Congress again re-convened a momentous change had taken place, which
was, in fact, the beginning of the American Commonwealth. The Congress
became by force of circumstances a provisional government, and as such
it might well have claimed plenary powers to meet an immediate exigency.
So indisposed were they to separate from England or to substitute for
its rule that of a new government, that the Continental Congress, when
it then involuntarily took over the government of America, failed to
exercise any adequate power. It remained simply a conference without
real power. Each colony had one vote and the rule of unanimity
prevailed. Even its decisions were largely advisory, for they amounted
to little more than recommendations to the constituent States as to what
measures should be taken. Each colony complied with the recommendation
in its discretion and in its own way. Notwithstanding this fatal lack of
authority, the Continental Congress, then actually engaged in civil war,
created an army, and, through its committees, entered into negotiations
with foreign nations. To support the former, it issued paper money, with
the disastrous result that could be readily anticipated. While it had a
presiding officer, it had no executive, and the new nation, which was
hardly conscious of its own birth, had no judiciary.

Had this _de facto_ government assumed the plenary powers which
provisional governments must, under similar circumstances, necessarily
assume, it would have been better for the cause of the colonists. For
want of an efficient central government, the civil administration of the
infant nation was marked by a weakness and incapacity that defeated
Washington's plans and nearly broke his spirit. Washington's little army
was the victim of the gross incapacity of an impotent government. The
soldiers came and went, not as the general commanded, but as the various
colonies permitted. The tragedy of Valley Forge, when the little army
nearly starved to death, and literally the soldiers could be tracked