d down in terms so clear, so explicit, so unequivocal, the foundation
of all just government, in the imprescriptible rights of man, and the
transcendent sovereignty of the people, and who in those principles had
set forth their only personal vindication from the charges of rebellion
against their king, and of treason to their country, that their last
crowning act was still to be performed upon the same principles. That
is, the institution, by the people of the United States, of a civil
government, to guard and protect and defend them all. On the contrary,
that same assembly which issued the Declaration of Independence, instead
of continuing to act in the name and by the authority of the good people
of the United States, had, immediately after the appointment of the
committee to prepare the Declaration, appointed another committee,
of one member from each colony, to prepare and digest the form of
confederation to be entered into between the colonies.

That committee reported on the twelfth of July, eight days after the
Declaration of Independence had been issued, a draft of articles of
confederation between the colonies. This draft was prepared by John
Dickinson, then a delegate from Pennsylvania, who voted against the
Declaration of Independence, and never signed it, having been superseded
by a new election of delegates from that State, eight days after his
draft was reported.

There was thus no congeniality of principle between the Declaration of
Independence and the Articles of Confederation. The foundation of the
former was a superintending Providence--the rights of man, and the
constituent revolutionary power of the people. That of the latter was
the sovereignty of organized power, and the independence of the separate
or dis-united States. The fabric of the Declaration and that of the
Confederation were each consistent with its own foundation, but they
could not form one consistent, symmetrical edifice. They were the
productions of different minds and of adverse passions; one, ascending
for the foundation of human government to the laws of nature and of
God, written upon the heart of man; the other, resting upon the basis
of human institutions, and prescriptive law, and colonial charter. The
cornerstone of the one was right, that of the other was power....

Where, then, did each State get the sovereignty, freedom, and
independence, which the Articles of Confederation declare it
retains?--not from the whole people