quently submitted to and adopted by each of the thirteen colonies in their respective provincial Legislatures.

Thus was distinctly formed between the colonies and the parent country that issue upon which the Declaration of Independence was founded and the battles of the Revolution were fought. It involved the specific claim on the part of the colonies-denied by the King and Parliament-to the exclusive right of legislation touching all local and internal concerns, slavery included. This being the principle involved in the contest, a majority of the colonies refused to permit their delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence except upon the distinct condition and express reservation to each colony of the exclusive right to manage and control its local concerns and police regulations without the intervention of any general Congress which might be established for the United Colonies.

Let us cite one of these reservations as a specimen of all, showing conclusively that they were fighting for the inalienable right of local self-government, with the clear understanding that when they had succeeded in throwing off the despotism of the British Parliament, no congressional despotism was to be substituted for it:

"We, the delegates of Maryland, in convention assembled, do declare that the King of Great Britain has violated his compact with this people, and that they owe no allegiance to him. We have, therefore, thought it just and necessary to empower our deputies in Congress to join with a majority of the United Colonies in declaring them free and independent States, in framing such further confederation between them, in making foreign alliances, and in adopting such other measures as shall be judged necessary for the preservation of their liberties:

'Provided, the sole and exclusive right of regulating the internal polity and government of this colony be reserved to the people thereof.

"We have also thought proper to call a new Convention for the purpose of establishing a government in this colony.

"No ambitious views, no desire of independence, induced the people of Maryland to form an union with the other colonies. To procure an exemption from parliamentary taxation, and to continue to the Legislatures of these colonies the sole and exclusive right of regulating their internal polity, was our original and only motive. To maintain inviolate our liberties, and to transmit them unimpaired to posterity, was our duty and our first wish; our next, to continue connected with and dependent on Great Britain. For the truth of these assertions we appeal to that Almighty Being who is emphatically styled the Searcher of hearts, and from whose omniscience none is concealed. Relying on his Divine protection and assistance, and trusting to the justice of our cause, we exhort and conjure every virtuous citizen to join cordially in defense of our common rights, and in maintenance of the freedom of this and her sister colonies."

The first plan of Federal government adopted for the United States was formed during the Revolution, and is usually known as "The Articles of Confederation." By these articles it was provided that "Each state retains its Sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."

At the time the Articles of Confederation were adopted-July 9, 1778-the United States held no lands or territory in common. The entire countryincluding all the waste and unappropriated lands-embraced within or pertaining to the confederacy, belonged to and was the property of the several states within whose limits the same was situated.

On the 6th day of September, 1780, Congress "recommended to the several states of the Union having claims to waste and unappropriated lands in the

western country, a liberal cession to the United States of a portion of their respective claims for the common benefit of the Union."

On the 20th day of October, 1783, the Legislature of Virginia passed an act authorizing the delegates in Congress from that state to convey to the United States "the territory or tract of country within the limits of the Virginia charter, lying and bearing to the northwest of the river Ohio"-which grant was to be made upon the "condition that the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into States;" and that "the states so formed shall be distinct Republican states, and admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other states."

On the 1st day of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues in Congress executed the deed of cession in pursuance of the act of the Virginia Legislature, which was accepted and ordered to "be recorded and enrolled among the acts of the United States in Congress assembled." This was the first territory ever acquired, held, or owned by the United States. On the same day of the deed of cession Mr. Jefferson, as chairman of a committee which had been appointed, consisting of Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, Mr. Chase, of Maryland, and Mr. Howell, of Rhode Island, submitted to Congress "a plan for the temporary government of the territory ceded or to be ceded by the individual states of the United States."

It is important that this Jeffersonian plan of government for the territories should be carefully considered for many obvious reasons. It was the first plan of government for the territories ever adopted in the United States. It was drawn by the author of the Declaration of Independence, and revised and adopted by those who shaped the issues which produced the Revolution, and formed the foundations upon which our whole American system of government rests. It was not intended to be either local or temporary in its character, but was designed to apply to all "territory ceded or to be ceded," and to be universal in its application and eternal in its duration, wherever and whenever we might have territory requiring a government. It ignored the right of Congress to legislate for the people of the territories without their consent, and recognized the inalienable right of the people of the territories, when organized into political communities, to govern themselves in respect to their local concerns and internal policy. It was adopted by the Congress of the Confederation on the 23d day of April, 1784, and stood upon the statute book as a general and permanent plan for the government of all territory which we then owned or should subsequently acquire, with a provision declaring it to be a "Charter of Compact," and that its provisions should stand as fundamental conditions between the thirteen original states and those newly described, unalterable but by the joint consent of the United States in Congress assembled, and of the particular state within which such alteration is proposed to be made." Thus this Jeffersonian plan for the government of the territories-this "Charter of Compact"-" these fundamental conditions," which were declared to be "unalterable" without the consent of the people of "the particular states (territories) within which such alteration is proposed to be made," stood on the statute book when the Convention assembled at Philadelphia in 1787 and proceeded to form the Constitution of the United States.

Now let us examine the main provisions of the Jeffersonian plan:

First.—“That the territory ceded or to be ceded by the individual states to the United States, whenever the same shall have been purchased of the Indian inhabitants and offered for sale by the United States, shall be formed into additional states," etc. etc.

The plan proceeds to designate the boundaries and territorial extent of the proposed "additional states," and then provides:

Second. "That the settlers within the territory so to be purchased and offered for sale shall, either on their own petition or on the order of Congress, receive authority from them, with appointments of time and place, for their free males of full age to meet together for the purpose of establishing a temporary government to adopt the Constitution and laws of any one of these states (the original states), so that such laws nevertheless shall be subject to alteration by their ordinary Legislature; and to erect, subject to like alteration, counties or townships for the election of members for their Legislature." Having thus provided a mode by which the first inhabitants or settlers of the territory may assemble together and choose for themselves the Constitution and laws of some one of the original thirteen states, and declare the same in force for the government of their territory temporarily, with the right on the part of the people to change the same, through their local Legislature, as they may see proper, the plan then proceeds to point out the mode in which they may establish for themselves "a permanent Constitution and government," whenever they shall have twenty thousand inhabitants, as follows:

Third.-"That such temporary government only shall continue in force in any State until it shall have acquired twenty thousand free inhabitants, when, giving due proof thereof to Congress, they shall receive from them authority, with appointments of time and place, to call a Convention of Representatives to establish a permanent Constitution and government for themselves."

Having thus provided for the first settlers "a temporary government" in these "additional states," and for "a permanent Constitution and government" when they shall have acquired twenty thousand inhabitants, the plan contemplates that they shall continue to govern themselves as states, having, as provided in the Virginia deed of cession, "the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence," in respect to their domestic affairs and internal polity, as the other States," until they shall have a population equal to the least numerous of the original thirteen States; and in the mean time shall keep a sitting member in Congress, with a right of debating but not of voting, when they shall be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the other states, as follows:

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Fourth. "That whenever any of the said states shall have of free inhabitants as many as shall then be in any one of the least numerous of the thirteen original states, such state shall be admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the said original states."

And

"Until such admission by their delegates into Congress any of the said states, after the establishment of their temporary government, shall have authority to keep a sitting member in Congress, with the right of debating, but not of voting.'

Attached to the provision which appears in this paper under the "third" head is a proviso, containing five propositions, which when agreed to and accepted by the people of said additional states, were to "be formed into a charter of compact," and to remain forever "unalterable," except by the consent of such states as well as of the United States-to wit:

"Provided that both the temporary and permanent governments be established on these principles as their basis:

1st.-"That they shall forever remain a part of the United States of America."

2d.-"That in their persons, property, and territory they shall be subject to the government of the United States in Congress assembled, and to the Articles of Confederation in all those cases in which the original states shall be so subject."

3d.-"That they shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts con

tracted, or to be contracted-to be apportioned on them by Congress according to the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other states."

4th.-"That their respective governments shall be in republican form, and shall admit no person to be a citizen who holds any hereditary title."

The fifth article, which relates to the prohibition of slavery after the year 1800, having been rejected by Congress, never became a part of the Jeffersonian plan of government for the territories, as adopted April 23, 1784.

The concluding paragraph of this plan of government, which emphatically ignores the right of Congress to bind the people of the territories without their consent, and recognizes the people therein as the true source of all legitimate power in respect to their internal polity, is in these words:

"That all the preceding articles shall be formed into a charter of compact, shall be duly executed by the President of the United States, in Congress assembled, under his hand and the seal of the United States, shall be promulgated, and shall stand as fundamental conditions between the thirteen original states and those newly described, unalterable but by the joint consent of the United States in Congress assembled, and of the particular state within which such alteration is proposed to be made."

This Jeffersonian plan of government embodies and carries out the ideas and principles of the fathers of the Revolution-that the people of every separate political community (dependent colonies, provinces, and territories, as well as sovereign states) have an inalienable right to govern themselves in respect to their internal polity, and repudiates the dogma of the British ministry and the Tories of that day, that all colonies, provinces, and territories were the property of the empire, acquired with the common blood and common treasure; and that the inhabitants thereof have no rights, privileges, or immunities except such as the Imperial government should graciously condescend to bestow upon them. This plan recognizes by law and irrevocable "compact" the existence of two distinct classes of states under our American system of government the one being members of the Union, and consisting of the original thirteen and such other states, having the requisite population, as Congress should admit into the Federal Union, with an equal vote in the management of Federal affairs, as well as the exclusive power in regard to their internal polity respectively-the others, not having the requisite population for admission into the Union, could have no vote or agency in the control of the Federal relations, but possessed the same exclusive power over their domestic affairs and internal policy respectively as the original states, with the right, while they have less than twenty thousand inhabitants, to choose for their government the Constitution and laws of any one of the original states; and when they should have more than twenty thousand, but less than the number required to entitle them to admission into the Union, they were authorized to form for themselves. "a permanent Constitution and government;" and in either case they were entitled to keep a delegate in Congress with the right of debating, but not of voting. This "Charter of Compact," with its "fundamental conditions," which were declared to be "unalterable" without "the joint consent" of the people interested in them, as well as of the United States, thus stood on the statute book unrepealed and irrepealable-furnishing a complete system of government for all "the territories ceded or to be ceded" to the United States, without any other legislation upon the subject, when, on the 14th day of May, 1787, the Federal Convention assembled in Philadelphia and proceeded to form the Constitution under which we now live. Thus it will be seen that the dividing line between Federal and local authority, in respect to the rights of those political communities which, for the sake of convenience and in contradistinction to the states represented in Congress, we now call territories, but which were then known as "states," or "new

states," was so distinctly marked at that day that no intelligent man could fail to perceive it.

It is true that the government of the Confederation had proved totally inadequate to the fulfillment of the ends for which it was devised; not because of the relations between the territories, or new states and the United States, but in consequence of having no power to enforce its decrees on the Federal questions which were clearly within the scope of its expressly delegated powers. The radical defects in the Articles of Confederation were found to consist in the fact that it was a mere league between sovereign states, and not a Federal government with its appropriate departments-executive, legislative, and judicial each clothed with authority to perform and carry into effect its own peculiar functions. The Confederation having no power to enforce compliance with its resolves, "the consequence was, that though in theory the resolutions of Congress were equivalent to laws, yet in practice they were found to be mere recommendations, which the states, like other sovereignties, observed or disregarded according to their own good-will and gracious pleasure." Congress could not impose duties, collect taxes, raise armies, or do any other act essential to the existence of government, without the voluntary consent and coöperation of each of the states. Congress could resolve, but could not carry its resolutions into effect-could recommend to the states to provide a revenue for the necessities of the Federal government, but could not use the means necessary to the collection of the revenue when the states failed to comply-could recommend to the states to provide an army for the general defense, and apportion among the states their respective quotas, but could not enlist the men and order them into the Federal service. For these reasons, a Federal government, with its appropriate departments, acting directly upon the individual citizens, with authority to enforce its decrees to the extent of its delegated powers, and not dependent upon the voluntary action of the several states in their corporate capacity, became indispensable as a substitute for the government of the Confederation. In the formation of the Constitution of the United States the federal Convention took the British Constitution, as interpreted and expounded by the colonies during their controversy with Great Britain, for their model-making such modifications in its structure and principles as the change in our condition had rendered necessary. They intrusted the executive functions to a President in the place of a King; the legislative functions to a Congress composed of a Senate and House of Representatives, in lieu of the Parliament consisting of the House of Lords and Commons; and the judicial functions to a Supreme Court and such inferior courts as Congress should from time to time ordain and establish.

Having thus divided the powers of government into the three appropriate departments, with which they had always been familiar, they proceeded to confer upon the federal government substantially the same powers which they as colonies had been willing to concede to the British government, and to reserve to the states and to the people the same rights and privileges which they as colonies had denied to the British government during the entire struggle which terminated in our independence, and which they had claimed for themselves and their posterity as the birth-right of all freemen, inalienable when organized into political communities, and to be enjoyed and exercised by colonies, territories, and provinces as fully and completely as by sovereign states. Thus it will be seen that there is no organic feature or fundamental principle embodied in the Constitution of the United States which had not been familiar to the people of the colonies from the period of their earliest settlement, and which had not been repeatedly asserted by them when denied by Great Britain during the whole period of their colonial history.

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