people of each declared, in all their conventions, from 1776 to 1780. (Mr. Justice Baldwin, A General View of the Origin and Nature of the Constitution and Government of the United States, 1837, pp. 79–81.) The problem before the Convention was to form a confederation of States which should possess the requisite vigor without being a consolidation of the States. They knew that the latter plan would be rejected by their constituents, although Alexander Hamilton and others thought that there could be no other permanent solution of the problem. The Convention sought for light and guidance in the example of other confederated governments. They looked abroad to see how other countries had extricated themselves from similar difficulties. They examined the history of all federations. Americans at that time had no need to refer to any experience but their own, if they would learn the peculiar danger of a confederation. They had too often seen the Continental Congress in the attitude of a helpless suppliant before States that made a jest of its requisitions, to suppose that any national government which could not raise a revenue of its own would be adequate to the exigencies of the Union. We are therefore principally indebted to the distresses of the Confederation for the greatest political invention of the Constitution. All previous confederacies of which history contains any record had acted on the component States, and not on individuals. The Constitution, by its provision for operating upon the individual citizen, affords a far better guarantee of permanence than the hegemony of any powerful member of the Confederation could do. The Constitution thus gave a new maxim of unquestionable value to the science of politics. The Swiss Union of 1848 imitated it in this regard, and thus finally healed the dissensions between the cantons. (W. T. Brantly, Of the Influence of European Speculation in the Formation of the Federal Constitution, 1880, in Southern Law Review, New Series, Vol. VI. pp. 361–362.) Mr. Dickinson's A United CHAPTER III A CONFEDERATION OF SOVEREIGN STATES UNDER the third resolution proposed by Richard Henry Lee on June 7, 1776, that "a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation," a committee of one from each colony was chosen on the 12th to report a form of confederation. This committee consisted of "a member from each colony" with John Dickinson of Delaware as chairman. A plan drafted by Mr. Dickinson was reported on July 12th and was considered twelve days later in the committee of the whole house and was the subject of debate from time to time until November 15, 1777, when it was adopted by the Congress with some important amendments.2 The Congress directed that "these articles shall be proposed to the legislatures of all the United States, to be considered, and if approved of by them, they are advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in the Congress of the United States; which being done, the same shall become conclusive." 3 A circular letter to accompany the articles, in accordance with this resolution, was adopted on November 17, 1777. A form of ratification was adopted June 26, 1778. At various dates the States approved the Articles in the manner recommended by the Congress, the last State being Maryland, whose delegates signed on behalf of that State, March 1, 1781. Thereupon the United States had, for the first time, a form of government in law as well as in fact and on the succeeding day the Congress met for the first time under this form of government. It may be observed in this connection, before proceeding to an examination of the successive steps by which the Articles of Confederation assumed form and shape, that the Congress, during this period, was intent upon winning the independence which the Articles were to regulate, and they were therefore of secondary importance; that, for one reason or another, the membership of the committee changed so that, at the date of their adoption by Congress, only one of the original members of the committee was still a member thereof and that even he was absent on that occasion. Changing membership, changing conditions, the differences between the States and the difficulty of reconciling them consumed time and patience, with the inevitable result that 1 Journals of the Continental Congress, Vol. v, pp. 546–554. 2 Ibid., Vol. ix, pp. 907-928. 8 Ibid., p. 925. States the Articles of Confederation were a compromise, just as the Constitution of 1787 creating the more perfect Union of the States was a compromise. Large In the Congress as in the Convention, the large States wanted a larger influence and Small than the smaller, to which the reply was then, as now in the society of nations: a little colony has its all at stake as well as a great one; our identity is a precious thing; we do not propose to be swallowed up. In addition to this difference of view as to the rights of the States, large and small, the motives of the sections were questioned and a lack of confidence expressed, impossible to overcome on the moment, and indeed overcome in the Constitutional Convention only after years of suffering in a common cause when the statesmen of all the sections had learned to know, and therefore rightly to appreciate one another. New England, which may be said to have brought about the Revolution, was not popular and was viewed with suspicion and jealousy, Benjamin Harrison of Virginia saying that the Yankees" ruled as absolutely in Congress "as the Grand Turk in his dominions." 1 This idea did not stop with Virginia, but pervaded the south, for Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, wrote: 66 The Force of their Arms I hold exceeding Cheap, but I confess I dread their over-ruling Influence in Council. I dread their low Cunning and those . . Principles which Men without Character and without Fortune in general possess, which are so captivating to the lower class of Mankind.2 New England, on its part, viewed its neighbors to the south with equal suspicion and distrust, not unmixed with contempt, if John Adams is to be credited, who says of them: The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what name you please, sigh, and groan, and fret, and sometimes stamp, and foam, and curse, but all in vain.3 In view of such circumstances the wonder is that the confederation took place, not that the instrument of confederation was faulty. The Two the Articles The Articles exist in two forms, in the draft in Dickinson's handwriting, Forms of laid before the Congress on July 12, 1776, and in the amended form in which Dickinson's draft was approved by the Congress on November 15, 1777, recommended to the States for their ratification and ultimately ratified by them.1 The essentials of the completed instrument are contained in Dickinson's draft, which suggests a familiarity with Franklin's project, notably 1 E. P. Oberholtzer, Robert Morris, 1903, p. 37. 2 To John Jay, June 29, 1776. The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, H. P. Johnston ed., Vol. i, p. 67. 8 To Patrick Henry, June 3, 1776. The Works of John Adams, C. F. Adams ed., Vol. ix, p. 387. The dates of ratification were: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, July 9, 1778- North Carolina, July 21, 1778- Georgia, July 24, 1778- New Jersey, November 26, 1778- Delaware, February 22, 1779- Maryland, March 1, 1781. Nature of the Union Powers in the fact that the States, although independent, are spoken of as colonies. Some of the amendments are far from happy, especially those indicating the amounts of revenue which each colony is to raise and to contribute to the general government. In the eleventh article of Dickinson's draft it is provided that "All Charges of Wars and all other Expences that shall be incurred for the common Defence, or general Welfare, and allowed by the United States assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common Treasury, which shall be supplied by the several Colonies in Proportion to the Number of Inhabitants of every Age, Sex and Quality, except Indians not paying Taxes, in each Colony . . ." In the amended text the contributions of the States are to be "in proportion to the value of all land within each State," an amendment, it may be said in passing, which appears to have made the Articles unworkable in practice, however acceptable it may have been in theory. 1 -- It is not meant, in this connection, to express a preference for a poll as distinguished from a land tax, but the shifts to which the Congress was put to increase the value of land, and thus increase the State quotas, exposed that body to ridicule and brought the government into contempt in a way which would not have been possible if the text of the original draft had been adopted. The government of the Confederacy was to be styled the United States of America, in which each State retained "its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right," not "expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." The framers of this instrument were well informed as to the nature of the government which they were establishing. It was to be a Union of States, not a single State. It was to be a perpetual "league of friendship," "for their common defence, the security of their liberties and their mutual and general welfare," in which the States pledged themselves to protect one another against attack of any kind and from any quarter. For the management of the general interests of the United States there was to be a Congress, which should meet once a year and exercise the powers with which the Confederation was vested. Each of the States was to be represented by not less than two nor more than seven delegates, appointed and paid by them, who might not serve as delegates more than three years out of any six. The States had an equal voice, each retaining and casting a single vote, notwithstanding the greater or less number of deputies which they might choose to send to Congress. It was recognized that the purpose for which the Union was formed could not be effected if the States did not, in addition to the powers conferred upon the Congress, renounce the exercise of some of the powers inherent in sovereignty, freedom and independence. They therefore expressly renounced 1 Journals of the Continental Congress, Vol. v, p. 548. of Congress War the right of making treaties with foreign countries or of entering into treaties or alliances between themselves without the consent of the Congress, and they pledged themselves not to lay any imposts or duties which might interfere with the treaties which the Confederation might make with foreign countries. While maintaining the right to keep up a militia, they renounced the right to create and maintain an army or navy without the consent of Congress, and they likewise renounced the right to engage in war, without the consent of Congress, except when actually attacked. They reserved to themselves the right to appoint regimental officers of the regiments raised for continental service, but vested the appointment of the general officers in Congress. They endowed the general Congress with broad powers, suggesting but Powers not actually making of the States a nation-powers with which the Congress under the Constitution has been invested and which with sundry additions have been deemed adequate, doubtless due to the fact that the government under the latter instrument acts directly upon the people of the States, thus executing the powers with which it is invested instead of relying upon the States as its agents. Among these powers were the sole right of declaring Peace and war and concluding peace, of sending and receiving embassies, of entering into treaties and alliances, of issuing currency, of fixing a standard of weights and measures, of establishing and regulating post offices throughout the United States, of appointing all officers of the army with the exception of regimental officers of contingents raised by the States, and all naval officers, and of making rules for the government of the land and naval forces and directing their operations. The Congress was also empowered to ascertain the sums of money necessary for the service of the United States and to apply it to the public service, to borrow money or emit bills of credit, to build and equip a navy, to agree upon the number of land forces and to make requisitions, binding each State to furnish its quota "in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in each State." In addition, the Congress was specifically authorized to appoint a committee of States, consisting of a delegate from each State, to sit during the recess of the Congress and to carry on the government during such recess, to appoint other committees and civil officers necessary for the management of the general forces of the United States under their direction, and to appoint from the members of Congress a president, who should not preside for more than one in any term of three years. These powers were granted because they were felt to be necessary to secure the independence of the United States and to maintain peace and harmony among the States themselves, but in granting them the States placed. what they conceived to be a salutary check upon their exercise, providing that the more important of them, which they specified, should be exercised only with the consent of nine States, and in the tenth of the Articles they |