Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/589

 550

not reverted to the condition of man in the state of nature without law. The colonies, having declared their independence, were separate political entities, and under their several constitutions became sovereign States. They were representative democratic republics, under legislative, executive, and judicial departments. The people who be fore had been British subjects were now the citizens of their respective States, which exer cised paramount authority over them, and to which they owed and acknowledged the alle giance of citizens. These recently separate States came together under the Articles of Confederation, " into a firm league of friend ship with each other." " Each State retaining its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which was not by this Confederation ex pressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled." In Article 5 of the Confederation the States established their equality by provid ing that, " In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote." The United States therefore at that time was a confederated republic, with delegated and limited powers, and was administered by a Congress in which each State had one vote, and in the recess of Congress by a committee appointed by Congress, called the " Com mittee of the States." This was the government under which the Revolution was successfully fought, and under which was maintained all external and inter-state relations for nearly ten years. Rut the government under the Confeder ation soon developed serious weakness. As the public debt, which included the expenses of the Revolution, began to mature, the dif ficulty of providing the means to meet it became a grave concern to Congress. Its only recourse was to make requisition upon the States, and there was no authority to enforce payment of their quotas. The gov ernment seemed on the verge of dissolution,

the States, jealous of their rights, ignored the request of Congress to enlarge its powers. "It was deemed, in the language of the day, that any proposition for perfecting the Ar ticles of Confederation should originate with the State Legislatures." ' At this juncture the legislature of Vir ginia, on June 21, 1786, at the suggestion of James Madison, appointed seven com missioners to meet such other commissioners from the several States, at a time and place to be agreed upon, " to report an act to establish a uniform system in the commer cial relations between the States, which act should be subject to ratification by the several States of the Union." Only four other States responded, the commissioners meeting at Annapolis, Mary land, on September 11, 1786. They did nothing but report back to their respective legislatures, and recommend the calling of a general convention of all the States, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May, 1787. The object of this convention, as stated, was ',' to take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such other provisions as shall to them ap pear necessary to render the Constitution of the United States adequate to the exigencies of the Union, and to report such an act to the United States in Congress assembled." The memorable body which assembled under this call was known as the Convention for the Revision of the Articles of Union be tween the States, and met in Philadelphia, May 14, 1787. "It was," says Alexander Stephens, " the ablest body of jurists, legis lators, and statesmen that ever assembled on the continent of America." The great achievement of this convention was the production of the new Constitution, which upon the recommendation of Congress was ratified by the several States, and which with subsequent amendments is to-day the fundamental law of our country. 1 "Elliott's Debates," cited in Stephens' " History ol the U. S.," 276.