t 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 corner stone 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 of the whole Union--not from
the Declaration of Independence--not from the people of the State
itself. It was assumed by agreement between the legislatures of the
several States, and their delegates in Congress, without authority
from or consultation of the people at all.

In the Declaration of Independence, the enacting and constituent
party dispensing and delegating sovereign power is the whole people
of the United Colonies. The recipient party, invested with power, is
the United Colonies, declared United States.

In the articles of confederation, this order of agency is inverted.
Each State is the constituent and enacting party, and the United
States in Congress assembled the recipient of delegated power--and
that power delegated with such a penurious and carking hand that it
had more the aspect of a revocation of the Declaration of
Independence than an instrument to carry it into effect.

None of these indispensably necessary powers were ever conferred by
the State legislatures upon the Congress of the federation; and well
was it that they never were. The system itself was radically
defective. Its incurable disease was an apostasy from the principles
of the Declaration of Independence. A substitution of separate State
sovereignties, in the place of the constituent sovereignty of the
people, was the basis of the Confederate Union.

In the Congress of the confederation, the master minds of James
Madison and Alexander Hamilton were constantly engaged through the
closing years of the Revolutionary War and those of peace which
immediately succeeded. That of John Jay was associated with them
shortly after the peace, i