l with those of
Pennsylvania--but the following proviso was added: "So, always, and
provided, that such alterations or further provisions, or any of them,
do not extend to that part of the fifth article of the Confederation of
the said States, finally ratified on the first day of March, in the year
1781, which declares that, '_in determining questions in the United
States in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote_.'"

Rhode Island, as has already been mentioned, sent no delegates.

From an examination and comparison of the enactments and instructions
above quoted, we may derive certain conclusions, so obvious that they
need only to be stated:

1. In the first place, it is clear that the delegates to the Convention
of 1787 represented, not _the people of the United States_ in mass, as
has been most absurdly contended by some political writers, but _the
people_ of the several States, _as States_--just as in the Congress of
that period--Delaware, with her sixty thousand inhabitants, having
entire equality with Pennsylvania, which had more than four hundred
thousand, or Virginia, with her seven hundred and fifty thousand.

2. The object for which they were appointed was not to organize a _new_
Government, but "solely and expressly" to amend the "Federal
Constitution" already existing; in other words, "to revise the Articles
of Confederation," and to suggest such "alterations" or additional
"provisions" as should be deemed necessary to render them "adequate to
the exigencies of the Union."

3. It is evident that the term "Federal Constitution," or its
equivalent, "Constitution of the Federal Government," was as freely and
familiarly applied to the system of government established by the
Articles of Confederation--undeniably a league or compact between States
expressly retaining their sovereignty and independence--as to that
amended system which was substituted for it by the Constitution that
superseded those articles.

4. The functions of the delegates to the Convention were, of course,
only to devise, deliberate, and discuss. No validity could attach to any
action taken, unless and until it should be afterward ratified by the
several States. It is evident, also, that what was contemplated was the
process provided in the Articles of Confederation for their own
amendment--first, a recommendation by the Congress; and, afterward,
ratification "by the Legislatures of every State," before the amendment
should b