Government and Administration of the United States | Page 8

within the realm of England.
#The Second Continental Congress.#--On May 10, 1775, assembled the Second Continental Congress, in which all the thirteen colonies were represented. The battle of Lexington had then been fought, and blood had been shed. Though the colonies had as yet no intention of throwing off all connection with England, they were now prepared to resist with arms any invasion of their rights. The work performed by this body has been concisely and forcibly stated by Schouler.[1] He says: "Thus originated that remarkable body known as the Continental Congress, which, with its periodical sessions and frequent changes of membership, bore for fifteen years the symbols of Federal power in America; which, as a single house of deputies acting by Colonies or States, and blending with legislative authority, imperfect executive and judicial functions, raised armies, laid taxes, contracted a common debt, negotiated foreign treaties, made war and peace; which, in the name and with the assumed warrant of the thirteen colonies, declared their independence of Great Britain, and by God's blessing accomplished it; which, having framed and promulgated a plan of general confederation, persuaded these same thirteen republics to adopt it, each making a sacrifice of its sovereignty for the sake of establishing a perpetual league, to be known as the United States of America, a league preserved until in the fullness of time came a more perfect Union."
[Footnote 1: Hist. U.S., Vol. I, p. 13.]
The acts of this Congress were the first legislative acts by the joint action of the colonies.
The Second Continental Congress was essentially a revolutionary body. That is to say, the authority for its acts rested upon no definite grant of powers by the colonies, but was assumed by it to meet the crisis of war. Properly speaking, it could hardly be called a government. It was more in the nature of a directing advisory committee. Its commands possessed a recommendatory character only, and it was entirely without executive officers, or legal control over either individuals or the colonies.
#The Articles of Confederation.#--A stronger central power than that afforded by the Continental Congress was seen to be a necessity. Accordingly, in 1777, there was drawn up a scheme of union embraced in a paper termed "The Articles of Confederation." These articles, though adopted as early as 1777, did not go into effect until 1781, the provision being that they should not be considered as in force until ratified by all the colonies, and several refused to ratify until all state claims to western territory were relinquished in favor of the National Government.
#Elements Tending to Separation and Those Tending to Union.#--We must remember that this was a union of thirteen previously separate colonies. The facts which had tended to keep them apart had been the difficulty of travel and communication between the colonies, the lack of commercial intercourse, but more than all, their local jealousies. The small States feared the larger; commercial jealousies were very keen. In 1756 Georgia and South Carolina actually came to blows over a dispute as to the navigation of the Savannah river. Other disputes about boundaries were frequent. Colonies with good harbors and seaports desired to keep the benefits of them exclusively to themselves. At that time, too, the people of the thirteen colonies were far more widely separated in their forms of government, their industrial habits and social customs than they now are. On the other hand, the old facts which tended to urge on a common union between them were common race, language, and nationality, many similar political institutions, and, most of all, common interests and a common peril.
#The Purposes of the Confederation.#--The purposes of this Confederation are best stated by giving Article III of the Articles:
"The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defense and security of their liberties and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretext whatever."
#Scheme of Government under the Articles of Confederation.#--The Articles of Confederation established a framework of government for the confederated colonies, which government was to control those matters that experience had shown could be executed only by united action. As a scheme of government it was no better than a makeshift. It was an effort to form a federal power without diminishing the powers of the States--an effort "to pare off slices of state government without diminishing the loaf." That such a union could be perpetual, as the scheme professed, was impossible.
Under these Articles of Confederation the sole functions of the federal authority, legislative, executive, and judicial, were vested in a Continental Congress, consisting of a single house of delegates, who voted by States, and