One Special
Article, The Eleventh, Enjoins That "Canada, Acceding To The
Confederation, And Joining In The Measures Of The United
States,
shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of this
Union; but no other colony shall be
Admitted into the same unless
such admission be agreed to by nine States." I mention this to show
how strong was the expectation at that time that Canada also would
revolt from England. Up to this day few Americans can understand
why Canada has declined to join her lot to them.
But the compact between the different States made by the Articles of
Confederation, and the mode of national procedure therein enjoined,
were found to be inefficient for the wants of a people who to be
great must be united in fact as well as in name. The theory of the
most democratic among the Americans of that day was in favor of
self-government carried to an extreme. Self-government was the
Utopia which they had determined to realize, and they were unwilling
to diminish the reality of the self-government of the individual
States by any centralization of power in one head, or in one
parliament, or in one set of ministers for the nation. For ten
years, from 1777 to 1787, the attempt was made; but then it was
found that a stronger bond of nationality was indispensable, if any
national greatness was to be regarded as desirable. Indeed, all
manner of failure had attended the mode of national action ordained
by the Articles of Confederation.
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