ration of independence. This committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and R. R. Livingston of New York.

The postponement was immediately followed by proceedings in the colonies, most of which either instructed or authorized their delegates in Congress to vote for the resolution of independence; and on the second day of July that resolution, which had before been agreed to in committee of the whole, was adopted by Congress itself. The committee who had been instructed to prepare the declaration, had reported on the twenty-eighth of June, and on the fourth day of July that paper was adopted.

After citing reasons for the dissolution of the political bands which had connected them with Great Britain, the Declaration concludes: "We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES."

This was the beginning of the nation. Whether it could maintain its independence, thus boldly declared, was to be decided by the sword. Should the people fail in the bloody struggle, they would never be known as a nation upon the page of history. Should they succeed, their national existence would date from the fourth of July, 1776.

This Declaration of Independence was not the work of States, for no States existed. It was the people of the thirteen United Colonies who had through their representatives declared themselves absolved from their allegiance to Great Britain. The nation and the States

were born on the same day. Hitherto, there had been colonies and the mother country, to which all the colonists acknowledged allegiance. Now, the sovereignty was no longer in Great Britain, but in the people themselves, who claimed to be a separate political community; and the individual colonies had become States. From that day the nation itself, through Congress, exercised all the functions of government. There was a real government, though as yet no written constitution; and the relations of the States to the general government were in substance the same as they are now.

CHAPTER III.

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION-THEIR FAILURE-THE CONVENTION TO
FORM A CONSTITUTION.

SOON after the Declaration of Independence was made, a committee, previously appointed, reported a draft of the Articles of Confederation. These were debated from time to time, and, after several modifications, were finally agreed to by Congress, November 15, 1777. They were to become binding when ratified by all the States. Ten States ratified them in July, 1778; New Jersey, November 26, and Delaware, February 22, 1779. Maryland withheld her approval till March 1st, 1781.

This was nearly five years after the Declaration of Independence. During this time, the war had been carried on and all the affairs of the nation had been conducted, by Congress. A treaty had been made between France and the United States, which was concluded at Paris, February 6th, 1778, and ratified by Congress May 4th of that year. The surrender of Cornwallis, which virtually closed the war, took place on the 17th of October, 1781, about six months after the adoption of the Articles of Confederation. The successful prosecution of the War of the Revolution could not, then, have been owing to the influence or efficacy of these Articles. On the contrary, there is good reason to believe that, had these Articles been adopted in 1776, the final result would have been very different from what it was.

These Articles were as erroneous in theory as they were inefficient in practice. The Declaration of Independence was made in the name of the people of the

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United States. The first sentence alludes to them as "one people" that had found it necessary to dissolve the political bands which had connected them with another people, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which they were entitled. The Constitution speaks the same language: "We, the People of the United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

But the Articles of Confederation do not purport to come from the people. They were the work of the States. The instrument is styled "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay," etc. It was drawn up and adopted by Congress, and sent to the States for ratification. Being thus the work of the States, and not of the people, we are not surprised at the declaration in it, that "each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, independence," etc.

The Articles contained much that was good, and some things not good; and much was omitted which was essential to a Constitution. It provided for one House of Congress, to be composed of delegates appointed annually by the several States, as each should direct, no State to be represented by more than seven or less than two, and no person being capable of serving as a delegate more than three years in six. Each State was to pay its own delegates, and could recall them at pleasure. The voting was to be by States.

Congress was invested with power as to war and peace, treaties and alliances. Congress could decide, on appeal, disputes between States, could regulate the alloy and value of money, had charge of all postal matters, etc., etc.; but no important action could be taken without a vote of nine States-two-thirds of the whole.

No Executive Department was provided, and no

Judiciary. Taxes were to be apportioned among the States, but Congress had no authority to levy them. Commerce was in the control of the States. Each State could lay duties and imposts. Congress had no power to enforce its own measures.

"In the very modes of its operation there was a monstrous defect, which distorted the whole system from the true proportions and character of a government. It gave to the Confederation the power of contracting debts, and at the same time withheld the power of paying them. It created a corporate body, formed by the Union and known as the United States, and gave to it the faculty of borrowing money and incurring other obligations. It provided the mode in which its treasury should be supplied for the reimbursement of the public credit. But over the sources of that supply, it gave the government contracting the debt no power whatever. Thirteen independent legislatures granted or withheld the means which were to enable the General Government to pay the debts which the general Constitution had enabled it to contract, according to their own convenience or their own views and feelings as to the purposes for which those debts had been incurred."1

As each State paid its own delegates in Congress, the smaller the number, the less the expense. Oftentimes a State would have no representative. The Treaty of Peace, signed September 3d, 1783, could not be ratified till January 14th, for want of representatives, and then there were but twenty-three members present. In April of that year there were present twenty-five members from eleven States, nine being represented by two each. Three members, therefore-one-eighth of the whole-could negative any important measure.

The Treaty of Peace was made by the United States

1 Curtis's History of the Constitution, I, p. 181.