V.
In my preceding numbers I have attempted, and as I hope, attempted successfully, to shew, that at the very commencement of the Revolution, the several revolted Colonies assumed upon themselves respectively, to be Free, Sovereign and Independent States; that this their original Sovereignty, so far from being annulled, was but confirmed by the subsequent Declaration of Independence, which had no other objects, than to declare this their new condition to the world, and to justify that which it so declared. In the pursuit of my original plan, I am brought to inquire now, whether this Sovereignty of the several Sates, confirmed as it was by the first great act recorded in our Political history, the Declaration of Independence, was afterwards abrogated, by the second act of this sort, the Articles of Confederation. I could much abbreviate the labour of this examination, probably, by at once opening the latter instrument and reciting its contents. But as my attention has been called to this subject, by the very extraordinary and new doctrines put forth in the Proclamation of the President, which doctrines I have undertaken to review, I shall continue to pursue the course I have already adopted; therefore, before I examine the Articles of Confederation themselves, I will endeavor to clear away all the brushwood growing out of the arguments and narratives of this Proclamation, which I think calculated to conceal the objects of the compact, or to render them obscure.
The Proclamation says, "when the terms of our Confederation were reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of several States, by which they agreed, that they would, collectively, form one nation, for the purpose of conducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign relations."
