committee, of one member from each colony, to prepare and
digest the form of confederation to be entered into between the
colonies.

That committee reported on the twelfth of July, eight days
after the Declaration of Independence had been issued, a draft
of articles of confederation between the colonies. This draft
was prepared by John Dickinson, then a delegate from
Pennsylvania, who voted against the Declaration of
Independence, and never signed it, having been superseded by
a new election of delegates from that State, eight days after his
draft was reported.

There was thus no congeniality of principle between the
Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.
The foundation of the former was a superintending Providence-
-the rights of man, and the constituent revolutionary power of
the people. That 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
cornerstone of the one was right, that of the other was power....

Where, then, did each State get the sovereignty, freedom, and