress of jugglers. These compromises made freedom unconstitutional in the United States, gave the slaveholders a right on the basis of constitutional law, to take their slaves anywhere within the boundaries of its states and territories, and made all liable to be stigmatised as disunionists who sought to restrict the area of slavery, or to exterminate it.

To these compromises the Northern states and people were a party, bound together with the Southerns in the bonds of the same black covenant, and yet, they were the first to break them in the adoption of the Missouri Compromise Personal Liberty Bills, and in the threats which were freely used to coerce the Southern States, bringing themselves into direct antagonism with the Southerns on the basis of their own agreement, and creating in them the same thorough contempt for the Union, that the old abolitionists fostered and proclaimed to the world, in all their councils and speeches; so that, if the Southerns had conquered our Northern States and people in the absence of any concession of belligerent rights, they could have hung up all Northern leaders on the basis of civil law, but not so the Northerns; for the Federal president, governors or people in the Northern States to speak of treason on the basis of civil law, and more especially when they conceded belligerent rights to the Southern States, is the height of arrogance, madness, and cruelty; and yet, not only is treason made by them the lesson of the hour, but in the amnesty proclamation of President Johnson, the possession of property to the amount of twenty thousand dollars by a Southern makes him a rebel, adding to the other forms of despotism in America, the crowning guilt and shame which may be properly designated the aristocracy of crime.

Moreover, there is nothing in the following document which abrogates the sovereignty of the states, so carefully guarded and