of certain delegates selected by them respectively, to consult together, and to recommend to each other, the adoption of such plans, as might be thought to conduce most to he advancement of this common interest, and to security against this common danger.—That afterwards, accidental circumstances, beyond the control of those several communities, having deprived them of all regular government, they were severally constrained by the force of those circumstances, to form a new government, each for itself; and so to assume Sovereignty.—That in this situation, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind, induced them all to proclaim their new condition, and to justify what they had done; and that this was the sole cause and object of the Declaration of Independence, which so far from declaring that these communities were then "One Nation," declared expressly, that they were Free and Independent States. I contend further, that the original association of these several distinct and independent communities, did not invest the delegates deputed to represent them in the association, with sufficient authority to attain its purposes.—That under such circumstances, it was very soon discovered, that its objects could not be advanced, happily; therefore, it became desirable, to give body and being to this association, which, like the earth, "in the beginning, was without form."—That to reduce the association to form, by prescribing precisely its intended objects, and by bestowing upon it defined powers to attain these prescribed objects, it became necessary that the original parties to the association should enter into a Covenant with each other, for these ends; and that this Covenant is to be found in the Articles of Confederation.
It will be seen from this exposition, that I concur with the author of this Proclamation, when he says, that "when the terms of our confederation were reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of several States," except, that in order to make it accurate, I desire to amend this expression, by substituting association for confederation. Previously to the formation of this solemn league, the States were united by the vague and uncertain ties of a common interest and a common peril only. But in what this common interest consisted, or what this common danger might
