that "the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated."

In spite of the fact that Congress "declined to discuss the question of the administration of the dependencies of the Union at the time the Articles of Confederation were debated, the work of the Committee of Thirteen on this subject was not lost. They had, in fact, planned the American Federal Empire, and their plans were finally adopted.

CHAPTER XX

THE AMERICAN EMPIRE DECLARED, 1778

F any proof is needed, other than Franklin's and Dickinson's drafts of Articles of Confederation, that it was the purpose of the United Colonies, from the moment when their independence became a matter of necessity, to form themselves into a Union of States which should be the Imperial State of an American Empire, all doubt on the subject is removed by the Treaties of Alliance and Commerce with France, signed February 6, 1778, and ratified by Congress on May 5, 1778. The Treaty of Alliance shows, beyond a doubt, that the American Union intended to reduce to its possession by conquest, and to hold permanently, all those parts of the American Continent external to the Union, which then belonged to Great Britain, and also the Island of Bermuda, as dependencies of the Union, or to incorporate these regions, as States, into the Union, according to its discretion-all conquests from Great Britain in the West Indies being set apart to France, to be held as its dependencies. The purpose of Congress in this respect was made clear so early as December 30, 1776, by its Instructions to the Commissioners at the Court of France, directing them to secure, if possible, a clause in the treaty they were endeavoring to negotiate, which should provide that in case Cape Breton, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia should be "reduced," "the Province of Nova Scotia, Island of Cape Breton, and the remaining part of Newfoundland" (one half) should be "annexed to the territory and government of the United States."

In the Treaty of Alliance it was provided:

Article V. If the United States should think fit to attempt the reduction of the British power remaining in the northern parts of America, or the Islands of Bermudas, those countries. or islands, in case of success, shall be confederated with or dependent upon the said United States.

Article VI. The most Christian King renounces forever the Islands of Bermudas, as well as any part of the Continent of North America which, before the Treaty of Paris in 1763, or in virtue of that Treaty, were acknowledged to belong to the Crown of Great Britain, or to the United States, heretofore called British Colonies, or which are at this time, or have lately been, under the power of the King and Crown of Great Britain.

Article VII. If his most Christian Majesty shall think proper to attack any of the islands situated in the Gulf of Mexico, or near that Gulf, which are at present under the power of Great Britain, all the said isles, in case of success, shall appertain to the Crown of France.

Article XI. The two parties guarantee, mutually, from the present time and forever, against all other powers, to wit, the United States to his most Christian Majesty, the present possessions of the Crown of France in America, as well as those which it may acquire by the future treaty of peace; and his most Christian Majesty guarantees, on his part, to the United States, their liberty, sovereignty, and independence, absolute and unlimited, as well in matters of government as of commerce, and also their possessions, and the additions or conquests that their Confederation may obtain during the war, from any of the dominions now or heretofore possessed by Great Britain in North America, conformably to the fifth and sixth Articles above written.

In the Treaty of Commerce which accompanied the Treaty of Alliance and in the Instructions of Congress on which the Treaty of Commerce was based, the expression subjects of the United States " was used in the

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latter, repeatedly. In the Instructions the phrase was subjects, people, and inhabitants of the United States." In the Treaty the word "subjects" was coupled with the word "citizens" and "inhabitants." In the ninth Article, reference was made to the states, provinces, and dominions of each party," thereby implying that the United States had or might have. provinces" or "dominions." dominions." In the seventh Article mention was made of places "within the jurisdiction of the United States or any of them," thus distinguishing between places within the jurisdiction of the United States and places within the jurisdiction of the respective States.

The Treaty of Alliance was a Declaration of the American Empire, supplementing the Declaration of Independence, which was a Declaration of the American State. The Treaty of Alliance was also an international recognition of both the American State and the American Empire. The French Commissioners objected to recognizing the sovereignty and independence of the United States, fearing that France would be embroiled in the disputes of the several States. The American Commissioners assured them that the Treaty should be construed as recognizing the sovereignty and independence of the American Union. The facts concerning this conference are narrated by Arthur Lee, one of the Commissioners, in his diary of the negotiations. This action of the Commissioners was quite in accordance with the action of the Commissioners appointed by Congress in September, 1776, at the solicitation of Lord Howe, to confer with him under authority given him, as Commander-in-Chief of America, by the Act Prohibiting Trade and Intercourse with America. These Commissioners, under the Instructions of Congress, refused to confer except as Commissioners of the Union, and the conference came to an end.

From the moment the French Treaties were signed, therefore, the American Union existed as an independent State de jure, for all international and Imperial purposes, and the American Empire existed in posse.

Had the American Empire rested wholly upon the foundation of the Declaration contained in the Treaty of Alliance, its character as a federal organism might well have been open to question. The contemporaneous public statement made by the Congress, however, on rejecting the proposals of the British Government for conciliation, in which were announced the principles which the American Union believed to be the true principles on which the administration, by any State, of its dependencies ought to be based, limited the meaning of the expression "dependent upon the United States' in the Treaty of Alliance, so that the American Union was thereafter inevitably and forever committed to the establishment of an American Empire which should be a federal organism. The proposals of the British Government and the action of the Congress upon them were, therefore, of such importance as facts bearing on the Constitution of the American Empire, that it is necessary to go into the history of them with some care. The facts were as follows:

The British Government, upon receipt of the news of the signing of the French Treaties, set themselves in earnest to the work of conciliation which they had had for some time under consideration. Copies of the Bills agreed upon by the Ministry were sent, so as to arrive in advance of the Treaties, to Sir Henry Clinton, who had been appointed to succeed Lord Howe, as Commanderin-Chief of the British forces in America. The Bills were printed and authenticated by order of the British Commander-in-Chief, and were circulated in Philadelphia and elsewhere. General Washington sent printed copies of these Bills to Congress, which was then sitting at