CHAP. On the thirteenth of October, 1777, it was moved

XXVI. that the sum to be paid by each state into the

1777.

Nov.

treasury should be ascertained by the value of all property within each state. This was promptly negatived, and was followed by a motion having for its object to exempt slaves from taxation altogether. On the following day, eleven states were present. The four of New England voted in the negative; Maryland, Virginia, and the two Carolinas in the affirmative. The decision remained with the central states. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania against Roberdeau, and Duer of New York against Duane, voted with the south, and so the votes of their states were divided and lost. The decision rested on New Jersey, and she gave it for the complete exemption from taxation of all property in slaves. This is the first important division between the slaveholding states and the states where slavery was of little account. The rule for apportioning the revenue as finally adopted, was the respective value of land granted or surveyed, and the buildings and improvements thereon, without regard to personal property or numbers. This alone rendered the confederacy nugatory; for congress had not power to make the valuation.

In like manner the rules for navigation were to be established exclusively by each separate state, and the confederation did not take to itself power to countervail the restrictions of foreign governments, or to form agreements of reciprocity, or even to establish uniformity. These arrangements suited the opinions of the time; the legislature of New Jersey, vexed by the control of New York

XXVI.

1777.

Nov.

over the waters of New York bay, alone proposed CHAP. as an amendment a grant of greater power over foreign commerce. Moreover, each state decided for itself what imports it would permit, and what it would prohibit; so that the confederate congress for itself renounced forever the power to sanction or to stop the slave-trade.

The king had possessed all the lands not alienated by royal grants. On the declaration of independence, the quit-rents were sequestered to the benefit of the proprietors, while each state assumed the ownership of the royal domain within its limits. A question was raised as to public lands which might be acquired or recovered by the war, especially the country northwest of the Ohio, which had been transferred to the province of Quebec by act of parliament; but that act formed one of the grievances of America; its validity was denied and the states which by their charters extended indefinitely west, or west and northwest, refused to accept the United States as the umpire to settle their boundaries, except with regard to each other.

(;

Jealousy of a standing army was one of the traditionary lessons of English liberty. The superiority of the civil over the military power was most deeply imprinted on the heart of the people. It was borne in mind, that victorious legions revolutionized Rome; that Charles the First sought to overturn the institutions of England by an army; that by an army Charles the Second was brought back without conditions; that by a standing army, which Americans themselves were to have been taxed to maintain, it had been proposed to abridge

CHAP. American liberties. In congress this distrust of

XXVI. military power existed all the more for the confi

1777.

Nov.

dence and undivided affection which the people bore to the American commander-in-chief, and has for its excuse, that the ages perhaps never furnished an example, that human nature was hardly supposed able to furnish an example, of a military hero eminent as a statesman, the liberator of his country, and yet desirous after finishing his work to go into private life. We have seen how earnestly Washington endeavored to establish an army of the United States. His plan, which at the time it was proposed congress did not venture to reject, was now deliberately demolished. Congress thought it augured well for liberty that the states were stretched along the Atlantic shore in a narrow line, ill suited to unity of military action; and to prevent a homogeneous organization, it not only left to each of them the exclusive power over its militia, but the exclusive appointment of the regi mental officers in its quota of land forces for the public service; so that there might be thirteen armies, rather than one.

As in England, so in America, this jealousy did not extend to maritime affairs; the separate states had no share in the appointment of officers in the navy, and the United States might even establish courts of admiralty, though with a jurisdiction limited to piracies and felonies on the high seas and to appeals in all cases of capture.

As the king in England, so the United States determined on peace and war, sent ambassadors to foreign powers, and entered into treaties and alli

XXVI.

ances; but beside their general want of executive CHAP. power, the grant to make treaties of commerce was nullified by the power reserved to the states over imports and exports, over shipping and rev

enue.

The right of coining money, the right of keeping up ships of war, land forces, forts, garrisons, were shared by congress with the respective states. No state, Massachusetts not more than South Carolina, would subordinate its law of treason to the will of congress. The formation of a class of national statesmen was impeded by the clause which forbade any man to sit in congress more than three years out of six; nor could the same member of congress be appointed its president more than one year in any term of three years. As there was scarcely the rudiment of a judiciary, so direct executive power was altogether wanting. The report of Dickinson provided for a council of state; but this was narrowed down to "a committee of states" to be composed of one delegate from each state, which could be invested with no power whatever respecting important business, and no power of any kind except that with which congress, "by the consent of nine states," might invest them from time to time.

Each state retained its sovereignty, and all power not expressly delegated. Under the king of England, the use of the veto in colonial legislation had been complained of. There was not even a thought of vesting congress with a veto on the legislation of states, or subjecting such legislation to the revision of a judicial tribunal. Each state, being

1777.

Nov.

CHAP. esteemed independent and sovereign, had exclusive, XXVI. full, and final powers in every matter relating to 1777. domestic police and government, to slavery and

Nov.

manumission, to the conditions of the elective franchise; and the restraints required by loyalty to the central government were left to be self-imposed Incidental powers to carry into effect the powers granted to the United States were denied, and thus granted powers might be made of no avail.

To complete the security against central authority, the articles of confederation were not to be adopted except by the unanimous assent of each one of the legislatures of the thirteen separate states; and no amendment might be made without an equal unanimity. A government which had not power to levy a tax, or raise a soldier, or deal directly with an individual, or keep its engagements with foreign powers, or amend its constitution without the unanimous consent of its members, had not enough of vital force to live. It could not interest the human race, and the establishment of independence must be the signal for its dissolution. But a higher spirit moved over the darkness of that formless void. That which then flowered, bore the seed of that which was to be. Notwithstanding the defects of the confederation, the congress of the United States, inspired by the highest wisdom of the eighteenth century, and seemingly without debate, embodied in their work four capital results, which Providence in its love for the human race could not let die.

The republics of Greece and Rome had been essentially no more than governments of cities.