Three of them, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, were from the North, and Henry Laurens from the South.

The separate sovereignties whose existence was so persistently alleged by Mr.Benjamin and Mr.Toombs were not represented when independence was conceded.

Mr.Benjamin's conclusion, therefore, was not only illogical, but was completely disproved by plain historical facts.
It seems never to have occurred to Mr.Benjamin, or to Mr.Yulee, or to the Texas senators, or to the Arkansas senators, that the money paid from a common treasury of the nation gave any claim to National sovereignty.

Their philosophy seems to have been that the General Government had been paid in full by the privilege of nurturing new States, of improving their rivers and harbors, of building their fortifications, of protecting them in peace, of defending them in war.

The privilege of leading the new communities through the condition of Territorial existence up to the full majesty of States, was, according to secession argument, sufficient compensation, and removed all shadow of the title or the sovereignty of the National Government, the moment the inhabitants thus benefitted announced their desire to form new connections.