independence, which the Articles of Confederation declare it
retains?--not from the whole people of the whole Union--not
from the Declaration of Independence--not from the people of
the State itself. It was assumed by agreement between the
Legislatures of the several States, and their delegates in
Congress, without authority from or consultation of the people
at all.

In the Declaration of Independence, the enacting and
constituent party dispensing and delegating sovereign power is
the whole people of the United Colonies. The recipient party,
invested with power, is the United Colonies, declared United
States.

In the Articles of Confederation, this order of agency is
inverted. Each State is the constituent and enacting party, and
the United States in Congress assembled the recipient of
delegated power--and that power delegated with such a
penurious and carking hand that it had more the aspect of a
revocation of the Declaration of Independence than an
instrument to carry it into effect.

None of these indispensably necessary powers were ever
conferred by the State Legislatures upon the Congress of the
federation; and well was it that they never were. The system
itself was radically defective. Its incurable disease was an
apostasy from the principles of the Declaration of
Independence. A substitution of separate State sovereignties,
in the place of the constituent sovereignty of the people, was
the basis of the Confederate Union.