After struggling for a few years under the cramping and confusing
effects of this system, it was given up, and the Constitution, as framed
in 1787, was adopted. The relations assumed by the States at this time
were marked. By the Articles, each State had retained its sovereignty,
freedom, and independence. By the Constitution, the people and the
States reserved such powers as were not expressly given to the United
States, or prohibited to the States. The omission of the claim to
sovereignty and independence in the Constitution, is as significant as
is its presence in the Articles. It appears as a definite surrender of
those attributes, as complete, as binding, as permanent as language
could make it. Nor must we forget, while the momentous questions of our
times are yet undecided, that sovereignty once surrendered can never be
'resumed.' The relations, the duties, and the attributes of the life to
which it belongs have been completely and forever given up, while those
of another have been as entirely and irrevocably assumed.
The States had thus passed from one into another sphere of existence,
whose relations were as different as their objects. The Articles were a
league of friendship for common defence, the security of liberties, and
the general and mutual welfare. No identity of interest was supposed to
exist or sought to be served. Such needs as were, at the time of the
adoption, felt in common, were provided for, and the States were left to
provide, as best they could, for the others.
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