Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/268

 228 Washington himself, that patriot without stain or reproach, speaks, in 1785, with unusual significancy on the same subject. "In a word," says he, "the confederation appears to me to be little more, than a shadow without the substance; and congress a nugatory body, their ordinances being little attended to." The same sentiments may be found in many public documents. One of the most humiliating proofs of the utter inability of congress to enforce even the exclusive powers vested in it is to be found in the argumentative circular, addressed by it to the several states, in April. 1787, entreating them in the most supplicating manner to repeal such of their laws, as interfered with the treaties with foreign nations. "If in theory," says the historian of Washington, "the treaties formed by congress were obligatory; yet it had been demonstrated, that in practice that body was absolutely unable to carry them into execution."

§ 248. The leading defects of the confederation may be enumerated under the following heads:

In the first place, there was an utter want of all coercive authority to carry into effect its own constitutional measures. This, of itself, was sufficient to destroy its whole efficiency, as a superintending government, if