References.-Bancroft, History of the United States, iv, 452; Channing, History of the United States, 203-206; McLaughlin, History of the American Nation, 194-196; Friedenwald, The Declaration of Independence, 99-207; 262-279.

20. The New Position.-The Declaration of Independence, preceded by a union of the colonies and followed by a successful war, established a new nation. Allegiance to the sovereign of Great Britain was dissolved, and a new sovereign was coming into being. The change was not prescribed by law, but was revolutionary. The supreme power over the former British subjects in America had been held by the king, lords, and commons; by the act of independence this power was assumed by some part or parts of the community thus set free. But one may not easily determine what part or parts became clothed with the supreme power, and thus became the sovereign in the new American nation. The political revolution was for many years in process; there was no constitution, no settled order of procedure, and no established hierarchy of institutions. Between the act of independence and the adoption of the Constitution there was no legal description of the holder of supreme power. These thirteen years were the years of transition from the established sovereignty of Great Britain to the dominion of the sovereign described in the Constitution of the United States. The colonies had become united. In union they had won independence, and had won it for the whole people as one body. They had confirmed this independence by a treaty of peace made with the mother country in Paris, in 1783. A congress had been formed and maintained, and this was the only institution through which the will of the whole nation found expression. And this congress, that had raised an army and appointed a commander in chief, that was the source of all military power and all authority in general legislation, had many qualities

of the legal sovereign. "Unconsciously to themselves the people of the United States were absorbed into a new nationality by the very fact of their combined resistance to Great Britain. They carried on war; they officered and maintained armies; they commissioned vessels of war; they borrowed money and issued evidences of debt therefor; they created prize courts; they acquired territory and determined what the nature of its civilization should be; they made treaties with foreign powers; and in many ways, both before and after the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, they exercised the highest powers of sovereignty." Topics.-Process of forming the new nation.-Duration of the Revolution.-Congress as the sole national institution.

References.-Bancroft, History of the United States, vi, 441451; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 561-610.

FOR ADVANCED STUDY

The New England Confederation, 1643.-Preston, Documents, 85-95; MacDonald, Select Charters, i, 94-101; Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 155–160; Palfrey, History of New England, i, 623-634; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 33-71; Hart, Contemporaries, i, 447–454.

The Colonial Congress at Albany, 1754.-MacDonald, Select Charters, i, 253-257; Old South Leaflets, 9; Franklin, Autobiography, 231–233; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 29, 131–151; Fiske, New France and New England, 279, 280; Hart, Contemporaries, ii, 357–360; Bancroft, United States, ii, 385–388.

The Continental Congress.-Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 359–391; Hildreth, United States, iii, 38–46; Bancroft, United States, iv, 23, 24, 30-36, 61-77; Sloane, The French War and The Revolution, 170-176; Hart, Contemporaries, ii, 434-441; Lecky, History of England, iii, 443–455; Morse, Adams, Chap. II; Hosmer, Adams, 307-321; J. Adams, Works, i, 149-164; ii, 365-400; MacDonald, Select Charters, i, 362–367.

The Second Continental Congress.-MacDonald, Select Charters, i, 374-385; Bancroft, United States, iv, 190–192, 199, 200, 204-213; Morse, Adams, 87-100; Washington, Writings, ii, 476493; Adams, Works, ii, 415-418; Lecky, History of England, iii, 465-472; Fiske, American Revolution, i, 132–136; Lodge, Washington, i, 131-133; Sloane, French War and the Revolution, 195–199; H. von Holst, Constitutional Law, 6-12; Johnston, United States, 56, 57; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 419-428.

The Declaration of Independence.-MacDonald, Select Documents, ii, 1-6; Old South Leaflets, 3; Larned, Ready Reference; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, 513, 532-558; Morse, Jefferson, 32-40, and Adams, 124-129; Hildreth, United States, iii, 132-138; Bancroft, United States, iv, 112-125, 435-452; Friedenwald, The Declaration of Independence.

The Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783.-MacDonald, Select Documents, i, 15-21; Lecky, History of England, iv, 218-232, 243-255, 273-289; Morse, Franklin, 357-365; Bancroft, United States, v, 525-580; Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, 303, 304.

The Right of Revolution.-Cooley, Constitutional Law, 25, 26; Hart, Actual Government, 37.

Political Institutions of the Colonies.-See Channing and Hart, Guide to American History, 312-314.

Committees of Correspondence and their Influence.— McLaughlin, History of the American Nation, 183; Sloane, The French War and the Revolution, 161, 162; Hart, Formation of the Union, 57.

The Adoption of the Articles of Confederation.—Hart, Contemporaries, ii, 539-543; Fiske, The Critical Period, Chap. III; Walker, The Making of the Nation, 6; Hart, Formation of the Union, 93-95.

CHAPTER III

UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

On

21. The Articles of Confederation.-The first important step toward the organization of a national government was the formation of the Continental Congress. The second step was the adoption of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were framed by the Congress and proposed to the legislatures of the several States. These bodies then considered and approved them, and authorized their delegates to ratify them in Congress. July 9, 1778, the delegates of eight States signed a form of ratification that had been drawn up previously. These States were: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. The other States ratified the articles on the following dates: North Carolina, July 21, 1778; Georgia, July 24, 1778; New Jersey, November 26, 1778; Delaware, May 5, 1779; Maryland, March 1, 1781. Maryland had wished to withhold her ratification until Virginia and other States should surrender to the Confederation their claims to northwestern lands. The cession of these lands was, however, not completed and accepted until much later. With the ratification of Maryland, the Articles of Confederation became the Constitution, or the fundamental law, of the new nation.

The need of a general constitution was seen even before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. On July

21, 1775, Franklin submitted to Congress a draft of Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. This project was not adopted; but a year later, June 12, 1776, Congress appointed a committee of thirteen, one member from each colony, "to prepare and draft the form of a confederation to be entered into." This committee reported about a month after its appointment. During the following year the form it had drawn up was amended, and adopted by Congress, November 15, 1777. This was the form that was proposed to the legislatures and ultimately ratified by the delegates in Congress. The name of this nation was stated and adopted in the first Article. It was, "The United States of America." Since its formation, similar names have been adopted by other nations on this continent. The United States of Mexico, the United States of Colombia, the United States of Venezuela, and the United States of Brazil have apparently imitated the title of this nation.

Under the Articles of Confederation each of the States in the Union retained "every power, jurisdiction, and right" which was not expressly delegated to Congress. A similar provision was embodied in Article 10 of amendments of the Constitution of 1787. According to this article of the Constitution, "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." One difference between these two fundamental laws, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, in this regard, was that less power was delegated to the United States by the Articles of Confederation than by the Constitution. This first union of the States was called a "league of friendship" "for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare" (Article 3). Among the States there was to be freedom of trade and freedom of ingress and egress for persons (Article 4); and the free inhabitants of each State were "entitled to all privileges