the times; and, extending only to the maintenance of the public liberties and independence of all the States during the contest with Great Britain, it would naturally terminate with the return of peace, and the accomplishment of the ends of the revolutionary contest. As little could it escape observation, how great would be the dangers of the separation of the confederated States into independent communities, acknowledging no common head, and acting upon no common system. Rivalries, jealousies, real or imaginary wrongs, diversities of local interests and institutions, would soon sever the ties of a common attachment, which bound them together, and bring on a state of hostile operations, dangerous to their peace, and subversive of their permanent interests.

CHAPTER V.

History of the Confederation.

28. ONE of the first objects, therefore, beyond that of the immediate public safety, which engaged the attention of the Continental Congress, was to provide the means of a permanent union of all the Colonies under a General Government. The deliberations on this subject were coeval with the Declaration of Independence, and, after various debates and discussions, at different sessions, the Continental Congress finally agreed, in November, 1777, upon a frame of government, contained in certain Articles of Confederation, which were immediately sent to all the States for their approval and adoption. Various delays and objections, however, on the part of some of the States, took place; and as the government was not to go into effect, until the consent of all the States should be obtained, the Confederation was not finally adopted until March, 1781, when Maryland (the last State) acceded to it. The principal objections taken to the Confederation were; to the mode prescribed by it for apportioning

tions of the public forces; to the power given to keep up a standing army in time of peace; and, above all, to the omission of the reservation of all the public lands, owned by the Crown, within the boundaries of the United States, to the National Government, for national purposes. This latter subject was one of a perpetually recurring and increasing irritation; and the Confederation would never have been acceded to, if Virginia and New York had not at last consented to make liberal cessions of the territory within their respective boundaries for national purposes.

§ 29. The Articles of Confederation had scarcely been adopted, before the defects of the plan, as a frame of national government, began to manifest themselves. The instrument, indeed, was framed under circumstances very little favorable to a just survey of the subject in all its proper bearings. The States, while colonies, had been under the controlling authority of a foreign sovereignty, whose restrictive legislation had been severely felt, and whose prerogatives, real or assumed, had been a source of incessant jealousy and alarm. Of course, they had nourished a spirit of resistance to all external authority; and having had no experience of the inconveniences of the want of some general government to superintend their common affairs and interests, they reluctantly yielded any thing, and deemed the least practicable delegation of power quite sufficient for national purposes. Notwithstanding the Confederation purported on its face to contain articles of perpetual union, it was easy to see, that its principal powers respected the operations of war, and were dormant in times of peace; and that even these were shadowy and unsubstantial, since they were stripped of all coercive authority. It was remarked, by an eminent statesman, that by this political compact the Continental Congress have exclusive power for the following purposes, without being able to execute one of them :-They may make and conclude treaties; but can only recommend the observance of them. They may appoint ambassadors; but they cannot defray even the expenses of their tables. They may borrow money in their own name, on the faith of the Union; but they cannot pay a dollar.

They may coin money; but they cannot import an ounce of bullion. They may make war, and determine what number of troops are necessary; but they cannot raise a single soldier. In short, they may declare every thing, but they can do nothing. And, strong as this description may seem, it was literally true; for Congress had little more than the power of recommending their measures to the good will of the States.

§30. The leading defects of the Confederation were the following: In the first place, there was an utter want of all coercive authority in the Continental Congress, to carry into effect any of their constitutional measures. They could not legislate directly upon persons; and, therefore, their measures were to be carried into effect by the States; and of course, whether they were executed or not, depended upon the sole pleasure of the legislatures of the latter. And, in point of fact, many of the measures of the Continental Congress were silently disregarded; many were slowly and reluctantly obeyed; and some of them were openly and boldly refused to be executed.

§ 31. In the next place, there was no power in the Continental Congress to punish individuals for any breaches of their enactments. Their laws, if laws they might be called, were without any penal sanction; the Continental Congress could not impose a fine, or imprisonment, or any other punishment, upon refractory officers, or even suspend them from office. Under such circumstances, it might naturally be supposed, that men followed their own interests, rather than their duties. They obeyed, when it was convenient, and cared little for persuasions, and less for conscientious obligations. The wonder is, not that such a scheme of government should fail; but, that it should have been capable even of a momentary existence.

§ 32. In the next place, the Continental Congress had no power to lay taxes, or to collect revenue, for the public service. All that they could do was, to ascertain the sums necessary to be raised for the public service, and to apportion its quota or proportion upon each State. The

clusively reserved to the States. The consequence was, that great delays took place in collecting the taxes; and the evils from this source were of incalculable extent, even during the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress were often wholly without funds to meet the exigencies of the public service; and if it had not been for their good fortune, in obtaining money by some loans in foreign countries, it is far from being certain, that this dilatory scheme of taxation would not have been fatal to the cause of the Revolution. After the peace of 1783, the States relapsed into utter indifference on this subject. The requisitions of the Continental Congress for funds, even for the purpose of enabling them to pay the interest of the public debt, were openly disregarded; and, notwithstanding the most affecting appeals, made from time to time by the Congress, to the patriotism, the sense of duty, and the justice of the States, the latter refused to raise the necessary supplies. The consequence was, that the national treasury was empty; the credit of the Confederacy was sunk to a low ebb; the public burdens were increasing; and the public faith was prostrated and openly violated.

§ 33. In the next place, the Continental Congress had no power to regulate commerce, either with foreign nations, or among the several States composing the Union. Commerce, both foreign and domestic, was left exclusively to the management of each particular State, according to its views of its own interests, or its local prejudices. The consequence was, that the most opposite regulations existed in the different States; and, in many cases, and especially between neighboring States, there was a perpetual course of retaliatory legislation, from their jealousies and rivalries in commerce, in agriculture, or in manufactures. Foreign nations did not fail to avail themselves of all the advantages accruing to themselves from this suicidal policy, tending to the common ruin. And as the evils grew more pressing, the resentments of the States against each other, and the consciousness, that their local interests were placed in opposition to each

it became obvious, that the dangers of immediate warfare between some of the States were imminent; and thus, the peace and safety of the Union were made dependent upon measures of the States, over which the General Government had not the slightest control.

§ 34. But the evil did not rest here. Our foreign commerce was not only crippled, but almost destroyed, by this want of uniform laws to regulate it. Foreign nations imposed upon our navigation and trade just such restrictions, as they deemed best to their own interest and policy. All of them had a common interest to stint our trade, and enlarge their own; and all of them were well satisfied, that they might, in the distracted state of our legislation, pass whatever acts they pleased on this subject, with impunity. They did not fail to avail themselves, to the utmost, of their advantages. They pursued a system of the most rigorous exclusion of our shipping from all the benefits of their own commerce; and endeavored to secure, with a bold and unhesitating confidence, a monopoly of ours. The effects of this system of operations, combined with our political weakness, were soon visible. Our navigation was ruined; our mechanics were in a state of inextricable poverty; our agriculture was withered; and the little money still found in the country was gradually finding its way abroad, to supply our immediate wants. In the rear of all this, there was a heavy public debt, which there was no means to pay; and a state of alarming embarrassment, in that most difficult and delicate of all relations, the relation of private debtors and creditors, threatened daily an overthrow even of the ordinary administration of justice. Severe, as were the calamities of the war, the pressure of them was far less mischievous, than this slow but progressive destruction of all our resources, all our industry, and all our credit.

35. There were many other defects in the Confederation, of a subordinate character and importance. But these were sufficient to establish its utter unfitness, as a frame of government, for a free, enterprising, and industrious people. Great, however, and manifold as the