Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina proposed alterations, additions or amendments, which were all considered by Congress, and all rejected. The delegate from Georgia had received no instructions from his constituents, but had no doubt they would ratify the Articles of Confederation without amendment. Delaware and North Carolina, having no delegates present, made no formal report; but the unanimous accession of North Carolina to the confederation had been already signified by her Governor Caswell so early as the 26th of April. On the 9th of July, 1778, the ratification of the Articles of Confederation was signed on the part of their respective States by the delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina, acting under the powers vested in them. The delegates from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland informed Congress that they had not been empowered to ratify and sign; North Carolina and Georgia were not represented.

In this critical condition of affairs a letter was addressed to the States which had not authorized their delegates to ratify the confederation, urging them "to conclude the glorious compact which by uniting the wealth, strength, and councils of the whole, might bid defiance to external violence and internal dissensions whilst it secured the public credit at home and abroad." On the 21st of July the ratification was signed by the delegates of North Carolina; and on the 24th by those of Georgia. The delegates of New Jersey, having received their powers, affixed their signatures on the 26th of November following. On the 5th of May, 1779, Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Vandyke signed the Articles of Confederation in behalf of the State of Delaware, Mr. M'Kean having previously signed them on the 12th of February, at which time he had produced a power to that effect. Maryland had instructed her delegates not to agree to the Confederation until an equitable settlement should be made concerning Western lands; but on the 30th of January, 1781, finding that the enemies of the country took advantage of the circumstance to disseminate opinions of an ultimate dissolution of the Union, the Legislature of the State empowered their delegates to ratify and subscribe the Articles ;

which was accordingly done on the 1st of March, 1781, and thus the ratification was completed. On the next day Congress assembled under the new powers committed to it by the Articles of Confederation.

Thus, at length, after nearly five years of continual debate and difficulty, was consummated the "Perpetual Union" of the States. It lasted practically two years, and nominally about eight. It did not materially add to the efficiency of government during the war with England; nor did it in any great degree strengthen the bond of union between the States. Its importance, nevertheless, is not to be lightly estimated. Had the colonies achieved their independence with no closer tie between them than the military alliance rendered necessary by a foreign invasion, there is little reason to believe that they would ever after have united. Hence they would have become in peace totally independent; and the usual animosities of petty states would have been likely to embroil them with each other in continual feuds, such as disturbed the petty states of Italy in the middle ages. Neither after nor before the war could the States be induced to renounce their separate individuality or independence; and all movements towards a union were suspected by the smaller States of tending to consolidated power. The confederation, therefore, which demonstrated the possibility of union without consolidation, and showed, however imperfectly, the capacity of the federative principle to meet the exigencies of their situation, was of immense importance to the future of the States. It was in fact a rough draft of the application of the Anglo-Saxon system to the circumstances of the colonies; admitting the necessity of union, but equally asserting separate sovereignty as the only possible or even safe foundation of the union. Its model was, in this view, of inestimable value to the framers of the later Constitution; showing them at once the fundamental principle of a federal republic, and the difficulties to be apprehended in its operation.

Articles of Confederation.

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,

WE, the undersigned, Delegates of the States affixed to our names, send greeting:

WHEREAS the delegates of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, did, on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, and in the second year of the Independence of America, agree to certain Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, in the words following, viz. :-

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

ARTICLE. 1. The style of this confederacy shall be "The United States of America."

ART. 2. Each state retains it sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, aud right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

ART. 3. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare; binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to,

or attacks made upon, them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.

ART. 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different states in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these states-paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice, excepted-shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states; and the people of each state shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof, respectively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any state from any other state, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also, that no imposition, duty, or restriction, shall be laid by any state on the property of the United States, or either of them.

If any person, guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any state, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the governor or executive power of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, and removed to the state having jurisdiction of his offence.

Full faith and credit shall be given, in each of these states, to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings, of the courts and magistrates of every other state.

ART. 5. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each state, to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year.

No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any kind.

Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the states, and while they act as members of the committee of the States.

In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each state shall have one vote.

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress; and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from. arrests and imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on, Congress, except for treason, felony or breach of the peace.

ART. 6. No state, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty, with any king, prince, or state; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.

No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.

No state shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties entered into, by the United States in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain.

No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary, by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defence of such state, or its trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time of peace, except such number only as, in the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of such state; but every