On November 15, 1777, there came from the Congress at Philadelphia another suggestion, this time a proposal to the thirteen nations that they, already allied in an existing war, should form a permanent union or federation of nations. With that proposal went a drafted set of constitutional Articles, having for their purpose the establishment of a government (to be called a Congress) for the proposed federation, some of which Articles would give to that government ability to govern the members of the union, the thirteen nations. The proposal and the constitutional Articles were sent, for ratification or rejection, to the legislature of each nation as its proper attorney in fact in creating a _federal_ union of nations and in giving _federal_ ability to govern, which _federal_ ability never directly interferes with individual freedom. Let us reflect upon the accurate knowledge of the science of government again shown by the Americans of that generation in that proposal. Only a few short months earlier there had come, from the same men at Philadelphia, the proposal that _national_ government be established in each nation. These men at Philadelphia had been subjects of the British Government until July, 1776. All government ability to interfere with human freedom, then as now, under British law, had its source in a legislature, the Westminster Parliament. And yet these men at Philadelphia, in the summer of 1776, had accurately known that, under basic American law, _such_ government ability could only have one valid source, direct action by the citizens themselves assembled in conventions. Acting on this knowledge in the summer of 1776, the suggestion that government in each state be given _national_ power to govern, namely, ability directly to interfere with individual freedom, had come as a suggestion to the citizens of each nation for their own direct action. That suggestion had been followed, and thus had been exercised, for the first time since Americans ceased to be subjects, the inherent and inalienable and always existing ability of the citizens of a free nation to make any kind of constitutional Articles of government, including the _national_ kind which give government any power to interfere with individual freedom.