Confederate & Confederation

Confederate, a. [Low L. confœderatus.] United in a league; allied by treaty; engaged in a confederacy.
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster 1828, Vol I, 45.

CONFEDERATION, n. [Fr. confederaxion; It. confederazione; Low L. confœderatio; con and fœderatio.]

    #1    The act of confederating; a league; a compact for mutual support; alliance; particularly of princes, nations or states.
            The three princes enter into a strict league and confederation. Bacon.
    #2    The United States of America are sometimes called the confederation.
American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster 1828, Vol I, 45

CONFEDERACY. In International Law. An agreement between two or more states of nations, by which they unite for their mutual protection and good. This term is applied to such an agreement made between two independent nations; but it is also used to signify the union of different states of the same nation; as, the confederacy of the states.

The original thirteen states, in 1781, adopted for their federal government the "Articles of confederation and perpetual union between the states." These were completed on the 15th of November, 1777, and, with the exception of Maryland, which afterwards also agreed to them, were adopted by the several states, which were thereby formed into a federal government, going into effect on the first day of March, 1781, 1 Story, Const. § 255, and so remained until the adoption of the present constitution, which acquired the force of the supreme law of the land on the first Wednesday of March, 1789. Owing v. Speed, 5 Wheat. (U. S.) 420, 5 L. Ed. 124. See Articles of Confederation. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, Third Revision (8th Edition)(1914), Volume 1, page 587

Confederation. An agreement or compact between two or more governments.
Law Dictionary, James A. Ballentine, Second Edition, 1948, page 259.

CONFEDERACY. In International Law. A league or agreement between two or more independent states whereby they unite for their mutual welfare and the furtherance of their common aims. The term may be apply to a union so formed for a temporary or limited purpose, as in the case of an offensive and defensive alliance; but it is more commonly used to denote that species of political connection between two or more independent states by which a central government is created, invested with certain powers of sovereignty, (mostly external,) and acting upon the several component states as its units, which, however, retain their sovereign powers for domestic purposes and some others. See Federal Government.

Black’s Law Dictionary 4th Edition (1951), page 386.

CONFEDERATION. A league or compact for mutual support, particularly of princes, nations, or states. Such was the colonial government during the Revolution.

Black’s Law Dictionary 4th Edition (1951), page 386.