portant to observe, respecting the method of resuming that sovereignty, that our history is no warrant for the assumption that it was first usurped by a revolutionary body, and then gratuitously presented to the American people at large. If the resumption of the sovereignty by the people, was usurpation, the people of each colony, not the people of the whole country as one body, nor the members of the Continental congress, were the original usurpers, and this resumption or usurpation is first seen in the elections of delegates and representatives of the people, and these elections were conducted in each colony by the people thereof, acting by their own authority and sovereign will as expressed in their own election law. It is true that each of the colonies relied upon the general co-operation of all, and that from the beginning, this co-operation was to be directed by a common council of the confederate colonies, composed of delegates from each; the general character, and important political acts of which council, we will next examine.

(2 f) OF THE GENERAL CONGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. 45. Com- The delegates composing this congress were chosen, as position and we have seen, not by the American people at large, either character of as subjects of England, or as citizens of America, but by the this congress. people of each colony, acting as a sovereign people, through

their chosen representatives. No tolerated usurper or body of usurpers was acknowledged to be the source of

1 Volumes upon volumes of political jargon, have latterly been published, which must, by every logical mind, be reduced to this absurd assumption; and this, from Story to Von Holst, is ever repeated in one form or another, as the key note to the chorus of national unity. Heed the voice of wisdom and be wise! 'The Declaration of Independence did not create thirteen sovereign states, but the representatives of the people declared that the former English colonies, under the name which they had assumed of the United States of America, became, from the fourth day of July, 1776, A SOVEREIGN STATE.' Von Holst's Constitutional and Political Hist. of the U. S. p. 6-7. This means, if it means anything, that the Continental congress was an irresponsible body of usurpers, and that this body was the source of all the rights which the people have enjoyed.

power. The people of each colony were the recognized sovereign of the state. They acted by their own authority, and so acting, under their own election law, delegated portions of their sovereign power as they pleased, and to whom they pleased. Thus their deputies in congress were their agents, elected by and from among themselves, or by and from among their elected representatives, and the people of each colony continued to be, throughout the revolution, not only the sovereign, but the source of those powers. which were exercised by their agents in the colonial assembly or in the congress of the colonies.

The composition of the general congress of the colonies was therefore that of a congress of sovereign states, in which each state, however few or numerous its delegates, responded to the call of its name by a single vote.

As a matter of fact, it is very well known that no congress or convention of the colonies or states was ever convened in which the voting was not by colonies or states. Not a congress or convention of the American people, as one state or nation, either by themselves or their representatives, has ever been held, for the obvious reason that the United States are the States United.

Nor were the powers of this congress unlimited. They 46. Its were limited as delegated, viz., by the commissions and in- powers. structions given by each colony or state to the delegates chosen to represent it. The instructions were varied as emergencies seemed to require. But no delegate in this congress assumed to have an authority from the American people at large, or any authority other than that contained in his commission and his instructions from his own particular state. The powers of the delegates at first were indeed little more than advisory. But in proportion as the danger increased, those powers were gradually enlarged, either by letters of instruction from their several constituencies, or by implication arising from a kind of indefinite authority, suited to the unknown exigencies that might arise. That an undefined authority is dangerous, and ought to be intrusted as cautiously as possible, every

man must admit; and none could take more pains than the delegates to congress for a long time did to get their authority equally and regularly defined by a ratification of the Articles of Confederation.1

It will of course be borne in mind, that prior to the first meeting of this congress, May 10th, 1775, hostilities had actually commenced: the people of Massachusetts had resumed to themselves the powers of government, had armed themselves and met the foe in defence of their rights. The attention of Congress was therefore first engaged in devising plans and commending measures to the several colonies, with a view to the vigorous prosecution of the war, and the successful resistance of a military power which theretofore had been deemed irresistible. The course of Massachusetts was approved; her cause was espoused as the cause of all; and early in July, 1775, the delegates in congress united in proclaiming to the world the reasons for the appeal to arms. We are reduced' (said they) 'to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.'

The desire for independence was not, at this time, uni

1 See a review of the powers of this congress by Iredell, Justice, in Penhallow v. Doane's Adm., 3 Dall. 91. From 'tracing the origin of the general powers of congress, from the time of the earliest exercise of their authority to the period when definite and express powers were solemnly and formally given to them by the Articles of Confederation,' that learned judge concludes in these words: 'I conclude, therefore, that every particle of authority which originally resided either in congress, or in any branch of the state governments, was derived from the people who were permanent inhabitants of each province in the first instance, and afterwards became citizens of each state; that this authority was conveyed by each body politic separately, and not by all the people in the several provinces or states jointly; and of course, that no authority could be conveyed to the whole but that which previously was possessed by the several parts; that the distinction between a state and the people of a state, has, in this respect, no foundation, each expression in substance meaning the same thing.' Id. p. 94.

versally entertained. In some of the colonies, the people were still looking forward to a just accommodation of dif ferences, and a final re-union with the parent state. Even so late as November, 1775, the delegates in congress from Pennsylvania were expressly instructed to resist any movement for independence; while in many of the colonies, the soundness of the policy of a public and solemn declaration in accordance with the several positions which they had assumed, had been discussed and freely admitted. Such a declaration, it was thought, should be made in congress; the delegates of each colony being first instructed and clothed with authority in relation thereto. The convention of Virginia, in May, 1776, accordingly resolved, that her delegates in congress be instructed to propose to that body to declare the united colonies free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance to, and dependence on, the king and parliament of Great Britain. The assemblies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York, which had shown the greatest reluctance, and forborne the longest, had now assented to the measure; and on the 7th of June, the resolution was proposed in congress, by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, and seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts, 'That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved.' On the second of July, this resolution was approved, and entered on the journals. The original draft of the declaration had been already prepared by Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia; and, on the memorable fourth of July, having undergone some slight alterations, it was adopted and sanctioned by a unanimous

1Upon the motion for independence, the voting (as on every other question) was by states, and there appears to have been a tie till the vote of Pennsylvania was given. Her vote was also divided; of her five delegates, two were for and two against the proposition, and the casting vote was carried, on the side of independence, by the vote of a single member of her delegation-John Morton. See 'Leiber's Encyclopedia Americana,' Ed. of 1832, Vol. 1x, p. 57; 'Sanderson's Lives of the Signers,' Ed. of 1823, Vol. vi, p. 210; and 'Lossing's Lives of the Signers,' Ed. of 1848.

vote. After having been engrossed it was, on the second of August, signed by the delegates then present; by some, indeed, who had not been appointed until after its adoption. As engrossed and signed, it read as follows:

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.-When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the politi cal bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires, that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:-that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety

1'So faultless had it issued from the hands of its author, that it was adopted as he had prepared it, pruned only of a few of its brightest inherent beauties, through a prudent deference to some of the states.' 'Wirt's Eulogy on Adams and Jefferson.' The authorship of the Declaration by congress was at one time in doubt. But though the author were now unknown, no doubt could well be entertained that he was the same with the author of the Declaration by Virginia of the 29th June, 1776, which, in very many respects, speaks the very same language, views and sentiments. See note to 43, ante. That of Virginia may be found (prefixed to her constitution) in almost any of the publications of the state constitutions prior to the late war.