another, and had their laws and governments as local units.' They had unity of sympathy and action, and these thirteen organized units strove long and hard before they had a common government with full powers of a Federal government. The feeling of resistance, the spirit of revolution, had become strong enough to support the deputies in assuming some powers, “not nominated in the bond," but there was no claim of superiority to the colonial assemblies, and everything was based on the belief that the people of the separate colonies acquiesced in the exercise of every essential power of government. The Congress presupposed concurrence in action taken by "the only possible medium of co-ordination and combination." "It was a Congress of deputies, not of legislators. It performed no single act which did not derive viability from sustentation by the local powers. Its history forms a record of localism rising superior to itself to meet the demand of a crisis," a localism "displaying its maximum possibilities for resistance and aggression.' "It was a body which wielded no technical legal authority; it was but a group of committees, assembled for the purpose of advising with each other regarding the public weal." The Con

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1 The ownership of all ungranted lands within the limits of the thirteen States passed from the Crown, not to the Confederacy, but to the several State governments.

gress, as the organ of communication, in its offensive and defensive measures, and measures of general utility, in its direction of military affairs and creation and administration of revenue, became a quasi-permanent institution, until it lapsed into the Articles of Confederation. It really was only an occasional body, renewable from time to time. It was called "Continental" to distinguish it from the "Provincial Congresses," held in several of the colonies. It had no similarity in power or function to our present Congress. The authority arose from the acquiescence of the Colonies or States, which relied on the sagacity, the superior information, the strategic wisdom, the more comprehensive view, of the committee of safety which alone could express the general will. was not strictly a legislative body. It advised and recommended and appealed and urged and sometimes assumed. There were no distinct executive officers, and it could not execute its own resolves as to most purposes, except by the aid and intervention of the colonial authorities. "Its executive operations were vicarious, not functional."" When money or troops were needed, the States were urged and begged. It borrowed money and issued promises to pay. It declared independence of Great Britain; it contracted an alliance with France; it issued letters of marque and reprisal; it built a navy; it organized an army; appointed a commander

It

in-chief to direct its operations, and was the chief agency in carrying through successfully the long struggle for separation and freedom.' All this was done without exclusive powers, and with no pretence of interfering with, or abridging, the absolute sovereignty and independence of the States.

1 Fiske's Civ. Gov., 204, 208.

CHAPTER VII.

INTERCOURSE between the provincial assemblies and the Continental Congress, and those exigencies of war, which strain granted and call out inferential or implied powers in governments which have carefully-defined constitutions, brought to light the limitations of the Congress, and the need for prompter and more effective action than could be secured by tedious and uncertain appeals to the constitu ent sovereign bodies. This dependence of the central agency on the action of the States for the discharge of appropriate and urgent duties made it necessary to adopt a more intimate plan of union and to secure larger powers. This was formally proposed in Congress in June, 1776, as greater authority was necessary to good government, and to the success of the common cause. A committee, appointed to draw up the "articles of confederation and perpetual union between the States," urged a stronger league in order "to confound our foreign enemies, support public credit, restore the value of our money, enable us to maintain our fleets and armies, and add weight and respect to our counsels at home and our treaties abroad." In November, 1777, the articles were 1 I Secret Journals of Congress, 362, 365.

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adopted by Congress. Virginia was the first of the States to respond to this appeal, and by a unanimous vote. As early as 1778, ten States confirmed the articles, another assented in 1779, and another in 1780. Maryland, the most reluctant, finally acceded, and thus made them. obligatory on 1st of March, 1781. Nothing less than the ratification of them by all of the States, each acting separately for itself, was sufficient to give them any binding force or authority. Various causes as to methods of voting, of apportioning troops and taxes, and of regulating foreign trade, delayed the action of States, ever jealous of their separate and sovereign rights, but Maryland stood out most stubbornly in opposition to the compact and refused her necessary ratification unless the States, laying claim to the Northwestern lands, and especially Virginia, should surrender their claims to the confederation. The landed States were slow to surrender their territorial possessions. The landless States insisted that the unoccupied territory should be ceded and parcelled out into "free, convenient, and independent governments." In 1780, Congress implored the more fortunate to heed the clamors of the less richly endowed sisters, and adopted a resolution which is quoted as of much value in the controversies as to the rights of the States:

"Resolved, That the unappropriated lands that may be ceded or relinquished to the United States by any particular State, pursuant