necessary for _one people_ to dissolve the political bands which
have connected them with another," etc., etc. This, he says,
characterizes "the good people" of the colonies as "one people."

Plainly, it does no such thing. The misconception is so palpable as
scarcely to admit of serious answer. The Declaration of Independence
opens with a general proposition. "One people" is equivalent to saying
"_any_ people." The use of the correlatives "one" and "another" was the
simple and natural way of stating this general proposition. "One people"
applies, and was obviously intended to apply, to all cases of the same
category--to that of New Hampshire, or Delaware, or South Carolina, or
of any other people existing or to exist, and whether acting separately
or in concert. It applies to any case, and all cases, of dissolution of
political bands, as well as to the case of the British colonies. It does
not, either directly or by implication, assert their unification, and
has no bearing whatever upon the question.

When the colonies united in sending representatives to a Congress in
Philadelphia, there was no purpose--no suggestion of a purpose--to merge
their separate individuality in one consolidated mass. No such idea
existed, or with their known opinions could have existed. They did not
assume to become a united colony or province, but styled themselves
"united colonies"--colonies united for purposes of mutual counsel and
defense, as the New England colonies had been united more than a hundred
years before. It was as "_United States_"--not as a state, or united
people--that these colonies--still distinct and politically independent
of each other--asserted and achieved their independence of the
mother-country. As "United States" they adopted the Articles of
Confederation, in which the separate sovereignty, freedom, and
independence of each was distinctly asserted. They were "united States"
when Great Britain acknowledged the absolute freedom and independence of
each, distinctly and separately recognized by name. France and Spain
were parties to the same treaty, and the French and Spanish idioms still
express and perpetuate, more exactly than the English, the true idea
intended to be embodied in the title--_les Etats Unis_, or _los Estados
Unidos_--the States united.

It was without any change of title--still as "United States"--without
any sacrifice of individuality--without any compromise of
sovereignty--that the same parties