1777.

Nov. 27.

sections of the country, it appears that many conflicting interests were strenuously advocated. The debates were continued almost daily, from the 7th of October to the 15th of November. On that day the Articles of Confederation were adopted. A committee of three were appointed to have the articles translated into the French language, and to prepare and report an address to the inhabitants of Canada to become a portion of the Confederacy. Congress directed a copy to be sent to the speakers of the different State legislatures, for their action. A communication was sent along with them, requesting the legislatures, if approving, to instruct their delegates in Congress to vote for ratifying them. "We have reason to regret," says the address, "the time which has elapsed in preparing this plan for consideration. With additional solicitude we look forward to that which must be necessarily spent before it can be ratified. Every motive loudly calls upon us to hasten its conclusion. More than any other consideration, it will confound our foreign enemies, defeat the flagitious practices of the disaffected, strengthen and confirm our friends, support our public credit, restore the value of our money, enable us to maintain our fleets and armies, add weight and respect to our councils at home, and to our treaties abroad. In short, this salutary measure can no longer be deferred."

In the mean time the different States had formed their Constitutions, the political aspect of the country seemed rapidly developing, and the fundamental principles of government placed upon a firm, practical, and intelligible basis.*

Congress had been acknowledged as the supreme head of affairs, in everything pertaining to the public policy. Bills of credit had been issued, foreign ministers appointed, and negotiations carried on with different foreign governments. By the Articles of Confederation the sovereignty of each State was recognized, though it was a paper to which the States had not been parties, the members of the Congress that framed it not having been elected by the people, but appointed by the different State legislatures, yet Congress could not exercise any powers except such as were especially delegated. The Third Article sets forth the purpose of the confederation by the States, "for their common defence, the

The Articles of Confederation, though agreed to on the 15th of November, 1777, were not signed until the 9th of July, 1778.

security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare." Under the articles each State voted, but only one vote was permitted. Each State maintained the expenses of its delegates "in a meeting of the States," and when they acted as "members of the committee of the States."* The expenses of the war were to be defrayed out of a common treasure, raised by a tax on all land within each State that had been granted to or surveyed for any person, which was to be laid and levied by authority and direction of each State. Congress was the only national judiciary to which the right of appeal existed upon all questions between the States.

When the Articles of Confederation reached the different State legislatures they encountered strong and decided opposition. It was objected to them, because each State had an equal voice in Congress; the question of limits and boundaries between the States were unadjusted; the title and control of the Crown lands were unsettled, and other omissions were deemed defects.

1788.

On the 9th of July, the delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina, signed the Articles. The delegates from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, were not empowered to sign. Georgia and North Carolina were not represented at that time, though their delegates must have appeared very soon thereafter; as they signed for North Carolina on the 21st of July, for Georgia the 24th of the same month. The act of New York was conditional, that all the other States should ratify. New Jersey on the 26th of November, Delaware on the 22d of February, and the 5th of May, 1779.

Maryland not only withheld her assent, but positively refused to ratify, until the title to the Crown lands should be settled. At length those States claiming the Crown lands, which consisted of waste and unpatented lands, ceded to the General Government their interest, for the benefit of the whole union. This being done, Maryland signed the Articles on the first day of March, 1781. The cession of the Crown lands to the Government of the United States was the origin of the Territorial System, out of which sprung the Northwestern Territory, and the celebrated ordinance passed by

* Congress had power to appoint a committee to sit in the recess of Congress, which was denominated a "Committee of the States."

Congress in July, 1787. The origin and growth of the territorial system is a most interesting and peculiar feature of the Government of the United States, which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter of this work.

Stat. Man.,

vol. iii.,

Maryland was the last State whose assent had to be obtained, which, being done, made the confederation complete. The Congress of the United States assembled for the first time under these Articles on the 2d of March, 1781, being upwards of four years after they were first submitted to the States by Con

gress.

1779.

The term of the Continental Congress is dividable into two periods; the first from the first meeting on the 4th of September, 1774, until the ratification of the Confederation, on the 1st of March, 1781; the second, from ratification of the Confederation until the organization of the government under the Constitution of the United States, on the 4th of March, 1789.

CHAPTER II.

THE FORMATION AND ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE Articles of Confederation, cradled amidst the convulsions of the American Revolution,-their great purpose being to unite the Colonies more firmly and efficiently in the effort for liberty, but imperfectly defined and established the functions of government; especially one rapidly developing all the features and resources that tend to make a people at once a powerful and respected nation.

The primary intent had been attained. The Colonies, assuming the name and character of sovereign States, had banded together to maintain those rights which the Declaration of Independence had asserted; to assist in the accomplishment of which a Congress was instituted with ample powers to organize and control the army.

A definitive treaty of peace was signed the 3d of 1783. September between his Britannic Majesty and the United States. In August, 1782, Washington received a letter from Sir Guy Carlton and Admiral Digby, manifesting not only a pacific disposition, but informing him that Grenville was in Paris, authorized to treat with all the parties at war; and that he would propose the recognition of the independence of the States, instead of being made a condition of a general treaty. This letter was soon followed by one from Sir Guy Carlton, declaring his disapproval of a longer continuation of hostilities. These communications excited the fears of the French Ministers, in consequence of which Congress renewed the resolution "to enter into no discussion of any overtures for pacification but in confidence and concert with his most Christian Majesty."*

Considerable difficulty was presented in arranging the preliminaries of the treaty. Pride and jealousy existed on the

*Secret Journals of Congress, vol. iii., p. 249.

part of France and Spain towards England, as an old and bitter rival, which seemed at one time likely to defeat the object of the United States in their effort for pacification. Delay was also produced in reference to the arrangement of boundaries, and the participation of the United States in the fisheries. On these points the interest of France and Spain conflicted with the United States; "and the cabinets both of Versailles and Madrid seemed disposed to intrigue with that of London, to prevent such ample concessions respecting them as the British Minister might be inclined to make."

The penetration and firmness of our commissioners eventually succeeded, and a treaty was adjusted highly acceptable to the United States, especially on the questions of boundaries and fisheries.* Experience has proved the truth of the effort of the commissioners of the United States to convince the British Ministry, that the interest of their country would be enhanced by a liberal policy towards the United States, and of their becoming independent in fact as well as in name. This treaty was suspended until peace should exist between France and Great Britain. The European war had been vexatiously protracted by the obstinate perseverance of Spain in the effort to obtain Gibraltar. The enterprise was at length abandoned, and preliminary articles of peace were signed between France, Spain, and Great Britain, in 1783; after which the United States were recognized " to be free, sovereign, and independent States."

The Articles of Confederation had triumphantly borne the country through the war of the Revolution, yet it was manifest that they were inadequate to the wants of the people. No executive department existed as a separate branch of government; no judiciary had been established with defined limits; no senate. The three co-ordinate departments necessary for a free government existed with, and were exercised by one and the same body, the powers of which were imperfect. No treasury existed, save that derived from the power to levy a tax upon the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted to or surveyed for any person.†

A heavy debt existed, with no other resource to raise the means of liquidation. No commerce had yet borne to our

* Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. ii., p. 40.

† Articles of Confederation.