Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/243

 CH. I.]

§ 215. Prom the moment of the declaration of independence, if not for most purposes al an antecedent period, (he united colonics must be considered as being a nation de facto, having a general government over it created, and acting by the general consent of the people of all the colonics. The powers of that government were not, and indeed could not he well defined. But still its exclusive sovereignty, in many cases, was firmly established; and its controlling power over the states was in most, if not in all national measures, universally admitted. The articles of confederation, of which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter, were not prepared or adopted by congress until November, 1777; they were not signed or ratified by any of the states until July, 1778; and they were not ratified, so as to become obligatory upon all the states, until March, 1781. In the intermediate time, congress continued to exercise the powers of a general government, whose acts