Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/250

 210 the evils incident to their political weakness and their distance from the mother country, and which had been so often defeated by the jealousy of the crown, or of the colonies, should have occurred to the great and wise men, who assembled in the Continental Congress at a very early period.

§ 220. It will be an instructive and useful lesson to us to trace historically the steps, which led to the formation and final adoption of the articles of confederation and perpetual union between the United States. It will be instructive, by disclosing the real difficulties attendant upon such a plan, even in times, when the necessity of it was forced upon the minds of men not only by common dangers, but by common protection, by common feelings of affection, and by common efforts of defence. It will be useful, by moderating the ardour of inexperienced minds, which are apt to imagine, that the theory of government is too plain, and the principles, on which it should be formed, too obvious, to leave much doubt for the exercise of the wisdom of statesmen, or the ingenuity of speculatists. Nothing is indeed more difficult to foresee, than the practical operation of given powers, unless it be the practical operation of restrictions, intended to control those powers. It is a mortifying truth, that if the possession of power sometimes leads to mischievous abuses, the absence of it also sometimes produces a political debility, quite as ruinous in its consequences to the great objects of civil government.

§ 221. It is proposed, therefore, to go into an historical review of the manner of the formation and adoption of the articles of confederation. This will be followed by an exposition of the general provisions and distributions