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By Root 1906 0

Since 1774 the Continental Congress had effectively conducted war and diplomacy in the name of the separate provinces of British North America. But if Americans were “to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate & equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s god entitle them,” they had to demonstrate that they were a power—that is, a nation-state-like other nations. Equally important, Congress recognized the need to clarify the boundaries between its authority and that of the states. It had to define the extent of its own authority while recognizing other powers that would remain lodged with the states. Further, it had to find ways to accommodate different interests among the states, based on their respective extent, their population, and the nature of their economies.

As Congress was readying to declare independence, the committee chaired by John Dickinson was preparing to report its draft of a confederation. Congress debated this draft extensively during July and August 1776. Three issues soon emerged as major barriers to agreement: the rule of voting in Congress; the rule for apportioning the expenses of war among the states; and the control of unsettled western lands in the interior of the continent. Disagreement on these points and the more urgent demands of the war led Congress to put the Articles aside in late August 1776.

Congress resumed debate on the confederation in the spring of 1777, only to find that the same issues remained intractable. Finally, in October 1777, in exile at York, Pennsylvania, following the British occupation of Philadelphia, Congress finally mustered the determination to complete the task. The great American victory at Saratoga gave Congress reason to hope that France would now enter the war on its side, and having a completed confederation to demonstrate that Americans could indeed form a nation would give Britain’s old enemy an additional incentive to make a new alliance.

—Thomas Jefferson—

NOTES OF PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS

JULY 12-August 1, 1776

[JULY 12-AUGUST, 1, 1776]

ON FRIDAY JULY 12 the Committee appointed to draw the articles of confederation reported them and on the 22d the house resolved themselves into a committee to take them into consideration. On the 30th and 31st of that month & 1st of the ensuing, those articles were debated which determined the,proportion or quota s of money which each state should furnish to the common treasury, and the manner of voting in Congress. The first of these articles was expressed in the original draught in these words. ‘Art. XI. All charges of war & all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, or general welfare, and allowed by the United states assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several colonies in proportion to the number of inhabitants of every age, sex & quality, except Indians not paying taxes, in each colony, a true account of which, distinguishing the white inhabitants, shall be triennially taken & transmitted to the assembly of the United states.’

Mr. Chase15 moved that the quotas should be fixed, not by the number of inhabitants of every condition, but by that of the ‘white inhabitants.’ He admitted that taxation should be alwais in proportion to property; that this was in theory the true rule, but that from a variety of difficulties it was a rule which could never be adopted in practice. The value of the property in every state could never be estimated justly & equally. Some other measure for the wealth of the state must therefore be devised, some standard referred to which would be more simple. He considered the number of inhabitants as a tolerably good criterion of property, and that this might alwais be obtained.he therefore thought it the best mode which we could adopt, withone exception s only. He observed that negroes are property, and as such cannot be distinguished from the lands or personalties held in those states where there are few slaves. That the surplus of profit which a Northern farmer is able to lay by, he invests