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 before the Legislature of the several States. Art. 10. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, 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. Art. 11. 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. Art. 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts contracted, 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. Art. 13. 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 farther solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determination 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 ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1778, and in the third year of the Inde pendence of America. NEW HAMPSHIRE. Josiah Bartlett, John Wentworth, Jr. MASSACHUSETTS BAY John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, James Lovel, RHODE ISLAND, &c. William Ellery, CONNECTICUT. Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, NEW YORK. James Duane, NEW JERSEY. Jno. Witherspoon, PENNSYLVANIA. Robert Morris, Daniel Roberdeau, Jona. Bayard Smith, Joseph Reed. DELAWARE Thomas M'Kean, MARYLAND. John Hanson, VIRGINIA. Richard Henry Lee, John Banister, Thomas Adams, Jno. Harvie, Francis Lightfoot Lee. NORTH CAROLINA. John Penn, Cons. Harnett, Jno. Williams. SOUTH CAROLINA. Henry Laurens, GEORGIA. Jno. Walton, Such were the provisions contained in those Articles under which the several Colonies had confederated together as INDEPENDENT STATES. It is easy for us to discover their most exceptionable features, comparing them, as we may, with the lessons of experience, and the more successful operation of the present Constitution. But when we think of the difficulties which were encountered in their formation; when we consider how few were the sources whence light could be derived to illumine their councils; and how wholly they were without any experience to demonstrate the impracticability of the plan of administration proposed, we cease to wonder at its inefficiency. The peculiar circumstances under which a frame of government was called for. The grievances and oppressions which they had sustained, and were still smarting under, from the arbitrary enactments of the administration in England, rendered the Colonies extremely jealous of any authority to be erected whose powers should, in any degree, control or restrain their own legislation. The delegates of the nation, therefore, found themselves in a situation at once new and peculiar. They could look upon the history of other republics as beacons to warn, but not as lights to guide. The one for which they were called upon to legislate was without its precedent or its parallel in the world's history. The STATES had understood the benefits of union only as Colonies, and with reference to restraining or resisting the arbitrary extension of its authority by a power to which they acknowledged and confessed all due allegiance, and from which they had not even thought of separating themselves. But now that they had severed the tie of their political relationship with the parent country, they became extremely doubtful and cautious with what attributes they should clothe a NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION. These reflections introduce us at once to the causes which produced the main defects of these Articles. It will be observed as the most pernicious of all their provisions, that in the STATES was reserved the right and the power of carrying out the decrees of the general government, and executing them upon the people, within their respective jurisdictions; while it was utterly impossible to invest the GENERAL GOVERNMENT, CONGRESS, with any power by which it could enforce the STATES themselves, to comply with its measures. The evil might, perhaps, have been avoided, had the question been, not what powers shall the STATES yield up to Congress? but, on whom shall fall that superintending sovereignty which was but lately admitted to reside in the Crown and Parliament? If they were to unite as a nation, the object desired was, to erect a government which should be invested with those very attributes of sovereignty, subject only to such restrictions as might, peradventure, arise from the peculiar relations of the parties to the compact. Had the Colonies themselves been wholly independent of each other, when they proclaimed their independence of Great Britain, then the sovereignty exercised over each of them, by the parent state, would undoubtedly have reverted to each respectively. Then they might have considered themselves invested with the absolute and unqualified attributes and powers of sovereignty. But, before that independence was declared, they had, by the very necessities of their situation, and by their own. voluntary acquiescence in the exercise of the powers it necessarily assumed, subjected themselves to the direction and control of a general government, which was virtually vested with these very prerogatives of sovereignty. The revolutionary Congress, the nation's Congress, the authorised representatives of the whole. American people, had already assumed and exercised the powers theretofore belonging to the Crown and Parliament, and no one ever thought of questioning the validity of their proceedings, or of resisting their authority. CHAPTER III. In order to understand more fully the nature and extent of the relative dependance of the several Colonies upon each other, we must revert to the earlier part of their history. As far back as the month of May in the year 1643, we find that ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION were entered into between the NEW-ENGLAND COLONIES-MASSACHUSETTS, PLYMOUTH, CONNECTICUT, and NEW HAVEN-wherein they declared that they had entered into a firm and perpetual league for the purpose of securing their mutual safety and protection. Under these Articles each Colony retained its distinct and separate jurisdiction. The consent of all of them was required in order to enable any two to unite under one jurisdiction; as well as to admit any other Colony into the general confederacy. All charges were to be borne by the Colonies respectively, in proportion to the number of male inhabitants between sixteen and sixty years of age. Whenever an invasion occurred, and notice thereof was given by three magistrates of any Colony, the several members of the Confederacy were immediately to furnish their respective quota of military-which were fixed at one hundred for Massachusetts, and forty-five for each of the other parties to the compact. In case a larger armament was required, the Commissioners were to decide upon their number. Two Commissioners from each Colony, who were church members, were to meet annually on the first Monday of September. Six of them constituted a quorum, and any measure passed by a less number |