(Page 9 of 36) - Federalism and the Concept of Sovereignty authored by Goldford, Dennis.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in Gen-
eral Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for
the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the authority of the
good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That these
United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all
political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought
to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have
full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Com-
merce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of
right do.

When the Declaration says that "these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free

and Independent States," and that "as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to

levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts

and Things which Independent States may of right do," it leaves unresolved the question of

whether one nation or thirteen nations became independent.

The drafters of the Articles of

Confederation, of course, proceeded on the basis of the latter option: they prefaced the

document with the sentence, "To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned

Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting" (emphasis added); they re-

ferred to their document as "Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the

states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,

Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North

Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia;" and they stipulated, most fundamentally, that "Each

state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and

right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Con-

Interestingly, the conventional usage of other languages indicates the persistence of the

pluribus in the unum that our own usage in American English has obscured. In American
English, of course, we would say something like, "The United States is a great power," or
"The United States is in North America." We use, that is, the singular tense of the third
person of the verb to be. In Spanish, by contrast, one would say, "Los Estados Unidos
están en la América del Norte," where están is the plural tense of the third person of the verb
estar. Though we would translate that into English as "The United States is in North Amer-
ica," on a hyper-literal reading of that sentence we would be saying, "The United States are
in North America." The grammar is similar in Italian and French, and even on the non-
Romance language of German, we say, "Die Vereinigten Staaten sind in Nordamerika,"
where sind is the plural tense of the third person of the verb sein. Our language, if not our
constitutional thinking, has produced the consolidation the Antifederalists feared.