legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of
reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable
power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist than from
those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise
concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole
and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on
the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and
the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling
Providence which had so signally protected this country from the
first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of
little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces
the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted
up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and
launched into an ocean of uncertainty.

The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary war,
supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order
sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of society. The
Confederation which was early felt to be necessary was prepared
from the models of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the
only examples which remain with any detail and precision in
history, and certainly the only ones which the people at large had
ever considered. But reflecting on the striking difference in so
many particulars between this country and those where a courier
may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single
day, it was then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in
Congress at the formation of it that it could not be durable.

Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations,
if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but