It will be seen, in the further development of the period which followed the establishment of this Confederation, down to the calling of the Convention which framed the Constitution, that what I have called the great office of the Confederation, in our political system, was indeed a function of vast importance to the happiness of the American people, but, at the same time, was one that was necessarily soon fulfilled, to be followed by a more perfect organization for the accomplishment of the objects and the satisfaction of the wants which it brought in its train. This office of the Confederation was, to demonstrate to the people of the American States the practicability and necessity of a more perfect union. The Confederation showed to the people of these separate communities, that there were certain great purposes of civil government, which they could not discharge by their separate means; that independence of the crown of Great Britain could not be achieved by any one of them, unassisted by all the rest; that no one of them, however respectable in population or resources, could be received and dealt with, by the governments of the world, as a nation among nations;--but that, by union among themselves, by some political tie, which should combine all their resources in the hands of one directing power, and make them, in some practical sense, one people, it was possible for them to achieve their independence, and take a place among the nations. The Confederation made it manifest, that these consequences could be secured. It did not, indeed, answer all the purposes, or accomplish all the objects, which had been designed or hoped from it: it was defective as a means; but it taught the existence of an end, and demonstrated the possibility of reaching that end, by showing that in some form, and for some purposes, a union of the States was both possible and necessary. It thus made the permanent idea of union familiar to the people of the different States. It did more than this. It created a larger field for statesmanship, by creating larger interests, to be managed by that higher order of men, who could rise above local concerns and sectional objects, and embrace within the scope of their vision the happiness and welfare of a continent. It introduced to men's minds the great ideas of national power and national sovereignty, as the agencies that were to work out the difficult results, which no local power could accomplish; and, although these ideas were at first vague and indefinite, and made but a slow and difficult progress against influences and prejudices of a narrower kind, they were planted in the thoughts of men, to ripen into maturity and strength in the progress of future years. When the eagle grasped in his talons the united shafts of power, and unfurled the scroll which taught that one people could be formed out of many communities, the destiny of America was ascertained.[154] FOOTNOTES: