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a conviction of the absolute necessity of uniting all our councils, and all our strength, to maintain and defend our common liberties. Let them be examined with a liberality becoming brethren and fellow citizens, surrounded by the same imminent dangers, contending for the same illustrious prize, and deeply interested in being for ever bound, and connected together, by ties the most intimate and indissoluble. And finally, let them be adjusted with the temper and magnanimity of wise and patriotic legislators, who, while they are concerned for the prosperity of their own more immediate circle, are capable of rising superior to local attachments, when they may be incompatible with the safety, happiness, and glory of the general confederacy."

§ 225. Such was the strong and eloquent appeal made to the states. It carried, however, very slowly conviction to the minds of the local legislatures. Many objections were stated; and many amendments were proposed. All of them, however, were rejected by congress, not probably because they were all deemed inexpedient or improper in themselves; but from the danger of sending the instrument back again to all the states, for reconsideration. Accordingly, on the 26th of June, 1778, a copy, engrossed for ratification, was prepared, and the ratification begun on the 9th day of July following. It was ratified by all the states, except Delaware and Maryland, in 1778; by Delaware in 1779, and by Maryland on the first of March, 1781, from which last date its final ratification took effect, and was joyfully announced by congress.1

§ 226. In reviewing the objections, taken by the various states to the adoption of the confederation in the

1 Secret Journals, 401, 418, 423, 424, 426; 3 Kent's Comm. 196, 197.

form, in which it was presented to them, at least so far as those objections can be gathered from the official acts of those states, or their delegates in congress, some of them will appear to be founded upon a desire for verbal amendments conducing to greater accuracy and certainty; and some of them, upon considerations of a more large and important bearing, upon the interests of the states respectively, or of the Union. Among the latter were the objections taken, and alterations proposed in respect to the apportionment of taxes, and of the quota of public forces to be raised among the states, by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-Jersey, and Pennsylvania. There was also an abundance of jealousy of the power to keep up a standing army in time of peace.3

§ 227. But that, which seemed to be of paramount importance, and which, indeed, protracted the ratification of the confederation to so late a period, was the alarming controversy in respect to the boundaries of some of the states, and the public lands, held by the crown, within these reputed boundaries. On the one hand, the great states contended, that each of them had an exclusive title to all the lands of the crown within its boundaries; and these boundaries, by the claims under some of the charters, extended to the South sea, or to an indefinite extent into the uncultivated western wilderness. On the other hand, the other states as strenuously contended, that the territory, unsettled at the commencement of the war, and claimed by the British crown, which was ceded to it by the treaty of

12 Pitk. Hist. ch. 11, p. 19 to 36; 1 Kent's Comm. 197, 198.

2 Secret Journals, 371, 373, 376, 378, 381; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 11, p. 19

3 Secret Journals, 373, 376, 383; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 11, p. 19 to 32.

Paris of 1763, if wrested from the common enemy by the blood and treasure of the thirteen states, ought to be deemed a common property, subject to the disposition of congress for the general good. Rhode-Island, Delaware, New-Jersey, and Maryland insisted upon some provision for establishing the western boundaries of the states; and for the recognition of the unsettled western territory, as the property of the Union.

§ 228. The subject was one of a perpetually recurring interest and irritation; and threatened a dissolution of the confederacy. New-York, at length, in February, 1780, passed an act, authorizing a surrender of a part of the western territory claimed by her. Congress embraced the opportunity, thus afforded, to address the states on the subject of ceding the territory, reminding them, "how indispensably necessary it is to establish the federal union on a fixed and permanent basis, and on principles, acceptable to all its respective members ; how essential to public credit and confidence, to the support of our army, to the vigor of our councils, and the success of our measures; to our tranquillity at home, our reputation abroad; to our very existence, as a free, sovereign, and independent people." They recommended, with earnestness, a cession of the western territory; and at the same time, they as earnestly recommended to Maryland to subscribe the articles of confederation. A cession was accordingly made by the delegates of New-York on the first of March, 1781, the very day, on which Maryland acceded to the confederation. Virginia had previously acted upon the recommendation of congress; and by subsequent cessions

1 2 Dall. R. 470, per Jay C. J.; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 11, p. 19 to 36. 2 Secret Journals, 6 Sept. 1780, p. 442; I Kent's Comm. 197, 198; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 11, p. 19 to 36.

from her, and from the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, South-Carolina, and Georgia, at still later periods, this great source of national dissension was at last dried up.1

1.The history of these cessions will be found in the Introduction to the Land Laws of the United States, printed by order of Congress in 1810, 1817, and 1828; and in the first volume of the Laws of the United States, printed by Bioren and Duane in 1815, p. 452, &c.

CHAPTER III.

ANALYSIS OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.

§ 229. In pursuance of the design already announced, it is now proposed to give an analysis of the articles of confederation, or, as they are denominated in the instrument itself, the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States," as they were finally adopted by the thirteen states in 1781.

§ 230. The style of the confederacy was, by the first article, declared to be, "The United Sates of America." The second article declared, that each state retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which was not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in congress assembled. The third article declared, that the states severally entered into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare; binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever. The fourth article declared, that the free inhabitants of each of the states (vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted) should be entitled to all the privileges of free citizens in the several states; that the people of each state should have free ingress and regress to and from any other state, and should enjoy all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties and restrictions, as the inhabitants; that fugitives from justice should, upon demand of the executive of the state, from which they 28

VOL. I.

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