markable deliberative bodies known to history.

We have seen that the fundamental weakness of the Continental Congress
lay in the fact that it could not tax the people. Hence although it
could for a time exert other high functions of sovereignty, it could
only do so while money was supplied to it from other sources than
taxation; from contributions made by the states in answer to its
"requisitions," from foreign loans, and from a paper currency. But such
resources could not last long. It was like a man's trying to live upon
his own promissory notes and upon gifts and unsecured loans from his
friends. When the supply of money was exhausted, the Congress soon found
that it could no longer comport itself as a sovereign power; it could
not preserve order at home, and the situation abroad may be illustrated
by the fact that George III. kept garrisons in several of our
northwestern frontier towns and would not send a minister to the United
States. This example shows that, among the sovereign powers of a
government, the power of taxation is the fundamental one upon which all
the others depend. Nothing can go on without money.

But the people of the several states would never consent to grant the
power of taxation, to such a body as the Continental Congress, in
which they were not represented. The Congress was not a legislature,
but a diplomatic body; it did not represent the people, but the state
governments; and a large state like Pennsylvania had no more weight in
it than a little state like Delaware. If there was to be any central
assembly for the whole union, endowed with the power of taxation,
it must be an assembly representing the American people just as the
assembly of a single state represented the people of the state.

As soon as this point became clear, it was seen to be necessary to
throw the Articles of Confederation overboard, and construct a new
national government. As was said above, our Federal Congress is not
descended from the Continental Congress. Its parentage is to be sought
in the state legislatures. Our federal government was constructed
after the general model of the state governments, with some points
copied from British usages, and some points that were original and
new.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. What are the reasons for reserving the Constitution of the
United States for the concluding chapter?

2. Circumstances that favoured union of the colonies:--

a. The origin of their inhabitants