one people. Judge Story, in his "Commentaries" on the Constitution,
seems to imply the contrary, though he shrinks from a direct assertion
of it, and clouds the subject by a confusion of terms. He says: "Now, it
is apparent that none of the colonies before the Revolution were, in the
most large and general sense, independent or sovereign communities. They
were all originally settled under and subjected to the British Crown."
And then he proceeds to show that they were, in their colonial
condition, not _sovereign_--a proposition which nobody disputed. As
colonies, they had no claim, and made no pretension, to sovereignty.
They were subject to the British Crown, unless, like the Plymouth
colony, "a law unto themselves," but they were _independent of each
other_--the only point which has any bearing upon their subsequent
relations. There was no other bond between them than that of their
common allegiance to the Government of the mother-country. As an
illustration of this may be cited the historical fact that, when John
Stark, of Bennington memory, was before the Revolution engaged in a
hunting expedition in the Indian country, he was captured by the savages
and brought to Albany, in the colony of New York, for a ransom; but,
inasmuch as he belonged to New Hampshire, the government of New York
took no action for his release. There was not even enough community of
feeling to induce individual citizens to provide money for the purpose.

There were, however, local and partial confederacies among the New
England colonies, long before the Declaration of Independence. As early
as the year 1643 a Congress had been organized of delegates from
Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, under the style of
"The United Colonies of New England." The objects of this confederacy,
according to Mr. Bancroft, were "protection against the encroachments of
the Dutch and French, security against the tribes of savages, the
liberties of the gospel in purity and in peace."[35] The general affairs
of the company were intrusted to commissions, two from each colony; but
the same historian tells us that "to each its respective local
jurisdiction was carefully reserved," and he refers to this as evidence
that the germ-principle of State-rights was even then in existence.
"Thus remarkable for unmixed simplicity" (he proceeds) "was the form of
the first confederated government in America.... There was no president,
except as a moderator of its