of California 
 i Regional 
 Facilit
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 SCHOOL OF LAW
 
 OUE CONSTITUTION
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 WHY AND HOW IT WAS MADE 
 WHO MADE IT, AND WHAT IT IS 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD WATERMAN TOWNSEND 
 
 XZW YORK 
 
 MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 
 
 1906
 
 T 
 TUi<U 
 
 190C 
 
 Copyright, 1906, by 
 
 MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 Published, October, 1906 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 J. F. TAPLEY CO., NEW YORK
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 17 
 
 Stuart Kings' influence in shaping Ameri- 
 can destiny Political training of the 
 early Colonists Bred in struggles for po- 
 litical liberties First settlers in Virginia 
 Prompt protests against misgovernment 
 Proprietary government in Maryland 
 Connecticut's Constitution inspired by 
 Hooker All Colonies secure 'some degree 
 of representative government Three suc- 
 cessful Colonies founded by Liberals ban- 
 ished from Massachusetts New York's 
 turbulent beginning Carolina founded 
 for poor debtors Government in all Colo- 
 nies gradually assumes similar forms 
 Ideas of political freedom develop fast. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BEGINNINGS OP UNION 42 
 
 The Mayflower compact Its political im- 
 portance questioned Hooker's sermon in- 
 
 750689
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 spiration for first American Constitution 
 An early government by the people in 
 Connecticut First Confederation of Colo- 
 nies in New England "Leister's Con- 
 gress" of 1690 Sovereign, but short-lived 
 Penn's suggestion for consolidating the 
 "Provinces" Jefferson proposes a plan of 
 union Adopted by the Albany Congress, 
 but rejected by British Government 
 Strain on relations between Colonies and 
 Great Britain James Otis and Patrick 
 Henry speak for Independence Stamp 
 Act Congress The 1765 Declaration of 
 Rights The tea tax Committees of Cor- 
 respondence Non-importation The Bos- 
 ton Tea Party The Congress of 1774 
 Parliament refuses to hear Franklin 
 War begins The Continental Congress 
 gives Washington command of the army 
 Issues the Declaration of Independence ' 
 Frames the Articles of Confederation. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 71 
 
 Washington's army gains independence 
 for Colonies Which Great Britain ac- 
 knowledges by the treaty of 1783 The 
 Continental Congress lacks popular sup-
 
 CONTENTS 7 
 
 PAGE 
 
 port Political quacks disturb the States 
 Washington urges the States to form an 
 indissoluble union The Articles not ade- 
 quate for their purpose The drift toward 
 anarchy Movement for a Constitu- 
 tional Convention Delegates appointed 
 A notable company of statesmen and pa- 
 triots Washington made president of 
 convention Pen-pictures of the delegates 
 The roll-call Intense political interest 
 Proceedings behind locked doors But 
 Madison reports for history Randolph 
 submits a groundwork plan Why Rhode 
 Island alone was not represented How 
 the delegates worked Sentiment for 
 strong Federal government Washing- 
 ton's immortal speech. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 105 
 
 Worship of the Constitution Glad- 
 stone's famous comment Marshall and 
 Bryce The enacting clause Purposes of 
 the Constitution Legislative powers 
 House of Representatives Short and long 
 term arguments Qualifications of Repre- 
 sentatives and direct taxes Slavery a 
 question The first great Compromise
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dr. Franklin suggests prayers The Sen- 
 ate Equal representation The Vice- 
 President Impeachments Congress reg- 
 ulates election of its .members Each 
 House is judge of qualification of its mem- 
 bers Pay of Congressmen Salary 
 "grabs" Separating the legislative from 
 the executive departments. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 142 
 
 The House originates revenue bills A 
 concession to the large States How the 
 President may approve or veto legislation 
 The most important grant to Congress 
 Taxing for "protection" and taxing for 
 revenue Direct taxes seldom laid The 
 income tax Once collected, later declared 
 unconstitutional The borroicing power 
 Paper bills unintentionally made legal ten- 
 der A natural power of government not 
 prohibited is permitted Commerce regu- 
 lation,, foreign and interstate A brief 
 clause with tremendous consequences Re- 
 sult of another Compromise To regulate 
 commerce NewEngland agrees to slavery 
 Authority for naturalizing foreigners, to 
 coin money, to conduct postal affairs
 
 CONTENTS 9 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Great economic value of the patent system 
 Congress controls the army pay Pro- 
 viding for the seat of government Im- 
 plied powers of Congress Their vast 
 scope, aided by the "general welfare" 
 clause How the Constitution has devel- 
 oped. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 165 
 
 Limiting the powers of Congress Impor- 
 tation of slaves Period of permission 
 limited The habeas corpus Derived 
 from Magna Chart a Bills of attainder 
 and ex post facto laws prohibited What 
 they are Direct taxes shall be in propor- 
 tion to population Export duties prohib- 
 ited Preference for domestic ships Con- 
 gress holds the purse-strings Fear in 
 1787 of titles of nobility Limiting the 
 rights of the States Nearly all sovereign 
 powers denied to them The nation to be 
 not only a federation Also to be a consoli- 
 dation Some rights expressly granted, 
 some implied Convention working with 
 greater facility The Chief Executive 
 Varied ideas concerning the Presidency 
 Thirteen different lengths of term suggest- 
 ed The puzzle how to elect Electoral
 
 10 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 College slow of adoption First successful 
 working of the plan Its failure Its 
 amendment The electoral commission of 
 1876 Qualifications for the Presidency 
 The succession after the Vice-President 
 President's duties and powers Greatness 
 of the office. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 194 
 
 Instituting the Federal courts Great in- 
 fluence of the Supreme Court in determin- 
 ing character of our Government Its 
 broad construction of the Constitution 
 Inferior Federal courts Circuit and dis- 
 trict Extent of the power of Federal 
 court Checked by an early amendment 
 The Bill of Rights amendments affect judi- 
 cial powers Treason Giving comfort to 
 an enemy States must give credit to each 
 other's acts and records Requisition of 
 fugitives from justice From slavery A 
 clause which helped toward the Civil War 
 New States Convention knew many 
 would apply The great domain to be 
 ruled as Territories How and when Ter- 
 ritories are admitted to Statehood The 
 national guarantee of Democracy By a 
 Republican form of government Hamil-
 
 CONTBNTS 11 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ton's undemocratic views His later 
 change of opinion When Federal troops 
 give aid to States The Constitution is the 
 supreme law of the land State officials 
 must be bound by oath to support it No 
 religious test for office Signing the con- 
 vention's finished work A Bill of Rights 
 not thought necessary A pleasant close to 
 their long labor. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 211 
 
 Old Congress receives new Constitution 
 Objections to it Madison to its defense 
 It is proposed to the States Washington's 
 letter transmitted with it Antifederal- 
 ists oppose it os a party Its friends rally 
 as the Federalists Faults which were al- 
 leged General demand for Bill of Rights 
 Excitement throughout the country 
 Madison's powerful aids in Virginia Del- 
 aware first to ratify Patrick Henry's 
 plan for Southern Confederacy Defeated 
 by Georgia's ratifying Massachusetts' 
 strong convention Samuel Adams' uncer- 
 tainty New Hampshire the ninth and de- 
 ciding State Famous Fourth of July, 
 1788 Hamilton's hard fight in New York
 
 12 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Old Congress calls for the new Wash- 
 ington elected President of United States 
 First Congress proposes Bill of Rights 
 amendments Resemblance to English 
 Bill of Rights of 1689 Other amendments 
 Conclusion. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 235 
 
 Magna Charta (1215) Plymouth Com- 
 pact (1620) Fundamental Orders of 
 Connecticut (1639) Bill of Rights (Par- 
 liament, 1689) Franklin's Plan of Union 
 (1754) Declaration of Rights (Colonial, 
 1765) Declaration of Independence 
 (1776) Ordinance for the Northwest 
 Territory (1787). 
 
 ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 288 
 
 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMER- 
 ICA 298 
 
 STATISTICS OF THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES 319
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE purpose of this book is to tell the story of the 
 incentives, making, ratification and amendment of our 
 Constitution. The plan is, first, to narrate something 
 of those conditions in England which influenced the 
 political sentiments of early American colonists and 
 the significant events in the founding of the Colonies, 
 in order that readers shall have in mind what char- 
 acter of political bodies united under the Constitution. 
 Next is shown the growth of the idea of union, the 
 causes which strengthened and spread it and the forms 
 in which it was expressed in famous documents. This 
 carries the narrative through the period of govern- 
 ment under the Articles of Confederation up to the 
 time when public opinion resulted in the call for the 
 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention. Then some- 
 thing is told of the men who met in the Convention, 
 how they worked, contended, compromised and finally 
 submitted the Constitution they had framed to the 
 people; of the struggle for its ratification, the early 
 demand for the first ten Amendments, and the election 
 of Washington as the first President under its pro- 
 vision. Finally the story tells what were the causes 
 which led to the further amendment of the Constitu- 
 tion, and what it is to-day as developed by custom and 
 interpreted by courts. 
 
 No pretense is made that any hitherto unused ma- 
 terial is used in this book: its claim for usefulness 
 
 13
 
 14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 rests upon its scope and plan, the selection of material 
 and the sequence and manner of presenting it. Its 
 facts are taken from a multitude of works telling 
 either much more or much less; works ranging from 
 leaflets on a single minor event, to ponderous histories 
 having so much more ground to cover that the one 
 story told here in full is there necessarily but sketched. 
 The author's observation has convinced him that the 
 want of a plainly told story of our Constitution is re- 
 sponsible for the lack of general knowledge of what 
 he here seeks to impart. If this book give to only a 
 few people a little more knowledge about our Consti- 
 tution the author will be repaid if it stimulate a 
 further search in the rich storehouse of American 
 history he will be more than repaid. 
 
 EDWARD WATERMAN TOWNSEND. 
 Montclair, New Jersey, 1906.
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 
 
 THE tendency and spirit of political belief in Eng- 
 land during the period of the founding of the Ameri- 
 can Colonies had such an intimate relation with the 
 causes of Colonial political movements, so great an 
 influence in shaping their effects, that it is necessary 
 here first to consider them a little. Edward VI, in- 
 fluenced by Cranmer, first Protestant Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, had made England officially Protestant. 
 Bloody Mary, Edward's successor, burnt Cranmer, and 
 endeavored to restore the English Church to Borne; 
 but John Knox had returned to Scotland from preach- 
 ing in Geneva, where Calvin had established a Re- 
 public, and was more Calvinistic than his great 
 teacher. The Protestants were growing stronger when 
 Elizabeth, succeeding Mary, began her long reign, and 
 what was then deemed religious toleration permitted 
 Puritanism to flourish and gain courage, though its 
 efforts to regulate the Established Church were un- 
 availing. But in 1603, James I, a Stuart, succeeded 
 Elizabeth on the English throne, and we soon begin 
 to see the causes which sent such a zealous company 
 of political and religious reformers to America. "The 
 Stuarts," says a thoughtful German historian, "by 
 their arrogance, their exaggerated idea of the sacred- 
 ness of their authority, their severity, caprioiousness 
 
 17
 
 .18 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 and obstinacy were totally unfitted to be rulers." Yet, 
 to such a ruler, a thousand Puritan ministers sent a 
 petition praying for the reform of what they deemed 
 abuses in the Anglican Church. James, "the wisest 
 fool in Christendom," heard only those who opposed 
 the Puritans, lectured the petitioners roughly, and 
 denied all they asked. That was the famous Hampton 
 Court Conference whose decision quickened the emi- 
 gration of Puritans from England. Some of those 
 who fled to find freedom from what were to them 
 hateful religious ceremonies, went to Leyden, in Hol- 
 land ; and of that number, some, dissatisfied with their 
 Dutch surroundings, made the first English settlement 
 in New England. Most of those who followed, whether 
 Puritan, Episcopalian or Catholic, took with them to 
 America some measure of the political beliefs which 
 were growing and expanding in England. 
 
 Englishmen had long had Constitutional rights, for 
 in 1215, King John was forced to grant the Magna 
 Charta, which gave the suffrage not only to the great 
 feudal lords and the inferior nobility, but to a lower 
 grade of citizens, made regulations for the benefit of 
 the whole nation, prohibited arbitrary taxes, provided 
 regular courts of justice, and that no man could be 
 tried except by the law of the land. While English- 
 men had not always freely exercised their Constitu- 
 tional rights, these had not been lost sight of; so, when 
 James I began to display his exaggerated ideas of the 
 absolutism of his powers, Parliament had answered: 
 "Our liberties are our freehold, and the fairest flower 
 that groweth in the garden of the Commons, and if 
 they be once nipped they will never grow again." Such 
 was the political spirit moving those who were going 
 to America during the reign of James I.
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 19 
 
 Then came Charles I to the English throne, at a 
 time when on the Continent royalty had nearly every- 
 where regained unlimited power; in Spain, Italy and 
 Austria rulers were again absolute, in France the 
 kings would have no States-General, the ancient As- 
 sembly of Nobles, Clergy and Citizens. So Charles, 
 too, sought absolutism. Two powerful aids to this 
 end were the Earl of Strafford with the Star Chamber, 
 and Bishop Laud with the High Commission. The 
 Star Chamber assumed the power to decide questions 
 relating to the property, liberty, even life of any 
 Englishman, and Strafford used it to enrich Charles; 
 the High Commission was used by Laud to punish the 
 enemies of Charles and he deemed every one his 
 enemy who denied his right to absolutism. English- 
 men recalled their Magna Charta, and a Parliament 
 passed the Petition of Eight, a statutory restriction of 
 the power of the Crown, which Charles answered by 
 dismissing Parliament. If his lawmakers would not 
 lay taxes for him the Earl of Strafford would and the 
 Ship Money tax was imposed. Hampden, a cousin of 
 Cromwell, refused to pay a tax not levied by Parlia- 
 ment, and went to jail the more deeply to impress upon 
 his countrymen his protest against an unconstitutional 
 ruler. Then Charles tried Parliament again, and they 
 passed the Grand Remonstrance, threatening, when 
 the Lords obstructed, that the Commons would "save 
 the country alone." Strafford and Laud were be- 
 headed, the English and Scotch Parliaments were al- 
 lied against the King and raising troops; a civil war 
 for Constitutional rights was fought, Charles lost his 
 head on the scaffold; and Parliament ruled under the 
 Agreement of the People of the people, but 6y the 
 army. Then came Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of
 
 20 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the Commonwealth of England, with his Constitution, 
 the Instrument of Government, adopted by Cromwell 
 and his Council of Officers. The Puritans numbered 
 but one-tenth of the nation, yet they could raise up 
 one of their number to rule England and dictate laws 
 to Europe. Knox had been trained in the Republic of 
 Geneva. Political liberty was part of the Puritan re- 
 ligion. Such were the times which impressed political 
 ideas on the English who emigrated to America dur- 
 ing the reign of Charles I, the rule of the Parliament, 
 and of Cromwell, from 1625 to 1660. 
 
 Cromwell died; the majority, opposed to Puritanism, 
 brought back two more Stuarts, Charles II until 1685, 
 and James II for the three following years. Charles 
 attempted monstrous usurpations of his subjects' 
 rights, and Parliament in self-defense passed the Ha- 
 beas Corpus Act, "one of the chief guards of English 
 liberty." Charles saved the succession to the English 
 throne for his scandalous brother James only by dis- 
 missing Parliament when it was about to pass a bill 
 to exclude him. But James's rule was short: he was 
 soon driven from England by the great Revolution of 
 1688, which sent him to die in exile. William and 
 Mary were called to the throne, but they first had to 
 subscribe to the principles declared in the Bill of 
 Rights (of which we shall hear much in connection 
 with our Constitution), passed by Parliament for the 
 guidance of the new rulers. That bill, says Macaulay, 
 "contained the germ of the law which gave religious 
 freedom to the Dissenter, of the law which secured 
 the independence of the judges, of the law which lim- 
 ited the duration of Parliament, of the law which 
 placed the liberty of the press under the protection of 
 juries, of the law which prohibited the slave trade, of
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 21 
 
 the law which abolished the sacramental test, of the 
 law which relieved the Roman Catholics from all civil 
 disabilities, of the law which reformed the representa- 
 tive system, of every good law which has been passed 
 during a hundred and sixty years." Such were the 
 events which inspired political opinions in the minds 
 of the English who came to America in the reigns of 
 the Stuarts after the Restoration. 
 
 Not all those early emigrants from England to 
 America were Puritans: there were Episcopalians, 
 Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics; but they 
 had all been through struggles for political liberty, 
 rebellions against absolutism; they were all familiar 
 with some degree of Constitutional government. Per- 
 haps it was inevitable, in the conditions of greater lib- 
 erty enjoyed by the Colonies, that, among the descend- 
 ants of such settlers, there should at last come a de- 
 mand for complete political freedom separation from 
 England even had they not suffered a single one of 
 the wrongs charged against George III in the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. 
 
 Not until 1607 was a permanent settlement of Eng- 
 lishmen made in the territory which became the State 
 of Virginia, nor was any organized commercial or 
 political attempt made to found a colony there until 
 that year, although as early as 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh 
 sent out the first of his unsuccessful private expedi- 
 tions. In 1606, King James I gave to two commercial 
 companies charters bestowing upon them all the terri- 
 tory in America from 34 to 45 north latitude; that is, 
 as we might now roughly describe it, from where the 
 northern boundary of South Carolina meets its coast 
 line to the point of meeting of Maine's northern bound- 
 ary and its coast line. With this enormous grant of
 
 22 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 land James also gave a political charter which, as a 
 working plan of colonial government, was inexpedient 
 and cumbersome, and little effort to administer under 
 it was ever made. Among its many details it pro- 
 vided for each Colony two councils, one to be ap- 
 pointed by the Crown, the second to be of residents 
 to be appointed by the Royal Council. The nearest 
 approach to a guarantee of the colonists' rights as 
 loyal English subjects, was a clause providing that 
 "whoever shall dwell and inhabit within every and 
 any of our several Colonies * * * shall have and 
 enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities * * * 
 as if they had been abiding and born within this our 
 realm of England." The most striking political prin- 
 ciple of the charter was a provision for the communal 
 holding of land and other property; and if, as has been 
 suggested was the fact, James was the author of the 
 charter, it is an interesting thought that communism, 
 as a political practice, was first imposed upon an 
 American people by a king! The men who organized 
 the Virginia expedition were little concerned with 
 the political aspect of the venture; they were familiar 
 with company control of trade, as with the Baltic and 
 the East Indies, and it was as in a commercial trading 
 business, rather than as in a colonization effort, that 
 they interested themselves and invested their money. 
 That they looked for large and immediate returns 
 seems probable when we consider the general belief in 
 England at that time concerning America. This belief 
 is reflected in an English play written in 1605, in which 
 a character named Seagull, speaking of America, says, 
 "Gold is more plentiful there than copper with us. 
 Why, man, all their dripping pans are of pure gold, 
 and all their chains, with which they chain up their
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 23 
 
 streets, are massive gold, and for rubies and diamonds 
 they go forth in holidays and gather them up by the 
 seashore to hang on their children's coats." 
 
 An idle, discontented, reckless company of men, 
 numbering about one hundred and fifty, were enrolled 
 for the first expedition which left England in three 
 small ships early in the year and landed in James- 
 town on the 13th of May, 1607. They found not gold 
 and rubies, but a rich soil to be cleared for planting, 
 and defended from crafty and hostile savages. There 
 were a few men of courage, intelligence and honesty 
 in the company; but only one, Captain John Smith, 
 seems to have possessed, besides the qualities of cour- 
 age and honesty, those of a leader capable of recog- 
 nizing the conditions, and of knowing what to do when 
 confronted with the problem of meeting such condi- 
 tions with a sorry crew of dazed and disappointed men. 
 He brought about enough military organization to 
 repel Indian attacks, soon made friends with the In- 
 dians and traded with them for food needed to keep 
 his companions from starving; induced his thriftless 
 "gentlemen" to perform some labor in planting, and 
 building forts; and did most of the things which pre- 
 served the colonists during those first two dark years. 
 But he did not find gold, did not even report favorably 
 on the commercial prospects and was censured by 
 the Company. A successor was sent out with author- 
 ity to rule under martial law without the advice of a 
 Council ; so the earliest change in the colonists' politi- 
 cal state deprived them of even such vague rights as 
 were first granted to them. In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale 
 was appointed Governor, and during his administra- 
 tion the colony had its first strong growth. This was 
 chiefly owing to his repeal of the charter provision for
 
 24 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 communal holding of land, and his introduction of 
 individual proprietorship. This infused energy into 
 agriculture, induced a better class of immigrants and 
 gave strength, solidity and comparative wealth to the 
 Colony. 
 
 Dale was succeeded in 1617 by Thomas Argall, a 
 forthright rascal who robbed and misgoverned the 
 colonists until he aroused them to a protest which 
 had an important and lasting effect upon their politi- 
 cal condition. Fortunately for the struggling settlers, 
 the protest they sent to England was received just 
 when the current of patriotic feeling which was to 
 result in the Commonwealth was gaining strength, and 
 their grievances reached not only the Company but 
 the public, and sermons and pamphlets aided their 
 cause. Finally they were represented in London by an 
 informed and sympathetic spokesman, George Yeard- 
 ley, who had served in Virginia as a deputy under 
 Dale. The London Company, as the commercial body 
 holding the Virginia charter was called, was reorgan- 
 ized, a number of statesmen prominent in the patriotic 
 movement were elected members of its controlling 
 board, and among them, it is interesting to note, was 
 the Earl of Southampton, friend and patron of Shake- 
 speare. The reorganized Company, supported by pub- 
 lic opinion and intelligently advised by Yeardley, gave 
 the colonists more than they had asked for: they had 
 prayed only for the recall of the obnoxious Argall, but 
 in addition to this boon a greater one was granted. 
 Yeardley, now Sir George, returned to Virginia as 
 Governor and carried with him a new charter under 
 which the colonists were permitted to elect a repre- 
 sentative Assembly, the first to exist in America. 
 Yeardley, in 1719, issued a call for an election, and the 
 
 ~ s
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 25 
 
 thankful Virginians responded by sending twenty-two 
 representatives from eleven local areas known vari- 
 ously as hundreds, towns, cities, gifts, and plantations. 
 To this Assembly was given the name of House of 
 Burgesses, which suggests that the chief local unit 
 was the borough, or town. In the same year the first 
 cargoes of slaves were landed in Virginia by Dutch 
 and English privateers, and a law of the Burgesses 
 of that year recognizes the institution of slavery. 
 
 In 1621, a written constitution was granted to the 
 colonists, confirming the rights less formally granted 
 two years before, and specifying others. This, the first 
 written constitution for a political body in America, 
 was the work of Sir Edwin Sandys, a reformer in- 
 tensely disliked by King James, who denounced the 
 London Company and its affairs, as conducted under 
 the influence of Sandys, as "a seminary for a seditious 
 Parliament." James demanded the surrender of the 
 Company's charter, which was refused. The King then 
 procured a writ of quo warranto, a proceeding under 
 which a court enquires by what right a person or cor- 
 poration holds a public office, franchise or privilege. 
 The court which heard the case decided, in 1624, that 
 the charter was forfeited. This ended Virginia's exist- 
 ence as a corporation colony and inaugurated its 
 career as a Royal Colony; ended the first and began 
 the second period of Virginia's political history. There 
 was no immediate change in the young State's rela- 
 tions with the mother country; James continued Sir 
 Francis Wyatt as Governor, as did his son, Charles I, 
 who succeeded to the English throne in 1625. During 
 the reign of Charles the Colony prospered materially, 
 and as the King's own troubles at home, due to the 
 political unrest which resulted in his execution and
 
 26 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the supremacy of Cromwell, kept his attention fully 
 occupied, the Burgesses, without royal interference, 
 enacted a number of laws tending to strengthen the 
 independence of the local government. 
 
 But, while emphasizing their freedom in local af- 
 fairs, the Virginians remained intensely loyal, and 
 lamented the execution "murder," they called it of 
 Charles, and threatened resistance to the commission 
 sent out by Cromwell in 1652 to secure the Colony's 
 submission to the Commonwealth. The spirit of re- 
 bellion seems to have subsided with but little friction, 
 judging from the fact that the Assembly elected the 
 three successive Puritan Governors without coercion 
 by Parliament. The Colony did, however, clash with 
 Cromwell in another and more important matter; one 
 which marked the beginning of the precise kind of 
 mother-country interference with American affairs 
 which finally led to the Revolution. In 1642, Sir Wil- 
 liam Berkeley was sent by Charles as Governor of Vir- 
 ginia, and took with him royal commands to enforce 
 a shipping law requiring that colonial products be 
 shipped to English ports only. Berkeley never made 
 a serious attempt to enforce this restrictive measure, 
 but Cromwell did; and his Parliament passed the 
 famous Navigation Acts which provided that no 
 products be imported into English ports except in 
 English ships or the ships of the producing country. 
 Another Act provided that "None of the products of 
 the English plantations or factories * * * in * * * 
 America shall be carried elsewhere (except to other 
 plantations) till they be first landed in England, under 
 forfeiture of ships and cargoes." Virginia refused to 
 obey these laws with such show of spirit that Crom- 
 well did not coerce her, and thus again the colonists
 
 BEGINNINGS OP STATES 27 
 
 gained courage and confidence in the spirit of re- 
 bellion against unjust laws. When the Common- 
 wealth ended, and the Stuarts were restored to the 
 English throne, Virginia, under Charles II and James 
 II, from 1660 to 1688, maintained tranquil relations 
 with the royal government, obtaining from Charles, in 
 1680, the right for its House of Burgesses to sit 
 separately, instead of jointly with the royal council, 
 as had been the custom. 
 
 Then for three-quarters of a century there occurred 
 in the fast-growing State but few political changes 
 which we need to consider as affecting the Colony's 
 political status. Like all the other colonies whose 
 Governors were appointed by the Crown, Virginia was 
 in continual strife of more or less turbulence, main- 
 tained on behalf of the popular-rights majority by a 
 vigilant and assertive Assembly, on behalf of the 
 Tories who believed in royal prerogative, by the 
 Crown Governors. Virginia's government at this 
 period, and as it remained until the Revolution, was 
 a Colonial copy of the royaj British model: the Gov- 
 ernor represented the King, the Council and House of 
 Burgesses represented Parliament. The Governor pos- 
 sessed the veto power as to all legislation, and could 
 convoke and dissolve the Assembly. The Council, 
 twelve in number, was appointed by the Governor. 
 The Burgesses, in 1760, numbered one hundred and 
 ten, two from each county and one each from James- 
 town, Williamsburg, Norfolk, and from William and 
 Mary College. The right to vote for Burgesses was 
 restricted to freeholders possessed of real and personal 
 estate valued at more than one hundred pounds. An 
 Act, to become a law, must be passed by each House 
 separately, approved by the Governor and ratified by
 
 28 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 
 
 the King. The right to trial by jury was unques- 
 tioned. 
 
 Had the great Duke of Buckingham not been of- 
 fended by the Spaniards in the negotiations for the 
 , marriage of the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I, 
 with the Princess of Spain, Maryland might have re- 
 mained a part of Virginia. There was in the King 
 James Council one Sir George Calvert who strongly 
 urged the marriage. This he said he did because the 
 honor of England was involved, but it was charged 
 that, being a Catholic, he urged the marriage because 
 it would strengthen the cause of Catholicism. Calvert 
 was a wise and discreet man who knew that even the 
 friendship of James would not save him politically if 
 he continued to oppose Buckingham, so he withdrew 
 from office, was made Baron Baltimore by James, and 
 asked of the Sovereign as a further favor a grant of 
 land in America. Lord Baltimore was familiar with 
 Colonial affairs, having settled the business of the Vir- 
 ginia Company when its charter was forfeited. James 
 made him a grant of the territory of Maryland, which 
 grant was confirmed to his son, Cecil, the second Lord 
 Baltimore, by Charles I, when the first lord and 
 James I were both dead. The delay in the confirma- 
 tion was owing to protests by Virginia against this 
 grant of land supposed to belong to that Colony. 
 
 Cecil, carrying out his father's policy, sought a 
 refuge for his fellow-Catholics, rather than to found a 
 Catholic State, and the expedition he sent out under 
 his brother Leonard, of about 300 colonists, numbered 
 as many Protestants as Catholics. They landed March, 
 1634, on the east shore of the Potomac, a little above 
 where it empties into Chesapeake Bay, and founded 
 there the town of St. Marv. Besides the rich terri-
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 29 
 
 tory given outright to Lord Baltimore, he was granted 
 by Charles "as ample rights, jurisdiction, privileges, 
 prerogatives, royalties, liberties, immunities and royal 
 rights as any Bishop of Durham within the Bishopric 
 or County Palatine of Durham within our kingdom 
 of England." A palatine is a noble invested with 
 royal privileges, and a county palatine is a county 
 over which a noble or bishop had sovereign jurisdic- 
 tion, as, at that time, had the Bishop and Count Pala- 
 tine of Durham County. Therefore, it is seen, Lord 
 Baltimore had transferred to him, in addition to the 
 absolute ownership of the province of Maryland, rights 
 of sovereignty inherent in the Crown ; hence Maryland, 
 a proprietary Colony, was sometimes called the Pala- 
 tinate. Besides holding title to all the land the Pro- 
 prietary controlled all patronage, lay and clerical, 
 from Governor down to the smallest office. In the 
 early years, before the settlements and plantations ex- 
 tended over a large area, the freemen assembled at 
 St. John to consult with the Governor's Council re- 
 garding legislation, but as the area of settlement grew, 
 they sent representatives to a House of Burgesses, and 
 in 1647 the two law-making bodies sat separately. To 
 some degree, legislation was controlled by the Pro- 
 prietary until the Kevolution, except, of course, dur- 
 ing the two periods when Maryland was a Crown 
 Colony. But there, as in Virginia, and other Colonies, 
 the representatives from time to time gained conces- 
 sions of legislative powers, and insisted with grow- 
 ing spirit upon freedom to regulate their local affairs, 
 and were in frequent opposition to the Proprietary 
 over questions of taxation. But the Calverts were 
 wise rulers, tolerant beyond their time in religious 
 legislation, and in executive acts relating to the colo-
 
 30 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 nists' worldly affairs notably free from unjust exerctee 
 of their extraordinary powers. 
 
 Cromwell interrupted the Calvert rule by sending to 
 Maryland a Commission to take charge of the Colony, 
 but the Commission imposed such oppressive meas- 
 ures against "Catholics, Episcopalians, and everybody 
 else who disagreed with the Puritans" that even Crom- 
 well rebuked their excessive zeal by restoring the 
 Colony to the Proprietary, who at once re-enacted the 
 Toleration Act of 1649. The second interruption to 
 Proprietary rule occurred soon after William and 
 Mary became Sovereigns of England. Lord Balti- 
 more's messenger, with orders for Maryland to pro- 
 claim the new Sovereigns, died at sea, and the message 
 was not delivered. The resulting delay of the Colony 
 in proclaiming its loyalty caused William to declare 
 Maryland a royal Colony, in 1691. But Benedict Cal- 
 vert, fourth Lord Baltimore, became a Protestant in 
 1715, and the Crown restored to him all his inherited 
 rights in Maryland. These in turn were inherited by 
 his son, Charles, and finally by Frederic, sixth and last 
 Lord Baltimore. In all, the Calverts were less at- 
 tacked by their Assemblies than were the Governors 
 of other Colonies, and this was because of their popu- 
 larity, earned by their liberality; they were less sub- 
 jected to assaults on their rights in England because 
 there, too, their high character as rulers was recog- 
 nized. Their chosen capital, St. John, was abandoned 
 by the Royalists during the second interruption of the 
 Proprietary rule, and Providence, now Annapolis, then 
 a Puritan stronghold, became the capital. In 1732 the 
 Proprietary, at the request of the Burgesses, agreed 
 that in all cases not provided for by Colonial statutes, 
 English law should prevail.
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 31 
 
 Connecticut is usually classed as a Charter Colony, 
 sometimes as a republic, and one writer designates it, 
 as many do the United States, as a democratic repub- 
 lic. If we should call Connecticut the Constitutional 
 Colony the name would at least remind us that it was 
 the first Colony to administer its government under a 
 written constitution, and, more important, that it 
 adopted, in 1639, the "first written Constitution which 
 created a government." In 1633, a little party from 
 Plymouth Colony Plymouth and Massachusetts were 
 then separate Colonies, as, later, were Connecticut and 
 New Haven went into the Connecticut valley and 
 founded the town of Windsor. A second company, re- 
 cruited from the Dorchester congregation, soon left 
 Massachusetts and founded the town of Wethersfield 
 in the Connecticut valley, and in 1636 the most impor- 
 tant desertion from the Bay Colony took place, when 
 Thomas Hooker, minister of Newtown, with a follow- 
 ing of about one hundred of his congregation, walked 
 through the intervening wilderness and founded the 
 third town of the valley, Hartford. 
 
 It would be interesting to review at length the 
 causes of the emigration of those Puritans from the 
 Puritan stronghold; but all that we need to recall is 
 this: In 1629, John Endicott, one of the patentees 
 under the charter of the Massachusetts Company, ex- 
 pelled two ministers because they had collected a con- 
 gregation to whom they read the Church of England 
 service. In 1631, Massachusetts enacted a law that 
 no one might be a freeman unless he belonged to a 
 church but, it seems, that if he belonged to the Epis- 
 copal Church he would be expelled and a little later 
 the law was altered so that a non-churchman might 
 not even vote at a town meeting. In 1633, Thomas
 
 32 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Hooker, a powerful preacher and, as the event proved, 
 the wisest statesman numbered among the early 
 Puritans in America, came from Holland, where he 
 had lived a few years to escape religious persecution 
 in England, and was made minister of Newtown. He 
 was opposed to the religious test for citizenship, and 
 wrote to Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts: "In 
 matters which concern the common good, a general 
 council chosen by all, to transact business which con- 
 cerns all, I conceive most suitable to rule and most 
 safe for the relief of all." It is interesting to make a 
 comparison of that view of government and another: 
 
 "A council (govern- 
 ment) chosen by all, to 
 transact business for all, 
 is most suitable to rule 
 for all." 
 
 "Government of the 
 people, by the people, for 
 the people, shall not per- 
 ish from the earth." 
 
 The three Connecticut towns, Windsor, Wethers- 
 field, and Hartford, were united, in 1639, into the 
 Colony of Connecticut by a constitution known as the 
 Fundamental Orders, which will be considered in an- 
 other division of this work. In that same year John 
 Davenport, a minister, and Theophilus Eaton, a Lon- 
 don merchant, founded the town and Colony of New 
 Haven, under a compact which accepted the Scrip- 
 tures as affording all rules necessary for the govern- 
 ment of civil affairs as well as moral conduct. 
 
 John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts Governor, 
 with whom Hooker had differed, and a man of more 
 democratic views than his father, was chosen Gover- 
 nor of Connecticut in 1657, and a few years later went 
 to England, where he secured the charter for the Gov- 
 ernor and Company of Connecticut, which gave royal
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 33 
 
 sanction to the Constitution of the young republic set 
 up by the men who had fled from the intolerant gov- 
 ernment of Massachusetts. The charter confirmed to 
 the freemen the right to choose the Governor, Deputy 
 Governor, assistants and representatives. One clause 
 stipulated that the colonists should not make laws 
 contrary to those of England, a formal restriction 
 which did not arrest the growth or limit the freedom 
 of the colonists. One important provision of the char- 
 ter immediately enlarged and strengthened Connecti- 
 cut by including within its territory and jurisdiction 
 the New Haven settlements. This absorption New 
 Haven resisted until threatened with annexation by 
 New York. 
 
 Once the charter of Connecticut was threatened: 
 In 1675, the Royal Privy Council created a standing 
 committee called the Lords of the Committee of Trade 
 and Plantations, generally called the Lords of Trade. 
 In 1677, this committee sent out a commission, at the 
 head of which was Edward Randolph, to inquire into 
 Colonial affairs. Some charges Randolph made against 
 Connecticut were discovered to be of so serious a 
 nature that the King proceeded against its charter by 
 quo warranto. Randolph had, indeed, made serious 
 charges, among them the undoubtedly true one that 
 Connecticut was an independent government. It 
 proved its independence by refusing to surrender the 
 charter; and its calm and wise politicians kept the 
 question open until the accession of William and Mary, 
 when, in 1790, the charter (said to have been hidden in 
 an oak tree when demanded by the nominal Governor- 
 General, Andros) was declared by the law courts to 
 be legally intact as it certainly was physically. In 
 1776, the General Court of Connecticut adopted the
 
 34 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 charter as the State Constitution, and as such it re- 
 mained until the United States Constitution had been 
 in operation a score of years. 
 
 Few of Connecticut's hardships and sufferings and 
 she had many, as did all of the Colonies came from 
 within, or from England; but from Indian wars and 
 boundary disputes with her neighbors. She was, po- 
 litically, the most serene of the Colonies, distracted 
 less than any of the others by wrangles over religious 
 questions or contests for political rights. 
 
 We have now seen how one each of the three classes 
 of Colonies settled into the political organization 
 which they retained until the separation from Great 
 Britain; of the other ten, each falls into one of those 
 classes: Pennsylvania and Delaware, Proprietary Col- 
 onies; Rhode Island, a Constitutional Colony; and the 
 others. Crown Colonies. A few words about each will 
 display the most important facts relating to their po- 
 litical birth and growth, and that is all that we need 
 to recall to have in mind what is necessary before we 
 proceed from the beginnings of the States to the be- 
 ginnings of the Union. 
 
 Henry Hudson, an English navigator, was employed 
 by the Dutch East India Company when, in 1609, he 
 discovered and explored the waters now known as the 
 Bays of New York, and the Hudson River. The Dutch 
 traders who followed in his course built up a profit- 
 able business in furs, and established settlements from 
 the lower end of Manhattan Island to the head of 
 navigation on the Hudson, and ruled the territory 
 until, in 1664, the English captured the New Nether- 
 lands, as the Dutch called their settlements. Charles 
 II granted to his brother, the Duke of York, after- 
 wards James II, all the territory between the Connec-
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 35 
 
 ticut and the Delaware rivers, and an English com- 
 mission attempted to rule the country under what 
 were known as the Duke's Laws. In 1673, England 
 and Holland were again at war; the Dutch retook New 
 York and kept it for a year, when it was restored to 
 England by the treaty of peace. For nearly twenty 
 years the Dutch-English Colony endured without 
 much protest many changes and experiments in gov- 
 ernment, but in 1691 it obtained the familiar Colonial 
 form of government: a Governor appointed by the 
 Crown, a Council of twelve appointed by the Gover- 
 nor, nnd an elective Assembly. 
 
 That portion of the vast grant to the Duke of York 
 south of the Hudson wns granted in turn by the Duke 
 to two favorites, and made an appendage to New York 
 by him when he ascended the throne as James II, in 
 1688. The proprietaries failed utterly in their efforts 
 to establish in New Jersey such a political body as 
 had the Lords Baltimore in Maryland, and in 1702 
 Iheir rights were surrendered to Queen Anne. New 
 Jersey then obtained a degree of local government, 
 but remained in part under the government of New 
 York until it, too, secured a government of its own as 
 a Crown Colony. 
 
 In 1620, a party of one hundred and two persons 
 landed at Cape Cod and set up the first permanent po- 
 litical organization in New England. They were 
 known as Separatists: they wished to found a church 
 separate from the Established Church of England, and 
 bound themselves, politically, by a pledge known as 
 the Mayflower Compact. It pleases some historians to 
 assert that the settlers there founded a democratic 
 republic, but just how democratic their republic was 
 may be judged from the introductory language of the
 
 36 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Compact: "We> the loyal subjects of our dread Sov- 
 ereign, King James, by the grace of God King, de- 
 fender of the faith, etc., having undertaken for the 
 honor of our King, to plant the first Colony in the 
 northern parts of Virginia, do," etc. This they sub- 
 scribed to "in the year of the reign of our Sovereign 
 Lord, King James," etc. Thus the Plymouth Colony 
 was founded. 
 
 In 1629, a royal charter incorporated the Governor 
 and Company of Massachusetts Bay, which sent out 
 ships with many settlers, who founded Boston and 
 neighboring towns. These settlers were Puritans, and 
 their charter government was administered in great 
 part by ministers, who made many orderly provisions 
 for the conduct of churches, towns and schools, but 
 enacted a religious test for voting. By 1634 the 
 Colony not only elected its Assembly, but Gov- 
 ernor as well, and administered oaths of allegiance 
 not to the King, but to the government of the 
 Colony. Having begun well, the good men of the 
 Colony devoted so much of their great energy to 
 fierce and bitter religious controversy that they failed 
 to keep a strong hold on their charter, which was an- 
 nulled by the King in 1684; and "with the charter were 
 swept away representative government, and every 
 right and every political institution reared during half 
 a century of conflict." But a new generation, more 
 jealous of political than religious rights, had grown 
 to manhood; many immigrants had arrived, who were 
 less enamored of theological controversy than were 
 the earliest Puritan settlers, and out of these new 
 forces developed that sturdy insistence on political 
 rights and burning desire for freedom which was to 
 make Massachusetts the mother of so many famous
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 37 
 
 American patriots. Aftef the loss of its charter, 
 Massachusetts was governed for a time by a Royal 
 Commission, whose Governor, Andros, met with such 
 determined opposition in his career of oppression, that 
 the politically rejuvenated colonists cut short his offi- 
 cial misdeeds by arresting him, in 1689, and sending 
 him back to England a prisoner. Two years later the 
 Colony was granted a new charter, not so liberal in 
 its grants of rights as the original one, but broader 
 in that it provided that no religious test should be re- 
 quired of voters. 
 
 In 1636, Roger Williams, a Welshman, and a min- 
 ister too liberal for his time and place, was expelled 
 by Massachusetts, and, with a few followers, founded 
 Rhode Island. He was aided by Mrs. Hutchinson, 
 also expelled from Massachusetts for her perverse re- 
 ligious views, who, with some followers, settled near 
 Williams's little company. Williams went to England 
 in 1643 and obtained royal permission to give his 
 Colony any kind of government it desired. The ene- 
 mies of his independence harassed him in his efforts 
 for a time, but in 1654 he succeeded in uniting all the 
 town of his Colony and was elected President. Ten 
 years later his agent in England secured a charter for 
 the Governor and Company of Rhode Island, and it, 
 like Connecticut, became a Constitutional Colony. 
 This charter remained the Constitution for Rhode 
 Island until 1842. 
 
 Wheelwright, a minister banished from Massachu- 
 setts for his religious opinions, founded a church and 
 town at Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1638. Other exiles 
 from Massachusetts founded other churches and towns 
 at Dover and Hampton, but they remained under the 
 political domination of Massachusetts until 1679, when
 
 38 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Charles II erected their settlements into the separate 
 Colony of New Hampshire, with a government of a 
 President and Council appointed by the Crown, and 
 an Assembly chosen by the people. New Hampshire 
 was harassed for three-quarters of a century by claim- 
 ants for land under an old grant ; she suffered terribly 
 from Indian wars and depredations; was annoyed and 
 threatened by boundary disputes; was afflicted by 
 some of the worst Governors sent out from England, 
 but with unfailing bravery and perseverance con- 
 quered where less hardy, less fearless settlers would 
 have failed. 
 
 Dutch traders made settlements on the Delaware 
 River in 1623; a few years later the Swedish West In- 
 dia Company planted trading posts and forts there; 
 in 1641, New England settlers appeared ; in 1663, com- 
 missioners claimed all the territory involved in the 
 three conflicting settlements, in the name of the Duke 
 of York. Disputes, and even armed conflicts, make up 
 the story of the early settlements, until the appearance 
 of William Penn, in 1682. The year before he had ob- 
 tained a grant of territory which Charles II directed 
 should be called Pennsylvania. Penn made such 
 promises of just government and fair land offers that 
 settlers followed him in great numbers. He effected 
 a peaceful settlement of the conflicting claims of the 
 Delaware Colony and gave it a separate legislature, 
 while keeping it under his governorship. The union of 
 Pennsylvania and Delaware continued until 1691, 
 when the smaller Colony was granted a complete 
 separate system of government. Penn died in 1718, 
 and the affairs of the Colony were administered by his 
 heirs until the Revolution, with no more conflicts be- 
 tween the Proprietaries and the Legislature than
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 39 
 
 seemed necessary to the healthful growth of even a 
 Quaker State. 
 
 James Oglethorpe, soldier, statesman and philan- 
 thropist, obtained a grant of land in America for a 
 novel purpose. As a member of Parliament he had 
 secured legislation for the relief of the condition of 
 imprisoned debtors, but his interest in the unfortunate 
 class did not stop there. With a company of thirty- 
 five families, most of them recent inmates of debtors' 
 prisons, he founded the town of Savannah, Georgia, in 
 1733. He dreamed of a work of philanthropy : it failed, 
 but he founded a State. The government was by the 
 Trustees of the chartered company, acting, for ten 
 years, through Oglethorpe. The Colony, restricted in 
 manj unwise ways by laws of the Trustees, languished 
 until, in 1752, the charter was turned over to the 
 Crown. Then, under royal Governors and repre- 
 sentative Assemblies, it made rapid and excellent 
 progress. 
 
 Within ten years from the founding of Virginia, 
 settlers from that Colony had gone into the country 
 south, but it was not until 1629 that Charles I granted 
 to Sir Robert Heath the "Province of Carolina." Noth- 
 ing politically came of this, nor of grants in the same 
 territory made by the Virginia Burgesses, in 1653. 
 The formal political existence of the Carolinas began 
 as a Proprietary Colony under grants made by Charles 
 IT to some of the men who had helped him regain the 
 English throne for the House of Stuart. These Pro- 
 prietaries ruled the colonists badly, until, despairing 
 of success and tired of the turbulence of the people, 
 they sold out their rights to the Crown in 1731. Three 
 years later the boundary line between North Carolina 
 and South Carolina was determined, and from that
 
 40 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 time until the Revolution both Colonies were governed 
 in much the same way as the other Crown colonies. 
 
 As we have now seen, there was a close likeness in 
 the forms of government in the thirteen Colonies; 
 variations between them, politically, being rather in 
 the administration of the laws than in the laws them- 
 selves. They formed an uninterrupted territory for 
 nearly a thousand miles along the Atlantic Coast; 
 none had settlements far into the interior; all were 
 subject to the danger of Indian outbreaks, all appre- 
 hensive of encroachment by the French. These simi- 
 lar conditions favored a similar development of politi- 
 cal ideas and aspirations. The colonists were learn- 
 ing lessons of self-rule, and moving in the direction of 
 purely representative government faster than was the 
 mother country. That was a great cause of the final 
 separation. For a century before the Revolution the 
 differences between the Colonies and England, until 
 those final ones, were caused more by the growth of 
 the American idea of representative government than 
 by England's application of laws, unusual at that time, 
 in the relations of a Sovereign State with its Colonies. 
 In other words, the strain on the tie between England 
 and her Colonies was caused by the faster forward 
 movement in the Colonies of the representative gov- 
 ernment idea, than because that idea in England stood 
 still or retrograded. 
 
 See how far towards independence the Colonies had 
 grown: in each there were three branches of govern- 
 ment, executive, legislative and judicial; the legisla- 
 tures in ten of the Colonies consisted of two Houses; 
 in every Colony the people elected the more numerous 
 branch of the Legislature (where there were two
 
 BEGINNINGS OF STATES 41 
 
 branches), and in some also elected the upper or less 
 numerous branch. These representative legislatures 
 voted local taxes, made local laws which Colonial 
 courts adjudicated. The Colonies were practical 
 schools for teaching representative government, and 
 their apt scholars were learning faster than their 
 brothers in the mother country who had less oppor- 
 tunity for study, for, relatively, fewer men voted for 
 Members of Parliament in England than voted for 
 Colonial Houses of Legislature in America. A people 
 so rapidly advancing in knowledge and practice of 
 self-government would naturalh' grow less amenable 
 to control from beyond seas less submissive to inter- 
 ference in their political affairs, and would seek the 
 best means of escape from control, or from interfer- 
 ence. That means was union among themselves, and 
 we shall now consider how the means came to be 
 adopted.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 
 
 IN many accounts of American beginnings of govern- 
 ment by the people, the Mayflower Compact is spoken 
 of as something in the nature of a fundamental law, 
 a form of government, or constitution. Readers will 
 find the text of the Compact in the final chapter, and 
 they are urged to read it, and all other texts of 
 documents as they shall be referred to. Attention 
 has already been called to the extent of democratic 
 spirit moving those who drew up and signed that Com- 
 pact, and beyond that it seems expedient only to quote 
 three characteristic opinions concerning it. Henry 
 Cabot Lodge says: "They landed at Cape Cod, and 
 there formed a democratic republic by the famous 
 Compact of the Mayflower." John Fiske says: "Such 
 a compact is, of course, too vague to be called a con- 
 stitution. Almost any kind of civil government might 
 have been formed under the Mayflower Compact." 
 Alexander Johnston says: "That instrument was 
 based upon no political principle whatever. It * * * 
 had not a particle of political significance, nor was 
 democracy an impelling force in it." 
 
 Less than a score of years later a convention was 
 held at Hartford, Connecticut, which formed a consti- 
 tution, a State and a union. We have seen that 
 Thomas Hooker, with part of his Newtown congrega- 
 
 43 '
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 43 
 
 tion, went from Massachusetts to the valley of the 
 Connecticut in 1636, and founded the town of Hart- 
 ford. That truly great and good man at once preached 
 a liberality in politics which gave inspiration for the 
 constitution he soon helped to frame. There is pre- 
 served a portion of a sermon delivered by Hooker, only 
 a few months before the Hartford convention, in which 
 he spoke from. Deuteronomy i 13-15: "Take you wise 
 men and understanding, and known among your 
 tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. * * * 
 Captains over thousands," etc., "and officers among 
 your tribes." With this as his authority, he proceeded 
 to argue that "the choice of public magistrates belongs 
 unto the people, by God's own allowance; that the 
 privilege of election, which belongs to the people, must 
 not be exercised according to their humors, but accord- 
 ing to the blessed will and law of God; that they who 
 have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is 
 in their power, also, to set bounds and limitations of the 
 power and place to which they call them; because (1) the 
 foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent 
 of the people; because (2) by a free choice, the hearts of 
 the people will be more inclined to the love of the per- 
 sons chosen and more readily lend obedience." His text, 
 he further said, should "persuade us, as God hath 
 given us liberty, to take it"! 
 
 The pulpit taught politics as earnestly as it did 
 religion in those days, and soon, in January, 1639, a 
 convention of the men of the three towns, Windsor, 
 Wethersfield and Hartford, met in the latter place and 
 adopted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. The 
 purpose of the convention is plainly stated in the 
 preamble they adopted: "We, the inhabitants of 
 Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, dwelling in and
 
 44 OUB CONSTITUTION 
 
 upon the river of Connecticut and the land thereto ad- 
 joining, knowing that to maintain the peace and union 
 of such a people there should be an orderly and de- 
 cent government established, to order and dispose of 
 the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion 
 shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin our- 
 selves to be one Public State or Commonwealth; and 
 do, for ourselves and successors, and such as shall be 
 adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into com- 
 bination and confederacy together." 
 
 Then followed the Eleven Articles of "the first writ- 
 ten constitution, in the modern sense of the term, as a 
 permanent limitation on governmental power, known 
 in history, and certainly the first American consti- 
 tution of government to embody the democratic idea." 
 They provided for a Governor, at least six Magistrates, 
 and a General Court, consisting of elected Representa- 
 tives from each town, which was to make laws for the 
 Commonwealth and elect the Governor and the Magis- 
 trates. 
 
 In this document was the life principle of the Amer- 
 ican Union; and in it the reader, comparing its text 
 with that of the present Constitution of the United 
 States, will discover how similar were the relations of 
 the Connecticut towns and the Commonwealth and the 
 States of the Union and the United States. A citizen 
 of any town was a citizen of the Commonwealth, and 
 no religious test was demanded of a citizen to acquire 
 the right to vote. 
 
 This brief review of the significant beginning of 
 American Union and constitution making can be con- 
 cluded with the notable words of Bancroft: "More 
 than two centuries have elapsed and the world has 
 been made wiser by the most various experiences;
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 45 
 
 political institutions have become the theme on which 
 the most powerful and cultivated minds have been 
 employed, and so many constitutions have been 
 framed or reformed, stifled or subverted, that memory 
 may despair of a complete catalogue; but the people 
 of Connecticut have found no reason to deviate es- 
 sentially from the form of government established by 
 their fathers. No jurisdiction of the English monarch 
 was recognized; the laws of honest justice were the 
 basis of their Commonwealth; and therefore its foun- 
 dations were lasting." 
 
 From the first constitution to unite and form an 
 American State we proceed to the first constitution 
 to form a confederation in America. This was the in- 
 strument adopted in May, 1643, by Massachusetts, 
 Providence, Connecticut and New Haven (Providence 
 and New Haven were then separate Colonies), which 
 created the United Colonies of New England. This 
 confederation is more interesting for the causes which 
 led to its formation, the spirit in which it was made, 
 and its omission of any reference to the English gov- 
 ernment, than for its accomplishments. As early as in 
 1634, New England local government was threatened 
 with extinction by Charles I. Bishop Laud, whom we 
 have seen helping Charles in his schemes for abso- 
 lutism, that same Laud and his associates obtained 
 from Charles authority to establish government, dic- 
 tate laws and regulate the Church in New England. 
 Boston built forts. The old commercial company, 
 which had "financed" the Mayflower venture, sought 
 to recover their losses by gaining title to all New Eng- 
 land lands. Connecticut told her neighbors that they 
 could fight better for their lands if the Colonies were 
 united. Charles' Lords of Council demanded the re-
 
 46 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 turn of the Massachusetts Charter. Massachusetts re- 
 plied, "The common people will conceive that his 
 Majesty hath cut them off, and that thereby they are 
 freed from their allegiance and subjection, and there- 
 fore will be ready to confederate themselves under a new 
 government for their necessary safety and subsistence." 
 That was in 1638, the year Hooker was thundering at 
 his Hartford congregation, that the "uses" of his text 
 were to "persuade us that, as God hath given us our 
 liberty, to take it"! 
 
 But Charles was beginning to have such serious 
 trouble trying to suppress the Puritans in England 
 that he had no time to oppress the Puritans in New 
 England, and there being less imminent danger of 
 English encroachment, the Colonies were deliberate 
 about forming their union, until there arose fears of 
 encroachments in other directions. The Dutch of New 
 Amsterdam (New York) were claiming parts of Con- 
 necticut, and troubling New Haven traders on the 
 Delaware; the French were sometimes threatening, 
 and the Indians always a source of danger. These 
 considerations, added to the fear of Crown oppres- 
 sions, brought about the confederation. Its purpose is 
 set forth in Article II of their Constitution: "The said 
 United Colonies, for themselves and their posterities, 
 do jointly and severally hereby enter into a firm and 
 perpetual league of friendship and amity, for offence 
 and defence, mutual advice and succor upon all just 
 occasions, both for preserving and propagating the 
 truth and liberties of the gospel, and for their own 
 mutual safety and welfare." Other Articles provide 
 strictly for the reservation of State rights to the mem- 
 bers of the Union; that the cost of wars and their 
 spoils be proportioned on the basis of male inhabi-
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 47 
 
 tants between the ages of sixteen and sixty; for a con 
 gress of the confederation consisting of two represen- 
 tatives from each Colony, with power delegated by the 
 General Courts to ''examine, weigh and determine all 
 affairs of our war and peace, leagues, aids, charges 
 and numbers of men for war, division of spoils, * * * 
 receiving of more confederates, * * * and all other 
 things of like nature which are the proper concomi- 
 tants orconsequences of such a confederation for amity, 
 offence and defence, not intermeddling with the gov- 
 ernment of any of the jurisdictions which * * * is 
 preserved entirely to themselves." It was further 
 provided that the Congress should elect the President 
 note the titles given to their legislative body and 
 Chief Executive whose duties were to be purely ex- 
 ecutive, and who was not to "hinder the performing 
 or progress of any business or in any way cast the 
 scales" to influence legislation. Thus, very early in 
 our constitutional progress was there a strictly de- 
 fined limitation placed upon a chief executive to pre- 
 vent his "intermeddling" with the affairs of the 
 legislative branch of the government. 
 
 The Confederation made peace with the Indians, 
 executed a treaty with Nova Scotia, and held together 
 until September, 1684. Its great importance to us is 
 in showing how early the thoughts of the colonists 
 turned toward a union which should be established 
 without regard to the Colonies' relations with the 
 mother country. 
 
 The English Revolution of 1688 was the cause of a 
 meeting of delegates representing New York, Massa- 
 chusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth, in what some 
 writers feel justified in calling the first American 
 Congress. It deserves mention here because it was a
 
 4.8 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 step which may have had some influence in creating 
 a popular sentiment in favor of united colonial action 
 and every such movement was, of course, a step 
 leading to the Philadelphia Convention, which framed 
 our Constitution. The English Revolution, as we have 
 seen, sent James II an exile to France. Louis XIV of 
 France treated James officially as King of England, 
 and war between the nations followed. The French 
 of Canada, aided by Indians, invaded the Mohawk 
 Valley, in New York, and the Lieutenant-Governor, 
 Francis Nicholson, seemed indifferent to the danger. 
 This aroused suspicion. The last preceding Governor, 
 Thomas Dongon, a Catholic, had been charged with 
 favoring King Louis; Nicholson's delay in proclaim- 
 ing the new Protestant rulers of England, William and 
 Mary, made it possible for agitators to convince the 
 more ignorant people of New York that they were to 
 be the victims of a Papist plot. Jacob Leisler, a mer- 
 chant of New York City, a German, although he had 
 been a soldier under the Dutch, and a religious and 
 political partisan of King William of England, headed 
 an insurrection which, backed by the militia, ousted 
 Nicholson and gained control of the government. 
 Leisler called for delegates to a war conference, and 
 representatives of the Colonies named met and agreed 
 on united action. They planned two expeditions: one 
 by land against Montreal, one by water against Que- 
 bec. So that an act pertaining to national sovereignty 
 was, in fact, performed by the short-lived Leisler 
 "Congress" of 1690. 
 
 William Penn and other important men in the 
 Colonies considered a suggestion of the Lords of 
 Trade that a plan for the consolidation of the "Prov- 
 inces" be undertaken. In 1697, Penn submitted his
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 49 
 
 Plan of Union in writing, and it is historically interest- 
 ing in that it is the first formal plan for a union of all 
 the Colonies. Penn suggested that a Congress con- 
 sisting of two representatives from each "Province" 
 meet in New York annually in time of war, and at 
 least once in two years in time of peace, to be pre- 
 sided over by a King's Commissioner, who might be 
 the Royal Governor of New York, and "shall be Gen- 
 eral, or Chief Commander of the several Quotas in 
 service against a common enemy." The Congress was 
 to adjust differences between Colonies, regulate trade 
 and provide ways and means for war. No action was 
 taken on this proposal, but it doubtless had its share 
 in directing the slowly forming sentiment which made 
 it ever easier for those who had colonial union at 
 heart to secure a hearing. 
 
 It was not until 1754 that an assembly of colonial 
 representatives met under conditions and for a pur- 
 pose which give warrant for calling it an American 
 Congress. The threatened war between England and 
 France over questions of boundaries, which was 
 finally to give Canada to England, had already sent 
 the young Colonel of Virginia militia, George Wash- 
 ington, with a protest to the French, who were build- 
 ing forts in the Alleghany Valley, territory claimed 
 by Virginia under its original grant of 1609. Gover- 
 nor William Shirley of Massachusetts was in England, 
 acting on a commission to adjust the boundary dis- 
 pute. The French had made allies of the Algonquin 
 Indians, and Washington, Shirley all who understood 
 the situation knew that if war was to come, England 
 should secure the friendship of the Iroquois Indians, 
 generally called the Six Nations. Shirley saw that 
 the boundary commission's labors would be fruitless,
 
 50 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 and induced the Lords of Trade to authorize a Colo- 
 nial Congress to make treaty with the Six Nations and 
 consider a union of the Colonies for common defence. 
 The Congress met in Albany, June 19, 1754, and was 
 presided over by James De Lancy, Chief Justice of 
 New York. No account of that part of the work of 
 the Congress with which we are concerned seems so 
 well adapted to a place here as that contained in 
 Franklin's Autobiography. 
 
 "On the way to Albany," writes Dr. Franklin, "I 
 projected and drew a plan for the union of all the 
 colonies under one government, which I ventured to 
 lay before the Congress. It then appeared that sev- 
 eral of the commissioners had formed plans. A pre- 
 vious question was taken whether a union should be 
 established, which passed in the affirmative unani- 
 mously. A committee was appointed, one member 
 from each colony, to consider the several plans and 
 report. Mine happened to be preferred, and with a 
 few amendments was accordingly reported. 
 
 "By this plan the general government was to be 
 administered by a president-general, appointed and 
 supported by the Crown, and a grand council was to 
 be chosen by the representatives of the people of the 
 several Colonies, met in their respective assemblies. 
 The debate upon it in Congress went on daily, hand- 
 in-hand with the Indian business. Many objections 
 and difficulties were started, but at length they were 
 all overcome, and the plan was unanimously agreed 
 to, and copies ordered to be transmitted to the Board 
 of Trades and the assemblies of the several provinces." 
 
 Nothing came of Franklin's plan for the reason that 
 it was disapproved by many of the colonists as giving 
 too much power to the Crown, and was rejected by the
 
 BEGINNINGS OP UNION 51 
 
 British government as giving too much independence 
 to the Colonies. This proved, as Franklin observed, 
 that he had hit upon a happy mean. 
 
 Our work now approaches the period when the rela- 
 tions between Great Britain and the Colonies were 
 subjected to a strain which grew in tension until they 
 were sundered by the shock of guns at Lexington and 
 Concord. There was a growing alarm over what was 
 believed in New England to be a purpose by Great 
 Britain to establish the Episcopal Church in the Colo- 
 nies, with support of the clergy enforced from the 
 taxpayers. The Episcopal Church was established in 
 Virginia, where the church tithes were paid in to- 
 bacco, as were nearly all debts and obligations. 
 Therefore, while the clergyman suffered in common 
 with the planter when the price of tobacco was low, 
 he correspondingly benefited when the reverse was 
 the case. A legislative act for the relief of the planters 
 provided that all dues and debts might be discharged 
 either in tobacco or in money, reckoning tobacco at 
 twopence a pound. As this deprived the clergymen 
 of the advantage of a rise in the market value of to- 
 bacco, they protested, and the King declared the act 
 null and void. A Virginia court having pronounced 
 the law, a test case in a minister's suit for damages 
 in having been paid in money, not tobacco, went be- 
 fore a jury, and the planters' interests were intrusted 
 to a young lawyer named Patrick Henry. In his argu- 
 ment he ignored the king-made law and appealed to 
 man's natural rights. He says in one part of his ad- 
 dress: "In annulling a salutary ordinance at the re- 
 quest of a favored class in the community, a King, 
 from being the father of his people, degenerates into 
 a tyrant, and forfeits all rights to obedience.'' The
 
 52 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 jury gave one penny damages. The ministers and 
 some Loyalist sympathizers endeavored to have Henry 
 indicted for treason, but the voters of his county, as 
 an answer to this, elected Henry to the Assembly, 
 where, as we shall see, he was soon to give world- 
 heard utterance to the sentiment against taxation 
 without representation. 
 
 In Massachusetts, James Otis was voicing the grow- 
 ing spirit of independence and defiance of George III. 
 What were known as Writs of Assistants were the 
 cause of great irritation and angry protests. These 
 were writs which customs tax collectors obtained from 
 the courts commanding local officers, such as justices 
 of the peace and sheriffs, to act as assistants to the 
 custems collectors in searching any vessel, day or 
 night, and any building, for smuggled merchandise. 
 The writs did not need to designate any ship or build- 
 ing, nor to specify what merchandise was sought, nor 
 did the court, before issuing the writ, require evi- 
 dence in support of the assertion that merchandise 
 was being unlawfully concealed somewhere by some- 
 body. A case under the execution of such a writ hav- 
 ing been carried before the Supreme Court of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, Otis appeared against the Crown. He 
 contended that the spirit of such a writ was contrary 
 to the spirit of the British Constitution. To issue 
 warrants empowering custom house menials, possibly 
 from no other motive than personal enmity, to invade 
 the home of any citizen, and not be held responsible 
 for any act of rudeness or damage, was a kind of 
 power "the exercise of which cost one King of Eng- 
 land his head, and another his throne." Persons in 
 the courtroom cried, "Treason!" as others did when 
 Henry said the King was a tyrant. The scene before
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 53 
 
 Chief Justice Hutchinson and his associates has been 
 described as the opening scene of the American Revo- 
 lution. The court decided in favor of the writ, and 
 the colonists' anger grew. The Massachusetts Legis- 
 lature passed a law designed to remedy the evil, but 
 the Governor rejected the bill; newspapers, pamphlets, 
 and public speakers denounced the writ, but their 
 service was continued not only in Massachusetts but 
 in other Colonies. 
 
 Other wrongs added to the exasperation and anger 
 of the Colonies : That gatherings of people to consider 
 their grievances were prohibited or broken up; that 
 the Crown withheld assent to necessary and just laws 
 passed by the legislatures; that the King refused to 
 allow local legislatures to appoint judges "during good 
 behavior," and insisted that they should be removed 
 only by the King; that restrictions were placed upon 
 trade which required Americans to take from Great 
 Britain alone what manufactures they needed and did 
 not produce, thereby permitting British merchants to 
 place any prices they chose on their goods subject 
 only to the limit imposed by their consciences; that 
 any Court of Admiralty had jurisdiction over all the 
 Colonies, so that an importer in Georgia (for example), 
 charged with smuggling, might have to go to Halifax 
 for trial, and even if he won his case, might be ruined 
 by costs and expenses, with no redress in damages 
 against the customs officials. 
 
 In the state of public opinion resulting from these 
 and other vexatious and unjust measures, it required 
 but a slight additional cause for general protest to 
 arouse and unite all the Colonies, and that cause was 
 supplied by Parliament in the passage of the famous 
 Stamp Act. It was passed, and signed for George III
 
 54 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 (then insane), March 22, 1765, and was to go into effect 
 on November 1st. It prescribed that stamped paper be 
 used for legal and official documents, diplomas and 
 certificates; that stamps be placed on playing-cards, 
 dice, books (excepting those used in the public 
 schools), newspapers, calendars, pamphlets, almanacs 
 and various other articles; and that jury trial be de- 
 nied to offenders at the discretion of the prosecuting 
 officers. In the schedule of stamps the values ranged 
 from twopence to ten pounds. News of the passage 
 of the act caused an uproar of protest throughout the 
 Colonies. In many towns stamp officers were hanged 
 in effigy, copies of the act were distributed with a 
 death's head in the place of a seal; and the stamps 
 themselves, when they arrived, were destroyed or con- 
 fiscated. When news of these events reached England, 
 the surprising part of these disorderly and informal 
 acts was found in the fact that the protests were di- 
 rected against the principle involved, not the amount 
 of the tax. This point was soon to be emphasised in 
 orderly and formal manner. 
 
 In the Virginia Assembly, Patrick Henry intro- 
 duced resolutions declaring that "the taxation of the 
 people by themselves, or by persons chosen by them- 
 selves to represent them, is the distinguishing char- 
 acteristic of British freedom, without which the ancient 
 constitution cannot exist." It was further declared 
 that any attempt to vest the power of taxation in any 
 other body than the Colonial Assembly was a menace 
 to British, no less than American, freedom; that the 
 people of Virginia were not bound to obey any laws 
 in disregard of these fundamental principles. In his 
 speech on the resolutions, Henry uttered the notable 
 words: "Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First had
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 55 
 
 his Cromwell, and George the Third" ("Treason!" cried 
 the Speaker) "may profit by their example. If thi* 
 is treason, make the most of it." Before the resolu- 
 tions could be wholly acted upon the Governor dis- 
 missed the Assembly, but the resolutions were printed 
 in the newspapers and received the enthusiastic en- 
 dorsement of the people. 
 
 In Massachusetts, Otis asked the Legislature to 
 issue a call summoning a general congress to frame 
 concerted measures to resist the act. The call went 
 forth and met with a prompt response; the Colonies, 
 in the order here named, electing delegates, who met 
 in New York, October 7. 1765: Massachusetts, South 
 Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
 Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. As 
 we have seen, the Virginia Assembly was dismissed 
 before it could elect delegates, but that Colony, like 
 the others which were prevented by one reason or 
 another from sending representatives, was in hearty 
 accord with the sentiments and acts of the Stamp Act 
 Congress. 
 
 In the Declaration of Rights adopted by this Con- 
 gress the language is temperate, owing largely, it is 
 thought by some students of the proceedings, to the 
 advice and influence of Christopher Gadsden, a dele- 
 gate from South Carolina. In the course of debate he 
 said: "We should stand upon the broad and common 
 grounds of those natural rights which we all feel and 
 know as men and descendants of Englishmen. I wish 
 the charters may not ensnare us at last, by drawing 
 different Colonies to act differently in this great cause. 
 There ought to be no New England man, no New 
 Yorker, known on the continent; but all of us Ameri- 
 cans." Readers may study the text of the Declara-
 
 56 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 tions as they are printed in Chapter IX, but special 
 attention may here be called to the paragraph wherein 
 the Congress calmly, firmly laid down the political 
 principle from which the Colonies from that time 
 never receded, that there could be no just taxation 
 without representation: "That the only representa- 
 tives of the people of these Colonies are persons chosen 
 therein by themselves; and that no taxes ever have 
 been, or can be constitutionally imposed upon them, 
 but by their respective legislatures." 
 
 One party in the English Parliament would have 
 liked to ignore these occurrences* in the Colonies, but 
 a question had been raised that would not down, and 
 a proposal to repeal the Stamp Act caused a fierce 
 debate. The friends of the Colonies, in Parliament, 
 and those who feared that "America, if she fell, would 
 fall like the strong man with his arms around the 
 pillars of the Constitution," were numerous enough 
 to repeal the act, but not to prevent Parliament from 
 undoing the most of the good the repeal alone would 
 have accomplished. In order, formally, to record its 
 position, Parliament passed, with the repeal, a Decla- 
 ration Act which asserted its right to make laws bind- 
 ing on the Colonies "in all cases whatsoever." Par- 
 liament was informed of the worthlessness of the re- 
 peal, coupled with such a declaration, for Benjamin 
 Franklin, being then in England, was called by Par- 
 liament and questioned. He assured his questioners 
 that the passage of the Kepeal Act under the condi- 
 tion would not induce the colonists to rescind their 
 protest made through the Stamp Act Congress; "that 
 only force could induce them to rescind the resolu- 
 tions" the Declaration of Eights and the Non-im- 
 portation Agreement.
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 57 
 
 It seems that a majority in Parliament was resolved 
 to test the accuracy of Dr. Franklin's judgment as to 
 the American resolve, for in July, 1766, it passed an 
 act imposing duties on wine, oil, fruit and other arti- 
 cles, and what was to label the act historically on 
 tea. A provision was added to the act which greatly 
 increased its irritating effect; the revenue thus de- 
 rived was to be used for payment of salaries of colo- 
 nial judges and other officials to be appointed by the 
 Crown. This was doubly threatening to the Colonies: 
 they were to be coerced both in the matter of Par- 
 liament-laid taxes and judges dependent upon the 
 King for office and salary. 
 
 It is probable that in these actions Parliament did 
 not reflect popular opinion, but was very largely con- 
 trolled by the aristocracy which, at that time, favored 
 the position of George III in relation to colonial tax 
 questions. And, indeed, that attitude of the King was 
 not induced by enmity against the colonists, but 
 against the agitation in England for Parliamentary 
 reform. If the King assented to the American prin- 
 ciple that there should be no taxation without repre- 
 sentation, the principle would equally grant a num- 
 ber of Parliamentary reforms, sweep away the rotten 
 borough system, and destroy the chief power for royal 
 and aristocratic control of Parliament. But, of course, 
 the colonists gave no thought to the cause which made 
 the King urge legislation contrary to the American 
 doctrine; they were naturally and justly concerned 
 only with the effects such legislation would have on 
 their own political condition. 
 
 In Massachusetts, the Legislature adopted a petition 
 to the King, again declaring the doctrine of no taxa- 
 tion without representation, and a circular letter to
 
 58 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the other Colonies asking their co-operation. For this, 
 Governor Bernard dissolved the Legislature; and the 
 King, when news of the proceedings reached him, with 
 Bernard's comments, gave expressions of royal wrath, 
 which warrant the belief that thenceforth the admin- 
 istration of colonial affairs was directed, in some de- 
 gree at least, by the personal hostility of George III 
 against the Americans. It is difficult, otherwise, to ac- 
 count for many acts of the British government which 
 promptly followed. One of the King's ministers di- 
 rected that the Massachusetts Legislature rescind its 
 circular letter (it was again dissolved for refusing to 
 do so), and the other colonial legislatures were in the 
 same extraordinary manner ordered to ignore the cir- 
 cular. They all responded to this unprecedented at- 
 tempt to control legislative action by ministerial di- 
 rection, by giving the circular cordial reception. 
 
 A powerful aid toward gaining respectful hearing 
 for America was now at work: the Colonies generally 
 were observing a non-importing policy. This hurt 
 business in London, and her merchants petitioned 
 Parliament to repeal the Customs Tax Law. A com- 
 promise act was passed: the tax was repealed on all 
 the articles enumerated in the bill but tea. Parlia- 
 ment would not, or could not, understand that this did 
 not in any degree diminish the cause for resentment 
 in America; the obnoxious principle of taxation with- 
 out representation was as steadfastly maintained by a 
 tax of threepence a pound on tea, as by a shilling a 
 pound on a long schedule of articles. So the colonists 
 contended. U I will never think of repealing it until I 
 see America prostrate at my feet," said a favorite min- 
 ister of the King. "We must fight," said a popular 
 member of the Virginia Legislature.
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 59 
 
 The Tax Bill was amended early in 1769. In March 
 of that year the Virginia Legislature, after again 
 solemnly declaring the American doctrine, passed a 
 motion to establish a system of intercolonial commit- 
 tees of correspondence to promote the welfare of all 
 the Colonies in the struggle for political liberty. That 
 invitation was the initiation of the movement which, 
 as we shall see, resulted in the Congress of 1774, and 
 its successor, which declared the United States of 
 America independent of Great Britain. When the 
 Virginia Legislature had gone thus far, it was dis- 
 solved by the Governor, but at once met elsewhere as 
 a convention and adopted non-importation pledges, 
 moved and read in the convention by George Washing- 
 ton. These pledges were generally adopted by the 
 Colonies, but New York, a trading community, re- 
 sumed importing non-taxed commodities. This left 
 the Colonies disunited in policy, and consequently the 
 final separation from Great Britain might have been 
 longer postponed had not the British government 
 forced the issue on the Tea Act. 
 
 Tea drinking colonists were never deprived of their 
 admired beverage. What tea was needed was smug- 
 gled from Holland "The road to Holland is well 
 known," said an English statesman. This interfered 
 with the legitimate trade of the East India Company, 
 and to remedy that it was proposed to remit to the 
 company the tax of a shilling a pound it would 
 ordinarily pay, on all tea carried on to America. As 
 the total tax on the tea would then be but threepence 
 a pound (the colonial tax), it would be cheaper for the 
 colonists to import regularly than smuggle; and thus, 
 so the King and his ministers thought, smuggling 
 would cease and the East India Company's trade be
 
 60 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 benefited. Again the King and his ministers strangely 
 failed to understand that the American resistance was 
 not to a tax, but to taxation; that it was not a ques- 
 tion of pence, but principle. In the autumn of 1773. 
 cargoes of tea were shipped to Boston, New York, 
 Charleston and Philadelphia, and in all but the first- 
 named port the tea was sent away or stored and not 
 offered for sale. In Boston neither the Governor nor 
 the customs officials would permit the tea ships to 
 depart, and the people, directed by town meetings, 
 would not allow it to be landed. On the night before 
 the day when the tea ships would be forfeited under 
 the customs regulations for failure to land cargoes, a 
 half hundred men, disguised as Indians, protected 
 from interference by a great number of organized 
 sympathizers, went to the ships and emptied all the 
 tea into the bay. Established government had been 
 overridden by an organized movement of the people. 
 That was rebellion. 
 
 When news of the "Boston Tea Party" reached Eng- 
 land, the proceedings were denounced on the one hand 
 by a cabinet minister, Lord North, as the evil works 
 of "a tumultuous and riotous rabble, who ought not to 
 trouble themselves with politics and government 
 which they do not understand" ; and on the other hand, 
 Edmund Burke, a leader of the Opposition in the 
 House of Commons, urged the extreme danger of the 
 course upon which the ministry had entered, and how 
 little good to the government would result from coer- 
 cive laws. When it was proposed by friends of the 
 Colonies to repeal the tea duty, Lord North said that 
 such a course would "stamp us with timidity." The 
 Americans must be humbled first, then they could be 
 reasoned with. The Opposition had the statesman-
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 61 
 
 ship, but the Government had the votes, so instead of 
 repealing the tax, Parliament passed measures de- 
 signed, indeed, to "humble" the Americans, but the 
 design amazingly failed. Laws were passed to close 
 the port of Boston. This was known as the Boston 
 Port Bill, which, in effect, closed the port absolutely 
 to trade and commerce by shipping, until the town 
 should have paid for the tea spilled into the salt water 
 of the bay. A second act annulled the charter of 
 Massachusetts and gave over the entire government 
 of the Colony to the Crown, under i military governor, 
 General Gage. Three other acts provided that if any 
 magistrate, soldier or revenue officer in Massachusetts 
 should be indicted for murder he should be tried in 
 Great Britain ; that troops might be quartered in Bos- 
 ton or any other town of the Colony; that the bound- 
 ary of Canada should be extended south to the Ohio 
 River. This, known as the Quebec Act, ignored the 
 rights of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and 
 Virginia to territory in the West, thus incorporated 
 into the province of Quebec. In April, 1774, General 
 Gage was sent with troops to Boston to govern, and 
 to carry out the provisions of the several acts. 
 
 In Boston, merchants and laborers alike were de- 
 prived of means of earning a living, for the blockade 
 of the port was complete, and practically all commerce 
 and industry were stopped. It is thrilling to read of 
 the way the other Colonies, even remote settlements, 
 gave sympathy and material aid to those who "suf- 
 fered for the cause of all." From distant and poor 
 communities flocks of sheep were driven overland to 
 the blockaded city; the first wheat grown on newly 
 broken land by frontier settlers was ground into flour 
 and sent to Boston, with sturdy words of encourage-
 
 63 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ment; the excellent Christopher Gadsden sent gifts 
 of rice from the Carolinas, with the pious hope that 
 Boston would never "pay for an ounce of the damned 
 tea." In Virginia, Washington said: "The crisis has 
 arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to 
 every imposition that can be heaped upon us, till cus- 
 tom and use shall make us tame and abject slaves." 
 He added his wish to raise one thousand men, subsist 
 them at his own expense, and march at their head for 
 the relief of Boston. Washington was ever an emi- 
 nently practical man, and, as he was not to be per- 
 mitted yet awhile to relieve Boston by arms, he headed 
 n subscription list with a gift of fifty pounds for her 
 relief by practical means. 
 
 Then was demonstrated the great value of the sys- 
 tem of intercolonial committees of correspondence es- 
 tablished as a result of the action of the Virginians a 
 year previous. This system had become necessary for 
 any concerted measure by the Colonies, because in 
 some the legislatures were dissolved, and it was known 
 in all that the Governors would not permit a Legisla- 
 ture to remain in session if it contemplated measures 
 for common resistance to British authority. The pro- 
 posal to utilize the machinery provided by the com- 
 mittees to assemble a "general congress" was first 
 made by the Sons of Liberty in New York. This was 
 promptly endorsed by the Virginia Legislature, sit- 
 ting as a convention (having been dissolved as a legis- 
 lative body for recommending that the day on which 
 the Boston Port Bill became operative should be ob- 
 served as a day of prayer and fasting), and the Vir- 
 ginians courteously asked Massachusetts to name the 
 lime and place for holding the congress. The Legis- 
 lature of Massachusetts was in session; one of its
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 63 
 
 sturdy members locked the door of their meeting 
 place, put the key in his pocket, and the members 
 decided to elect delegates to the congress to be held 
 in Philadelphia in September, 1774 while the Gov- 
 ernor's secretary, outside the locked door, was reading 
 a writ dissolving the Legislature. 
 
 Before relating what was done by that congress, 
 something should be said about a grievance against 
 British authority which had awakened in Virginia a 
 resentment equal to that felt in New England; a re- 
 sentment which had much to do with uniting North 
 and South in sentiment and action at that time. This 
 was the attitude of the British government regarding 
 the slave trade. Says a modern British writer who is 
 quoted as being certainly not a partisan of the col- 
 onists in this respect: "Many of the best and wisest 
 men in the (Virginia) colony, Henry among them, were 
 becoming keenly alive to the social and economical 
 evils of slavery, evils clearly seen and denounced some- 
 what later by Washington and Jefferson. In 1772 an 
 address on this subject was presented to the Crown. 
 The British government unhappily showed no desire 
 to co-operate with the colonists in the endeavor to 
 check the evil." Jefferson's views were set forth in 
 a paper he submitted to a convention of the members 
 of the Virginia Legislature only a month before the 
 Congress of 1774. He wrote: "The abolition of do- 
 mestic slavery is the great object of desire in those 
 Colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their 
 infant state. But previous to the enfranchisement of 
 the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all fur- 
 ther importation from Africa; yet our repeated at- 
 tempts to effect this by prohibitions, and by imposing 
 duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been
 
 64 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 hitherto defeated by his majesty's negative; thus pre- 
 ferring the immediate advantage of a few British cor- 
 sairs" (thus he contemptuously characterized the slave 
 dealers) "to the lasting interests of the American 
 States, and to the rights of human nature, deeply 
 wounded by this infamous practice." After consid- 
 ering these words of Jefferson, the convention re- 
 solved : "After the first day of November next, we will 
 neither ourselves import, nor purchase any slave or 
 slaves imported by any other person, either from 
 Africa, the West Indies, or any other place." This 
 resolve, in a stronger form, found a place in the second 
 of the resolutions of the non-importing agreement 
 adopted by the congress. 
 
 Twelve Colonies sent delegates to the congress, all 
 but Georgia, which promised, however, to adopt any 
 course of action which should be determined upon. 
 The political crisis was debated by the foremost men 
 of the country: Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard 
 Henry Lee, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Jay, Gads- 
 den, Rutledge, Peyton Randolph, who presided, and 
 others, who were to be numbered among the makers 
 of a nation. The discussion took a wide range, and 
 developed varying views as to what would best pro- 
 mote the one intense purpose: to relieve the Colonies 
 from the unjust and oppressive laws passed by Par- 
 liament. If separatists were there, and probably some 
 foresaw that separation must eventually come, they 
 were content to adopt the measures approved by the 
 majority. These were another and longer Declara- 
 tion of Rights, a petition to the King, a memorial to 
 the people of Great Britain, an address to the people 
 of Canada, and a sweeping pledge for non-importation 
 and non-consumption of British goods. Beyond this
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 65 
 
 the congress was of great value in showing to the 
 world that the Colonies were united; in making in- 
 fluential men from all parts of the country personally 
 acquainted with each other, to their better under- 
 standing of one another's views; in helping all to ac- 
 quire habits of co-operation. The same congress, if 
 not the same individuals, was to continue as a body, 
 to carry on the war, to declare independence, to pre- 
 pare the way for the Federal Union. Patrick Henry 
 then said that that congress was but the first of a 
 never-ending succession of congresses, and he hoped 
 that "future ages will quote these proceedings with 
 applause." The proceedings were recognized "with 
 applause" at once, not only in the Colonies, where they 
 were formally approved, but in England, where Lord 
 Chatham (the elder Pitt) said that the papers pre- 
 pared by the congress were unsurpassed by any state 
 papers ever composed in any age or country. The 
 congress adjourned in October to meet again in May 
 "should the government in England not before that 
 time accede to its prayers for a radical change in 
 policy." 
 
 But the government of England was indisposed to 
 change its policy; it rejected Lord Chatham's views 
 which were shared, however, by some of the wisest 
 British statesmen that the recent oppressive legis- 
 lation should be repealed. Chatham even introduced 
 a bill embodying his views, and Burke eloquently con- 
 tended that the right to tax the Colonies should be 
 disclaimed. But Parliament declared Massachusetts 
 in a state of rebellion; all New England ports were 
 closed; the army in Boston was increased to 10,000 
 men, and Gage, denounced as lukewarm, was suc- 
 ceeded by William Howe as Commander-in-Chief of
 
 66 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the English Army in America; his brother, Lord Howe, 
 was appointed admiral of the fleet for America, and 
 Franklin was denied leave to present the case of the 
 Continental Congress to Parliament. Franklin re- 
 turned to America, certain that an armed conflict was 
 inevitable. 
 
 Before Gage was superseded, his army had fought 
 the first battle of the Revolution with the minutemen 
 at Lexington and Concord, on the day, April 19, 1775, 
 that Samuel Adams and John Hancock departed from 
 Lexington to attend the second session of Congress at 
 Philadelphia. All the Colonies were represented in 
 this session, which met May 10. War had begun and 
 war measures were promptly and boldly taken. The 
 first and greatest of these was to create George Wash- 
 ington Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United 
 States. Washington was then forty-three years of 
 age, and was commander of the Virginia militia, in 
 which he had been an officer since his youth. This 
 fact, the knowledge of his intense patriotism and de- 
 votion to public duty, as well as a desire for such sen- 
 timental advantage as would come from engaging the 
 interest of all in an army then composed wholly of 
 New England men in charge of a popular Southerner, 
 accounted for the selection of Washington. Congress 
 could not know at that time that he was a military 
 genius, nor that events were so to affect the army 
 during the war that, as one competent critic has said, 
 "nothing can be clearer than that in any other hands 
 than those of George Washington the military result 
 of the war must have been speedily disastrous to the 
 Americans." Congress resolved to issue bills of 
 credit for the cost of the war, and pledged the "Con- 
 federated Colonies" to their redemption, In general,
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 67 
 
 Congress in this session exercised only such powers 
 as were necessary to the conduct of the war. Farsee- 
 ing Franklin submitted, as early as June 12, a draft 
 of a constitution, but it was not until exactly a year 
 later that action was taken in respect to it. Then, 
 June 12, 1776, two important committees were ap- 
 pointed by Congress: one of five members to pre- 
 pare a declaration of independence, one to "propose 
 and draft the form of a confederation to be entered 
 into." 
 
 But Congress was slow in finally reaching the con- 
 clusion that all hope for a peaceful adjustment of the 
 differences was useless. Many wise men still believed 
 that it would be best to retain colonial relations with 
 Great Britain. Once more the King was petitioned, 
 and so considerate was Congress of the feelings of 
 George III that the last petition was placed in the 
 hands of Richard Penn, an ardent Loyalist, to be pre- 
 sented. But the King would neither see Penn nor 
 receive the petition. He did, however, hire 20,000 Hes- 
 sians, the best infantry in Europe, to re-enforce his 
 army in America and by that act silenced almost the 
 last voice in Congress against the declaration. Par- 
 liament passed an act closing all American ports; 
 authorized the confiscation of American ships and 
 cargoes, and neutral vessels trading with America; 
 and directed British commanders to impress into the 
 naval service (and force to fight against their country- 
 men) the crews of such American ships as they met on 
 the high seas. Congress retorted by opening all 
 American ports to neutrals, and advising that co- 
 lonial Royalists who refused to contribute to the de- 
 fence, be disarmed. After that the declaration was 
 but the formal record of an event that had passed into
 
 68 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 history: the United States were then warring not to 
 achieve independence but to retain it. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence, written by 
 Thomas Jefferson, then thirty-five years old, was 
 adopted on the evening of July 4, 1776, and was re- 
 ceived throughout the States with enthusiastic de- 
 monstration of loyal approval. "Thus," says Fiske, 
 "after eleven years of irritation, and after such tem- 
 perate discussion as befitted free people, the Ameri- 
 cans had at last entered upon the only course that 
 could preserve their self-respect, and guarantee them 
 in that great part which they had to play in the drama 
 of civilization." 
 
 At an earlier date Congress had resolved "that it be 
 recommended to the respective Assemblies of the 
 United Colonies, where no government sufficient to the 
 exigencies of their affairs has been hitherto estab- 
 lished, to adopt such government as shall, in the opin- 
 ion of the representatives of the people, best conduce 
 to the happiness and safety of their constituents in 
 particular, and America in general." All the Colonies 
 did as recommended by Congress: Connecticut and 
 Rhode Island by continuing their charters as their 
 forms of government; the others, usually by conven- 
 tions, framed and adopted constitutions largely based 
 on their colonial charters, but usually incorporating 
 Bills of Rights based on Magna Charta or the Bill of 
 Rights enacted by Parliament after the Revolution 
 which brought William and Mary to the throne. Thus 
 the Colonies passed out of existence: thirteen States 
 had arisen in their place, and constitutional govern- 
 ment was being learned by practice in the political 
 units which were to form the United States of 
 America under the Constitution. But national gov-
 
 BEGINNINGS OF UNION 69 
 
 ernment was first to be tried under the Articles of 
 Confederation. 
 
 As has been noted, a committee of Congress was at 
 work on a form of constitution. The committee re- 
 ported its draft in July, 1776, and the Congress de- 
 bated it from time to time until November, 1777, when 
 the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union 
 between the States" was agreed upon, and proposed to 
 the States for ratification. These articles have been 
 the subject of a library of denunciation, contempt and 
 even ridicule. A student, with no pretence to learning 
 in the science of politics or the law, may yet presume 
 to suggest that an instrument of government which 
 held together thirteen new States through a dozen or 
 more years of sorely beset existence, during eight of 
 which that instrument, through its Congress, carried 
 on to a successful close a war with a vastly more pow- 
 erful nation, gained recognition of sovereignty for the 
 United States, and concluded a vitally helpful treaty 
 with a powerful ally, had some measure of political 
 virtue adapted to its time and circumstances. Not 
 that even the layman may not see the great faults of 
 the articles, and realize that as an instrument of gov- 
 ernment it was inadequate to the needs of the more 
 perfect union such as the Constitution was to estab- 
 lish, promote and secure. What has just been written 
 as to its possible virtue is in the hope ttiat readers will 
 be induced to seek, in studying the articles, those ele- 
 ments which gave it such strength as it seems to have 
 had, as well as its undoubted weakness. 
 
 The articles designated the Confederation "The 
 United States of America"; retained to each State 
 every power not "expressly delegated" to Congress; 
 provided that each State should be represented by not
 
 70 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 less than two nor more than seven delegates; that each 
 State should have but one vote, determined by the 
 majority of its delegates present when the vote was 
 given; that the national treasury should be supplied 
 by the States according to a property apportionment, 
 the taxes to be laid by the respective States' legisla- 
 tures; for a committee consisting of a member fror.i 
 each State to exercise the powers of Congress during 
 recesses; that a member should be elected President 
 of Congress, but that no one could serve in that office 
 more than one year in three; that Congress alone 
 should have the power of determining on war and 
 peace, sending and receiving ambassadors, entering 
 into treaties and alliances, appointing army officers 
 above regimental rank, and all officers of the navy. 
 Congress was to consist of but one House which had, 
 besides legislative, some executive and judicial pow- 
 ers. The most serious defects were the concentration 
 (largely) of legislative, executive and judicial powers 
 in one body; lack of coercive powers acting upon the 
 States as political organizations instead of upon their 
 citizens individually. It could make requisitions for 
 men and money upon the States, but if the States did 
 not respond it could not force obedience.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 
 
 ALTHOUGH the War of the Rebellion did not end 
 until Corn wall is surrendered his army to Washington 
 at Yorktown, in October, 1781, and the treaty with 
 Great Britain, which acknowledged the independence 
 of the United States, was not signed until September, 
 1783, Great Britain was defeated in its military pur- 
 pose as early as October, 1777, when the army of Bur- 
 goyne, marching south from Canada, in an endeavor 
 to join with a force from New York for the control 
 of the line of the Hudson, was met by a Continental 
 army under Gates, and compelled to surrender. Had 
 this operation of the British succeeded, the United 
 States would have been cut in two, and might then 
 have been conquered, a severed part at a time; it 
 failed, and thereafter Great Britain controlled only 
 so much of the territory of the rebellious States as its 
 army was encamped upon, for even in Cornwallis's 
 last campaign in the Carolinas and Virginia, no ter- 
 ritory remained subjected after Cornwallis passed on. 
 But the war dragged along because Congress was pow- 
 erless to utilize the strength of the country; to com- 
 mand the men and money with which to equip Wash- 
 ington for an aggressive war. How he did, with 
 matchless genius, defeat a strong, well-organized, 
 well-equipped army, handicapped as he was by domes- 
 
 71
 
 72 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 tic treachery, intrigue, incompetence, jealousy and ig- 
 norance, does not belong to this story except as the 
 subject is related to the weakness and incompetency 
 of the Government, and the resulting necessity for a 
 stronger union under a better Constitution. 
 
 One result of the loss of the British army under 
 Burgoyne was that Parliament repealed all the ob- 
 noxious laws the Colonies had suffered under, and 
 forever renounced its right to raise revenue in 
 America. British commissioners were appointed to 
 arrange peace with Congress, but that body was re- 
 strained from acting, even had it been so inclined, for 
 the United States had entered into a treaty with 
 France, agreeing, in consideration of aid in troops and 
 money, to reject all proposals of peace by Great 
 Britain unless accompanied by acknowledgment of 
 American independence. Great Britain was noi yet 
 ready to admit so much as the existence of such a 
 political body as the "United States," much less its 
 independence, and at that time there were signs that 
 many Americans were growing doubtful as to the ex- 
 pediency of a centralized government a United States 
 and thus Congress was restrained on the one hand 
 by its treaty obligations to France, on the other by a 
 lack of strong public opinion which might have in- 
 duced it even then to demand recognition of independ- 
 ence. Perhaps this shrinking away of public opinion 
 from the idea of a central, united government was the 
 result of disgust with the weakness of Congress the 
 only embodiment of the united doctrine the people had 
 seen. On the contrary, historians generally assume 
 that the Congress lacked popular support because of a 
 fear that it might become too strong: stronger than 
 the States. It does not seem to the present writer
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 73 
 
 that fearsome visions of absolutism could have been 
 aroused by any known acts of the Congress. That un- 
 happy body was even yet, in the years of Washing- 
 ton's direst extremities, acting under no instrument 
 of government, but exercised such powers as it did 
 by sufferance of the States. Congress, as we have 
 seen, adopted the Articles of Confederation in 1777, 
 but these did not become operative until 1781, when 
 Maryland, last State to do so, ratified them, when 
 Green was rounding up Cornwallis's army in York- 
 town. The wisest patriots rested their hopes on 
 Washington, rather than upon the Congress, which 
 was no longer inspired and guided, as in its earlier 
 sessions, by such men as Jefferson, Rutledge, Jay or 
 Henry, all of whom were serving in other capacities. 
 But at last Washington, aided on land by a French 
 army under Rochainbeau, and on water by a French 
 fleet under Grasse (young Alexander Hamilton was 
 there, leading in person desperate assaults on the 
 British works), forced Cornwallis to surrender; and 
 the destinies of the country passed for a time from 
 the soldiers to the diplomats. The treaty, negotiated 
 for the Americans by Franklin, Jay, John Adams and 
 Henry Laurens, conceded about everything the Ameri- 
 cans hoped for, although Dr. Franklin's modest re- 
 quest for Canada and Nova Scotia was abandoned 
 after it had served the good Doctor's purpose of mak- 
 ing a claim with the full intention of giving it up. 
 But favorable as the treaty was, the Congress could 
 not comply with its terms concerning payment of 
 debts owed to British creditors by American mer- 
 chants. The States became afflicted with an hysteria 
 of repudiation, rag money issue and Tory persecution 
 legislation; the Congress was helpless; political quacks
 
 74 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 arose and sought to do a political business on a capi- 
 tal composed wholly of base bullion. They attempted 
 to arouse class hatred, claimed to have magic cure- 
 alls for the disease of the body politic, which, as ever, 
 largely resolved themselves into doses of repudiation 
 of honest debts, issue of money without value, and 
 laws for the mulcting of those citizens whose old- 
 fashioned ways of conducting their worldly affairs 
 had given them comparative wealth, and therefore 
 made' them the natural objects of the hatred and envy 
 of the demagogues and their unfortunate dupes. Then 
 thoughtful men began to see that if anarchy was to 
 be avoided, power sufficient to deal with such dangers 
 to the country must be lodged with the Congress. 
 
 Washington, at the beginning of these troubles, had 
 been among those who believed that Congress already 
 had powers under the Articles to enforce obedience 
 upon the States, and through the States upon the 
 citizens; but he saw that the right without the might 
 put the odium of the effects of disobedience upon the 
 States themselves. "Unless the States will suffer 
 Congress to exercise those prerogatives they are un- 
 doubtedly invested with by the Constitution, every- 
 thing must very rapidly tend to anarchy and con- 
 fusion." Washington wrote this in June, 1783, two or 
 three weeks after he had formally proclaimed peace 
 to the army the army he saw go home unpaid; of 
 whom he wrote to Congress, that they were "veterans 
 who have suffered and bled without a murmur, and 
 who had retired in perfect order to their homes, with- 
 out a settlement of their accounts or a farthing of 
 money in their pockets." He also wrote a circular 
 letter to the Governors of the States, in which he said 
 of the United States: "This is the time of their politi-
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 75 
 
 cal probation; this is the moment when the eyes of 
 the whole world are turned upon them; this is the mo- 
 ment to establish or ruin their political character for- 
 ever; this is the favorable moment to give such a tone 
 to our federal government, as will enable it to answer 
 the ends of its institution, or this may be the ill-fated 
 moment for relaxing the powers of the Union, annihi- 
 lating the cement of the confederation, and exposing 
 us to become the sport of European politics, which 
 may play one State against another, to prevent their 
 growing importance, and to serve their own interested 
 purposes. For, according to the system of policy the 
 States shall adopt at this moment, they will stand or 
 fall; and by their confirmation or lapse it is yet to 
 be decided, whether the Kevolution must ultimately 
 be considered as a blessing or a curse; a blessing or a 
 curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate 
 will the destiny of unborn millions be involved." He 
 urged these things as essential to the well-being of 
 the United States as an independent power: "An in- 
 dissoluble union of the States under one federal head; 
 a sacred regard to public justice; the adoption of a 
 proper peace establishment; the prevalence of that 
 pacific and friendly disposition among the people of 
 the United States, which will induce them to forget 
 their local prejudices and policies; to make those mu- 
 tual concessions, which are requisite to the general 
 prosperity; and, in some instances, to sacrifice their 
 individual advantages to the interest of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 "These," he said, "are the pillars on which the glori- 
 ous fabric of our independence and national character 
 must be supported. Liberty is the basis; and whoever 
 would dare to sap the foundation, or overturn the
 
 76 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 structure, under whatever specious pretext he may 
 attempt it, will merit the bitterest execration, and the 
 severest punishment, which can be inflicted by his in- 
 jured country." 
 
 That noble and pure-minded patriot closed his letter 
 with a prayer couched in language so lofty, so touch- 
 ing that nothing he has written seems more clearly to 
 reflect his soul: 
 
 "I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would 
 have you, and the State over which you preside, in 
 His holy protection; that He would incline the hearts 
 of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination 
 and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly 
 affection and love for one another, for their fellow- 
 citizens of the United States at large, and particu- 
 larly for their brethren who have served in the field; 
 and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased 
 to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to 
 demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and 
 pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics 
 of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and with- 
 out an humble imitation of whose example in these 
 things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. 
 
 The Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1785, resolved 
 that "the present powers of the Congress of the United 
 States as contained in the Articles of Confederation 
 are not fully adequate to the great purpose they were 
 originally designed to effect." North Carolina agreed 
 to grant to the Congress all necessary powers if, when 
 other States had done the same, the increased powers 
 should be expressed in a new Constitution. After 
 Washington had watched the operations of Congress
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 77 
 
 for a time from the retirement of his home at Mount 
 Vernon, he, too, saw that the Articles did not give 
 sufficient power, for he wrote: "It is as clear to me as 
 A, B, C, that an extension of federal power would 
 make us one of the most happy, wealthy, respectable 
 and powerful nations. Without them we shall soon 
 be everything which is the direct reverse." Again he 
 wrote to a friend in Massachusetts: "The Confedera- 
 tion seems to me to be little more than a shadow with- 
 out the substance, and Congress a nugatory body, their 
 ordinances being little attended to. To me it is a 
 solecism in politics; indeed, it is one of the most 
 extraordinary things in nature that we should con- 
 federate as a nation, and yet be afraid to give the rul- 
 ers of that nation sufficient powers to order and direct 
 the affairs of the same." He wrote on the subject 
 earnestly to John Jay, then Secretary of Foreign Af- 
 fairs, and in one reply Jay said: "Our affairs seem 
 to lead to a crisis, something which I cannot see or 
 conjecture. I am uneasy and apprehensive, more so 
 than during the war." 
 
 The drift towards anarchy soon became rapid: in 
 Massachusetts the demagogues, whose political activi- 
 ties have been referred to, incited an armed rebellion, 
 and sought by means of the musket to force the circu- 
 lation of a worthless paper currency; in New York, 
 laws were passed against the Tories, whose enforce- 
 ment would have ruined them; our ambassadors 
 abroad were sneered at, and asked if they wished to 
 negotiate treaties for thirteen States or one nation; 
 foreign creditors became clamorous for at least the 
 interest on their loans, and further sums were had 
 only from usurers. The British troops had left New 
 York, but they still held several frontier posts and
 
 78 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 controlled their valuable fur trade; but the humiliated 
 Congress could not demand possession, although the 
 treaty called for them. 
 
 It was due to the initiative of Washington, at last, 
 that the movement started which resulted in the Con- 
 stitutional Convention. He had early seen the great 
 help to commerce which would result from extending 
 inland waterways, and when peace came he was as ac- 
 tively at work for the common good as when at the 
 head of his army. Having deeply studied the subject, 
 and personally inspected proposed lines of a canal to 
 connect the Ohio River with tidewater, he became, in 
 1785, president of a company formed to carry out such 
 a project. Legislation would be required to authorize 
 this work, and, to agree upon some form of concerted 
 laws, commissioners from Virginia and Maryland met 
 at Washington's home. Pennsylvania, too, it was 
 found, would have to be included in any compact re- 
 lating to the subject, and then it was that Washington 
 suggested that the three States should, when brought 
 into such communication, consider, also, other com- 
 mon affairs duties, trade regulations and currency. 
 James Madison, then a member of the Legislature of 
 Virginia, caught the full meaning of Washington's 
 idea, and soon had carried through the Legislature 
 resolutions inviting delegates from all the States to 
 meet at Annapolis, Maryland, in September, 1786. It 
 was a start in the right direction, although delegates 
 from only five States met, four other States having 
 commissioned delegates who for one reason and an- 
 other failed to appear. Alexander Hamilton was a 
 delegate from New York, and he suggested to his fel- 
 lows that instead of formulating any plan with only 
 a minority of the States represented, they should call
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 79' 
 
 for another meeting, and in the meantime conduct a 
 campaign of education. What seems to have encour- 
 aged Hamilton to believe that a constitutional con- 
 vention might come of their efforts, was the advanced 
 step already taken by New Jersey. The delegates from 
 that State bore commissions authorizing them to con- 
 fer with other delegates as to "how far a uniform sys- 
 tem in their commercial regulations and other im- 
 portant matters might be necessary to the common 
 interests and permanent harmony of the several 
 States." Here, indeed, was an official expression of 
 Washington's suggestion; and Hamilton wrote an ad- 
 dress in conformity with it, which the delegates sent 
 to all the States. This address urged that delegates 
 be sent by all the States to a convention to meet in 
 Philadelphia, in May, 1787, to frame such measures 
 "as should appear to them necessary to render the 
 Constitution of the federal government adequate to 
 the exigencies of the Union." 
 
 Nothing more might have come of the Philadelphia 
 than of the Annapolis meeting but for an event of the 
 winter of 1786-7, which compelled the most indiffer- 
 ent to realize that the choice was now closely pre- 
 sented anarchy or a stronger union. The States lay- 
 ing claim to the northwest territory, comprising what 
 now constitutes the States of Ohio, Michigan, In- 
 diana, Illinois and Wisconsin, had released their 
 claims to the Congress, and the sale of land in this 
 great domain was about the only source of national 
 revenue. It was far from being enough, and Congress 
 sought to raise a revenue from customs duties. This 
 failed ; New York would not give up to the nation her 
 rich source of revenue. Congress assessed the States 
 for funds. This failed ; New Jersey would not pay her
 
 80 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 share while she was being bled by New York's tariff 
 system. Such a state of affairs shocked the wise and 
 patriotic into a sudden sense of the great danger to 
 the Union, and they eagerly searched for a remedy; 
 something to do, some way to turn to find hope. At 
 this critical moment the Virginia Legislature was 
 wisely inspired to appoint its delegates to the Phila- 
 delphia Convention, and name as its head George 
 Washington! The magic of that name was as potent 
 as ever; State after State followed Virginia's example, 
 until all but Ehode Island approved the movement by 
 resolution, and commissioned delegates. 
 
 In the Philadelphia State House, the building in 
 which the Declaration of Independence was written 
 and signed, the great convention met in May, 1787. 
 A notable company of statesmen assembled there. 
 Such a convention of great men, indeed, had never 
 before, nor has ever since assembled in this country, 
 if we make achievement in public service our measure 
 of greatness. Washington, the foremost soldier, a wise 
 statesman, a model citizen, twice to be President of 
 the United States; Madison, leader in the Convention 
 in constructive statesmanship, already renowned as a 
 scholar and highest type of politician, and to become 
 fourth President; Gerry, a signer of the Declaration 
 (six signers of the Declaration of Independence wrote 
 their names to the Constitution), member of the Con- 
 tinental Congress, and to be fifth Vice-President ; Ham- 
 ilton, orator, master of the science of finance, states- 
 man, and to be first Secretary of the Treasury; Rut- 
 ledge, who had been a member of the Stamp Act Con- 
 gress, and was to become Chief Justice; Ellsworth, 
 also to become Chief Justice; William Johnson, whose 
 renown as a scholar and lawyer had won him from
 
 A STBONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 81 
 
 Oxford the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, and who 
 became president of Columbia College; John Lang- 
 don, often a member of the Legislature and once Gov- 
 ernor of New Hampshire; Livingston, eleven times 
 Governor of New Jersey; Paterson, ten times Attor- 
 ney-General of New Jersey, author of one of the plans 
 of government presented to the Convention, Governor 
 of his State, Senator from it, and to become an Asso- 
 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court; Dickinson, lawyer, 
 orator, Congressman, three times President of Penn- 
 sylvania but representing Delaware in the Conven- 
 tion; James Wilson, later Associate Justice of the Su- 
 preme Court, who had studied the science of govern- 
 ment in three great universities Glasgow, Edinburgh 
 and St. Andrews; Caleb Strong, afterwards ten times 
 Governor of Massachusetts, and others who had dis- 
 tinguished themselves as members of Congress, Gov- 
 ernors, at the bar, or as great merchants, valuable in 
 the Convention when matters concerning commerce 
 were considered. But most interesting and revered of 
 aU that great company was Benjamin Franklin, states- 
 man, diplomat, scientist, sage, philosopher, traveller, 
 writer, wit, linguist, patriot; who had advised with 
 rulers and cabinets, been welcomed at courts, apos- 
 trophized by poets, imitated in a score of fashions by 
 a whole nation. He was eighty-one years old now, but, 
 as a fellow-member wrote, "possesses an activity of 
 mind equal to a youth of twenty-five years of age." 
 He had presented a plan of union of all the Colonies 
 at the Albany Congress, a third of a century earlier, 
 when many of his fellow-members in this Convention 
 were taking their first fencing lessons, or were in the 
 nursery or yet unborn. Men were there who had 
 raised regiments and fought with them under Wash-
 
 82 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ington during the war. From Georgia came 
 William Pierce, who was obliged to return to his 
 home before the Constitution was ready to be signed, 
 but who sat there long enough to receive vivid impres- 
 sions of his colleagues, which, fortunately, are pre- 
 served for us in his writings. It is no less interesting 
 than instructive to-day to read the record of those 
 timely impressions, for the writer seems to have been 
 a close and impartial observer; and if, as in his judg- 
 ment of Hamilton as an orator, he reminds us that an 
 idol may be of clay, we are consoled by the fact that 
 those men were not, after all, idols, but were Men. 
 These pictures are a few of those Pierce drew : 
 
 Alexander Hamilton: "To a clear and strong judg- 
 ment he unites the ornaments of fancy, and whilst he 
 is able, convincing and engaging in his eloquence, the 
 heart and head sympathize in approving him. Yet 
 there is something too feeble in his voice to be equal 
 to the strains of oratory it is my opinion that he is 
 rather a convincing speaker than a blazing orator. 
 His language is not always equal; sometimes didactic, 
 like Bolingbroke's; at others light and tripping, like 
 Sterne's. He is of small stature and lean. His man- 
 ners are tinctured with stiffness, and sometimes with 
 a degree of vanity that is highly disagreeable." 
 
 William Paterson: "Is one of those kinds of men 
 whose powers break in upon you and create wonder 
 and astonishment he is a classic, a lawyer and an 
 orator." 
 
 Gouverneur Morris: "Is one of those geniuses in 
 whom every species of talents combine to render him 
 conspicuous and flourishing in public debate. * * * 
 He throws around him such a glare that he charms,
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 83 
 
 captivates, and leads away the senses of all who 
 hear." 
 
 James Wilson: "He is well acquainted with man, 
 and understands all the passions that influence him. 
 Government seems to have been his peculiar study, 
 and all the political institutions of the world he seems 
 to know in detail. No man is more clear, copious and 
 comprehensive than Mr. Wilson, and yet he is no great 
 orator." 
 
 James Madison: "He blends together the profound 
 politician with the scholar. In the management of 
 every great question he evidently took the lead in the 
 Convention, and tho' he cannot be called an orator, he 
 is a most agreeable, eloquent and convincing speaker. 
 He is easy and unreserved among his acquaintances, 
 and has a most agreeable style of conversation." 
 
 Edmund Kandolph: "A young gentleman in whom 
 unite all the accomplishments of the scholar and 
 statesman." 
 
 Elbridge Gerry: "He is a hesitating and laborious 
 speaker, without respect to elegance or flower of dic- 
 tion. He cherishes as his first virtue, a love for his 
 country." 
 
 Roger Sherman: "No man has a better heart or a 
 clearer head. In the early part of his life he was a 
 shoemaker but despising the lowness of his condi- 
 tion turned almanac maker, and so progressed up- 
 wards to a judge." (Authorities do not agree with Mr. 
 Pierce in his quaint mention of the means whereby 
 Sherman progressed to his judgeship. He seems to 
 have been a surveyor and a merchant before he be- 
 came a judge. He was afterwards a member of the 
 Federal Congress, first in the House, and then in the 
 Senate.)
 
 84 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 It is of special interest to read Mr. Pierce's appre- 
 ciation of Washington. Now if one should deem it 
 possible to attempt to say something yet unsaid about 
 him, he would have a library of estimates to stimulate 
 his work; Mr. Pierce wrote without such stimulus, to 
 be sure, but with a pretty appreciation, nevertheless. 
 
 George Washington : "Like Gustavus Vasa, he may 
 be said to be the deliverer of his country like Peter 
 the Great, he appears as the politician and the states- 
 man and like Cincinnatus, he returns to his farm, 
 perfectly contented with being only a plain citizen, 
 after enjoying the highest honors of the Confederacy 
 and now only seeks for approbation of his country- 
 men by being virtuous and useful." 
 
 The roll-call of delegates, which follows, shows the 
 State each member represents, and reference to it will 
 save frequent repetition of State names during follow- 
 ing chapters. The names of delegates who signed the 
 Constitution and who also signed the Declaration of 
 Independence are printed in capitals; the names of 
 those who, for one reason or another, were absent 
 when the Constitution was signed, are printed in 
 italics; the names of those who were present but re- 
 fused to sign are preceded by an asterisk (*). 
 
 Baldwin, Abraham. (Georgia.) 
 Bassett, Richard. (Delaware.) 
 Bedford, Gunning. (Delaware.) 
 Blair, John. (Virginia.) 
 Blount, William. (North Carolina.) 
 Brealey, David. (New Jersey.) 
 Brown, Jacob. (Delaware.) 
 Butler, Pierce. (South Carolina.)
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 85 
 
 Carroll, Daniel. (Maryland.) 
 CLYMER, GEORGE. (Pennsylvania.) 
 
 Dayton, John (New Jersey.) 
 
 Dame, William Richardson. (North Carolina.) 
 
 Dickinson, John. (Delaware.) 
 
 Ellsworth, Oliver. (Connecticut.) 
 
 Pew, William. (Georgia.) 
 Fitzsimmons, Thomas. (Pennsylvania.) 
 FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN. (Pennsylvania.) 
 
 *Gerry, Elbridge. (Massachusetts.) 
 Gilman, Nicholas. (New Hampshire:) 
 Gorham, Nathaniel. (Massachusetts.) 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander. (New York.) 
 Houston, William C. (New Jersey.) 
 Houstown, William. (Georgia.) 
 
 Ingersoll, Jared. (Pennsylvania.) 
 
 Jenifer, Daniel. (Maryland.) I 
 
 Johnson, William 8. (Connecticut.) 
 
 King, Rufus. (Massachusetts.) 
 
 Langdon, John. (New Hampshire.) 
 Lansing, John. (New York.) 
 Livingston, William. (New Jersey.) 
 
 Madison, James. (Virginia.) 
 Martin, Alexander. (North Carolina.) 
 Martin, Luther. (Maryland.) 
 * Mason, George. (Virginia.) 
 McClurg, James. (Virginia.) 
 McHenry, James. (Maryland.) 
 Mercer, John Francis. (Maryland.)
 
 86 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Mifflin, Thomas. (Pennsylvania.) 
 Morris, Gouverneur. (Pennsylvania.) 
 MORRIS, ROBERT. (Pennsylvania.) 
 
 Paterson, William. (New Jersey.) 
 Pinckney, Charles. (South Carolina.) 
 Pinckney, C. Cotesworth. (South Carolina.) 
 Pierce, William. (Georgia.) 
 
 *Randolph, Edmund. (Virginia.) 
 READ, GEORGE. (Delaware.) 
 Rutledge, John. (South Carolina.) 
 
 SHERMAN, ROGER. (Connecticut.) 
 Spaight, Richard D. (North Carolina.) 
 Strong, Caleb. (Massachusetts.) 
 
 Washington, George. (Virginia.) 
 .Williamson, Hugh. (North Carolina.) 
 WILSON, JAMES. (Pennsylvania.) 
 Wythe, George. (Virginia.) 
 
 Yates, Robert. (New York.) 
 
 The Virginia delegates were early in arriving at 
 Philadelphia, and true to their hospitable instincts 
 they met together at three o'clock in the afternoon of 
 each day to welcome other delegates as they came in, 
 one by one, and in small companies, on horseback or in 
 the lumbering stage coaches of the day. "We found 
 travelling very expensive," wrote George Mason of Vir- 
 ginia, "from eight to nine dollars per day. In this 
 city the living is cheap. We are very well accom- 
 modated, have a good room to ourselves, and are 
 charged only twenty-five [dollars?] Pennsylvania cur- 
 rency per day, including our servants and horses, ex- 
 clusive of club in liquor and extra charges." The delay
 
 87 
 
 in the appearance of delegates in no manner reflected 
 a lack of general public interest in the meeting. The 
 public was fully aroused, and the two great parties 
 which were to develop into national importance were 
 already forming and agitating their theories as Fed- 
 eralists and Antifederalists. There was no lack of 
 advice and counsel offered, and the presses were kept 
 busy issuing printed matter in amazing quantities. It 
 was much the practice in those days for any one who 
 believed that he had something to say worth saying, 
 yet was without access to the regular press, to pub- 
 lish a pamphlet. The delegates were addressed in 
 prose and verse, in prayer and command, with argu- 
 ment, satire, and invective. One minister began a 
 poem which he modestly called "Good Advice in Bad 
 Verse," with this blameless adjuration: 
 
 Be then your counsels, as your subject, great, 
 
 A world their sphere, and Time's long reign their date. 
 
 Each party-view, each private good, disclaim, 
 
 Each petty maxim, each colonial aim; 
 
 Let all Columbia's weal your views expand, 
 
 A mighty system rule a mighty land. 
 
 It was wisely decided to keep all the proceedings of 
 the Convention secret, for had the public speakers, 
 the press, and the mighty and articulate army of 
 pamphleteers been supplied by each post with particu- 
 lars of the struggle going on behind the locked and 
 guarded doors of the State House, it is painful to con- 
 sider the amount and character of advice the members 
 would have had to contend with. The Convention did 
 elect a secretary who kept but a bare record of the 
 calling of the sessions to order, principal motions, and 
 adjournments. His motes have been reverently pre-
 
 88 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 served by the Government and make part of the docu- 
 mentary history of the Constitution which the Govern- 
 ment is publishing, but if it had not been for a volun- 
 teer reporter we should know but little of the actual 
 proceedings. James Madison, with a large perception 
 of the historical value of the work he undertook, made 
 a daily report not only of the actions of the sessions, 
 but of the speeches of members on the important ques- 
 tions debated, and each evening elaborated his abbre- 
 viated notes, and had the help of members in securing 
 accuracy in his summaries of their speeches. It is 
 interesting to read what Madison himself has written 
 about this immeasurable service he there performed. 
 In an unfinished Introduction to his notes he says: 
 "The curiosity I had felt during my researches into 
 the history of the most distinguished confederacies, 
 particularly those of antiquity, and the deficiency I 
 found in the means of satisfying it, more especially in 
 what related to the process, the principles the rea- 
 sons and the anticipations which prevailed in the for- 
 mation of them determined me to preserve, so far as 
 I could, an exact account of what might pass in the 
 convention while executing its trust, with the magni- 
 tude of which I was duly impressed, as I was with 
 the gratification promised to future curiosity by an 
 authentic exhibition of the objects, the opinions, the 
 reasonings from which the new system of government 
 was to receive its peculiar structure and organization. 
 Nor was I unaware of the value of such contribution 
 to the fund of materials for the history of a constitu- 
 tion on which would be staked the happiness of a 
 young people, great even in its infancy, and possibly 
 the cause of liberty throughout the world. In pur- 
 suance of the task I had assumed I chose a seat in 
 
 f
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 89 
 
 front of the presiding member, with the other mem- 
 bers on my right and left hand. In this favorable po- 
 sition for hearing all that passed, I noted in terms 
 legible, and in abbreviations intelligible to myself, 
 what was read from the chair or spoken by the mem- 
 bers; and losing not a moment unnecessarily between 
 the adjournment and reassembling of the Convention, 
 I was enabled to write out my daily notes during the 
 session, or within a few days of its close." 
 
 Charles Pinckney also preserved full notes of the 
 proceedings (which, like Madison's, were finally de- 
 posited with the Department of State), but in a letter 
 written in 1818 to John Quincy Adams, then Secre- 
 tary of State, he testifies to the greater detail of Madi- 
 son's notes. He wrote: "The veil of secrecy from the 
 proceedings of the Convention being removed by Con- 
 gress, and but very few of the members alive, would 
 make disclosure now of the scenes there acted less 
 improper than before. With the aid of the journal 
 and the numerous notes and memorandums I have 
 preserved, it would be in my power to give a view 
 of the almost insuperable difficulties the Convention 
 had to encounter, and of the conflicting opinions of 
 the members, and I believe I should have attempted 
 it had I not always understood Mr. Madison intended 
 it he alone, I believed, possessed and retained more 
 numerous and particular notes of their proceedings 
 than myself." 
 
 As we have seen, the Virginia delegates were early 
 on the ground, but others were delayed so long that 
 it was not until Friday, the 25th, that nine of 
 the States were represented and the Convention was 
 organized. Even then no delegates had arrived from 
 New Hampshire, Connecticut or Maryland, and as to
 
 90 OUB CONSTITUTION 
 
 the thirteenth State, Khode Island, it never sent dele- 
 gates. 
 
 It had been intended, as a great mark of respect to 
 Washington, that the only other delegate who might 
 have been considered as President of the Convention, 
 Dr. Benjamin Franklin, should place him in nomina- 
 tion. But the day was rainy and the aged statesman 
 did not attend the session on that first day of busi- 
 ness, so Robert Morris, another Pennsylvania dele- 
 gate, speaking for Dr. Franklin, placed Washington 
 in nomination. The nomination was seconded by John 
 Rutledge, of South Carolina, who, with a delicacy 
 which is not always observed upon such occasions, 
 remarked that the presence of General Washington 
 forbade many remarks which otherwise it would be 
 pleasant to make, beyond expressing his confidence 
 that the choice would be unanimous. It was, and the 
 mover and seconder of the nomination escorted Wash- 
 ington to the chair. Modest, as he ever was, he 
 thanked the Convention for the honor bestowed upon 
 him, and, as Madison records, "reminded them of the 
 novelty of the scene of business in which he was to 
 act, lamented his lack of better qualifications, and 
 claimed the indulgence of the House towards the in- 
 voluntary errors which his inexperience might occa- 
 sion." Then one William Jackson was elected secre- 
 tary of the Convention. The good gentleman, who 
 seems to have been a Major of sorts, had nothing to 
 do but make a record of the proceedings, and had he 
 done so would be the best known historical authority 
 of his age. However, Madison, with a great deal else 
 to do, found time to make a highly interesting run- 
 ning story of the events, day by day, and to him we 
 must turn for this part of our account.
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 91 
 
 The next meeting of the Convention was on Mon- 
 day, the 28th, when a report was brought in by a 
 committee on rules. In a body composed so largely 
 of men familiar with parliamentary proceedings, the 
 matter of rules was quickly disposed of, and is men- 
 tioned here in order to quote but one rule, which shows 
 the respect the members were always formally to pay 
 to Washington. The rule reads: "When the House 
 shall adjourn every member shall stand in his place 
 until the President pass him." The main business of 
 the Convention was not begun until the next day, but 
 on that Monday a letter was received from "several 
 gentlemen of Rhode Island, addressed to the honor- 
 able, the Chairman of the General Convention, signed 
 in behalf of the Merchants, Tradesmen, etc.," which 
 explained why Rhode Island was not represented in 
 the Convention. As little Rhode Island has been much 
 censured for its neglect to join with the other States 
 in this respect a portion of the letter is here quoted 
 that her position may be understood: 
 
 "The failure of this State was owing to the non- 
 concurrence of the upper House of Assembly with a 
 vote passed in the lower House, for appointing dele- 
 gates to attend the said convention. * * * As the 
 object of this letter is chiefly to prevent any impres- 
 sions unfavorable to the commercial interests of this 
 State, from taking place in our sister States from the 
 circumstance of our being unrepresented in the pres- 
 ent National Convention, we shall not presume to 
 enter into any detail of the objects we hope your de- 
 liberations will embrace and provide for, being con- 
 vinced that they will be such as have a tendency to 
 strengthen the Union, promote commerce, increase
 
 92 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the power and establish the credit of the United 
 States." 
 
 A private letter received by the Convention from a 
 citizen of Rhode Island went frankly into the question 
 of the standing of the House which blocked the effort 
 to send delegates from Rhode Island. Said the 
 writer: "Permit me, sir, to observe that the measures 
 of our present Legislature do not exhibit the real 
 character of our State. They are equally abhorred 
 and reprobated by gentlemen of the learned profes- 
 sions, by the whole mercantile body, and by most of 
 the respectable farmers and mechanics. The majority 
 of the administration is composed of a licentious num- 
 ber of men, destitute of education, and many of them 
 void of principle. From anarchy and confusion they 
 derive their temporary consequence, and this they en- 
 deavor to prolong by debauching the mind of the 
 common people. * * * It is fortunate, however, 
 that the wealth and resources of this State are chiefly 
 in the possession of the well affected, and that they 
 are entirely devoted to the public good." 
 
 These loyal assurances from Rhode Island were wel- 
 come to the delegates, and produced a good effect upon 
 their minds, so they cheerfully concluded their or- 
 ganization by the election of a messenger and a door- 
 keepep, and then adjourned to the next day, when 
 was to begin the actual work of constitution making. 
 The assembly met on the momentous day not as a 
 Convention, but as a Committee of the Whole, as it 
 did on many following days, with Mr. Gorham in the 
 chair, and General Washington sitting as a member 
 only, speaking seldom, but paying ever the closest 
 attention to the notable debates, and now and then
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 93 
 
 adding a word of advice, and once raising his voice 
 at a crisis when the very existence of the Convention 
 was threatened, and restoring calmness as perhaps no 
 one else there could have done. It was on this day, 
 Tuesday, May 29th, that Edmund Randolph intro- 
 duced a set of resolutions which became the accepted 
 raw material out of which was hammered the Consti- 
 tution itself. Resolutions intended for the same pur- 
 pose were afterwards introduced by Hamilton, Pater- 
 son and Charles Pinckney, but they have not the his- 
 torical importance of the Randolph resolutions, as 
 they were never used as basis for the constructive 
 work of the Convention. It seems to be generally ac- 
 cepted by writers on the subject that these Randolph 
 resolutions were largely written by Madison, but Madi- 
 son himself gives an account of their preparation 
 which does not justify this assumption. It is true that 
 Mr. Madison wrote to Randolph, shortly before the 
 meeting of the Convention, a letter giving "a sketch 
 on paper, the earliest, perhaps, of a constitutional gov- 
 ernment for the Union organized into the regular 
 departments, with physical means operating on indi- 
 viduals, to be sanctioned by the people of the States, 
 acting in their original and sovereign character." But, 
 adds Madison, "on the arrival of the Virginia deputies 
 at Philadelphia, it occurred to them that from the 
 early and prominent part taken by that State in bring- 
 ing about the Convention, some initiative step might 
 be expected from them. The resoluti9ns introduced 
 by Governor Randolph were the result of a consulta- 
 tion on the subject; with an understanding that they 
 left all the deputies entirely open to the lights of dis- 
 cussion, and free to concur in any alterations which 
 their reflections and judgments might approve. The
 
 94 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 resolutions, as the journals shew, became the basis on 
 which the proceedings of the Convention commenced, 
 and to the developments, variations and modifications 
 of which the plans of government proposed by the Con- 
 vention may be traced." 
 
 The Randolph resolutions proposed a national legis- 
 lature composed of two houses, the more numerous 
 branch to be elected by the people, the less numerous 
 by the first branch; that the representation in the 
 legislature should be proportioned on the States' con- 
 tributions to the national treasury, or on the number 
 of free inhabitants; that the chief executive should be 
 chosen by the national legislature, and be advised "by 
 a convenient number of the national judiciary" in the 
 exercise of veto power on legislation; that a supreme 
 and inferior national judiciary be chosen by the na- 
 tional legislature; that provision should be made for 
 the admission of new States to which a republican 
 form of government should be guaranteed; that pro- 
 vision should be made for the amendment of the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Much of Randolph's speech in introducing his reso- 
 lutions, as reported by Madison, is worth repeating 
 here, for it gives a vivid impression of the high stand- 
 ard of statesmanship which inspired the speaker and 
 many of his colleagues, their clear understanding of 
 the weakness of the government under the Articles of 
 Confederation, and of what had to be done by the Con- 
 vention to establish a strong, efficient national gov- 
 ernment. After his introductory remarks, says Madi- 
 son, "he then commented on the difficulty of the crisis, 
 find the necessity of preventing the fulfilment of the 
 prophecies of the American downfall. 
 
 "He observed that in revising the federal system we
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 95 
 
 ought to enquire: 1, into the properties which such a 
 government ought to possess; 2, the defects of the con- 
 federation; 3, the danger of our situation, and, 4, the 
 remedy. 
 
 'The character of such a government ought to se- 
 cure: 1, against foreign invasion; 2, against dissen- 
 tions between members of the Union, or seditions in 
 particular States; 3, to procure to the several States 
 various blessings, of which an isolated situation was 
 incapable; 4, to be able to defend itself against en- 
 croachment, and, 5, to be paramount to the State 
 constitutions. 
 
 "In speaking of the defects of the confederation, he 
 professed a high respect for its authors, and consid- 
 ered them as having done all that patriots could do, 
 in the then infancy of the science of constitutions, and 
 of confederacies when the inefficiencies of requisi- 
 tions was unknown no commercial discord had arisen 
 among any States foreign debts had not become ur- 
 gent the havoc of paper money had not been fore- 
 seen treaties had not been violated and perhaps 
 nothing better could be obtained from the jealousy of 
 the States with regard to their sovereignty. 
 
 "He then proceeded to enumerate the defects: that 
 the confederation produced no security against foreign 
 invasion; Congress not being permitted to prevent a 
 war, prevent breaches of treaties or of the law of 
 nations, nor to support it by their own authority. Of 
 this he cited many examples; most of which tended 
 to shew that they could not cause infractions of treat- 
 ies or of the law of nations to be punished; that the 
 particular States might, by their conduct, provoke war 
 without control; and that neither militia nor draughts 
 being fit for defense on such occasions, enlistments
 
 96 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 only could be successful, and these could not be exe- 
 cuted without money. 
 
 "That the federal government could not check the 
 quarrels between States, or a rebellion in any, not hav- 
 ing constitutional power, nor means to interpose ac- 
 cording to the exigency; 
 
 "That there were many advantages that the United 
 States might acquire which were not attainable under 
 the confederation such as productive imposts 
 counteraction of the commercial regulations of other 
 nations pushing of commerce. 
 
 "That the federal government could not defend itself 
 against the encroachment of the States; 
 
 "That it was not even paramount to the State con- 
 stitutions. 
 
 "He next reviewed the danger of our situation, ap- 
 pealed to the sense of the best friends of the United 
 States the prospect of anarchy from the laxity of 
 government everywhere. 
 
 "He then proceeded to the remedy, the basis of 
 which he said must be the republican principle." 
 
 Before following through the Convention the con- 
 sideration of the fundamental principles of the reso- 
 lutions, and their variation into many forms before they 
 reached the final form in which they were lodged in 
 the Constitution, it will be interesting to delay a little 
 while watching the Convention at work. 
 
 On the 30th of May the Committee of the Whole lost 
 no time in further preliminaries, but settled down 
 quickly to practical constructive work. It is interest- 
 ing to note that the great idea of a government of 
 three branches, co-ordinate but independent, was the 
 first one given consideration by the members. It was
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 97 
 
 Mr. Randolph himself who, early in the day's session, 
 moved the postponement of his first proposition in 
 order to consider three others, the third of which read : 
 "That a national government ought to be established, 
 consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive and 
 Judiciary." And this was the first thing which was 
 debated, the other two being postponed, and at once 
 there was observable the line which finally divided the 
 voters of the country into Federalists, and States' 
 Right Antifederalists. Mr. Charles Pinckney wanted 
 to know if Randolph "meant to abolish the State 
 government altogether?" C. C. Pinckney doubted 
 whether the act of Congress recommending the Con- 
 vention, or the commissions of the deputies to it, could 
 even so much as authorize them to discuss a system 
 so different from the Confederation, and Mr. Gerry 
 who was an obstructionist throughout and finally re- 
 fused to sign the Constitution was equally startled 
 at the proposal of the Virginian so radically to change 
 the Articles of Confederation. Then Gouverneur Mor- 
 ris arose and made the great issue plain. He said 
 that the Confederation was a mere compact, resting 
 on the good faith of the federated States; that there 
 must be one supreme power, and one only a national 
 government. What differences there were to be over- 
 come is seen in the fact that even this proposition 
 was debated all day, and was carried in the end 
 against the vote of Connecticut, and with New York 
 divided, Hamilton, of course, voting in favor, and 
 Yates against it (Lansing absent); for the purpose of 
 Yates and Lansing in the Convention was to defeat, 
 if possible, the efforts of Hamilton in favor of a strong 
 national government. Just before the day's adjourn- 
 ment, the work for the following day was cut out by
 
 98 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 resolving to consider the question of the representa- 
 tion of the States in the national legislature. It was 
 thought, probably, that only a day's work was thus 
 provided for, but instead, weeks were consumed in 
 discussing some form of the troublesome question. It 
 evoked the expression of some sentiments which sound 
 strangely in these days of manhood suffrage. In the 
 debate on the question of how the members of the 
 first branch of Congress should be elected, whether by 
 the people or by State legislatures, Gerry said: "The 
 evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. 
 The people do not want (lack) virtue, but are the dupes 
 of pretended patriots." We had, he said, been too re- 
 publican ; he had been taught the danger of the level- 
 ing spirit. And so Sherman said: "The people imme- 
 diately should have as little to do as possible with gov- 
 ernment. They want (lack) information, and are con- 
 stantly liable to be misled." 
 
 But the spirit of democracy was in the Convention 
 in a safe proportion. Mason promptly replied to 
 Gerry, arguing strongly for the election of the first 
 branch (the House of Representatives was generally 
 spoken of as the "first" branch, the Senate as the 
 "second" branch) by the people direct. It was, he said, 
 to be the grand depository of the democratic principle 
 of the Government. In that same speech Mason said 
 something which has since been expressed in the 
 homely phrase that in America, with its equal oppor- 
 tunities, it is three generations "from shirt sleeves to 
 shirt sleeves." Said Mason: "I have often wondered 
 at the indifference of the superior classes of society to 
 this dictate of humanity and policy, considering that 
 however affluent their circumstances, or elevated their 
 situation may be, the course of a few years not only
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 99 
 
 may, but certainly will distribute their posterity 
 through the lower classes of society. Every selfish 
 motive, therefore, every family attachment, ought to 
 recommend such a system of policy as will provide no 
 less carefully for the rights and happiness of the low- 
 est as well as the highest orders of society." 
 
 Another sturdy opponent to anything like a prop- 
 erty qualification to the right to vote was Franklin. 
 Much later in the Convention he "expressed his dislike 
 to everything that tended to debase the spirit of the 
 common people. If honesty was often the companion 
 of wealth, and if poverty was exposed to peculiar 
 temptation, it was not less true that the possession of 
 property increased the desire for more property. Some 
 of the greatest rogues he was ever acquainted with 
 were the richest rogues. We should remember the 
 character which the Scriptures require in rulers, that 
 they should be men hating covetousness. This Con- 
 stitution will be much read and attended to in Europe, 
 and if it should betray a great partiality to the rich, 
 will not only hurt us in the esteem of the most liberal 
 and enlightened men there, but discourage the com- 
 mon people from removing to this country." 
 
 As we shall see, the greatest struggle in the Con- 
 vention was over the question whether the representa- 
 tion in the national legislature should be equal as be- 
 tween the several States, or proportional, and that the 
 so-called Connecticut compromise that the States 
 should be equally represented in the Senate, and pro- 
 portionally represented in the House of Representa- 
 tives, was the key to what had become a deadlock. It 
 was as early as the 31st of May that Sherman said he 
 favored an election to the Senate of one member from 
 each State by the State legislatures. At that time no
 
 100 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 notice whatever seems to have been taken of the sug- 
 gestion, but doubtless it had its effect in the minds of 
 some of the members, who were thereby prepared to 
 give weight to the same suggestion later, when the 
 time came that a compromise must be found to save 
 the Convention from a futile adjournment. The first 
 suggestion for an Electoral College was made by Wil- 
 son, on June 2d, who then moved, instead of the Ran- 
 dolph plan for the election of the President (by the 
 Representatives), the following plan : "That the States 
 be divided into districts and that the persons qualified 
 to vote in each district for members of the first branch 
 
 of the National Legislature, elect members for 
 
 their respective districts to be electors of the executive 
 magistracy. That the said electors of the executive 
 
 magistracy meet at , and they, or any of 
 
 them so met shall proceed to elect by ballot, but not 
 
 out of their own body person in whom the 
 
 executive authority of the national authority shall be 
 vested." The last of the blanks left in that resolution 
 was to be filled with the number of persons who were 
 to constitute the "Executive Magistracy," for it had 
 not then been decided that the executive should con- 
 sist of one, two or three persons. This plan, which 
 was really the basis for the final plan, was instantly 
 opposed by Gerry, who "was not clear that the people 
 ought to act directly, even in the choice of electors." 
 On that day the Convention decided by vote that 
 the President should be elected by the Congress for 
 a term of seven years. It was on that same day, too, 
 that one of Franklin's always interesting speeches was 
 recorded by Madison. We are fortunate in that Frank- 
 lin wrote his principal speeches, and had them read, 
 usually by Wilson, and thus the original coming into
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 101 
 
 Madison's possession they are preserved literally. 
 Franklin was opposed to paying a salary to the Presi- 
 dent, and although the question was not at that time 
 before the Committee of the Whole, it was always 
 ready to hear his views on any subject at any time. 
 The chief interest in the address for us to-day is in 
 the arguments advanced why the President should 
 serve without salary. "Sir," he said, "there are two 
 passions which have a powerful influence on the af- 
 fairs of men. They are ambition and avarice; the love 
 of power and the love of money. Separately, each of 
 these has great force in moving men to action; but 
 when united in view of the same objects, they have in 
 many minds the most violent effects. Place before the 
 eyes of such men a post of honor that shall at the same 
 time be a place of profit, and they will move heaven 
 and earth to obtain it. * * * And of what kind 
 are these men who will strive for this profitable pre- 
 eminence, throughout all the bustle of cabal, the heat 
 of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, 
 tearing to pieces the best of characters? It will not 
 be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good 
 order, the men fittest for the trust. It will be the 
 bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and 
 indefatigable activities in their selfish pursuits. These 
 will thrust themselves into your Government and be 
 your rulers. And these, too, will be mistaken in the 
 expected happiness of their situation: for their van- 
 quished competitors of the same spirit, and from the 
 same motives, will perpetually be endeavoring to dis- 
 tress their administration, thwart their measures, and 
 render them odious to the people." 
 
 But Franklin's fellow-delegates could not foresee 
 that a man with strong passions should ever strive
 
 102 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 for the great office they were about to create, nor 
 that the office would ever be filled by a man who would 
 rouse up vanquished competitors who would perpetu- 
 ally be endeavoring to thwart his measures. They had 
 their eyes fixed on Washington, who all knew would 
 be the first President if their work bore such fruit as 
 they hoped, and they all knew that he had served 
 eight years as Commander-in-Chief of their victorious 
 army, and refused to accept any pay whatever for his 
 services, or recompense for his great material sacri- 
 fices made in the performance of his arduous duties. 
 
 On the day Franklin made that speech, O. Pinckney 
 moved that the blank for the number of persons in the 
 executive be filled with the words "one person." 
 
 Eandolph opposed this earnestly, declaring that he 
 felt an opposition to a single executive which he 
 should continue to feel as long as he lived. The per- 
 manent temper of the people was adverse to the very 
 semblance of monarchy; that the necessary confidence 
 would never be reposed in a single executive. He 
 favored three members of the executive to be drawn 
 from different parts of the country. 
 
 Wilson favored the single executive, saying: "All 
 persons know that a single magistrate is not a king. 
 All the thirteen States, although agreeing in scarce 
 any other instance, agree in placing a single magis- 
 trate at the head of the Government. The idea of 
 three heads has taken place in none." 
 
 Wilson's line of argument suggests how much the 
 members of the Convention depended upon the con- 
 stitutions of the States for sources for the details of 
 their work. This we shall see in detail later. 
 
 On June 4th, the idea that the President might have 
 the advice of a Cabinet in the organization of his de-
 
 A STRONG GOVERNMENT DEMANDED 103 
 
 partment seems first to have been expressed. Mr. 
 Sherman was advocating the single executive motion, 
 and said: ''It should be also remarked that in all the 
 States there was a council of advice, without which 
 the first magistrate could not act. A council will be 
 necessary to make the establishment (of a chief ex- 
 ecutive) acceptable to the people." On the question, 
 the single executive motion was carried, and it is in- 
 teresting to note that had Washington been in the 
 chair and therefore not voting, the vote of Virginia 
 would not have been counted, being equally divided. 
 But Washington sat in the body of the Committee of 
 the Whole and voted in favor of the single executive, 
 with Madison and McClurg; Randolph and Blair vot- 
 ing no, and Mason absent. 
 
 In view of the intimate familiarity of the members 
 of the Convention with the construction and working 
 of the British Parliament, it is notable how seldom, 
 comparatively, that body was referred to as either a 
 model for their work, or as something to be avoided 
 in their work. Latter-day historians have professed 
 to find many likenesses between the functions, privi- 
 leges and limitations of the House of Commons, the 
 House of Lords and the British Monarch, and the 
 American House of Representatives, Senate and Presi- 
 dent. Mr. Dickinson was one of the few delegates of 
 the first order of talents who forthrightly recom- 
 mended the British institutions as a model. "In the 
 formation of the Senate," he said, "we ought to carry 
 it through such a refining process as will assimilate 
 it as near as may be to the House of Lords in Eng- 
 land." On June 7th, Dickinson, speaking again on the 
 method of electing the Senate, is thus reported by
 
 104' OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Madison: "He wished the Senate to consist of the 
 most distinguished characters, distinguished for their 
 rank in life and their weight of property, and bearing 
 as strong a likeness to the British House of Lords as 
 possible." 
 
 As we shall see in the next chapter, the question 
 of ratio of representation of the States was the one 
 which most nearly disrupted the Convention, owing 
 to the belief of the small States that proportional 
 representation would give the larger States the power 
 and a power they would use to oppress the smaller. 
 On this question, Franklin as usual spoke such words 
 of calm sense as were, for a time, rare, strangely so. 
 "I do not at present see," he said, "what advantage 
 the greater States could propose to themselves by 
 swallowing the smaller States, and therefore do not 
 apprehend that they would attempt it." 
 
 Some were for considering what the people would 
 approve, and recommending such things; and it was 
 in rebuke of such weak opportunism that Washington 
 interposed with his immortal speech which, says 
 Fiske, "ought to be emblazoned in letters of gold, and 
 posted on the wall of every American Assembly that 
 shall meet to nominate a candidate, or pass a law, so 
 long as the weakness of human nature shall endure." 
 Washington's solemn warning was in these words : 
 
 "It is too probable that no plan we propose will be 
 adopted. If to please the people we offer what we 
 ourselves disapprove, however can we afterwards de- 
 fend our work? LET US RAISE A STANDARD TO 
 WHICH THE WISE AND HONEST CAN REPAIR; 
 THE EVENT IS IN THE HAND OF GOD."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ( 
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 
 
 A GERMAN writer speaks of America's "worship of 
 the Constitution," the "Constitution a national fetish," 
 and presumably he speaks in a mood of gentle reproof. 
 But to an American who loves his country and its in- 
 stitutions it is difficult, while studying the work of the 
 Convention, not to be filled with a kind and degree of 
 wonder which an unmoved critic might translate into 
 worship; difficult, while viewing passionate conten- 
 tions disappearing at last before the vastly deeper and 
 nobler emotion, the patriotic determination to aban- 
 don all personal desire and conviction; while viewing 
 the subsidence of resentment over the rejection of 
 warmly cherished theories, and acceptance of theories 
 of opponents when endorsed by the majority. Par- 
 tisanship gave way to patriotism, contention to con- 
 ciliation, all other passions and motives to the wish 
 for the good of a common country. 
 
 "The Constitution was extorted from the grinding 
 necessities of a reluctant people," says another writer, 
 and the statement has been justified, in the opinion of 
 some, by such figures as that a change of 3 votes out 
 of 60 in the New York convention when the Con- 
 stitution was submitted for ratification of 5 votes out 
 of 168 in the Virginia convention, of 10 out of 358 in 
 Massachusetts would have defeated ratification in 
 
 105
 
 106 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 those States. Such argument is based on a familiar 
 misuse of figures. It might be said that in spite of its 
 novelty, of the fears of the timid and doubts of the 
 conservative; in spite of the desperate efforts of dema- 
 gogues afraid of loss of political importance; in spite 
 of the difficulty of waging a campaign of education 
 when there were few daily papers, poor and infrequent 
 postal service, no railroads, no telegraph; in spite of 
 these handicaps to the dissemination of intelligence 
 and views, the few who did understand the Constitu- 
 tion were yet able to make converts so fast that they 
 secured ratification in all the States. The people do 
 not seem to have been reluctant. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has been much criticized for saying: 
 "The American Constitution is the most wonderful 
 work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and 
 purpose of man.'' His critics have deemed the phrase 
 "struck off'' evidence of Gladstone's belief that the 
 Convention met and by some magic instantly framed 
 the Constitution. We can hardly be doing violence 
 to probability if we assume that Gladstone could have 
 stood a fair examination on the subject of the Phila- 
 delphia Convention of 1787, even to answering, if 
 asked, that it first met May 15th and finally adjourned 
 September 17th. Historically, a thing which profoundly 
 affects world politics, commerce, industry, diplomacy, 
 political geography and many great international re- 
 lations can be said to have been "struck off" when it 
 is done in that space of time. 
 
 Before we examine the Convention's work in detail, 
 two more views of it may serve as lamps; they cer- 
 tainly sustain us in a willingness to accept Gladstone's 
 judgment, and console us for the reproof that we wor- 
 ship the Constitution. Said Marshall, the great Chief
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 107 
 
 Justice of the Supreme Court, who did so much to 
 interpret and apply the Constitution : 
 
 "A Constitution, to contain an accurate detail of all 
 the subdivisions of which its great powers will admit, 
 and of all the means by which they may be carried 
 into execution, would partake of the prolixity of a 
 legal code, and could scarcely be embraced by the 
 human mind. It would probably never be understood 
 by the public. Its nature, therefore, requires that only 
 its great outlines should be marked, its important ob- 
 jects designated, and the minor ingredients which 
 compose those objects be deduced from the nature of 
 the objects themselves." 
 
 There is the opinion of a great jurist as to what a 
 constitution should be, and let us see what a great 
 historian says as to what our Constitution is, in that 
 respect. James Bryce, in his American Commonwealth, 
 says: 
 
 "History knows few instruments which, in so few 
 words, lay down equally momentous rules on a vast 
 range of matters of the highest importance and com- 
 plexity. The Convention of 1787 were well advised in 
 making their draft short, because it was essential that 
 the people should comprehend it, because fresh dif- 
 ferences of views would have emerged the further 
 they had gone into details, and because the more one 
 specifies, the more one has to specify and to attempt 
 the impossible task of providing beforehand for all 
 contingencies. These sages were therefore content to 
 lay down a few general rules and principles, leaving 
 some details to be filled in by Congressional legisla- 
 tion, and foreseeing that for others it would be neces- 
 sary to trust to interpretation." 
 
 As we have seen, the Convention first worked on
 
 108 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the resolutions offered by Randolph. These were con- 
 sidered clause by clause by the members sitting as a 
 Committee of the Whole until June 13th, when the 
 committee reported nineteen resolutions elaborating 
 those of Randolph. The Paterson resolutions, favor- 
 ing a confederation instead of a national government, 
 as provided for in the resolutions founded on Ran- 
 dolph's, were then offered June 15th, but after a brief 
 consideration the committee reported in favor of pro- 
 ceeding along the line of the nineteen resolutions, and 
 this was done until the plan was further elaborated 
 into twenty-three resolutions clearly indicating in the 
 essentials what the majority of States desired. On 
 July 26th these resolutions were referred to a com- 
 mittee to prepare a draft of a constitution. This com- 
 mittee was composed of Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, 
 Ellsworth and Wilson, and to give it time to prepare a 
 draft an adjournment was taken to August 6th, when 
 a report was made and a copy of the draft laid on each 
 member's desk. Without a day's delay, although some 
 asked for time to study the draft, without going again 
 into Committee of the Whole, although this, too, was 
 asked for, without a single day's recess, except the 
 usual adjournment over Sundays, through the swelter- 
 ing weeks of August and September the Convention 
 worked on every article, section, clause, sentence 
 every word, almost until, having passed through 
 the hands of a Committee on Style, consisting of 
 Johnson, Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Madison and 
 King, the great work was completed and sent to Con- 
 gress. 
 
 The instrument, as it was thus framed, consisted of 
 an enacting clause, sometimes called the preamble, 
 and seven articles, most of the latter being divided
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 109 
 
 into numbered sections, and these sometimes sub- 
 divided into clauses not numbered, but which, in mod- 
 ern printing, bear editorial numbers, given to them to 
 assist reference. Only three members, Randolph, 
 Mason and Gerry, of the forty-two present on the day 
 of final adjournment, refused to sign. The overwhelm- 
 ing majority of signers was made possible through 
 three great compromises, and many accommodations 
 of conflicting or divergent views on minor points. 
 These compromises will appear as we proceed with a 
 detailed examination. The enacting language of the 
 preliminary clause is as follows: 
 
 "We, the people of the United States, * * * do 
 ordain and establish this Constitution of the United 
 States of America." 
 
 The reason that the clause is sometimes called a 
 preamble is that it includes a statement of the ob- 
 jects for which the Constitution is created, namely: 
 
 (1) In order to form a more perfect union ; (2) to es- 
 tablish justice; (3) to insure domestic tranquillity; (4) 
 to provide for the common defense; (5) to promote the 
 general welfare, and (6) to secure the blessings of lib- 
 erty to ourselves and our posterity. 
 
 Proceeding, we can now take up for examination 
 the seven Articles and their Sections in order. The 
 capitalization and punctuation here used, when text 
 of the Constitution is copied, follows that in the copy 
 of the Constitution filed by President Washington 
 with the Secretary of State in 1796, and used in the 
 Documentary History of the Constitution, issued by au- 
 thority of Congress. The full text of the Constitution 
 and Amendments will be found in the Appendix of 
 this book, and its study as a whole, after the study 
 clause by clause, is urged.
 
 110 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Article I, Section 1. All legislative Powers herein 
 granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United 
 States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 This provision of a law-making body, consisting of 
 two houses, was natural enough since all the States 
 except Pennsylvania had each a two-house Legislature 
 (although until 1789 Georgia's second House, if it 
 could be so called, was elected by the first House from 
 among its own members). But the small States, when 
 they secured equal representation in the Senate, 
 sought to defeat the two-house Congress and thus gain 
 their point completely. Paterson argued that while 
 there might be reason for a two-house Legislature in 
 the States, where hasty legislation might be feared, 
 no such check was needed for a national legislature, 
 where the States would be a check on each other. 
 Wilson replied that a one-house Legislature would 
 create danger of despotism; Sherman said all con- 
 federacies had a one-house Legislature, and Wilson 
 replied again that it was not strange that they could 
 find no precedent among confederacies as their num- 
 ber was small and their lives short. Lansing argued 
 that the Convention was without power to provide 
 other than a single-house Congress. Madison and 
 Mason spoke in favor of a two-house Legislature as 
 likely to command the confidence of the people, secure 
 considered legislation, and provide a desired check. 
 On the vote, seven States favored the two-house plan, 
 New York, New Jersey and Delaware opposed, and 
 Maryland was divided. Jefferson was in France at 
 the time of the Convention, but on his return he said 
 to Washington that he considered the two-house pro- 
 vision one of the worst in the Constitution. He was
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 111 
 
 in Washington's New York residence, taking a cup of 
 tea, which he cooled in the familiar manner. "The 
 second House is a good thing," Washington replied, 
 with a smile; "it will turn our hot cups of legislation 
 into our saucers to cool." 
 
 The names Congress, Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives were familiar to the members, and crept 
 into the debates before they were formally incorpo- 
 rated into any reports. Senate was the name of the 
 upper House in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New 
 York, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas. House 
 of Representatives was the name of the lower House 
 in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, South Carolina 
 and the single house in Pennsylvania. But neither in 
 the Constitution nor the laws are the popular names, 
 lower and upper House, found. 
 
 Article I, Section 2, Clause 1. The House of Rep- 
 resentatives shall be composed of Members chosen 
 every second Year by the People of the several States, 
 and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifi- 
 cations requisite for Electors in the most numerous 
 Branch of the State Legislature. 
 
 Some members proposed that the term of Represen- 
 tatives should be one year, some two years and some 
 three years. The short-term argument was based on 
 the belief that such a term would keep Representa- 
 tives alive to their dependence on the people; the long- 
 term advocates thought thus to secure stability. The 
 term agreed upon also determines the length of Con- 
 gress, two years. The first Congress began March 4, 
 1789; the Fifty-ninth Congress began March 4, 1905. 
 The right of the people directly to choose their rep- 
 resentatives in even one branch of Congress was not
 
 112 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 gained without a struggle. The fourth Randolph reso- 
 lution declared for this method, but when considera 
 tion was reached, Sherman opposed it on the ground 
 that the people lacked knowledge. He wanted the 
 Representatives elected by the State legislatures. 
 Mason favored election by the people, which would 
 make the House of Representatives the depository of 
 the democratic spirit. Wilson and Madison also ar- 
 gued in favor of the method which was adopted, with 
 only two States voting against it; but the triumph of 
 democracy was not yet secured. A week later Charles 
 Pinckney obtained reconsideration. He made the 
 familiar argument as to the unfltness of the people, 
 adding the new argument that if the State legislatures 
 were given the privilege of electing members of the 
 House of Representatives they (the members of the 
 State legislatures) would be less likely to oppose rati- 
 fication of the new Constitution. Cotesworth Pinck- 
 ney also favored election by the State legislatures as 
 likely to secure safer men, and again Sherman argued 
 that the people were unfit to trust with the election. 
 If the State governments were to continue, he said, it 
 was necessary, in order to secure harmony between 
 the States and the nation, that the States should elect 
 the members of the National Legislature. But again 
 the proposed method for election by the people was 
 adopted, although this time three States voted in op- 
 position. This encouraged the advocates of election 
 by State legislatures, and a couple of weeks later 
 C. C. Pinckney once more raised the question by mov- 
 ing that members of the House of Representatives 
 "should be elected in such manner as the Legislature 
 of each State should direct." This was lost, although 
 four States favored it; and then, at last, by a vote of
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 113 
 
 nine States, one State not voting, it was finally de- 
 cided to adopt the plan for electing Representatives 
 by the people. 
 
 Article I, Section 2, Clause 2. No Person shall be 
 a Representative who shall not have attained to the 
 Age of twenty-five Years, and been seven Years a 
 Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
 elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he 
 shall be chosen. 
 
 There are, it is seen, but three qualifications: age, 
 citizenship and inhabitancy. Other qualifications 
 were introduced by the Fourteenth Amendment, but 
 they refer to conditions growing out of the Civil War, 
 which have almost entirely disappeared. It will be 
 noticed that a Representative need not be an inhabit- 
 ant of the district which elects him (that he shall be 
 elected from a district is an after provision of the law), 
 but only an inhabitant of the State. It is interesting 
 also to note the phrase "a citizen of the United 
 States," which is one way of asserting that this is a 
 nation, of which a person may be a citizen, not a Con- 
 federation, of which a person could be a citizen of 
 but one of the confederated parts. 
 
 Article I, Section 2, Clause 3. Representatives and 
 direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
 States which may be included within this Union, ac- 
 cording to their respective Numbers, which shall be 
 determined by adding to the whole Number of free 
 Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term 
 of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths 
 of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall 
 be made within three Years after the first Meeting of 
 the Congress of the United States, and within every 
 subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as
 
 114 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representa- 
 tives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, 
 but each State shall have at Least one Representative; 
 and until such enumeration shall be made, the State 
 of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, 
 Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence 
 Plantation one, Connecticut five, New York six, New 
 Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Mary- 
 land six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Caro- 
 lina five, and Georgia three. 
 
 This clause relates to representation, not voting: 
 that is, the Constitution determines the basis for ap- 
 portionment of Representatives, the States themselves 
 (subject only to the Fifteenth Amendment) determine 
 who may vote, and those the States say may vote for 
 members of the most numerous branch of their legis- 
 latures may, under the Constitution, vote for Repre- 
 sentatives in Congress. Thus in some States women 
 vote for Representatives. It provides only for Repre- 
 sentatives of States; Congress by laws has provided 
 for a delegate in the House from each Territory, who 
 is allowed to speak but not to vote. While provision 
 is made for determining what number of Representa- 
 tives each State shall have, it is stipulated that each 
 State shall have at least one. The wisdom of this is 
 shown by the fact that at times several States have 
 not had the population fixed by law as entitled to a 
 Representative. The rule for apportionment involved 
 the question: Shall slaves be regarded as persons or 
 property? The decision was that a slave should count 
 as three-fifths of a person in apportioning representa- 
 tion and direct taxes ; that is, five slaves to be counted 
 as three persons. This three-fifths rule, of course, in- 
 creased the representation of the voters of, as well as 
 the amount of direct taxes imposed upon, the slave
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 115 
 
 > 
 
 States until the abolition of slavery. Congress has 
 imposed direct taxes (except when Congress has been 
 overruled by the Supreme Court) but five times, and 
 for brief periods. 
 
 The second section of the Fourteenth Amendment 
 makes the apportionment rule read: "Representatives 
 shall be apportioned among the several States accord- 
 ing to their respective numbers, counting the whole 
 number of persons, excluding Indians not taxed." 
 The expression "Indians not taxed" means Indians 
 who keep up tribal relations, and are recognized as 
 tribes by the Government, which helps to maintain 
 them on what are called Indian Reservations. The 
 scattered remnants of tribes found in larger or smaller 
 numbers in nearly every State, are regarded as having 
 been absorbed into the body of citizens, subject to tax- 
 ation, and therefore not excluded in representation 
 census. 
 
 The ratio of representation was first fixed at forty 
 thousand in the Convention, but was changed to thirty 
 thousand at the suggestion of Washington, who said 
 that a more numerous representation would tend to 
 quiet the fears of those who thought the new Govern- 
 ment might be a tyranny. In 1793, the ratio was made 
 one member for every 33,000 persons; in 1823, one for 
 every 35,000, and with a change thereafter every ten 
 years became in 1903 a member for each 194,182 per- 
 sons, giving a total representation in the House of 386 
 members. The first House contained 65 members. 
 Under an early rule the total number of persons 
 enumerated in each State was divided by the ratio 
 number to determine the State's representation, but 
 with the enormously greater population the ratio num- 
 ber also had to be increased and thus there was left a
 
 116 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 large fraction unrepresented in some States, and the 
 rule was changed so as to avoid leaving a fraction 
 more than one-half of the ratio number unrepresented. 
 
 It simplifies an account of the Convention struggle 
 over the principles involved in this clause to treat as 
 one question representation in the House (covered by 
 the clause we have been considering) and in the Sen- ( 
 ate (covered by Section 3, Clause 1, of the same Arti- 
 cle), for the compromise which finally ended the strug- 
 gle included both. The clause was the outgrowth of 
 the second Randolph resolution: "That the rights of 
 suffrage in the National Legislature ought to be pro- 
 portioned to the quotas of contribution (taxes paid for 
 the support of the Government), or to the number of 
 free inhabitants, as one or the other rule might seem 
 best in different cases." Here was the question whose 
 settlement strained the Convention almost to the 
 breaking point; the contention being between the 
 smaller States favoring equal representation in Con- 
 gress, and the larger States which wanted propor- 
 tional representation, the larger States being at times 
 aided by the Carolinas and Georgia, who had faith in 
 their ultimate gain in representation by growth in 
 population. It will be remembered that in the then 
 single-house Congress each State had one vote; no 
 matter how many delegates it sent or had present, 
 when it came to voting all were equal. This was a 
 precedent which gave the smaller States in the Con- 
 vention that respectable standing which a familiar 
 precedent would be certain to give in such a body as 
 the Constitutional Convention but unfortunately for 
 them they had little other strength, and the majority 
 was in a mood to break precedents. 
 
 It was as early as May 30th that Mr. Bead of Dela-
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 117 
 
 ware threatened to secede from the Convention if it 
 so much as considered proportional representation in 
 the National Legislature. Gouverneur Morris politely 
 rejoined that "the valuable assistance of those mem- 
 bers (from Delaware) could not be lost without real 
 concern, and that so early proof of discord in the Con- 
 vention as the secession of a State would add much 
 to the regret ; that the change proposed was, however, 
 so fundamental an article in a national government 
 that it could not be dispensed with." Madison at once 
 sought to clear the minds of those who still supposed 
 that the Convention was met to patch up the old Arti- 
 cles of Confederation into something with which the 
 old Congress could continue to run the country. 
 "Whatever reason," he said, "might have existed for 
 the equality of suffrage when the Union was a federal 
 one among sovereign States, it might cease when a 
 national government was put into the place. In the 
 former case" Confederation "the acts of Congress 
 depended so much for their efficacy upon the co-opera- 
 tion of the States, that these had a weight both within 
 and without Congress nearly in proportion to their ex- 
 tent and importance. In the latter case" a National 
 Government "as the acts of the general government 
 would take effect without the intervention of State 
 legislatures, a vote from a small State would have the 
 same efficacy and importance as a vote from a large 
 one." 
 
 Brearly remarked that the Confederation had 
 rightly settled the question in favor of equal repre- 
 sentation and saved the smaller States. He would 
 not say that Georgia should have an equal vote with 
 Virginia; the remedy was to wipe out existing bound- 
 aries and redistrict the whole country into thirteen
 
 118 OUK CONSTITUTION 
 
 equal parts. Paterson also thought if they were to 
 be a nation, State distinction should be abolished, 
 "and the whole thrown into hotch-pot, and an equal 
 division made." Wilson contended that as all au- 
 thority was derived from the people, equal numbers 
 ought to have an equal number of representatives; 
 different numbers, different numbers of representa- 
 tives. Franklin said he did not believe the great 
 States would swallow up the small. A like fear had 
 been expressed when the union of England and Scot- 
 land was under consideration; but the fear had proved 
 groundless. Then he made this ingenious exhibition 
 of how it would be possible for the small States not 
 only to "swallow up" the large ones, but to rule by a 
 minority: Assuming a House of Representatives with 
 seven small States, each having three members, and 
 six large States having all told 36 members. On a 
 vote, two members of each small State should be in 
 the affirmative, and one in the negative; and all the 
 large States should vote unanimously in the negative. 
 There would be but fourteen individual votes in the 
 affirmative, carrying seven States, and there would be 
 43 in the negative (36 from large and 7 from small) 
 carrying but six States. If the vote be by States (as 
 in the Congress of the Confederation) 14 votes would 
 have carried the question against 43 votes. "The 
 minority overpowers the majority, contrary to the 
 common practice of Assemblies in all countries and 
 all ages," concluded the shrewd Doctor but the de- 
 bate went on. 
 
 The first test vote was brought on the motion of 
 King and Wilson: "Suffrage in the House should not 
 be according to the Confederation, but according to 
 some equitable ratio." This motion eliminated from 
 
 f
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 119 
 
 discussion suffrage in the Senate, and referred only to 
 votes, not representation; that is, that the Confedera- 
 tion plan of a vote a State, irrespective of the repre- 
 sentation, should not be adopted for the Union. The 
 motion carried, Connecticut, from which the compro- 
 mise was to come, voting with the larger States 
 against New York, New Jersey and Delaware, with 
 Maryland divided. The effort to confine the discus- 
 sion to representation in one branch did not succeed, 
 for the principle of proportional or equal representa- 
 tion in Congress as a whole was the disturbing one in 
 the minds of all, and could not be separated by formal 
 motions. It was debated for many days, and became 
 so passionate at times that Franklin, the wise, the 
 knower of men, on June 28, did a characteristic thing 
 to restore at least momentary calm. "Groping as it 
 were in the dark," he said, "to find political truth, and 
 scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how 
 has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once 
 thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to 
 illuminate our understanding? * * * I beg leave to 
 move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance 
 of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be 
 held in this assembly every morning." 
 
 No vote was taken on this pious motion; perhaps 
 Dr. Franklin did not expect that there would be; he 
 had sobered the delegates for the time, and that doubt- 
 less was the object of his motion. Indeed, it was time 
 a calm interval should intervene. Ellsworth and Sher- 
 man had proposed the compromise that representation 
 in the House should be proportional, and in the Sen- 
 ate equal, and Franklin had endorsed it with the re- 
 mark that when a carpenter wishes to fit two boards 
 he sometimes pares off a bit from both, but the spirit
 
 120 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 of compromise had not yet settled upon the Conven- 
 tion. Martin exclaimed: "No compromise for us. 
 Give each State equal suffrage or our business is at an 
 end." Sherman responded to this : "Then we are come 
 to a full stop." On a vote, the compromisers gained 
 heart, though not a victory, for five States voted Aye 
 and five No. A tie vote lost a motion, but here was 
 ground for continuing the struggle, which would not 
 have been the case had the negatives been in a major- 
 ity. A negative majority at that time would, in the 
 opinion of Fiske, "in all probability have broken up 
 the Convention." 
 
 The compromise motion was referred to a commit- 
 tee, which, after three days' consideration, reported it 
 favorably; but even then the chairman, Gerry, said he 
 did not wholly approve of it, but had supported the 
 report because "if nothing were done, war and con- 
 fusion must ensue, the old Confederation being vir- 
 tually at an end." The smaller States were bitter and 
 threatening. Bedford exclaimed: "Pretences to sup- 
 port ambition are never wanting. Gentlemen (to the 
 delegates from the larger States), I do not trust you. 
 If you possess the power, the abuse of it could not be 
 checked; and what then would prevent you from ex- 
 ercising it to our destruction? Sooner than be ruined, 
 there are foreign powers who will take us by the 
 hands." 
 
 A threat to secede from the Union had already been 
 made; here was the additional threat to go over to 
 some foreign power for support. King delivered the 
 rebuke, saying: "I am concerned for what fell from 
 the gentleman from Delaware take a foreign power by 
 the hand! I am sorry he mentioned it, and I hope he is 
 able to excuse it to himself on the score of passion."
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 121 
 
 For eleven days the committee report was discussed; 
 others threatened to leave the Convention if equal 
 representation was denied; one said he would continue 
 to fight there "if he had to bury his bones in that 
 city," rather than to expose his country to the conse- 
 quences of the dissolution of the Convention. Now 
 the spirit of compromise spread, and on the next vote 
 the motion to that end was adopted. The vote was: 
 Aye, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 
 North Carolina, five; No, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
 South Carolina, Georgia, four. The vote of Massa- 
 chusetts was lost by an equal division of its delegates 
 present, and New York could not vote because of the 
 absence of two of her three delegates, Lansing and 
 Yates. They had quit the Convention when the favor- 
 able report on the compromise was made, and Hamil- 
 ton alone could not cast New York's vote. Martin also 
 went back to Maryland in a rage when his fellow- 
 delegates cast the State's vote for the compromise. 
 
 The first great compromise helped the work, but 
 others had to be agreed to before it was completed. 
 How should the slaves be counted? In the Northern 
 States slaves were rapidly disappearing, and in Vir- 
 ginia such men as Washington, Madison and Mason 
 hoped soon to see their State freed from slavery. 
 Therefore, if slaves were not counted in the appor- 
 tionment of Representatives, Washington and his fel- 
 low anti-slavery delegates would have less trouble in 
 inducing the Virginia Legislature to abolish slavery; 
 if the slaves helped Virginia to gain representation in 
 the House, the struggle for abolition would be made 
 more difficult. But South Carolina could not be 
 moved from her determination to have representation 
 in one branch of Congress in proportion to her whole
 
 122 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 number of inhabitants, including slaves; otherwise she 
 feared she would be oppressed through navigation 
 laws by the non-slave-holding States. South Carolina 
 would probably carry North Carolina with her on this 
 issue, and those who hoped to submit a Constitution 
 to all the thirteen States recalled that they had been 
 helped in the first compromise by the latter State. 
 The Constitution not only had to be framed, but it 
 must be ratified to make a national government, and 
 it would be dangerous to antagonize the three small 
 States south of Virginia to such an extent as to en- 
 danger the prospect of their ratifications. This danger 
 Madjson saw, and how clearly he saw into the future 
 was demonstrated later, for it was South Carolina's 
 timely ratification which probably saved the Constitu- 
 tion. So it was Madison who proposed the compro- 
 mise between counting slaves as "whole" persons and 
 treating them only as chattels. Count a slave as three- 
 fifths of a person, he said. It was illogical, of course, 
 for under the laws of the great slave-holding States 
 slaves were treated as chattels, and if they were to be 
 otherwise treated in the Constitution they should have 
 been treated as "whole" persons. But expediencies are 
 not always based on pure logic, and abstract proposi- 
 tions cannot always be maintained in the face of a 
 demand for a compromise or nothing. Those from the 
 North who now argued that slaves should not be 
 counted for representation found themselves in a posi- 
 tion of weakness for which themselves were responsi- 
 ble; in the Congress of four years before the North 
 had argued that the slaves should be counted in de- 
 termining the proportion of revenue each State should 
 pay, and the South had agreed to this increased tax, 
 under the same compromise, and proposed by the same
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 123 
 
 person, by the way, Madison. So now, in the Conven- 
 tion, the same compromise was adopted, and the Con- 
 vention held together. Eventually, slavery led to the 
 awful War of Secession, but, as one historian has said: 
 "Four years of concentrated warfare, animated by 
 an intense and lofty moral purpose, could not hurt 
 the character or mar the features of the people, like a 
 century of aimless squabbling over a host of petty 
 local interests. The War of Secession was a terrible 
 ordeal to pass through; but when one tries to picture 
 what might have happened in this fair land without 
 the work of the Federal Convention, the imagination 
 stands aghast." 
 
 Article I, Section 2, Clause 4. When vacancies hap- 
 pen in the Representation from any State, the Execu- 
 tive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election 
 to fill such Vacancies. 
 
 Vacancies are from death, resignation, expulsion 
 and acceptance of an office a person may not hold and 
 be a Representative. A writ of election as here under- 
 stood is a proclamation by a Governor announcing a 
 vacancy, and appointing a day when an election shall 
 be held in the district named, to fill such vacancy. 
 
 Article I, Section 2, Clause 5. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives shall choose their Speaker and other 
 Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeach- 
 ment. 
 
 The Speaker is a member of the House elected by 
 his fellow-members to preside over their meetings. 
 The other officers are Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Door- 
 keeper, Postmaster and Chaplain. The Clerk holda 
 office until the Speaker of a succeeding House is
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 eiected, and presides while the Bouse is electing a 
 Speaker. An impeachment by the House may be lik- 
 ened to an indictment by a grand jury. It is the 
 declaration by the House laid before the Senate, that 
 the person impeached (indicted) is guilty of high 
 crimes and misdemeanors committed in office, for 
 which he should be brought to trial by the Senate. 
 
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 1. The Senate of the 
 United States shall be composed of two Senators from 
 each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six 
 Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. 
 
 This clause was the outgrowth of the fifth Randolph 
 resolution, which provided that the second branch of 
 the National Legislature should be elected by the first 
 out of nominations made by State legislatures. Three 
 other methods were proposed: appointment to the 
 Senate by the President, which was opposed as tending 
 to monarchy; direct election by the people, opposed 
 as too democratic, and that it would leave the landed 
 and property interests of the country without repre- 
 sentation in either branch, and provide no means for 
 refining legislation ; election by the State legislatures, 
 the plan adopted. Dickinson moved this plan, argu- 
 ing that the sense of the States would be better col- 
 lected through their legislatures than from the peo- 
 ple; that the Senate should consist of men most dis- 
 tinguished in rank and property. Madison was afraid 
 that those legislatures which ran after paper money 
 and other financial phantasies could not safely be de- 
 pended upon to conserve property and commercial in- 
 terests in the choice for Senators. Wilson wanted 
 election by the people in districts which should ignore 
 State lines, and he thereby promptly antagonized the
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 125 
 
 equal representation and States' rights sentiments in 
 the Convention. On the vote, only two States were in 
 the negative, Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
 
 Concerning the length of Senators' terms, opinions 
 varied from four years to life; but the period decided 
 upon was at last seen to give permanency to the 
 Senate without taking from the Senator his responsi- 
 bility to the State. 
 
 Each Senator shall have one vote, so that a State 
 was not, as in the Confederation, to vote as such as 
 a State. A State's delegates in the Confederation 
 being equally divided the State lost its vote; but in the 
 Senate a State may be so divided (as States frequently 
 are) and yet cast its two votes. It is a not infrequently 
 heard protest that a State, Nevada, for example, with 
 only about one-twentieth the population of New York, 
 yet has the same power in the Senate. That future 
 generations might so complain, and even demand a 
 change in that respect, was foreseen by the Conven- 
 tion, for the permanency of this State equality in the 
 Senate is exceptionally provided for in another article : 
 "No State, without its consent, shall be deprived of 
 its equal suffrage in the Senate." Many proposals in 
 the press and elsewhere for a Constitutional amend- 
 ment providing for the election of Senators by the 
 direct vote of the people have been made within the 
 past few years. Twice the House of Representatives 
 has voted, by the requisite two-thirds majority, to sub- 
 mit such an amendment to the States, but the Senate 
 has not concurred. 
 
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 2. Immediately after 
 they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first 
 Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be 
 into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the
 
 126 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the 
 second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration 
 of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the 
 Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may 
 be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen 
 by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the 
 Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may 
 make temporary Appointments until the next Meet- 
 ing of the Legislature, which shall then fill such 
 Vacancies. 
 
 The division into classes here provided for was first 
 made May 15, 1789, ten States having elected Senators. 
 Class one, consisting of seven Senators, retired in two 
 years; class two, of seven, in four years, and class 
 three, of six Senators, in six years. It was ordered 
 that as they should take their seats new Senators 
 should be classified so as to keep the classes as nearly 
 equal as possible, and not to have both Senators from 
 a State in the same class. Thus, to-day, the classes 
 expire, class two, in 1907, class three in 1909, class 
 one in 1911. 
 
 A Senator appointed by a Governor to fill a vacancy 
 holds until his successor is elected by the next meet- 
 ing of the State Legislature, or the end of the legis- 
 lative session if the Legislature fail to elect. In the 
 latter case the Governor cannot fill the vacancy. 
 
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 3. No Person shall be a 
 Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of 
 thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the 
 United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an 
 Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 
 
 The kind of qualification is the same for both 
 branches, the difference being that of years only; five 
 more years of age, two years more of citizenship, if
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 127 
 
 the Senator be foreign born. The Convention deemed 
 that this difference would secure a body of men pos- 
 sessing dignity, a sense of responsibility, and a knowl- 
 edge of the country's political institutions. Making a 
 foreign-born citizen eligible to the Senate after any 
 number of years of citizenship was not agreed to 
 without protest. Gouverneur Morris, one of the 
 strongest men in the Convention, argued against it. 
 "Society," he said, "from a great nation, down to a 
 club, had the right of declaring on what conditions 
 new members should be admitted. He did not wish 
 to see any foreigners in our public councils. The men 
 who could shake off their attachments to their own 
 countries can never love any other. There was no 
 knowing what legislatures" who were to elect the 
 Senators "would do." In this latter doubt Mr. Wil- 
 liamson agreed with Mr. Morris, for he made this argu- 
 ment, which, in view of some recent political criticism, 
 has a prophetic note. It was more necessary, he said, 
 to safeguard the Senate than the House, from election 
 thereto of unworthy persons. "Bribery and cabal can 
 be more easily practiced in the choice of the Senate, 
 which is to be made by the legislatures composed of 
 a few men, than of the House of Representatives who 
 will be chosen by the people." The requisite term of 
 citizenship was scaled down by successive ballots 
 from twenty to nine years. 
 
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 4. The Vice-President 
 of the United States shall be President of the Senate, 
 but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. 
 
 The draft of the Constitution submitted to the Con- 
 vention on August 6th, provided that the Senate "shall 
 choose its own President." After nearly three months'
 
 128 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 debate it had not been provided that the people or the 
 States should elect a Vice-President and thus provide 
 a succession for the Presidency of their own choice. 
 Another part of the draft read: "The executive power 
 of the United States shall be vested in the President 
 of the United States, and his title shall be His Excel- 
 lency." Following that was a provision that a vacancy 
 in the Presidency should be filled by the President of 
 the Senate, but only until "the Legislature" should 
 elect another President. Later, when the question of 
 providing a council for the President was discussed, 
 Mr. Ellsworth supposed that the President of the 
 Senate would be a member of the council, but nothing 
 came of this. In a further effort to find something 
 for the Vice-President to do, one of the Pinckneys 
 suggested that he be keeper of the great seal of 
 the United States! As late as August 27th there was 
 objection to the President of the Senate succeeding to 
 the Presidency in case of a vacancy, and Mr. Madison 
 suggested that the council (which was never provided 
 for) appoint the successor until one was elected. At 
 last, on September 4th, a committee report provided 
 for the election of a Vice-President who should be 
 President of the Senate. It is curious to note, in view 
 of the unimportance of the Vice-President in the actual 
 administration of the Government, that there was 
 strong objection to giving him even the duty of pre- 
 siding over the Senate. Gerry opposed it as being 
 "absolutely improper" in view of the intimacy which 
 would surely exist between him and the President 
 this, of course, with a view of more completely sepa- 
 rating the executive from the legislative branch of the 
 Government. Gouverneur Morris remarked that if 
 such intimacy did exist, "the Vice-President would be
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 129 
 
 the first heir-apparent that ever loved his father." 
 Randolph opposed making the Vice-President Presi- 
 dent of the Senate; Williamson thought such an office 
 as Vice-President was not wanted; Mason said such an 
 officer would be an encroachment on the rights of the 
 Senate. This considerable explanation of the manner 
 in which the office of Vice-President was created 
 solves what has puzzled many observers: why the 
 Vice-President has so little to do. The office was 
 created without power, and merely as a method of 
 providing a successor to the Presidency, who had been 
 chosen by the people. 
 
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 5. The Senate shall 
 choose their other Officers, and also a President pro 
 tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or 
 when he shall exercise the Office of President of the 
 United States. 
 
 It is the custom of the Vice-President early in the 
 first session of the Senate, over which he may preside, 
 to absent himself in order that the Senate may elect 
 a President pro tempore. The latter, being a Senator, 
 has a vote on all questions. The other officers of the 
 Senate are Secretary, Chief Clerk, Executive Clerk, 
 Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper and Chaplain. 
 
 Article I, Section 3, Clause 6. The Senate shall 
 have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When 
 sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or 
 Affirmation. When the President of the United States 
 is tried, tht Chief Justice shall preside: And no Per 
 son shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two 
 thirds of the Members present. 
 
 Article 1, Section 3, Clause 7. Judgment in Cases 
 of Impeachment shall not extend further than to re-
 
 130 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 moral from Office, and disqualification to hold and 
 enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the 
 United States: but the Party convicted shall neverthe- 
 less be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judg- 
 ment and Punishment, according to Law. 
 
 We have seen that impeachments may be brought 
 only by the House. This having been done, that is, 
 the House having formally resolved that a designated 
 person be impeached, it appoints a committee to ac- 
 quaint the Senate with the fact. When it is informed 
 by the Senate that the impeached person has been 
 served with proper notice, the House appoints five 
 managers who act in the trial as the People's Attor- 
 ney in a criminal trial in a court of justice. The Sen- 
 ate sits as a trial court, each Senator being required 
 to take oath to do impartial justice according to the 
 Constitution and the law. In ordinary cases the Vice- 
 President, or President pro tempore, presides, but if 
 the President be impeached the Chief Justice presides, 
 as the Vice-President is personally interested in the 
 issue, being the President's successor, if the President 
 is found guilty. The accused may have counsel and 
 examine witnesses under oath. The trial is conducted 
 with open doors, but the deliberations of the Senate, 
 when the case has been submitted, is behind closed 
 doors. 
 
 The only President of the United States impeached 
 was Andrew Johnson. He was elected Vice-President 
 in 1864 on the ticket with Lincoln, when the latter 
 was elected for the second time. Six weeks after the 
 inauguration Lincoln was assassinated, and Johnson 
 became President. Johnson had had a long and event- 
 ful political career, during which be had striven with 
 all of his power for the great principles which Lincoln
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 131 
 
 represented a fact which, it seems, is frequently over- 
 looked by writers who are never forgetful that in his 
 early youth Johnson was a tailor's apprentice. Be- 
 sides filling a number of elective offices in his adop- 
 tive State, East Tennessee (he was a native of North 
 Carolina), he served terms in both Houses of Congress, 
 where he worked hard for the preservation of the 
 Union, and was noted for his sturdy opposition to ex- 
 travagance in appropriations. When he became Presi- 
 dent he followed a policy tending to bring about a 
 peaceful and speedy reconstruction of the governments 
 of the States lately in rebellion, to secure their full re- 
 admission into the Union, and to effect reconciliation 
 by generous amnesty measures. In this course he fol- 
 lowed the advice of his Cabinet, especially that of Sec- 
 retary of State Seward, who was supposed to be fa- 
 miliar with Lincoln's intentions. But the course led 
 him into conflict with Congress, which was determined 
 upon a policy of military governments in the States 
 which had rebelled. Johnson vetoed a number of bills 
 which he considered to be too harsh towards the 
 Southern States; the bills were promptly passed over 
 the vetoes; Johnson removed his Secretary of War, 
 Stanton, who was not in agreement with the majority 
 of the Cabinet as to the President's course; the Senate 
 declared that the President was without power to re- 
 move Stanton, and the House resolved to impeach him. 
 The articles of Impeachment recited, among other 
 offences, that the President had expressed contempt 
 for Congress and obstructed execution of its acts. 
 The main parts of his defense in his trial before the 
 Senate was that he had acted in accordance with Lin- 
 coln's plans, and always with the approval of his 
 Cabinet. There was not the required two-thirds ma-
 
 132 ODE CONSTITUTION 
 
 jority of votes to find him guilty, the vote being: 
 guilty, 35; not guilty, 19. Johnson completed his 
 term, his last important official act, Christmas Day, 
 1868, being a proclamation of amnesty for all who 
 had been in the secession. 
 
 Article I, Section 4, Clause 1. The Times, Places 
 and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and 
 Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by 
 the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any 
 time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except 
 as to the Places of choosing Senators. 
 
 This specific grant to Congress to alter the regula- 
 tions of States in respect to the elections of members 
 of Congress was savagely attacked when the Constitu 
 tion was submitted to ratification. It was charged 
 that Congress would use this power to favor a class of 
 candidates for Congress, such as landholders, aristo- 
 crats, merchants. That such an objection was felt by 
 many was owing to the fact that they did not yet com- 
 prehend the great purpose of the Constitution: to 
 create a national government separate from and in 
 some respect above the State governments. This hon- 
 est objection was encouraged by those who understood 
 the purpose of the Constitution, yet were opposed to it. 
 These latter, the Antifederalists, were charged by 
 Hamilton with wanting to retain sole control of the 
 election of members of Congress that they might, by 
 refusing to elect members, disrupt the Union by leav- 
 ing it without a governing body. He wrote of them in 
 the Federalist: "The scheme of separate confederacies, 
 which will always multiply the chances of ambition, 
 will be a never-failing bait to all such influential char- 
 acters in the State administrations as are capable of
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 133 
 
 preferring their own emolument and advancement to 
 the public weal." Hamilton also wrote: "I am greatly 
 mistaken if there be any article in the whole plan more 
 defensible than this. Its propriety rests upon the evi- 
 dence of this plain proposition : Every government ought 
 to contain in itself the means of its own preservation" 
 
 It was many years before Congress regulated elec- 
 tions of its members. The manner and times of elect- 
 ing members of the House were at first varied ; in some 
 States the choice was by districts, but not always one, 
 sometimes more from a district ; in others all the Rep- 
 resentatives were elected at large, on what was known 
 as the general ticket plan. The objection to this was 
 that a majority, no matter how small, in the State, 
 gave to one party all the Representatives, while in the 
 same election a majority of the State's districts might 
 have given majorities to the opposite party. To secure 
 a more just representation of all the people, Congress, 
 in 1842, enacted that States entitled to more than one 
 Representative should be divided into contiguous dis- 
 tricts, which a later law provided should contain, as 
 nearly as. practicable, equal numbers of persons. This 
 law gave us the familiar congressional districts. In 
 1872, Congress made the Tuesday next after the first 
 Monday in November in every even year the date and 
 day for holding elections for Representatives, but 
 States whose constitutions fixed a different day were 
 later exempted from the operation of this rule. The 
 division of a State into districts is left to its Legisla- 
 ture, only with the restriction that districts shall be 
 contiguous, and equal as may be in population. The 
 law in these respects has not imposed a very strict 
 sense of responsibility on legislatures, and some 
 stringy, though legally contiguous, districts are to be
 
 334 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 found, and some with half the population of others in 
 the same State. When a new apportionment gives a 
 State additional Representatives, the State elects them 
 at large until the State is redistricted. 
 
 There came to be confusion and abuses under the 
 provision for the election of Senators, and in 1866, 
 Congress passed a law regulating the time and man- 
 ner for such elections. The time is the second Tues- 
 day after the meeting and organization of the Legisla- 
 ture which is to elect a Senator. Then each House of 
 the Legislature separately names one person as its 
 choice. The next day the two Houses meet in joint 
 session, and if it appears that one person has a ma- 
 jority of all the votes in each House he is declared 
 elected; otherwise daily joint sessions are held until 
 therein a choice of a majority shall have been declared. 
 
 Article I, Section 4, Clause 2. The Congress shall 
 assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meet- 
 ing shall be on the first Monday in December, unless 
 they shall by Law appoint a different Day. 
 
 A member of the House elected in November in an 
 even year does not, ordinarily, take his seat until in 
 the December of the following year, for the old Con- 
 gress, which meets in its second or short session in the 
 December following on elections, expires on the 4th of 
 the next March. Unless an extra session intervenes, 
 the new member waits for thirteen months before be- 
 ginning to represent his people. This awkward con- 
 dition prevents a political revolution at the polls from 
 accomplishing its purpose until the public opinion 
 which brought it about has so abated, or been per- 
 verted by mischievous influences, as to leave the mem- 
 bers elected to represent it without support, even with-
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 135 
 
 out seeming demand for the measures they may seek 
 to carry out. The remedy would be to amend the 
 Constitution so that a newly elected House of Repre- 
 sentatives would meet in the December next following 
 its election in a month, instead of thirteen months 
 after. 
 
 Article I, Section 5, Clause 1. Each House shall 
 be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifica- 
 tions of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall 
 constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller 
 Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be 
 authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Mem- 
 bers, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as 
 each House may provide. 
 
 This insures the independence of the House through 
 the power to refuse admittance of illegally elected 
 members, and provides a means to unseat a legally 
 elected member if he be found to be not qualified, and 
 from the judgment of either House there is no appeal. 
 The laws and the rules of the House of Representa- 
 tives are full and precise concerning proceedings in 
 the case of a contested election, or the protest against 
 the eligibility of a person legally elected but charged 
 with not possessing proper qualifications. The man- 
 ner in which Senators are elected naturally affords 
 little chance for contests between two claimants; but 
 the rights of a single claimant have frequently been 
 enquired into. 
 
 Less than a quorum may adjourn from day to day: 
 in the House the number is fixed at fifteen, but in the 
 Senate no number is fixed. A quorum being necessary 
 to do business, a practice grew up in the House to 
 delay business to "filibuster" by abstaining from
 
 136 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 voting, so that no quorum appeared on the roll-call. 
 This practice is now defeated by a rule which permits 
 the Speaker to appoint tellers who may, if they find 
 present enough non-voting members to constitute a 
 quorum with those voting, to so declare to the Clerk. 
 This is called counting a quorum. If no quorum is 
 discovered, but two things may be done: adjourn, or 
 order a call of the roll. In the latter case, known as 
 a call of the House, the Sergeant-at-Arms may ar- 
 rest and bring before the Speaker all members absent 
 and not excused. In the Senate, in the event of a 
 "call," the Sergeant-at-Arms is usually directed by 
 the presiding officer to "request" the attendance of 
 absent members. 
 
 Article I, Section 5, Clause 2. Each House may 
 determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its 
 Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with Concur- 
 rence of two thirds, expel a Member. 
 
 In the Senate, that being a perpetual body, the rules 
 continue in force until changed. The House, being a 
 renewed body, adopts new rules at the beginning of 
 each Congress term, every two years. These rules 
 change but slowly, however, and it is a common prac- 
 tice to readopt the rules of a preceding Congress. 
 The rules of the House and Senate differ in many de- 
 tails: the greatest difference as the rules affect the 
 proceedings in the two branches is that in the House 
 a limit is placed on the length of speeches, which can 
 be exceeded only by special permission ; in the Senate, 
 on the contrary, a special rule is required to limit the 
 length of speeches. In the House the rules permit a 
 motion for the previous question, or closure of debate, 
 for the purpose of an immediate vote on the pending
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 137 
 
 question; in the Senate the rules do not permit this 
 motion, but a special rule or order is required to fix 
 the time when debate must cease and voting begin 
 on a question not disposed of under routine pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 Article I, Section 5, Clause 3. Each House shall 
 keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to 
 time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may 
 in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and 
 Nays of the Members of either House on any question 
 shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be 
 entered on the Journal. 
 
 The full proceedings of each day's open sessions are 
 published, usually, on the following day by the public 
 printer in the Congressional Record. The Senate at 
 times holds what are called executive sessions behind 
 closed doors, usually to discuss matters of foreign 
 affairs as affected by treaties, or the qualifications of 
 persons named by the President for important offices. 
 These proceedings are usually deemed for a time to 
 require secrecy. 
 
 In the House, the voting is usually viva voce, the 
 decision, aye or nay, being determined by the Speaker 
 judging from the volume of sound. If such decision is 
 questioned, tellers are appointed, between whom mem- 
 bers pass announcing their votes, which are tallied by 
 the Clerk, but not individually recorded. This is a 
 division. On roll-call the Clerk notes after each mem- 
 ber's name "Aye," "Nay," "absent," or "not voting," 
 and such roll-call is made part of the record. The Con- 
 stitution requires a roll-call when a vote is taken on a 
 measure which has been vetoed; otherwise it is usually 
 demanded to put members on record, so that the peo-
 
 138 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 pie may know how they voted. In the Senate, the vote 
 by tellers is not a practice; voting is either viva voce, 
 determined by the presiding officer, or by roll-call. 
 
 Article I, Section 5, Clause 4. Neither House, dur- 
 ing the Session of Congress, shall, without the Con- 
 sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, 
 nor to any other Place than that in which the two 
 Houses shall be sitting. 
 
 This provision prevents unreasonable recesses, or 
 the selection of a meeting place by one branch for the 
 purpose of delaying or preventing the proper conduct 
 of legislation. Both Houses by a concurrent resolu- 
 tion may adjourn to another place, and for a longer 
 period than three days; and if Congress is in recess 
 the President may convene them at another than the 
 usual place, if war, epidemic or other cause should 
 make the Capitol an undesirable meeting place. 
 
 Article I, Section 6, Clause 1. The Senators and 
 Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their 
 Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of 
 the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all 
 Cases, except Treason, Felony and breach of the 
 Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attend- 
 ance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in 
 going to and returning from the same; and for any 
 Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be 
 questioned in any other Place. 
 
 The question of paying members of Congress for 
 their services was divided in the Convention into three 
 parts: Should they be paid, or not paid at all; if 
 paid, what sum; should they be paid by the States or 
 nation? This was further involved by the contention
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 139 
 
 that even if Representatives were paid the Senators 
 should not be, since they would represent the wealth 
 of the country and not require pay; would scorn any 
 other compensation than the satisfaction derived from 
 the performance of a public duty. The motion not to 
 provide any pay was defeated by a narrow margin. 
 Then the question of who should be the paymaster was 
 argued at length. The States Eight members wanted 
 to retain such influence over their Representatives as 
 would naturally come from the power to regulate their 
 pay. Madison pointed out that State pay would ban- 
 ish stability from Congress, as States might pay too 
 little, or not at all, and members would not serve; or, 
 if the States paid, their Representatives would become 
 mere States' agents, not national guardians. Hamil- 
 ton gained the point in favor of national pay by an 
 epigram: "Those who pay are the masters of those 
 who are paid." When it was decided that the national 
 treasury was to be the paymaster there was a demand 
 in the Convention that the amount of pay be fixed by 
 the Constitution, for some feared that Congress would 
 abuse the power if their wages were left to themselves 
 to fix. But it was so left, on the grounds that condi- 
 tions of living and travel might so change that no fair 
 rate of pay could be fixed. From the first Congress 
 until 1815 the pay was $6.00 a day, with $6.00 allowed 
 for every twenty miles traveled in going to and from 
 sessions. From 1815 to 1817 it was $1,500 a year. 
 This was an early Grab Bill, which, like a later one, 
 was promptly repealed by a succeeding Congress. 
 From 1817 to 1855 it was $8.00, with a like sum for 
 every twenty miles of necessary traveling. From 
 1855 to 1865 it was $3,000 a year, with no change in 
 the travel allowance; from 1865 to 1871 it was $5,000
 
 140 OUK CONSTITUTION 
 
 a year, with 20 cents a mile travel allowance. In 1871- 
 1873 it was $7,500 a year, with actual traveling ex- 
 penses. This increase caused the notorious "back-pay" 
 scandal, as the act was retroactive, being passed on 
 March 3, 1873, and gave full back pay at the increased 
 figure from March 4, 1871. The bill was promptly re- 
 pealed by the succeeding Congress, and since 1873 the 
 pay has been $5,000, with 20 cents a mile for traveling 
 expenses. The Speaker of the House and President 
 pro tempore of the Senate receive each $8,000 a 
 year. 
 
 If members could be arrested, except for the grave 
 charges enumerated, it would be possible, upon 
 trumped-up charges, to detain enough members and 
 thus delay or defeat legislation. Freedom of debate 
 requires the provision that "members shall not be 
 questioned in any other place" for what they may 
 say in either House. 
 
 Article I, Section 6, Clause 2. No Senator or Rep- 
 resentative shall, during the Time for which he was 
 elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the 
 Authority of the United States, which shall have been 
 created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been 
 encreased during such time, and no Person holding 
 any Office under the United States, shall be a Member 
 of either House during his Continuance in Office. 
 
 This clause serves as a check against bargains be- 
 tween the President and Members of Congress. The 
 former might, in order to carry some measures, aid in 
 creating offices, or in having their emoluments in- 
 creased, and reward corrupt or subservient members 
 with such offices. The clause was furthermore de- 
 signed to aid the intention of the Federal Constitution
 
 BEGINNING THE STRUCTURE 141 
 
 to separate the legislative from the executive branch 
 of the Government, the Convention being familiar with 
 the evils which at that time grew out of the intimate 
 connection between the British ministry and Parlia- 
 ment.
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 
 
 Article I, Section 7, Clause 1. All Bills for raising 
 Revenue shall originate in the House of Representa- 
 tives; But the Senate may propose or concur with 
 Amendments as on other Bills. 
 
 DEBATES in the Convention show that this clause 
 was one of the many concessions made in furtherance 
 of one of the great compromises. The smaller States 
 had secured equal representation in the Senate where, 
 as it was shown, they were in a better position to affect 
 alliances which would make the larger States power- 
 less, than that the reverse should happen. The 
 larger States, having conceded equal representation 
 in one branch, were alert to secure themselves against 
 raids on the Treasury, and demanded, as security, that 
 revenue-raising measures should originate in the 
 House, where larger States were represented in pro- 
 portion to their strength and importance their popu- 
 lation. This concession was granted by the smaller 
 States, then thrown out, and not restored until the 
 smaller States had gained one more advantage for the 
 branch where they were to be equally represented: 
 the right of the Senate to ratify treaties and try im- 
 peachments. This contention, which began in the 
 Convention of 1787, has been continued in Congress 
 for more than a century, and shows no present signs 
 of abatement. What are bills for raising revenue? 
 
 143
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 143 
 
 Not a bill to reduce or repeal a tax, says the Senate, 
 for that is not "raising" a revenue; but, answers the 
 House, a bill to reduce or repeal a tax may make 
 necessary the creation or increase of another. Hence 
 it is involved in the exercise of the power of raising 
 revenue. That is to say, the House stoutly maintains 
 its sole right to originate bills directly relating to 
 taxation, whether they impose or remit taxes. When 
 its protests, in conference between committees of the 
 House and Senate, have no effect, the House effectu- 
 ally registers its protest by quietly laying on the table 
 any bill originating in the Senate, and passed by that 
 body, which, in the opinion of the House, encroaches 
 upon its rights under the clause. 
 
 Article I, Section 7, Clause 2. Every Bill which 
 shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
 the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be pre- 
 sented to the President of the United States; If he 
 approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, 
 with his Objections to that House in which it shall 
 have originated, who shall enter the Objections at 
 large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. 
 If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House 
 shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together 
 with the Objections, to the other House, by which it 
 shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two 
 thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in 
 all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be de- 
 termined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the 
 Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be en- 
 tered on the Journal of each House respectively. If 
 any Bill shall not be returned by the President within 
 ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been 
 presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like 
 Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress 
 by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in whioh 
 case it shall not be a Law,
 
 144 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 3. Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the 
 Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives may be necessary (except on a question of Ad- 
 journment) shall be presented to the President of the 
 United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, 
 shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by 
 him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and 
 House of Representatives, according to the Rules and 
 Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. 
 
 In the Convention, much of the debate on the ques- 
 tion of the veto power was based upon the assumption 
 that the President was to be advised by a council, for 
 whose institution various ideas prevailed, the favor- 
 ite one being that the members of the Supreme Court, 
 or some of them, would act in the capacity of advisers 
 to the President. This was the plan of the Randolph 
 resolution upon which the veto clause was based. But 
 this gave to the President and "a convenient number 
 of the national judiciary" power to veto not only legis- 
 lation by Congress, "but all acts of the State legisla- 
 tures." This centralized the government beyond the 
 demand of any but a few extreme Federalists, and 
 had but slight support, so far as it gave any veto on 
 State legislatures. The belief that the President 
 should be advised by a council in matters of legisla- 
 tion submitted to him, was more general in the Con- 
 vention. It must be remembered that nothing like the 
 actual Cabinet was provided for by the Constitution, 
 and what many of the wisest men in the Convention 
 contended for a council of advice for the President 
 has grown up through laws and customs, and no doubt 
 provides a better check on unnecessary or unwise 
 legislation than would have resulted had the "coun- 
 cil" consisted of Supreme Court justices only.
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 145 
 
 Hamilton wanted to give the President absolute veto 
 power, but not a State voted in favor of this. Wilson 
 and Madison wished the President checked by the 
 National Judiciary, and the latter's powerful argu- 
 ment would, it seems probable, have carried the point, 
 had it not been for the determination in the Conven- 
 tion to separate the three great departments of 
 government, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, 
 as completely as possible. As Gorham argued: 
 "The judges would outnumber the executive, they 
 could take the whole power out of his hands and 
 sacrifice him." 
 
 Besides the method of veto, by returning a bill with- 
 out his signature, and giving his reasons for disap- 
 proving it, the President sometimes kills a bill abso- 
 lutely by neither approving or disapproving it, but 
 letting it lie on his desk until Congress adjourns, if it 
 adjourns within ten days after submitting the bill to 
 him. This is called a pocket veto. If the President 
 keep a bill ten days (Sundays not included) while 
 Congress is in session, the bill becomes a law the same 
 as if he has signed it, and thus the Income Tax pro- 
 vision of the 1894 Tariff Bill became a law under 
 President Cleveland, but, as we shall presently see, 
 was negatived by the Supreme Court. The veto power 
 has much more often been exercised to prevent legis- 
 lation deemed unnecessary or inexpedient than be- 
 cause it has been deemed unconstitutional. 
 
 The second of the two clauses quoted next above 
 relates to Orders and Resolutions as distinguished 
 from Bills. Hinsdale describes a Bill as "a form or 
 draft of law presented to a legislative body, but not 
 yet enacted into law." Jefferson defines Orders and 
 Resolutions: "When the House commands it is by
 
 1-iG OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 order. Facts, principles, and their own opinions and 
 purposes are expressed in the form of a resolution." 
 
 Article I, Section 8, Clause 1. The Congress shall 
 have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts 
 and Excises, to pay t 1 e Debts and provide for the 
 common Defence and general Welfare of the United 
 States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be 
 uniform throughout the United States. 
 
 Here is perhaps the most important grant of legis- 
 lative power to Congress, the lack of which power re- 
 duced the Confederation to governmental irnpotency. 
 There was no member of the Convention who was not 
 keenly alive to the necessity of making this grant 
 large yet definite, but in spite of this intention, na- 
 tional political parties have campaigned on an issue 
 involved in the interpretation of the clause, and 
 learned jurists have been opposed in their understand- 
 ing of it. The issue may be thus stated: Shall "the 
 Congress have power to lay and collect taxes" in 
 order to "provide for the common defence and general 
 welfare"; or shall Congress "have power to lay and 
 collect taxes," and further have power to "provide 
 for the common defence and general welfare"? If the 
 first interpretation is correct, then when Congress has 
 levied and collected such taxes as are required to pro- 
 vide for the common defence and welfare of the coun- 
 try it has exhausted the scope of its taxing powers: it 
 can collect only such taxes as are required for the 
 proper conduct of the government in peace and war. 
 If the latter interpretation is correct, Congress may 
 lay and collect such taxes as have just been described, 
 and may further lay taxes to assist persons engaged in 
 certain business pursuits: it may collect taxes for the
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 147 
 
 purpose of the proper conduct of the government in 
 peace and war, and lay a further tax to aid those 
 whose business pursuits will be made more profitable 
 thereby. Those who hold that the Government is jus- 
 tified in laying a tax for a person or corporation to 
 collect, assert that if a steel corporation, for example, 
 sells a million tons of steel to Americans for ten mil- 
 lion dollars more than Americans could buy that steel 
 from foreigners if foreign steel were untaxed those 
 ten million dollars are added to the wages of the cor- 
 poration's workmen. The opposing contention is that 
 those $10,000,000 are added to the corporation's divi- 
 dends paid on certificates of stock issued for the 
 purpose of receiving such dividends; that if the cor- 
 poration issued only such certificates of stock as its 
 investments honestly called for, it could pay a proper 
 dividend thereon, and pay the customary wages to its 
 workmen without collecting a tax for that purpose. 
 Those who favor the first contention are said to favor 
 a "tariff for protection," and the advocates of the sec- 
 ond contention are said to favor a "tariff for revenue 
 only." The question, after all, is not one of Constitu- 
 tional construction but of legislative policy. The 
 people send to Congress agents to legislate in accord- 
 ance with the views of the majority, and it is always 
 within the power of a majority of the people to have 
 laws enacted to carry out the "protection" or "revenue 
 only" principle, without the need of a Constitutional 
 Amendment to further their wishes. 
 
 As we have already seen, direct taxes have been 
 laid but seldom (five times: 1798, 1813, 1815 and in 
 1861). The Government is supported chiefly by two 
 sources of indirect taxes, those levied on imported 
 articles, which tax is commonly called customs duties,
 
 148 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 and those levied on articles of domestic manufacture, 
 and these are the taxes called in the clause "excises," 
 but more commonly called "internal revenue" taxes. 
 These have at various times been levied on a great va- 
 riety of articles, but now most of them are derived 
 from taxes on whiskey, beer, and tobacco in its various 
 forms. 
 
 A tax on incomes was laid to help meet the cost of 
 the Civil War, and expired by limitation in 1872. In 
 1894 Congress laid a tax of 2 per cent, on all incomes 
 over $4,000, which was made to apply to corporations 
 as well as individuals. This tax was provided for in 
 a Bill which, among other tax provisions, readjusted 
 the customs revenue tariff, and was allowed to be- 
 come a law by President Cleveland without his sig- 
 nature, because many amendments made to the tariff 
 feature of the Bill at a late day in its consideration, 
 did not meet with his approval. The income tax fea- 
 ture of the Bill was declared unconstitutional by the 
 Supreme Court by a vote of five to four on the 
 ground that it was a direct tax, and should therefore 
 have been apportioned among the States instead of 
 being made general. The following 17 Clauses of this 
 section continue to enumerate powers of Congress: 
 
 Article I, Section 8, Clause 2. To borrow Money on 
 the credit of the United States; 
 
 Extraordinary expenses, such as are caused by war, 
 cannot be met by taxes, at least by such taxes as serve 
 to meet only ordinary expenses, and to meet them the 
 Government must borrow on its credit. The United 
 States has borrowed vast sums on its promises to pay 
 specified sums at specified times, with a specified rate
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL OX 149 
 
 of interest. These promises are the United States 
 bonds. But during the Civil War the Government also 
 issued |450,000,000 of its bills of credit, commonly 
 called paper money, which were made legal tender by 
 law ; that is, a creditor of the Government was obliged 
 to accept them if tendered, and so were all persons to 
 whom they were tendered in ''payment of all debts, 
 public and private," except duties on imports and in- 
 terest on United States bonds. The two exceptions 
 were made in order that the Government could take 
 in gold (from duties on imports), and maintain the 
 credit and price of its bonds by paying their interest 
 in the gold thus secured. 
 
 That the Government could thus create a legal ten- 
 der; that is, force a loan and suspend specie payment, 
 was vigorously contested, but the constitutionality of 
 the law was finally upheld by the Supreme Court. In 
 its decision, from which there was a minority dissent, 
 the court said: "The exercise of this power not being 
 prohibited to Congress by the Constitution, it is in- 
 cluded in the power expressly granted by the Consti- 
 tution to borrow money on the credit of the United 
 States." 
 
 So it becomes interesting to return to the Conven- 
 tion and listen to the debates of August 16th, to learn 
 how very nearly an express prohibition was made. The 
 clause in the draft read that Congress should have 
 the power "to borrow money and emit bills on the credit 
 of the United States." The three words which are 
 here italicized would have been a specific grant of 
 power to issue "paper money," and they were attacked 
 promptly when the draft clause was reached for con- 
 sideration, on August 16th. Gouverneur Morris moved 
 to strike out those three words, saying: "If the United
 
 150 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 States had credit, such bills would be unnecessary: if 
 they had not," such bills would be "unjust and use- 
 less." Madison foresaw what might cause trouble and 
 sought to prevent it. "Will it not be sufficient," he 
 asked, "to prohibit the making them a tender?" 
 G. Morris said that the moneyed interest of the coun- 
 try would oppose the ratification of the Constitution if 
 paper money be not prohibited. Gorham wanted the 
 words stricken out, for if they remained they might 
 suggest paper money to some future Congress. Mason 
 thought Congress would not have power to issue paper 
 money unless it was expressed. "Though he had a 
 mortal hatred of paper money, yet as he could not 
 foresee all emergencies, he was unwilling to tie the 
 hands" of Congress by an express prohibition. Mer- 
 cer added a word of caution : Do not arouse the oppo- 
 sition of the friends of paper money by an express pro- 
 hibition. But Ellsworth "thought this a favorable 
 moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. 
 It can in no case be necessary. Give the Government 
 credit and other resources will offer." Randolph 
 agreed with Mason. "Notwithstanding his antipathy 
 to paper money, he could not foresee all the occa- 
 sions which might arise." Wilson, afterwards a Jus- 
 tice of the United States Supreme Court, wished the 
 expressed power to be taken from the clause. "It will 
 have a most salutary influence on the credit of the 
 United States to remove the possibility of paper 
 money," he said. Bead thought the words, "and emit 
 bills," "if not struck out, would be as alarming as 
 the mark of the beast in Revelations." Langdon said 
 he would rather reject the whole plan than retain the 
 three words; and Madison, in explaining why he voted 
 with his State to strike out every State so voted
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL OX 151 
 
 adds to his account of the debate, that he "became 
 satisfied that striking out the words * * * cut off 
 the pretext for a paper currency, and particularly for 
 making the bills a tender either for public or private 
 debts." 
 
 In view of this debate it need not excite wonder that 
 Justice Field did not agree with the opinion of the 
 court declaring the Legal Tender Act constitutional; 
 nor that he should have said in his dissenting opinion : 
 "If there be anything in the history of the Constitu- 
 tion which can be established with moral certainty, it 
 is that the framers of that instrument intended to pro- 
 hibit the issue of legal tender notes both by general 
 government and by the States, and thus prevent in- 
 terference with the contracts of private parties." 
 
 Article I, Section 8, Clause 3. To regulate Com- 
 merce with foreign Nations, and among the Several 
 States, and with the Indian Tribes; 
 
 We have seen the Convention's work facilitated by 
 two great compromises: one establishing proportional 
 representation in the House, and equal representation 
 of the States in the Senate; a second, which provided 
 for the fractional counting of slaves in enumerating 
 persons entitled to representation in the House; and 
 now the last of the three gave to Congress the power, 
 by a majority vote, to regulate commerce, foreign and 
 interstate. This right was gained against the original 
 opposition of the three most Southern States, as a 
 concession in return for the right to import slaves for 
 a limited period and the recognition of the institution 
 of slavery. 
 
 South Carolina and Georgia were most insistent in 
 demanding non-interference with slavery. The indus-
 
 152 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 tries of those States, they believed, depended upon 
 slave labor, and would be ruined without it. At the 
 same time they were fearful of a proposal to give 
 Congress power to regulate commerce; professing to 
 see a danger that the New England States, by securing 
 favorable navigation laws, would control the sea- 
 carrying trade, and exact unfair tolls for taking the 
 products of the South to European and New England 
 markets. At first they conceded a little; they would 
 give Congress power to regulate commerce by a two- 
 thirds vote; New England conceded a little of its de- 
 mand that the slave trade be at once ended they 
 would extend the period for importing slaves ten 
 years. Here was a fair field for compromise, and a 
 committee of one from each State was appointed to 
 bring in a measure. But the compromise offer was 
 not easily adopted, for the South was far from being 
 of one mind on the question. There was no more de- 
 termined abolitionist in the Convention than Mason of 
 Virginia. His language reminds one of that with 
 which the nation became familiar seventy years later 
 in the speeches of prominent abolitionists of the 
 North. Virginia and Maryland had already forbidden 
 the importation of slaves, and referring to this, 
 C. Pinckney said, on August 21st: "South Carolina 
 can never receive the plan if it prohibits the slave 
 trade. * * * If the States be left at liberty on this 
 subject, South Carolina may, perhaps, by degrees, do 
 of herself what is wished, as Virginia and Maryland 
 have already done." The next morning, Sherman 
 voiced the views of New England: "He disapproved 
 of the slave trade; yet as the States were now pos- 
 sessed of the right to import slaves, as the public good 
 did not require that it be taken from them, and as it
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 153 
 
 was expedient to have as few objections as possible to 
 the proposed scheme of government, he thought it best 
 to leave the matter as we find it." 
 
 New England was to let slavery alone if the Caro- 
 liuas and Georgia would let Congress regulate com- 
 merce, interstate and foreign. 
 
 Mason was doubly enraged, for he was against na- 
 tional regulation of commerce, and opposed to slavery, 
 and he now rose, in answer to Sherman, and delivered 
 one of the most significant speeches heard in the Con- 
 vention the more significant coming from a delegate 
 from a State owning more than a third of all the slaves 
 in the United States (the total slave population in 
 1790 was 697,897, of whom 293,427 were enumerated in 
 Virginia). Mason exclaimed: "This infernal traffic 
 originated in the avarice of British merchants. The 
 British government constantly checked the attempts 
 of Virginia to put a stop to it. The present question 
 concerns not the importing States, but the whole 
 Union. * * * Slavery discourages arts and manu- 
 factures. The poor despise labor when performed by 
 slaves. They prevent the immigration of whites, who 
 really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce 
 the most pernicious effects upon manners. Every mas- 
 ter of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the 
 judgment of heaven upon a country. As nations can- 
 not be rewarded or punished in the next world they 
 must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and 
 effects, Providence punishes national sins by national 
 calamities." 
 
 But a warning of awful calamity to come was not 
 as effective on the majority as was the desire to frame 
 an instrument of government competent to establish 
 a national government and which could be ratified.
 
 354 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 The compromise was completed by extending the slave 
 importation period to twenty years, and placing a $10 
 head tax on all slaves imported and Mason refused 
 to sign the Constitution. But it was compromise or 
 no ratification, and the majority were working with 
 patriotic zeal to secure the blessings of a strong and 
 united government. 
 
 The clause we have reached, empowering Congress 
 to regulate commerce, has been the authority of much 
 legislation of great importance. Under this provision 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission was created and 
 laws enacted for its purpose. These were designed "to 
 prevent unfair discriminations in the transportation 
 facilities offered to persons and places; to prevent un- 
 fair discriminations in passenger fares as between dif- 
 ferent places, and in freight charges, either in the 
 form of special rates or in the form of rebates." An- 
 other important law passed by power of this clause is 
 that known as the Anti-Trust Act. It declares "every 
 contract, combination in the form of trust or other- 
 wise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce 
 among the several States, or with foreign nations,' 1 
 illegal. Persons convicted under this law may be pun- 
 ished by heavy fines, or by imprisonment, or both. The 
 enumerated powers of Congress continue: 
 
 Article I, Section 8, Clause 4. To establish an uni- 
 form Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the 
 subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States ; 
 
 5. To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and 
 of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and 
 Measures; 
 
 G. To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting 
 the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 155 
 
 7. To establish Post Offices and post Roads; 
 
 8. To promote the Progress of Science and useful 
 Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and 
 Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writ- 
 ings and Discoveries. 
 
 Our naturalization laws are for the purpose of con- 
 ferring upon a foreigner the rights, privileges and du- 
 ties of a citizen ; that is, one who is bound in allegiance 
 to the United States and entitled to its protection. 
 The privilege of naturalization is denied by law to 
 Chinese and extended by law to African negroes. An 
 alien, to become a citizen, must, two years before he 
 becomes such, appear before a court of necessary juris- 
 diction and declare his intention to become a citizen. 
 A certificate, given to him by the court, states that he 
 has complied with the preliminary requirements of 
 the law. This is commonly referred to as an appli- 
 cant's "first papers." At the expiration of two years, 
 having proven by witnesses that he has resided in the 
 United States five years, and in the State or Territory 
 where he now appears at least one year, and satisfy- 
 ing the court as to his good character, the applicant 
 renounces allegiance to all other nations and rulers, 
 takes oath to support the Constitution, and is given a 
 certificate of naturalization. States cannot naturalize 
 foreigners that is, make them citizens of the United 
 States but they may, and some do, confer on foreign- 
 ers political rights within the State, such as the right 
 to vote and hold land. By such liberal laws, States 
 have attracted immigration. 
 
 Congress has four times passed and three times re- 
 pealed bankruptcy laws. The one now in operation 
 (1906) was passed in 1898. These laws are to enable 
 courts, or persons appointed to represent courts, to
 
 156 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 adjust and settle the affairs of debtors who have at- 
 tempted to secure or favor one or more creditors at 
 the expense of others; or of a debtor who voluntarily 
 places his affairs in the administration of a bankruptcy 
 . court. The objects of the law are to protect creditors 
 and secure their equal rights, and to relieve from his 
 obligations an honest debtor who has, through the 
 operation of the law, made payment of so much of his 
 debts as his assets permitted. 
 
 Under its power to coin money and regulate its 
 value, Congress has passed many laws which have 
 been upset by the operation of natural laws which 
 have frequently altered the relative value of gold and 
 silver. If, through the increased or cheapened produc- 
 tion of, say, silver, its marketable value falls below 
 its legal ratio value as compared with gold, then gold 
 coin rises above its face value, and no law can prevent 
 private owners from exporting gold coin for the profit 
 to be derived from its sale as bullion. The reverse of 
 this might be indeed, has been the case. After the 
 discovery of gold in California and Australia, when the 
 legal ratio in the United States was practically 1 to 16 
 (15.988), the ratio in European mints was 1 to 15, and 
 United States silver coin was shipped abroad for the 
 profit represented by the difference in these ratios. 
 Since 1893 the government has ceased purchasing sil- 
 ver for coining into dollars, but that coin is a legal 
 tender, and is represented in circulation, largely, by 
 bills called silver certificates, which are redeemable in 
 gold or silver like any other legal tender. Any per- 
 son may deposit gold in a United States mint and 
 have it coined by the payment of the value of the cop- 
 per alloy used, but silver is no longer coined on private 
 account.
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 157 
 
 Instead of fixing the standard of all weights and 
 measures, Congress has let use and tradition do much 
 of the fixing. Congress has authorized the metric 
 system, but never required its use, although some 
 popular effort has been made to establish the use of 
 the system by law. 
 
 It is equally "counterfeiting" to manufacture forged 
 coin or securities of the United States, to put such into 
 circulation or to have such in possession with the 
 purpose of putting them into circulation. A "secur- 
 ity" is anything of that character that is compre- 
 hended in the wide scope between a stamped envelope 
 and a government bond. The offenses here mentioned, 
 and treason and piracy are the only ones which Con- 
 gress is expressly empowered to punish, but the Fed- 
 eral laws provide for the punishment of many crimes, 
 under the assumption that the power to regulate or 
 manage includes the power to punish criminal inter- 
 ference with the exercise of that power. 
 
 In the Articles of Confederation, Congress was 
 granted sole right of "establishing and regulating post- 
 offices from one State to another," but as in the case of 
 many other grants of power, little ever came of it. 
 Under laws based on the clause in the Constitution, 
 our postal service has extended until now there are 
 but relatively few inhabitants of the whole country, 
 even in the most remote and least settled districts, 
 who are not visited daily by the free delivery postman. 
 The President appoints postmasters who receive a 
 salary of $1,000 or more a year, and all others are ap- 
 pointed by the Postmaster-General, and receive, in- 
 stead of a salary, a percentage on the receipts of their 
 offices. 
 
 Copyright is the exclusive right of reproducing by
 
 358 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 printing or otherwise, the language and form of a lit- 
 erary or artistic production. A patent is a grant by 
 the Government to secure to an inventor the exclusive 
 right to make and sell, for a specified period, the thing 
 invented or discovered by him. Copyright runs for 
 28 years, but an extension may be had for an addi- 
 tional 14 years. Patent rights, which run for 17 years, 
 are obtained through a bureau of the Department of 
 the Interior, under a Commissioner of Patents. Copy- 
 rights are obtained through the Librarian of Congress. 
 So helpful to inventors have been the United States 
 patent laws that a competent authority estimates 
 "that at present more than two-fifths of the world's 
 important inventions originate in the United States." 
 He adds: "No feature of our Federal system has 
 proven of greater economic importance than the patent 
 system." 
 
 The next clause in the section we are covering gives 
 Congress power "to constitute tribunals inferior to the 
 Supreme Court," but as this subject is included in a 
 later section, containing provision for both Supreme 
 and inferior courts, it can better be discussed when 
 the latter provision is reached. 
 
 Continuing the specific grants to Congress we find 
 it empowered: 
 
 Article I, Section 8, Clause 10. To define and pun- 
 ish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, 
 and Offenses against the Law of Nations; 
 
 Robbery or forcible depredation upon the high sea 
 is piracy, and so, too, under the United States law, is 
 the trading by sea in slaves, and the punishment for 
 these offenses is death. The laws relating to the of- 
 fenses named in the clause are spoken of as the law
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 159 
 
 of nations, which is "a code of rules and precedents 
 governing nations in their relations with one another.'' 
 
 11. To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and 
 Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on 
 Land and Water; 
 
 It was proposed in the Convention by Hamilton to 
 give the power to declare war to the Senate, by Butler, 
 to the President; but the Convention determined that 
 as the power was a prerogative of sovereignty it 
 should be given to the Sovereign, the People, through 
 their agents in Congress. A declaration of war does not 
 always precede an act of war, but it is customary to 
 give such notice. A letter of marque is the authority 
 of Congress to a private person to equip, officer, arm 
 and employ a ship, go outside the national boundary 
 (marque) against an enemy with which the Govern- 
 ment is at war. Such a ship is called a privateer, and 
 its letter of marque insures its officers and crew, if 
 captured, the treatment of prisoners of war. Without 
 it they would be treated as pirates. 
 
 12. To raise and support Armies, but no Appro- 
 priation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer 
 Term than two Years; 
 
 The provision that Congress could not appropriate 
 money for the support of the army for a period longer 
 than two years, was an expression of the fears of the 
 Convention that unless Congress held the purse 
 strings securely, and thus reserved the power to cut 
 off supplies necessary for the continuance of the army, 
 a President might use the army to continue war after 
 Congress wanted peace, or even forcibly to usurp all
 
 160 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the powers of government make himself a dictator. 
 The President is Commander-in-Chief of the army, but 
 the Secretary of War administers the laws of Congress 
 relating to the army, and has general care of all prop- 
 erty and persons connected with the service. 
 
 13. To provide and maintain a Navy ; 
 
 Until 1798, the affairs of the navy and army were 
 administered by one department, but in that year a 
 separate department for the navy was created, and its 
 secretary became a member of the President's Cabinet. 
 Steam, electricity, high-powered rifled guns, heavy 
 armor plates, torpedoes, submarine boats, wireless 
 telegraphy, have all contributed not only to revolu- 
 tionize the construction of warships, but in no less 
 degree to change the educational requirements of 
 officers and men serving on such ships. How the 
 United States, under an empowering clause of six 
 short words, is providing itself with a magnificent 
 navy is not the least interesting and important chap- 
 ter of current history, and requires no word of ex- 
 planation here. 
 
 14. To make Rules for the Government and Regu- 
 lation of the land and naval Forces; 
 
 15. To provide for calling forth the Militia to exe- 
 cute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections 
 and repel Invasions; 
 
 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disci 
 plining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of 
 them as may be employed in the Service of the United 
 States, reserving to the States respectively, the Ap- 
 pointment of the Officers, and the Authority of train- 
 ing the Militia according to the discipline prescribed 
 by the Congress;
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 161 
 
 It has been the policy of the United States to leave 
 matters concerning the militia to the States; but when 
 the militia is '"employed in the service of the United 
 States" it becomes practically a part of the regular 
 Federal military establishment, and is treated as such. 
 The President may call upon States most conveniently 
 situated for the aid of the militia if the regulars at 
 his command encounter resistance they cannot over- 
 come. Early in the Civil War, President Lincoln so 
 called for militia aid, which was promptly furnished. 
 In recent years the employment of Federal army offi- 
 cers has been authorized as inspectors of militia, with 
 a view to conforming that service, as nearly as prac- 
 ticable, with that of the regular army. 
 
 17. To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases 
 whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten 
 Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, 
 and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of 
 the Government of the United States, and to exercise 
 like Authority over all Places purchased by the Con- 
 sent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same 
 shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arse- 
 nals, dock- Yards, and other needful Buildings. 
 
 A territory, part of which is now known as the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, was accepted by Congress, in 1790, 
 from Maryland and Virginia. This contained nearly 
 100 square miles, but was reduced to about 60 square 
 miles in 1846 by the recession of the territory on the 
 Virginia side of the Potomac River. Laws for the 
 District are made by Congress, but in practice, com- 
 mittees of Congress govern it, much as cities are gov- 
 erned by their elected legislative bodies. The laws are 
 administered by a commission of four, of whom three 
 are appointed by the President and Senate, and the
 
 162 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 fourth, an officer of the Engineer Corps of the United 
 States Army, is assigned to duty by the President. 
 The population of the District (1900) was 287,700, of 
 whom 86,700 were negroes. The citizens have no vote 
 in local or national affairs. The city of Washington, 
 the National Capital, is situated in that portion of the 
 District directly on the Potomac, between the Ana- 
 costia River and Rock Creek. "The plan of the city, 
 which was made in 1791 by Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a 
 French engineer who served in the Revolutionary War, 
 was approved by General Washington, and is generally 
 conceded to be the most complete as well as the most 
 artistic city system ever carried out." The advantage 
 and propriety are obvious for thus setting apart the 
 seat of government. The provision that Congress 
 should also have exclusive authority over all lands 
 purchased from States for purposes of public build- 
 ings, yards, docks, etc., was necessary to secure to the 
 Government, in the administration of its affairs in 
 such places, immunity from State laws which might 
 interfere with Federal officials there engaged in their 
 duties. 
 
 We now come to the final Clause of the Section; 
 the least "specific" in its grant of power, yet, in some 
 respects, the most important. 
 
 Article I, Section 8, Clause 18. To make all Laws 
 which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
 Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers 
 vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 
 United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. 
 
 Nothing in the Constitution has excited more dis- 
 cussion than the construction of this, the last Clause 
 of the section we are considering, read in connection
 
 THE BUILDERS TOIL ON 163 
 
 with the first Clause of the same section. It will be 
 interesting to construct a sentence composed of 
 phrases of the two Clauses to show upon what is based 
 the reasoning of those who have urged a broad inter- 
 pretation of the Constitution. Such a sentence may 
 be made to read thus : "The Congress shall have power 
 to provide for the general welfare of the United States, 
 and to make all laws necessary and proper for carry- 
 ing into execution the foregoing powers." 
 
 "There," said Hamilton, in effect, when Jefferson 
 opposed the first National Bank, on the ground that 
 nothing in the Constitution authorized it, "there is my 
 authority in the Constitution." He found his author- 
 ity in the "general welfare" clause, read in connection 
 with the clause we are considering. And under the 
 implied powers in that first clause, sometimes called 
 the welfare clause, read in connection with the 18th, 
 Congress has passed a multitude of laws without 
 which the territorial, industrial, social and educational 
 expansion of the nation would have been impossible 
 in anything like the wonderful extent whose evidences 
 are the commonplace facts of to-day, and whose effects 
 are the matter-of-course conditions of the citizen of 
 to-day. Under its implied powers. Congress has aided 
 the construction of railroads, it builds lighthouses, im- 
 proves rivers and harbors, inspects steamships, regu- 
 lates, and in certain cases prohibits, immigration, has 
 a National Board of Health is building the Panama 
 Canal. In countless ways it promotes the welfare, 
 education, and happiness of the citizen, and aids in 
 opening new opportunities for the employment of 
 labor and capital. Anything which a majority of the 
 people persist in believing to be just, reasonable and 
 desirable for Congress to do, that thing, sooner or
 
 164 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 later, Congress will do must do, so long as the people 
 preserve the blessing of a free ballot honestly counted. 
 Bryce, probably the most sympathetic and clearest- 
 sighted foreign observer of our Constitution, says of 
 it : "It has developed by interpretation ; that is, by the 
 unfolding of the meaning implicitly contained in its 
 necessarily brief terms; or by the extension of its pro- 
 visions to cases which they do not directly contem- 
 plate, but which their general spirit must be deemed 
 to cover. * * * It resembles theological writings in 
 this, that both, while taken to be immutable guides, 
 have to be adapted to a constantly changing world, 
 the one to political conditions which vary from year 
 to year and never return to their former state, the 
 other to new phases of thought and emotion."
 
 CHAPTEK VI 
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 
 
 THE section whose last Clause we have examined 
 enumerated the general powers of Congress, and 
 granted certain express powers; we now come to con- 
 sideration of express limitations placed upon Congress 
 by the Constitution, which are contained (not includ- 
 ing those in the Amendments) in the eight Clauses of 
 the ninth Section of the first Article. 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 1. The Migration or 
 Importation of such Persons as any of the States now 
 existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
 hibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may 
 be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten 
 dollars for each Person. 
 
 In the discussion of an earlier Clause we have seen 
 that this one was part of the compromise whereby the 
 importation of slaves for a limited period was con- 
 sented to by the New England States in return for 
 an agreement by the Carolinas and Georgia to a grant 
 of power to Congress to have sole control of interstate 
 and foreign commerce. In 1807, Congress prohibited 
 the importation of slaves, the act to go into effect 
 January 1, 1808. In 1820, the slave trade was declared 
 by law to be piracy. The tax permitted by the Clause 
 was never imposed. 
 
 165
 
 166 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 2. The Privilege of the 
 Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless 
 when in Cases of ^Rebellion or Invasion the public 
 Safety may require it. 
 
 The habeas corpus is a proceeding whereby a court 
 commands a person detaining a prisoner to bring the 
 body of the prisoner, with the warrant of commitment, 
 into court, that the sufficiency of the warrant may im- 
 mediately be determined by the judge after examining 
 evidence. The court may then, according to the facts 
 developed in the examination, discharge the prisoner, 
 admit him to bail, or remand him for detention. It is 
 the ancient safeguard of personal liberty, the security 
 of the innocent citizen against the plotting of enemies, 
 or the wicked device of those in authority, falsely to 
 contrive his imprisonment. In 1215, the English 
 Barons forced King John to grant a charter of English- 
 men's rights and liberties, and nothing in that Magna 
 Charta was more precious to all the people of the 
 Kingdom than the grant expressed in the 36th and 
 39th paragraphs of the Charta: "A writ of inquisition 
 shall be granted freely and not denied," and "no free- 
 man shall be imprisoned unless by the lawful judg- 
 ment of his peers, or by the laws of the land." The 
 Constitution makers recognized that when civil affairs 
 are greatly disturbed, as by rebellion or invasion, those 
 having charge of prisoners might not be able at once 
 to produce the evidence on which the prisoners were 
 held; or it might, in such times, be in the public in- 
 terest to confine persons who could not be proved in 
 a civil court guilty of unlawful acts. Then the writ 
 should be suspended. The first suspension of the writ 
 under the Constitution was by President Lincoln, as 
 a war measure, in 1861.
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 167 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 3. No Bill of Attainder 
 or ex post facto Law shall be passed. 
 
 A bill of attainder has been defined by the Supreme 
 Court to be "a legislative act which inflicts punish- 
 ment without a judicial trial." That is, a Legislature 
 might name a person, or a class of persons, and declare 
 them guilty of a specified crime, and fix their punish- 
 ment. Says Hinsdale: "Evidently bills of attainder 
 may be made terrible instruments of cruelty and op- 
 pression. Once, Kings of England frequently obtained 
 their passage in the name of public safety, in order to 
 crush their enemies, but since 1796 no such bill has 
 passed Parliament." An ex post facto law declares 
 an offence punishable in a manner in which it was 
 not punished when it was committed. 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 4. No Capitation, or 
 other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to 
 the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to 
 be taken. 
 
 A capitation tax is the familiar poll tax; that is, one 
 levied on all persons as individuals, irrespective of 
 property or occupation. 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 5. No Tax or Duty shall 
 be laid on Articles exported from any State. 
 
 This prohibition of an export tax does not exempt 
 from internal tax an article upon which such internal 
 tax or excise may be laid, even though such article is 
 intended for export and is exported. It prohibits a 
 tax at the custom house on an article because it is 
 exported. It was argued in the Convention that the
 
 168 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 export tax should not be prohibited as it might be 
 found a convenient and desirable source of revenue. 
 The argument which prevailed was that an export tax 
 would make it difficult, by increasing the price of an 
 article, to find a foreign market for it. 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 6. No Preference shall 
 be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue 
 to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor 
 shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged 
 to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. 
 
 By this provision not only equal rights in maritime 
 trade, but free trade as between ports of all the States, 
 was secured. A ship is "entered" at a port by report- 
 ing her arrival, owner, captain, cargo, route, etc., to 
 the custom house of the port; she obtains her "clear- 
 ance papers" by reporting that she is ready to sail, 
 her cargo, route, etc. Thus an American ship sailing 
 from Boston to New Orleans may make the port of 
 New York, if it is expedient for her to do so, and 
 neither "enter'' or "clear" there, and thus escape cer- 
 tain port charges. Foreign ships must enter and clear 
 at any and all American ports they may make. 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 7. No Money shall be 
 drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Ap- 
 propriations made by Law; and a regular Statement 
 and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all 
 public Money shall be published from time to time. 
 
 This is another assurance that the nation's purse 
 shall always be held by Congress, and that debts may 
 not be contracted nor funds disbursed by any other 
 department of the Government, except in accordance 
 with appropriations made by law. The Secretary of
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 169 
 
 the Treasury makes an elaborate and exhaustive re- 
 port to Congress, annually, on the state of national 
 finances; and also, for the information of financial in- 
 terests, the Treasury Department gives daily to the 
 press figures relating to current receipts, disburse- 
 ments and balances. 
 
 Article I, Section 9, Clause 8. No Title of Nobility 
 shall be granted by the United States: And no Per- 
 son holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, 
 shall, without the Consent of Congress, accept of any 
 present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind what- 
 ever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. 
 
 There was a fear in the Constitutional Convention, 
 which it is difficult in this day easily to understand, 
 that foreign governments might seek to endanger our 
 peace or prosperity by bribing our law-makers or other 
 officials. A title of nobility has sometimes been an at- 
 tractive and convenient bribe, with which a King 
 might secure a partisan in his own country or an ally 
 in another. Hamilton called the prohibition of the 
 giving of titles of nobility by the United States the 
 cornerstone of our republicanism; and in 1809 Con- 
 gress proposed a Constitutional Amendment, which 
 the States did not ratify, disfranchising any citizen of 
 the United States, even though not an office holder, 
 who should accept a title of nobility from a foreign 
 government. 
 
 The Federal plan required that Congress should re- 
 ceive some powers, and be denied others, and, the 
 more clearly to define the relations between the States 
 and nation, that the powers of the States should be 
 limited in terms. These we now reach in the last 
 Section of the first Article.
 
 170 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Article I, Section 10, Clause 1. No State shall enter 
 into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant 
 Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit 
 Bills of Credit; Make any Thing but gold and silver 
 Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; Pass any Bill of 
 Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the 
 Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. 
 
 2. No State shall, without the Consent of the Con- 
 gress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Ex- 
 ports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
 executing its inspection Laws; and the net Produce of 
 all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports 
 or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the 
 United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to 
 the Revision and Control of the Congress. 
 
 3. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, 
 lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of 
 War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or 
 Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, 
 or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such 
 imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. 
 
 A mere reading of these Clauses shows that the 
 Convention, by adopting them, intended to strip the 
 States of most of the powers of sovereignty. To be 
 sure, some of the powers here expressly denied to the 
 States had just been expressly conferred on the Na- 
 tional Government, and the denial of them to the 
 States may not have been so much a necessary pro- 
 vision against friction, as a formal warning to States' 
 Rights extremists that the States were not only con- 
 federated, but consolidated, as Rufus King said. "If," 
 he added, "the States retain some portion of sover- 
 eignty, they had divested themselves of essential por- 
 tions of it; if they formed a confederacy in some re- 
 spects, they formed a nation in others." But this view 
 of the Constitution frightened so many people well
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 171 
 
 disposed toward it otherwise, that fearful of further 
 stripping of the States of rights, an amendment was 
 promptly demanded and promptly adopted by the 
 first Congress that "the powers not delegated to the 
 United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by 
 it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, 
 or to the people." (Article X of the Amendments.) It 
 is quoted here in full in order at this time clearly to 
 impress this important feature of the whole plan : The 
 Constitution by express terms grants enumerated 
 powers to the National Government, and denies others ; 
 it denies by express terms certain powers to the State 
 governments, and reserves to them (thereby, in effect, 
 granting) all those powers not delegated to the Na- 
 tional Government nor denied to the States. 
 
 Most of the terms limiting the powers of the States 
 have been considered in the discussion of preceding 
 Clauses. Bills of credit are defined by the Supreme 
 Court as "paper issued by the sovereign power con- 
 taining a pledge of its faith and designed to circulate 
 as money." 
 
 Inspection laws are of many kinds, designed to ex- 
 clude from a State persons afflicted with contagious 
 diseases, infected live stock or meat, fruit or fruit 
 trees, to maintain a standard of excellence in milk, oil, 
 wine, and many other articles of food and drink. Such 
 laws may be expensive to administer, and States may 
 lay and collect fees on the articles inspected, even on 
 imported articles, but only for the purpose of meeting 
 the cost of inspection. 
 
 A duty of tonnage is an ancient form of tax levied 
 on ships and computed by the ship's carrying capacity, 
 its tonnage. States may, of course, tax ships as other 
 property, according to their value.
 
 372 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Here we conclude our examination of the first Arti- 
 cle with its ten Sections and fifty-one Clauses; enact- 
 ing the Constitution, instituting Congress, apportion- 
 ing representation, delegating and restricting powers 
 to the Government and the States; laying the broad 
 and firm foundation upon which the Convention with 
 less difficulty completed their structure, working with 
 more accustomed minds and greater facility, with less 
 friction if with no greater unanimity of original views. 
 The next question treated of, the Presidency, was 
 voluminously discussed, but much of that discussion 
 was incidental to matters determined in the first Arti- 
 cle, and at no time was the debate on the Presidency 
 so heated, nor did it cause such strain, as that in- 
 volved in the great questions which we have seen dis- 
 posed of by compromise. 
 
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 1. The executive 
 Power shall be vested in a President of the United 
 States of America. He shall hold his Office during the 
 Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice 
 President, chosen for the same Term, be elected as 
 follows: 
 
 2. Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the 
 Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, 
 equal to the whole Number of Senators and Represen- 
 tatives to which the State may be entitled in the Con- 
 gress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person 
 holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United 
 States, shall be appointed an Elector. 
 
 3. The Electors shall meet in their respective 
 States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom 
 one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same 
 State with themselves. And they shall make a List of 
 all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes 
 for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and 
 transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 173 
 
 United States, directed to the President of the Senate. 
 The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of 
 the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the 
 Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The 
 Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall 
 be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the 
 whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be 
 more than one who have such Majority, and have an 
 equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representa- 
 tives shall immediately choose by Ballot one of them 
 for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then 
 from the five highest on the List the said House shall 
 in like Manner choose the President. But in choosing 
 the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the 
 Representation from each State having one Vote; A 
 quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member 
 or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Ma- 
 jority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. 
 In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the 
 Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the 
 Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there 
 should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the 
 Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice 
 President. 
 
 The questions involved in instituting the Presidency 
 were: Of how many persons should it consist, length 
 of term and how to elect. The seventh Randolph reso- 
 lution provided that the Chief Executive should be 
 chosen by Congress and be ineligible for a second 
 term; the number of persons to constitute the office 
 and the term were not provided for. Early in the Con- 
 vention, on June 1st, Wilson moved that the chief 
 executive powers should be vested in one person. 
 Members were familiar with this plan, as it prevailed 
 in the States, yet, says Madison, "a considerable pause 
 ensuing, the Chair asked if he should put the ques- 
 tion." At once it was seen that there was much un-
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 certainty, and a member somewhat sharply called for 
 a fearless expression of opinions. 
 
 Sherman thought but little of the importance of the 
 office. "The executive magistracy," he said, would be 
 "nothing more than an institution for carrying out the 
 will of the Legislature. The person or persons should 
 be appointed by the Legislature." Gerry favored an- 
 nexing a council to the executive; Randolph "strenu- 
 ously opposed a unity in the executive," as the seed 
 of monarchy, and advocated an executive of three per- 
 sons; Wilson favored an election by the people for 
 three years and re-eligibility; C. Pinckney wanted a 
 seven-years term; Mason approved that term, but 
 would limit it by ineligibility as a preventive of "the 
 effect of a false complaisance on the side of the Legis- 
 lature toward unfit characters." Bedford favored 
 three years and no second term, because "impeach- 
 ment would reach misfeasance only, not incapacity." 
 
 By a vote, the term was made seven years. Then 
 Wilson renewed his argument for the election by the 
 people of the President and both branches of the Leg- 
 islature in order "to make them as independent as pos- 
 sible of each other, as well as of the States." Mason 
 asked to have this idea expressed in the form of a 
 motion, which Wilson did the next day, presenting 
 for the first time in the Convention the electoral col- 
 lege plan (Hamilton's plan, presented later, provided 
 for a chief executive to be called Governor, to be 
 elected by electors). Wilson's plan was that the 
 States be divided into districts; that the persons 
 qualified to vote in each district for the members of 
 the House elect electors to meet in a body and elect 
 a President who should not be one of themselves. 
 The motion was put on this plan and negatived by ten
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 175 
 
 States, Pennsylvania and Maryland only voting aye. 
 Then it was agreed to by a vote of eight to two that 
 the Chief Magistrate should be elected by Congress 
 for seven years, and this decision remained unchanged 
 until it appeared in the draft for discussion on Au- 
 gust 31st. In its then form it was provided that the 
 President should have the title of "His Excellency." 
 On the occasion mentioned, the provision was referred 
 to the Committee of Eleven, a hard-working body con- 
 sisting of a member from each State represented, 
 which was doing much to close up the business of the 
 Convention. That committee reported it on Septem- 
 ber 4th in a form which provided for the election of a 
 President and Vice-President for four years by elec- 
 tors, the eventual choice, in case of no candidate hav- 
 ing a majority of electoral votes, to go to the Senate, 
 to choose from five having the greatest number of 
 votes. In the debates which followed, and in preced- 
 ing debates on the subject, there were expressed as 
 many opinions as to the length of the President's term 
 of office as there were States in the Confederation. 
 These were, respectively, that the term should be 2, 3, 
 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 20 years, during good behavior, 
 and life. Some idea of the volume of discussion on 
 the manner of electing the President will be conveyed 
 by mentioning a number, not all, of the various plans 
 suggested. These were that each State should have 
 one vote in his election; that he should be elected by 
 Congress, by electors chosen by Governors of States, 
 by electors chosen by the legislatures of the States, 
 by electors chosen by the people (there were variations 
 in this, the plan adopted), by electors chosen by States, 
 by the House of Representatives, by joint ballot of 
 Representatives and Senators, by State legislatures,
 
 176 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 by the people direct, by State Governors, by the Sen- 
 ate, by Governors with advice of councils, by twenty- 
 five electors allotted to the States, by nomination of 
 candidates by the House one of whom should be 
 elected by the Senate. 
 
 The plan of the Committee of Eleven was explained 
 by two of its members to the Committee of the Whole. 
 Sherman said that the election had been taken from 
 Congress and given to electors to render the President 
 independent of Congress. G. Morris added that there 
 was "the danger of intrigue and faction" in Congress 
 which the electoral plan avoided. Gorham attacked 
 the provision for the election by the Senate in the 
 event of no choice by the electors. If it became neces- 
 sary to choose one out of five for Vice-President after 
 the President had been chosen, "a very obscure man 
 may arrive at that appointment." Madison thought 
 that if the Senate had an eventual choice from five 
 voted for by the electors, the plan would tend to pro- 
 duce a crop of candidates rather than a President. 
 Mason feared that there would seldom be a majority 
 found in the electoral vote, and the choice "nineteen 
 times out of twenty" would go to the Senate; and C. 
 Pinckney feared the same, because electors would be 
 strangers to the several candidates, and of course un- 
 able to decide on their comparative merits. But Wil- 
 son thought that "Continental characters will multi- 
 ply as we more and more coalesce, so as to enable the 
 electors in every part of the Union to know and judge 
 of them." He made the suggestion, which was 
 adopted for the time, to give the choice, in the event 
 of no electoral majority, to the whole Congress, rather 
 than to the Senate, for the reason that "the House 
 of Representatives will be so often changed as to be
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 177 
 
 free from influence and faction to which the perma- 
 nency of the Senate may subject that branch." Ran- 
 dolph much preferred election by Congress, but if 
 electors were to intervene he did not want the Senate 
 to have the eventual choice. G. Morris preferred to 
 give the eventual choice to the Senate, rather than to 
 the whole Congress, "because fewer could then say, 
 'You owe your appointment to us.' " On the next day 
 reference was made to the now familiar "favorite son" 
 idea, when C. Pinckney said "that electors will not 
 have sufficient knowledge of the fittest men, and will 
 be swayed by an attachment to the eminent men of 
 their respective States." Rutledge sought to reinsert 
 the draft plan, seven years and election by Congress, 
 but only two States voted aye. Mason foresaw, if the 
 Senate was given eventual choice, a coalition between 
 President and Senate that "will be able to subvert the 
 Constitution." Mason moved to give the election to 
 the person having the highest number of electoral 
 votes, whether that number be a majority or not; but 
 only Maryland and North Carolina voted aye. Wilson 
 moved to strike out Senate and insert Congress as re- 
 pository of the eventual choice, but only two States 
 supported him. Randolph thought giving eventual 
 choice to the Senate tended "to convert that body into 
 a real and dangerous aristocracy." In this fruitless 
 effort to arrive at the precise form for the clause the 
 whole day was passed, Mason exclaiming at the end 
 that he would "prefer the government of Prussia to 
 one which will put all power into the hands of seven 
 or eight men, and fix an aristocracy worse than an ab- 
 solute monarchy." 
 
 On the following day, Hamilton, who had been 
 silent for some time, said "that he had been restrained
 
 178 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 from entering into the discussion by his dislike of the 
 scheme of the government in general ; but as he meant 
 to support the plan to be recommended, as better than 
 nothing, he wished in this place to offer a few remarks. 
 He liked the new modification (Committee of Eleven), 
 on the whole, better than the printed report (draft). 
 In this (draft) the President was a monster, elected for 
 seven years and ineligible afterwards; having great 
 powers, in appointments to office, and continually 
 tempted by this Constitutional disqualification to 
 abuse them in order to subvert the Government. It 
 seemed peculiarly desirable, therefore, that some other 
 mode of election should be devised. He saw none 
 better than to let the highest number of (electoral) bal- 
 lots, whether a majority or not, appoint the President. 
 What was the objection to this? Merely that too small 
 a number might appoint, but as the plan stands, the 
 Senate may take the candidate having the smallest 
 number of votes, and make him President." 
 
 It was Sherman who finally made the successful 
 motion to substitute the House of Representatives for 
 the Senate as having eventual power to elect, each 
 State having one vote. Delaware alone voted against 
 this. Thereby were quieted the fears of those who saw 
 in an eventual election by the Senate a triumph of 
 aristocracy, and the fears of those who dreaded a bu- 
 reaucracy were stilled by a provision that no person 
 could be an elector "who is a member of the Legis- 
 lature of the United States, or who holds any office 
 of profit or trust under the United States." Two brief 
 quotations will serve to show the argument of those 
 who advocated a long term. Ellsworth said: "The 
 most eminent characters will be willing to accept the 
 trust under this condition"; and Gerry, "The longer
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 179 
 
 the duration of his appointment the more will his de- 
 pendence be diminished." Gouverneur Morris's re- 
 marks in favor of a short term will disclose the view 
 of those holding with him: "Prolong his duration to 
 fifteen years, will he, by any wonderful interposition 
 of Providence, cease to be a man? No, he will be un- 
 willing to quit his exaltation; he will be in possession 
 of the sword, a civil war will ensue, and the comman- 
 der of the victorious army, on whichever side, will be 
 the despot of America. It is most difficult rightly to 
 balance the executive. Make him too weak, the Legis- 
 lature will usurp his powers; make him too strong, 
 he will usurp on the Legislature. He preferred a short 
 term, a long term will prevent the adoption of the 
 plan." 
 
 We have seen that with a calmness which did not 
 mark all of their proceedings the Convention worked 
 at great length and with minute searchings, to devise 
 a method of electing the President which would be 
 free from cabals of office-holders, yet removed from 
 the direct vote of the people by the intervention of an 
 electoral college whose members, distinguished for 
 wisdom, experienced, with a knowledge of men, should 
 sift the qualifications of the great men of the Union, 
 and elect him they deemed best qualified. Although 
 it has been modified by the Twelfth Amendment in an 
 attempt to perfect it, and rules have been made by 
 Congress with the same purpose, the electoral plan is 
 now wholly ignored except in form. In substance it has 
 been reduced to a somewhat cumbersome machine for 
 transmitting to Congress documents recording a result 
 which was to all intents accomplished before the elec- 
 tors met, and with which electors had nothing what- 
 ever to do. How the system operated while it retained
 
 180 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 some of the attributes the Convention sought to give 
 it permanently; why it was amended and how it twice 
 threatened civil war through its operation and break- 
 down is an interesting story, soon told. 
 
 In 1789, ten States elected electors: Massachusetts 
 and Virginia by districts, as Members of the House 
 are now elected; Maryland and New Hampshire on a 
 general ticket, as we now elect them; in the other six 
 States which participated in the Presidential election 
 the electors were appointed by the legislatures, as 
 Senators are now appointed. These ten States re- 
 turned 69 electors, each of whom voted for Washing- 
 ton on one of his ballots. On the other ballots 12 
 other persons were voted for, John Adams receiving 
 34 and all others 35. Here the plan had worked ac- 
 cording to theory; each elector had expressed his pref- 
 erences for two persons; Washington was declared 
 elected President, and Adams having the next great- 
 est number of votes, and a majority, was declared 
 Vice-President. In the two next succeeding elections 
 the plan worked satisfactorily; in 1792, Washington 
 was re-elected unanimously, the 132 electors each cast- 
 ing one vote for him. Adams received 77 votes, again 
 the next greatest number and a majority, three other 
 persons being voted for, however. In 1796, there were 
 the same number of electors, but Washington was not 
 now a candidate, there was no one to command the 
 "solid" first vote: Adams received 71, and was de- 
 clared President; Jefferson, 68, and was declared Vice- 
 President. There the successful working of the plan 
 ended. 
 
 Before the next election the Democratic-Republican 
 Members of Congress, the strict constructionists, in a 
 caucus agreed to support Jefferson for President and
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 181 
 
 Aaron Burr for Vice-President. The Federalists, broad 
 construetionists, agreed in caucus to support John 
 Adams and C. C. Pinckney. The first-named ticket 
 secured 73 electoral votes, all of which were cast for 
 Jefferson and Burr, but not in distinct ballots desig- 
 nating a choice for President and a choice for Vice- 
 President. Adams had 65 and Pinckney 64 votes. 
 The Constitutional provision clearly covered this situ- 
 ation, as such situation had been contemplated in the 
 Convention; yet it did not provide a means for recog- 
 nizing the perfectly well-understood desire of voters 
 as expressed by electors. Every one knew that the 
 tie between Jefferson and Burr resulted from the fact 
 that each elector chosen by the Democratic-Republi- 
 cans had cast one vote to elect Jefferson President, 
 one vote to elect Burr Vice-President. But the letter 
 of the Constitutional provision had to be followed, and 
 the eventual choice went to the House; "the Represen- 
 tatives from each State having one vote." There 
 were sixteen States, and for thirty-five ballots, taken 
 during a seven days' session, Jefferson could command 
 the votes of but eight States: "A majority of all the 
 States shall be necessary to a choice." Burr had the 
 votes of six States and the votes of two were divided. 
 It was charged that Burr made a compact with the 
 Federalists to defeat Jefferson, and thereby defeat the 
 well-known wishes of a majority of all the voters. 
 There were great excitement, anger and threats of 
 civil war. Hamilton, who was Jefferson's most pro- 
 nounced political opponent, but who was both politi- 
 cally and personally opposed to Burr, is supposed to 
 have broken the deadlock. Certain it is that on the 
 thirty-sixth ballot two States which had voted for 
 Burr, Vermont and Maryland, changed to Jefferson,
 
 182 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 and thus elected him President. Burr, then, of course, 
 became Vice-President. This disclosed that the plan 
 was ill-advised for practice if two or more parties by 
 caucus or convention were to name a pair of candi- 
 dates for the two offices; there must be some way for 
 the electors to indicate which of each pair was the 
 choice for President, which for Vice-President, or 
 some Aaron Burr, for whom not a vote had been cast 
 with such purpose, would be made President by the 
 House. Therefore the 12th Amendment was adopted 
 by Congress, ratified, and went into effect in 1804. 
 By its provisions electors are required to name in their 
 ballots the person voted for as President, and in dis- 
 tinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President. 
 If no choice results from the electoral vote the House 
 has eventual choice from those persons, not exceeding 
 three, having the greatest number of votes. 
 
 An election went to the House under the amended 
 provision in 1825. Andrew Jackson had received 90 
 electoral votes, John Q. Adams 84, W. H. Crawford 
 41 and Henry Clay 37. There was no majority (130) 
 and Clay was excluded from the House choice because 
 he was not of the three having the highest number of 
 votes, but he influenced the result against Jackson by 
 throwing his strength in the House to Adams. The 
 vote stood: Adams, 13 States; Jackson, 7; Crawford, 4. 
 Jackson had received a plurality of both popular and 
 electoral votes, and his defeat in the House caused 
 much bitterness, intensified by the general belief that 
 the result had been brought about by a bargain which 
 bound Adams to make Clay his Secretary of State 
 which Adams did. 
 
 In 1876 the Presidential nominee of the Republicans 
 was Rutherford B. Hayes; of the Democrats, Samuel
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 183 
 
 J. Tilden. The un contested returns showed that Til- 
 den had 184 of the electoral votes, one short of a ma- 
 jority; Hayes, 164, twenty-one short of a majority. 
 Double returns from South Carolina, Florida, Louisi- 
 ana, and Oregon involved 21 votes, one of which was 
 necessary to give the election to Tilden, all of which 
 were necessary to give the election to Hayes. Con- 
 gress was Republican in the Senate and Democratic 
 in the House, and it was clear that no agreement to 
 settle the disputed returns could be looked for from 
 that authority. The Constitution, indeed, did not de- 
 clare who should "count" the electoral vote, in the 
 sense of deciding which one of plural returns from a 
 State should be counted. Fortunately for the peace 
 of the nation the issue had not been on an important, 
 at least not a vital, political principle, but was largely 
 between persons; so while the excitement was very 
 great it was not uncontrollable. Fortunately, too, Mr. 
 Tilden was a high-minded patriot, a statesman equally 
 great and good, whose exalted attitude at that crisis 
 is yet to be measured by a calm, an understanding, a 
 non-partisan historian. Tilden advised his friends to 
 accept as a means of determining the question a plan 
 which, to give him a single one of the twenty-one dis- 
 puted votes, required something very like an interpo- 
 sition of Providence; which required a non-partisan 
 judgment by announced partisans when the force of 
 partisanship was on the verge of plunging the coun- 
 try into civil war. There can be no doubt that Mr. 
 Tilden insisted upon the acceptance of the plan only 
 to prevent his adherents from taking up arms, not 
 because he had the remotest idea that the plan might 
 award him the Presidency. 
 
 The question was: Which set of returns from the
 
 184 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 four States respectively should be adjudged to be the 
 legal returns? Which should be counted as provided 
 for in the Constitution, wherein there was not so much 
 as a hint to govern the case? The plan of settlement 
 was carried out by the famous Electoral Commission, 
 created by Congress, and constituted thus : The Senate 
 appointed on the Commission three Republicans and 
 two Democrats; the House, three Democrats and two 
 Republicans; the Act named four Justices of the Su- 
 preme Court, two Republicans, two Democrats, and 
 thus far the Commission was divided equally between 
 parties. The four Justices, under the Act, chose a 
 fifth, who, assuming that the Commission's vote would 
 divide on political lines, would in every case have the 
 deciding vote. The four Justices gave the deciding 
 vote to a Republican. The Commission, by a division 
 of 8 to 7 on every question, gave all the disputed votes 
 to Mr. Hayes, and he was declared President. An 
 equal number of equally weighty opinions, of Ameri- 
 can authority, on both sides of the question as to every 
 8 to 7 vote could be quoted here; but a desire to 
 avoid presenting any partisan view may be attained 
 best, perhaps, by reproducing only one opinion, and 
 that by a foreigner, Bryce. He wrote in his American 
 Commonwealth: "The legal questions were so difficult, 
 and for the most part so novel, that it was possible 
 for a sound lawyer and an honest man to take in each 
 case either the view for which the Republicans or that 
 for which the Democrats contended. Still, it is inter- 
 esting to observe that the legal judgment of every 
 Commissioner happened to coincide with his party 
 proclivities." 
 
 This and other difficulties in the counting of elec- 
 toral votes caused Congress in 1887 to pass an Act
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 185 
 
 which makes the decision of the States final in dis- 
 puted election of electors. Provision is also made for 
 the procedure in Congress in cases which the States 
 fail to determine. 
 
 As to the three Clauses quoted relating to the 
 method of electing the President and Vice-President , 
 it is necessary to add but a few particulars to show 
 its evolution from the original intention which has 
 brought the Constitution of Practice wholly into vari- 
 ance with the Constitution of Precept. Candidates 
 are now named by national conventions of delegates 
 chosen by States, usually two to represent each Con- 
 gressional district, and four at large, sometimes called 
 Senatorial delegates. Electors for each party are 
 named by the several parties through their party or- 
 ganizations. The national conventions name their 
 party candidates for President and Vice-President, and 
 adopt political creeds called platforms. These con- 
 ventions are held, usually, in the June or July preced- 
 ing the November Presidential elections, and when the 
 conventions have finished their work the country 
 knows that the candidates named by the party secur- 
 ing the majority of the electors will be the next Presi- 
 dent (unless none should secure a majority of all the 
 electors) and that the result of the balloting on that 
 November day will be later recorded, to comply with 
 the form of the Constitution, by the elected electors of 
 all parties. 
 
 The Old Congress appointed the first Wednesday in 
 March as the day for the Constitutional Government 
 to go into operation, and the first Wednesday in 
 March, 1789, was the fourth of the month. The New 
 Congress enacted in 1792 that the term of four years 
 for which the President shall be elected "shall in all
 
 186 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 cases commence on the fourth day of March next suc- 
 ceeding," etc. Unfortunately this undesirable date 
 cannot now be changed by an Act of Congress, as it 
 was made part of the Constitution by the 12th Amend- 
 ment : "And if the House of Representatives shall not 
 choose a President * * * before the fourth day 
 of March," etc. 
 
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 4. The Congress may 
 determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the 
 Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day 
 shall be the same throughout the United States. 
 
 Congress has appointed the Tuesday next after the 
 first Monday in November as the time for choosing 
 electors; the electors give their votes on the second 
 Monday in January; the votes are opened and counted 
 by Congress on the second Wednesday of February. 
 
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 5. No Person except 
 a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United 
 States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitu- 
 tion, shall be eligible to the Office of President; 
 neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who 
 shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, 
 and been fourteen Years a Eesident within the United 
 States. 
 
 The exception to the "natural born" qualification 
 was the Convention's way of paying an extraordinary 
 compliment to Alexander Hamilton and James Wil- 
 son, two distinguished members of the Convention 
 who were foreign born. Of course, any other foreign- 
 born citizen having the other qualifications would 
 have been eligible, but the clause was drawn in favor 
 of the two statesmen here mentioned.
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 187 
 
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 6. In Case of the Re- 
 moval of the President from Office, or of his Death, 
 Eesignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and 
 Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on 
 the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law pro- 
 vide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or 
 Inability, both of the President and Vice President, 
 declaring what Officer shall then act as President, 
 and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Dis- 
 ability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 
 
 The Presidential succession, after the Vice-Presi- 
 dent, is, as provided by an Act of Congress of 1886, the 
 Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secre- 
 tary of War, Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, 
 Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, all 
 of whom are members of the President's Council, or 
 Cabinet. The Succession Act provides that no Cabinet 
 Officer who has not been confirmed by the Senate shall 
 succeed, nor one who has not the qualifications re- 
 quired in the President. 
 
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 7. The President shall, 
 at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensa- 
 tion, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished 
 during the Period for which he shall have been elected, 
 and he shall not receive within that Period any other 
 Emolument from the United States, or any of them. 
 
 The Congress of 1789 fixed the annual salary of the 
 President at $25,000, and it has been changed but 
 once, in 1773, when it was increased to $50,000. Lib- 
 eral appropriation also is made for the maintenance of 
 the President's residence, the White House. The 
 Vice-President's annual salary was fixed in 1779 at 
 $5,000, in 1853 at $8,000, in 1873 at $10,000, but re-
 
 188 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 duced by the next Congress to $8,000 by the repeal 
 of the so-called Salary Grab Act. 
 
 Article II, Section 1, Clause 8. Before he enter on 
 the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following 
 Oath or Affirmation : "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 
 that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of 
 the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, 
 preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the 
 United States." 
 
 The President is instituted into office by taking the 
 prescribed oath, which is usually administered by the 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The "inaugura- 
 tion" ceremonies of a President are altogether a 
 growth of custom, and are not required by the Consti- 
 tution or the laws. 
 
 Article II, Section 2, Clause 1. The President shall 
 be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the 
 United States, and of the Militia of the several States, 
 when called into the actual Service of the United 
 States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the 
 principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, 
 upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their re- 
 spective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Re- 
 prieves and Pardons for Offences against the United 
 States, except in Cases of Impeachment. 
 
 The immediate command of the army and of the 
 navy is delegated by the President to officers he se- 
 lects for that purpose; but as there is no restriction 
 upon his selection, the President is, thus, the actual 
 Commander-in-Chief. A reprieve is a temporary sus- 
 pension of a sentence, as, for example, the reprieve of 
 an officer of the army sentenced by a Court Martial. 
 The Clause in other particulars is self-explanatory.
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 189 
 
 Article II, Section 2, Clause 2. He shall have 
 Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the 
 Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the 
 Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and 
 by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, 
 shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers 
 and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all 
 other Officers of the United States, whose Appoint- 
 ments are not herein otherwise provided for, and 
 which shall be established by Law: but the Congress 
 may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior 
 Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, 
 in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 
 
 3. The President shall have Power to fill up all 
 Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the 
 Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire 
 at the End of their next Session. 
 
 It gives an informing insight into the Convention's 
 estimate of the relative value of Presidential powers, 
 that two such unrelated subjects of vastly different 
 degrees of importance should be disposed of in the 
 first of the two Clauses just quoted, as if they were 
 alike in scope and magnitude. But it would have re- 
 quired a mind illuminated by more than genius, by in- 
 spiration, to have foretold in 1787 the great world- 
 power nation which was to grow up under the Consti- 
 tution, and how immensely important the treaty-mak- 
 ing power would become in such a nation. The power 
 to appoint office-holders is now delegated, in effect, by 
 the President to the political organizations in control 
 of his party in the States. The wishes of the organi- 
 zations are made known to him by members of Con- 
 gress, and so systematized has the business become 
 that certain offices are now known as "belonging" to 
 Senators or to Representatives of a State; that is, 
 the organization of the President's party in a State
 
 190 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 consults the political welfare of its Senators as to 
 filling some offices, of its Representatives as to fill- 
 ing others. If the President's party should have no 
 member in Congress from a State the State Chairman 
 would inform the President of the wishes of his party's 
 organization therein. Offices which do not by their 
 nature belong to the States are assigned to them in the 
 distribution of "patronage." In this way consular and 
 some diplomatic posts, judgeships, and to some ex- 
 tent even Cabinet offices have come to be divided 
 among the States for disposal in the interest of the 
 party in power, as if their "ownership" were deter- 
 mined by lines of political geography. When there are 
 factions in an organization, or two Senators of a domi- 
 nant party from one State who cannot agree upon the 
 disposal of the offices "belonging" to them, the Presi- 
 dent allots the offices as the party's welfare demands, 
 by the light of such information as he can command. 
 It is to be assumed that the whole business of making 
 office-holders is one with which any President would 
 hope to have as little to do as might be. It belongs, 
 under the system of party government, to party or- 
 ganizations, and its indecencies are checked only as 
 public opinion forces Congress to enlarge the scope 
 of the Civil Service Laws and diminish the evils of 
 the spoils system. The "advice and consent of the 
 Senate" provision has come to be the means whereby 
 the Senate prevents the confirmation of an appoint- 
 ment personally distasteful to the Senator most in- 
 terested. It is an exercise of Senatorial rights and 
 privileges guarded by what is called the "courtesy of 
 the Senate." 
 
 It is seen, therefore, that the power to appoint cer- 
 tain office-holders rests not with the President, but,
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 191 
 
 in the last analysis, with the men who control the po- 
 litical organizations belonging to the party of the 
 President. 
 
 On the other hand the President's share in the 
 treaty-making power is one of the most important and 
 dignified attributes of his office, and has an effect on 
 the country's welfare, its standing and influence in the 
 family of nations, which gives to his office its chief ele- 
 ment of greatness. Through treaties sometimes con- 
 taining the authority for purchase the United States 
 has acquired vast territories of incalculable value, pre- 
 served peace, when war threatened, by delimitation 
 of boundaries, extended commerce, encouraged litera- 
 ture, art and science, secured universal rights and 
 privileges for its Citizens, opened long-closed foreign 
 ports, entered into friendly relations with every civi- 
 lized nation, established its Ambassadors, Ministers 
 and Consuls throughout the world, participated in the 
 noble progress whereby the family of nations increases 
 in the qualities of Justice and Mercy, and abandons 
 Oppression, Cruelty and Intolerance. The President 
 exercises this grand privilege* of his office through the 
 agency of the Department of State, and by consent of 
 the Senate. 
 
 Article II, Section 3. He shall from time to time 
 give to the Congress Information of the State of the 
 Union, and recommend to their Consideration such 
 Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; 
 he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both 
 Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement 
 between them, with Kespect to the Time of Adjourn- 
 ment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall 
 think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other 
 public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws
 
 192 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the 
 Officers of the United States. 
 
 At the opening of each annual session of Congress 
 the President sends to each branch a copy of his mes- 
 sage giving information on the state of the Union, 
 which information is elaborated by accompanying cop- 
 ies of reports of the heads of all the Cabinet depart- 
 ments. Special messages recommending special legis- 
 lation, or giving special information, may be sent to 
 Congress at any time, and frequent messages from 
 the President inform Congress of his action on Bills 
 submitted to him. Washington at times visited the 
 Senate to advise with that body on affairs before him; 
 but such advisory relations between the Senate and 
 President have ceased, the multiplicity of the Presi- 
 dent's duties making such relations difficult to main- 
 tain. Now the President's contact with Congress is, 
 principally indirect, through interviews between Cabi- 
 net officers and chairmen of committees of Congress. 
 Special sessions of Congress have infrequently been 
 called to meet urgent needs for legislation, but special 
 sessions of the Senate alone are commonly called by a 
 retiring President for a date soon after the end of his 
 term. This is to give his successor early opportunity 
 to transmit to the Senate a list of such appointments 
 as he desires to have promptly confirmed in office. No 
 President has exercised his right to adjourn Congress. 
 An Ambassador or Minister from a foreign country 
 cannot act in his capacity as such until he has been 
 presented to the President by the Secretary of State. 
 He is then said to have been "received." Two notable 
 precedents have established the right of the President 
 to dismiss as well as to receive diplomatic representa-
 
 THE STRUCTURE ASSUMES SHAPE 193 
 
 tives. Washington dismissed the French Minister, M. 
 Genet, and Cleveland dismissed the British Minister, 
 Lord Sackville-West. The cause in both cases was 
 the same: meddling in American politics. 
 
 Article II, Section 4. The President, Vice President 
 and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be re- 
 moved from Office on Impeachment for, and Convic- 
 tion of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and 
 Misdemeanors. 
 
 Impeachments were explained in the consideration 
 of an earlier Clause. Here we conclude immediate con- 
 sideration of the executive department and pass on to 
 another of the three great divisions of government.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 
 
 WE have now reviewed most of those provisions of 
 the Constitution which engaged the chief debates in 
 the Convention, and the remaining provisions, al- 
 though some of them, especially that forming the Fed- 
 eral Judicial system, are of vital interest and impor- 
 tance, can be considered with less lingering to listen 
 to discussions by delegates. Then we shall witness 
 the closing hours of the great meeting of patriotic 
 statesmen, the submission by them of their completed 
 work to the Old Congress, and the action of that body 
 in transmitting the instrument of government to the 
 States for their action. 
 
 Article III, Section 1. The Judicial Power of the 
 United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, 
 and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from 
 time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both 
 of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their 
 Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated 
 Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, 
 which shall not be diminished during their Continu- 
 ance in Office. 
 
 The Supreme Court had an influence in determining 
 the character of our National Government, the extent 
 of which does not appear to have been wholly fore- 
 
 1M
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 195 
 
 seen in the Convention. The earliest division of the 
 people into political parties was along a line which 
 separated Strict Constructionists from Broad Con- 
 structionists, as they were called: on one hand those 
 who believed that the Constitution should be con- 
 strued to make the Federal Government little more 
 than a league of the States, and promote the impor- 
 tance of the States; on the other hand were those who 
 believed that the Constitution, by broad construction, 
 should establish supreme Federal control, and make a 
 nation of which the States should be subsidiary divi- 
 sions. It has been due to a long line of Supreme Court 
 decisions giving a broad construction to many provi- 
 sions of the Constitution that the national idea has 
 triumphed, and is now practically unopposed except 
 in Abstractions. Washington early saw the great im- 
 portance and power of the Judicial Department, for, 
 in appointing James Wilson as an Associate Justice 
 of the Supreme Court, he wrote to him : "Considering 
 the judicial system as the chief pillar upon which our 
 national government must rest, I have thought it my 
 duty to nominate for the high offices in that depart- 
 ment such men as I conceived would give dignity and 
 luster to our national character." 
 
 The first Congress under the Constitution passed an 
 Act which Washington approved, establishing the Su- 
 preme Court and creating the inferior Federal Courts; 
 and except for minor changes, most of them required 
 by the growth of the country, the Judiciary Act of 
 1789 still stands in its essential features. The Su- 
 preme Court now consists of one Chief Justice and 
 eight Associates. This court sits only in Washington. 
 The inferior courts are Circuit and District. The ju- 
 dicial territory of each circuit includes the judicial ter-
 
 196 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ritory of from four to thirteen District Courts. Under 
 the law of 1891 there were provided nine circuits with 
 twenty-one Circuit Judges, and seventy-two districts 
 with sixty-seven District Judges. Besides its District 
 Court each district has also, at least once a year, a ses- 
 sion of the Circuit Court. There is provision, also, for 
 a Circuit Court of Appeals, to take some of the legal 
 business from the Supreme Court, the latter being 
 sadly overcrowded. Each Associate Justice of the Su- 
 preme Court visits yearly a circuit to which he has 
 been assigned to sit alone, with a Circuit, or a District 
 Judge, or both, according to rules which it is not neces- 
 sary to explain here. The assignments to circuits are 
 made to suit their convenience by the Justices, and 
 usually a Justice's Circuit includes his home territory. 
 On Circuit a Justice is officially known not as an Asso- 
 ciate Justice, but as a Circuit Justice. 
 
 Article III, Section 2, Clause 1. The judicial Power 
 shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising 
 under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, 
 and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under 
 their authority; to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, 
 other public Ministers and Consuls; to all Cases of 
 Admiralty and Maritime Jurisdiction; to Contro- 
 versies to which the United States shall be a Party; 
 to Controversies between two or more States; be- 
 tween a State and Citizens of another State ; between 
 Citizens of different States; between Citizens of the 
 same State claiming Lands under Grants of different 
 States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, 
 and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects. 
 
 Clause 2. In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other 
 public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a 
 State shall be a Party, the supreme Court shall have 
 original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before 
 mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 197 
 
 Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Ex- 
 ceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress 
 shall make. 
 
 Clause 3. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases 
 of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial 
 shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall 
 have been committed; but when not committed within 
 any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places 
 as the Congress may by Law have directed. 
 
 Perhaps no better explanation of the meaning of 
 "equity" could be given as used in the first of the 
 Clauses above quoted than that which Hamilton gave : 
 ''There is hardly a subject of litigation between indi- 
 viduals which may not involve those ingredients of 
 fraud, accident, trust, or hardship, which would render 
 the matter an object of equitable rather than of legal 
 jurisdiction. It is the peculiar province, for instance, 
 of a court of equity to relieve against what are called 
 hard bargains: in which, though there may have been 
 no fraud or deceit, sufficient to invalidate them in a 
 court of law, a court of equity would not tolerate." 
 
 This Clause has been modified by the llth Amend- 
 ment. The Supreme Court held in 1793 that the pro- 
 vision giving it jurisdiction over cases between a State 
 and a citizen of another State also gave it jurisdiction 
 in a case of a citizen of one State against another 
 State, as well as of the case of a State against a citi- 
 zen of another State. This was so contrary to what 
 the people then held as to State Sovereignty that the 
 adoption of the Amendment was brought about by 
 public opinion. It denies the jurisdiction of the Su- 
 preme Court in any suit by a citizen of one of the 
 States against another State. 
 
 The third Clause quoted above has been held to be
 
 198 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 affected by no less than four of the ten Amendments, 
 sometimes called the Bill of Bights, proposed by the 
 first Congress and ratified by the States. The Clause 
 provides for two things: the right to trial by jury, and 
 the right of an accused not to be removed to a distant 
 place for trial. The reason why the American people 
 should so elaborately define and emphatically insist 
 upon those rights is found in the first chapter of this 
 book they were the descendants of those Englishmen 
 whose stern demands for such rights are there related. 
 How closely a number of those early ten Amendments 
 resemble parts of the Bill of Rights to which Parlia- 
 ment commanded the assent of William and Mary in 
 1689 will be shown when we come to consider the 
 Amendments. 
 
 Article III, Section 3, Clause 1. Treason against 
 the United States, shall consist only in levying War 
 against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving 
 them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted 
 of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses 
 to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. 
 
 Clause 2. The Congress shall have Power to de- 
 clare the Punishment of Treason, But no Attainder 
 of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or For- 
 feiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. 
 
 The term "levying war" has been given this compre- 
 hensive definition by, the Supreme Court: "If a body 
 of men be actually assembled for the purpose of effect- 
 ing by force a treasonable purpose, all those who per- 
 form any part, however minute, or however remote 
 from the scene of action, are to be considered as trait- 
 ors" and guilty of treason. "Aid and comfort" may be 
 given to an enemy in many ways not requiring active 
 service in his behalf. Should a citizen sell a horse
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 199 
 
 to an enemy to draw water to camp he would be 
 deemed to have given aid and comfort, and be guilty 
 of treason. Attainder of treason is the taint, or dis- 
 grace attached to a person found guilty of treason. 
 The taint, or "corruption of blood" forfeits the "at- 
 tainted" person's right to hold or inherit property. 
 But this bar shall not operate beyond the life of the 
 person attainted, against his descendants. 
 
 Article IV, Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall 
 be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and 
 judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the 
 Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner 
 in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be 
 proved, and the Effect thereof. 
 
 "The public acts referred to are acts of the legis- 
 latures; the records are the records of wills, deeds, 
 etc.; the judicial proceedings are orders and judgments 
 of courts.'' The faith and credit a State gives to its 
 own acts, etc., must be given to them by all other 
 States, or else intolerable disorder would result. 
 
 Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1. The Citizens of 
 each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Im- 
 munities of Citizens in the several States. 
 
 A citizen of one State going into another enjoys all 
 the privileges of citizens of the State into which he 
 goes, not all those of the State from which he goes. If, 
 for example, an illiterate citizen go from a State where 
 illiteracy is not a bar to voting he could not vote in 
 the State into which he go if ability to read should 
 there be a required qualification for voting. 
 
 Clause 2. A Person charged in any State with Trea- 
 son, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Jus-
 
 200 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 tice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand 
 of the executive Authority of the State from which 
 he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State 
 having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 
 
 The treason here named is treason against a State, 
 as no State has jurisdiction of the crime of treason 
 against the United States. The form of demand for 
 surrender of a fugitive from justice is known as a Gov- 
 ernor's requisition, and the Constitution lays the ob- 
 ligation of obeying such requisition upon the Gov- 
 ernor of any State to whom it is addressed, whether 
 the offense charged be or be not a crime in the State 
 where the fugitive is found. 
 
 Clause 3. No Person held to Service or Labor in 
 one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into an- 
 other, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation 
 therein, be discharged from such Service or Labor, 
 but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to 
 whom Service or Labor may be due. 
 
 It was under this provision that Congress, in 1850, 
 enacted the Fugitive Slave Law, which was one of the 
 immediate causes of the Civil War, and consequently 
 of the emancipation of all slaves in the United States. 
 The Clause was written into the Constitution as part 
 of the compromise involving the continuance of slav- 
 ery; and as early as 1793 Congress passed laws to give 
 it effect. The more rigorous law of 1850 was de- 
 manded by the slave States because of notorious eva- 
 sions of the former law in non-slave States, but had 
 the effect of strengthening the cause of the abolition- 
 ists, and quickening the political movement which 
 elected Lincoln, the Emancipator, President.
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 201 
 
 Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1. New States may be 
 admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new 
 State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdic- 
 tion of any other State; nor any State be formed by 
 the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, 
 without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States 
 concerned as well as of the Congress. 
 
 Clause 2. The Congress shall have Power to dis- 
 pose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations 
 respecting the Territory or other Property belonging 
 to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution 
 shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of 
 the United States, or of any particular State. 
 
 The Convention in making these two Clauses, worked 
 with definite and immediate objects in view. Vermont 
 was asking to be disentangled from the conflicting 
 claims of New Hampshire, New York and Massachu- 
 setts, and to be admitted into the Union as a State; 
 Kentucky was nearly ready for separation from Vir- 
 ginia and assumption of Statehood; Maine and Ten- 
 nessee were prepared to enter the Union as independ- 
 ent States. (Vermont was admitted in 1791; Ken- 
 tucky, 1792, and Tennessee in 1796, but Massachusetts 
 retained her control of the "District of Maine" until 
 1820, in which year Maine was admitted.) The Con- 
 vention also knew that there was a vast Western ter- 
 ritory to be cut up into States in the near future. 
 Already New York, Virginia, Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut had surrendered to the Government all their 
 claims to Western lands on the pledge of the Old Con- 
 gress that the territory so ceded should be for the 
 common benefit, and formed into States. Other States 
 followed with their cessions of Western territory for 
 the common good of all the people: South Carolina 
 in 1789, North Carolina in 1790, and Georgia in 1802.
 
 202 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 The word "territory" as used in the Clause last quoted 
 means all such parts of the national domain as are not 
 formed into States; it was not until later that the 
 word came to mean a political division of the national 
 domain, not yet a State a government on probation 
 for Statehood, as we understand it now. As has been 
 said, each Territory has a Delegate in Congress who 
 may not vote; it has no electoral vote, and its Legisla- 
 ture is restricted in the subject and scope of its laws. 
 Territories are admitted as States when, in the opin- 
 ion of Congress, they have a large enough population, 
 display civic qualities which promise a wise and or- 
 derly government, and when their advent as States 
 (each necessarily with two Senators and at least one 
 Representative in Congress) will not be disadvantage- 
 ous to the political plans of the party dominant in 
 Congress. 
 
 Article IV, Section 4. The United States shall guar- 
 antee to every State in this Union a Eepublican Form 
 of Government, and shall protect each of them against 
 Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or 
 of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be con- 
 vened) against domestic Violence. 
 
 In the llth Randolph resolution it was a "republi- 
 can government" which the United States was to guar- 
 antee in the States. This was first changed to "a Re- 
 publican Constitution," and on July 18th, on Wilson's 
 motion, a "Republican Form of Government" was 
 guaranteed. That was what the Constitution makers 
 were providing for the United States, and it was 
 proper that the strong central Government, after pro- 
 hibiting to the States the right to maintain armies in 
 times of peace, should guarantee them protection from
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 203 
 
 invasion, domestic violence and political usurpation. 
 A republican form of government is one in which the 
 supreme power is vested in rulers elected periodically 
 by the people. That was the judgment of the Conven- 
 tion in opposition to Hamilton, who wished to have the 
 President and one branch of Congress appointed for 
 life. 
 
 However, when he came to advocate the Constitu- 
 tion before New York's Convention, Hamilton ex- 
 pressed more democratic views than he had professed 
 in Philadelphia. In a speech before the New York 
 Convention, June 20, 1788, he said : "After all, sir, we 
 must submit to this idea, that the true principle of a 
 republic is that the people should choose whom they 
 please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, 
 in proportion as the current of popular favor is 
 checked. This great source of free government, popu- 
 lar election, should be perfectly pure, and the most un- 
 bounded liberty allowed." 
 
 That Republican form of government which is guar- 
 anteed to the States by the Constitution is representa- 
 tive democracy, or government by periodically dele- 
 gated authority. A government of which the legisla- 
 tive and chief executive powers should be exercised by 
 persons holding office for life, would soon cease to be 
 representative of anything but the wishes of the office- 
 holders. 
 
 In case of invasion the United States acts at once, 
 for that is an attack on national authority, and there 
 is no waiting for an appeal from the State whose ter- 
 ritory happens to be invaded. Domestic violence is 
 a matter for police control, but if a State's strongest 
 police arm, its militia, is unable to quell violence, the 
 United States uses its superior force for the purpose.
 
 204 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 upon request as provided. But domestic violence may 
 interfere with the orderly conduct of some business of 
 the United States; the prompt dispatch of the mails 
 may be prevented : then, again, the strong Federal arm 
 reaches out and restores order without waiting for 
 any State's request. 
 
 Article V. The Congress whenever two thirds of 
 both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose 
 Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Applica- 
 tion of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several 
 States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amend- 
 ments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all In- 
 tents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when 
 ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the 
 several States, or by Convention in three fourths 
 thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification 
 may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no 
 Amendment which may be made prior to the Year 
 One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any 
 Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth 
 Section of the first Article; and that no State, without 
 its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in 
 the Senate. 
 
 The first part of this Article relates to the manner 
 of amending the Constitution and is wholly self-ex- 
 planatory. The two Clauses whose amendment was 
 prohibited before 1808 relate, as we have seen, to 
 slavery; and the last provision of the Article is the 
 extraordinary assurance of the permanence of equal 
 representation of the States in the Senate. 
 
 Article VI, Clause 1. All Debts contracted and 
 Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this 
 Constitution, shall be as valid against the United 
 States under this Constitution, as under the Con- 
 federation.
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 205 
 
 This Clause did not increase the moral or legal ob- 
 ligation of the United States to pay the large war debt 
 contracted by the Old Congress; yet such a formal 
 recognition of the obligation doubtless had the effect 
 of giving confidence to foreign creditors, and it was 
 incorporated with their comfort in view. 
 
 Clause 2. This Constitution, and the Laws of the 
 United States which shall be made in Pursuance 
 thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be 
 made, under the Authority of the United States, shall 
 be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in 
 every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the 
 Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary not- 
 withstanding. 
 
 Clause 3. The Senators and Representatives before 
 mentioned, and the Members of the several State Leg- 
 islatures,and all executive and judicial Officers, both of 
 the United States and of the several States, shall be 
 bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Con- 
 stitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required 
 as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under 
 the United States. 
 
 No language could be clearer or stronger than this 
 used to proclaim the supremacy of the Union over the 
 States. The Judges in all State courts "shall be 
 bound" to recognize and give effect to this vital fact; 
 and by the second Clause above quoted it is com- 
 manded that Governors and members of legislatures 
 of States, as well as Judges, "shall be bound" to sup- 
 port the Constitution and thereby acknowledge the 
 supremacy of the nation over the States. One can- 
 not but be impressed by such authoritative language, 
 when compared with some of the language of indi- 
 vidual members early in the Convention, with the be- 
 lief that when this part of the Constitution was 
 reached members had become solemnly conscious of
 
 206 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the majestic attributes of the Government whose Com- 
 mission they were about to sign. 
 
 Article VII. The Ratification of the Conventions 
 of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment 
 of this Constitution between the States so ratifying 
 the Same. 
 
 Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of 
 the States present the Seventeenth Day of September 
 in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred 
 and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the 
 United States of America the Twelfth. In witness 
 whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, 
 
 Go. WASHINGTON Presid 1 
 and deputy from Virginia. 
 
 Attest WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 
 
 Then followed the signatures of the thirty-eight 
 other members who signed, noted in the roll-call of 
 members printed in a former chapter. The form 
 of the second paragraph of the last Article was 
 the subject of much discussion, growing out of the 
 known intention of Randolph, Mason and Gerry (and 
 possibly Blount, it was thought) not to sign the copy 
 of the Constitution prepared for transmission to the 
 Old Congress by Washington. Randolph felt that his 
 original plan had been so widely and irreconcilably de- 
 parted from that he must withhold his signature un- 
 less the Convention agreed "that amendments to the 
 plan (proposed Constitution) might be offered by the 
 State Conventions, which should be submitted to and 
 finally decided on by another general Convention." 
 He spoke feelingly of his regret in differing from the 
 Convention "on the close of the great and awful sub- 
 ject of our labors." Finally, moved by the speech of 
 Dr. Franklin urging all to sign, Randolph said that he
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 207 
 
 did not mean by his refusal to sign to decide that he 
 should oppose the Constitution thereafter. He wished 
 to be free to act as his final judgment, after more 
 consideration, dictated. 
 
 Mason also wanted another Convention provided for, 
 to be called after the offered Constitution should have 
 been examined by the people. "The dangerous power 
 and structure of the government will make it end," he 
 said, "either in a monarchy, or in a tyrannical aristoc- 
 racy; which, I am in doubt, but one or the other I am 
 sure." 
 
 Gerry had many objections to the Constitution 
 some of them seem to-day to have been unimportant, 
 some almost meaningless but he agreed to waive his 
 other objections and sign if the Convention would 
 pause in its work in order to deny to "Congress power 
 to make what laws they may please to call necessary 
 and proper, to raise armies and to establish a tribunal 
 without juries." The Convention does not appear to 
 have taken action one way or another on Gerry's pro- 
 posal. 
 
 Charles Pinckney spoke for Southern members who 
 did not like all the provisions of the Constitution, but 
 saw the necessity of giving it their support. He par- 
 ticularly objected to any provision for another Con- 
 vention to go over their work. "Deputies to a second 
 Convention coming together under the discordant im- 
 pressions of their constituents will never agree. Con- 
 ventions are serious things, and ought not to be re- 
 peated." 
 
 The next day, the last of the Convention, Dr. Frank- 
 lin made a further attempt to secure the signatures of 
 all members present, and he did succeed in gaining 
 over Blount, but the others adhered to their expressed
 
 208 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 intentions, although Franklin's appeal called forth ex- 
 planations, which in the case of Bandolph included his 
 doubt, already referred to here, as to his future action. 
 Dr. Franklin's speech was written, and, as was cus- 
 tomary, \v T as read by his colleague, Wilson. In part 
 he said : "1 confess that there are several parts of this 
 Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I 
 am not sure I shall never approve them: for having 
 lived so long, I have experienced many instances of 
 being obliged by better information, or fuller con- 
 sideration, to change opinions even on important sub- 
 jects, which I once thought right, but found to be 
 otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the 
 more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay 
 more respect to the judgment of others. I doubt 
 whether any other Convention we can obtain may be 
 able to make a better Constitution. For when you 
 assemble a number of men to have the advantage of 
 their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those 
 men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of 
 opinions, their local interests and their selfish views. 
 From such an assembly can a perfect production be 
 expected? It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this 
 system approaching so near to perfection as it does; 
 and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are await- 
 ing with confidence to hear that our councils are con- 
 founded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that 
 our States are on the point of separation, only to meet 
 hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's 
 throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution be- 
 cause I expect no better, and because I am not sure 
 that it is not the best." 
 
 Dr. Franklin then suggested the form in which the 
 signatures are attached, "done in Convention by the
 
 THE BUILDERS' WORK DONE 209 
 
 unanimous consent of the States present." This form 
 gave those who did not wish to give their unqualified 
 endorsement of all that the Constitution contained op- 
 portunity to sign as ''done," not approved. 
 
 The Committee on Style, which prepared the final 
 text of the Constitution (Johnson, Hamilton, G. Mor- 
 ris, Madison and King), also prepared an address to 
 Congress to accompany the Constitution, and which 
 was obviously designed for the consideration of all the 
 people. This was signed by George Washington as 
 President "by unanimous order of the Convention," so 
 that the day's work of that eventful 17th of September 
 showed no surface indication of the unfortunate dis- 
 sent of the three members who refused to sign; Gor- 
 ham and King signing for Massachusetts, although 
 Gerry did not, and Madison and Blair signing for Vir- 
 ginia, though Randolph and Mason refused, and 
 thereby giving the assent of the twelve States repre- 
 sented, Hamilton signing alone for New York. 
 
 A third of a century earlier Franklin had drawn up 
 and submitted to the famous Albany Convention a 
 Plan of Union of the States; eleven years before, when 
 he was already seventy years old, he had signed, in 
 that very hall, the Declaration of Independence, and 
 it was natural that as they now signed the Constitu- 
 tion, members gathered around the venerable sage and 
 offered him their congratulations that he had been 
 spared to see the dearest object of his life so notably 
 advanced. To a group thus gathered around him Frank- 
 lin said, pointing to a gilded half sun on the back of the 
 presiding officer's chair: "As / have been sitting here 
 all these weeks I have often wondered whether yonder sun 
 is rising or setting. But now I know that it is a rising 
 sun!"
 
 210 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 We find from Washington's own report that the dif- 
 ferences in the Convention left no personal dislikes, 
 and the conclusion was marked by a pleasant event. 
 "The business being closed," wrote Washington in his 
 diary, September 17th, "the members adjourned to the 
 city tavern, dined together, and took a cordial leave 
 of each other. After which I returned to my lodgings, 
 did some business with and received some papers from 
 the secretary of the convention, and retired to medi- 
 tate on the momentous work which had been exe- 
 cuted."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 
 
 THE Constitution having been signed, two things 
 were required before it became the new instrument 
 for the government of the Union: the Old Congress 
 must submit it to the States, and nine, at least, of 
 them must ratify it. It has been noted that the Con- 
 vention adopted an address to Congress which, in the 
 form of a letter from Washington, was to accompany 
 the copy of the Constitution. No delay occurred in 
 this business, for on the third day after the conven- 
 tion adjourned both papers were laid before Congress, 
 then in session in New York. This letter, which was 
 obviously designed as an argument for the people as 
 well as Congress, makes a beautifully clear statement 
 of the principle that to secure the blessings of a free 
 representative government strong enough to maintain 
 itself, some resignation of power must be made by 
 the States confederating. Two of its four paragraphs 
 follow: 
 
 ''It is obviously impracticable in the federal govern- 
 ment of these States to secure all rights of independ- 
 ent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the* in- 
 terest and safety of all : Individuals entering into so- 
 ciety, must give up a share of liberty to preserve the 
 rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as 
 
 211
 
 212 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 well on situation and circumstance as on the object to 
 be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with 
 precision the line between those rights which must 
 be surrendered and those which may be reserved; and 
 on the present occasion this difficulty was increased by 
 a difference among the several States as to their situ- 
 ation, extents, habits, and particular interests. 
 
 "In all our deliberations on this subject we kept 
 steadily in our view that which appears to us the 
 greatest interest of every true American, the consoli- 
 dation of our Union, in which is involved our pros- 
 perity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. 
 This important consideration, seriously and deeply im- 
 pressed upon our minds, led each State in the Con- 
 vention to be less rigid on points of inferior magni- 
 tude than might have been otherwise expected; and 
 thus the Constitution, which we now present, is the 
 result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual defer- 
 ence and concession which the peculiarity of our politi- 
 cal situation rendered indispensable." 
 
 But this logical pleading by statesmen and patriots 
 had no more immediate effect on the opposition than 
 did the merit of the Constitution itself. This opposi- 
 tion will be explained now and in general terms, for 
 it is not intended in the scheme of this work to follow 
 in detail the debate in Congress nor in the State Con- 
 ventions. There was a respectable opposition by a 
 party which honestly feared that so much power had 
 been given to Congress that an arrogant disregard of 
 States' rights, or favoritism of one section of the 
 Union at the expense of the other, would surely re- 
 sult from the Constitution if adopted. This was the 
 party whose most conspicuous member at the begin-
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 213 
 
 mug was Edmund Randolph. But after refusing to 
 sign the Constitution, he became a hearty supporter of 
 it in the Virginia Convention, and made it possible 
 for the indefatigable, the patient and resourceful 
 Madison to secure its ratification in their State. A 
 less respectable opposition came from a class of men 
 who saw in the success of a dominant Federal govern- 
 ment loss of their own power and importance; and as 
 their attitude was actuated wholly by selfish motives 
 it could not be so easily changed, if changed at all. 
 There were in some of the States men who were op- 
 posed to any federation, some of whom believed hon- 
 estly enough that the States would prosper more if 
 they remained separate and severally sovereign, that 
 is, in the condition they were in as Colonies, but re- 
 lieved from any authority of Parliament. Others, a 
 small number, clung to the idea that it would be better 
 to re-establish political relations with Great Britain 
 under conditions more favorable to the States than 
 before the separation. Finally, there was a party 
 which believed that political and material well-being 
 could best be accomplished by the formation of two 
 or more confederacies, each made up of a group of 
 States having community of interests. 
 
 In Congress, opposition to the Constitution was 
 brisk but brief. It was headed by Richard Henry Lee 
 of Virginia, Dane of Massachusetts, and the whole 
 New York delegation. But Madison hurried from 
 Philadelphia, and, aided by Henry Lee "Light Horse 
 Harry'' argued there, as he had in Philadelphia, as 
 he later did in the Virginia Convention and in The 
 Federalist, with consummate skill. After eight days' 
 debate, Madison and his fellow-Federalists carried 
 through Congress a resolution directing that the new
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Constitution and Washington's accompanying letter 
 "be transmitted to the several legislatures, in order to 
 be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in 
 each State by the people thereof, in conformity with 
 the resolves of the Convention." Then the great fight 
 was on. 
 
 All opposition united in a party known as Antifed- 
 eralists, all in favor of the Constitution became 
 known as the Federalists, and in this party, for the 
 time being at least, were numbered a majority of the 
 Convention delegates, from whom, in the several 
 States, the Constitution received its earliest interpre- 
 tation and defense. They had much to explain: why 
 this had been done and that left undone; here a pro- 
 vision was said to be too strong, there one was too 
 weak; this was ambiguous, and another was unneces- 
 sary. But in one respect there was no scattering of 
 opinion: the absence of a Bill of Rights was com- 
 plained of by people generally. That a Bill of Eights 
 be incorporated had been suggested in Convention as 
 late as September 12th, by Mr. Mason. Mr. Gerry 
 had been urging provision for jury trial in civil cases 
 in the Federal courts, and Gorham had pointed out 
 that such a provision had best be left to Congress; and 
 Mason, agreeing with Gorham, added that he wished 
 that the Constitution had been prefaced with a Bill of 
 Rights. "It would give great quiet to the people," 
 he said, "and with the aid of the State Declarations of 
 Rights, a Bill might be prepared in a few hours." After 
 a brief debate, Mason and Gerry moved for the in- 
 clusion of such a Bill, but the vote of no State was 
 carried in its favor. There had not been, including 
 the roll-call, five minutes devoted to the subject, judg- 
 ing from the report, and it was dismissed without an-
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 215 
 
 other word. It was one of those curious instances of a 
 body of men trained to observe and understand public 
 opinion, wholly failing to realize the existence of an 
 opinion shared by the people almost unanimously. 
 Jefferson, on the other hand, although then in Paris, 
 and without such means as exist to-day for learning 
 transatlantic opinion, wrote at once, upon receiving a 
 copy of the Constitution, that it should have included 
 a Bill of Rights. 
 
 Naturally the opposition made the most of this: it 
 was urged that the various State Conventions propose 
 amendments for another National Convention to con- 
 sider, and if they were adopted then the States would 
 ratify. Here was all the material for a filibuster of 
 endless duration. Hamilton argued that the Constitu- 
 tion itself was a Bill of Rights; but Washington, older 
 and wiser, stemmed the tide of demand for another 
 Convention by pointing out that the Bill of Rights 
 could most speedily be secured by promptly adopting 
 and amending the Constitution. Washington wrote to 
 a correspondent: "If another Federal Convention is 
 attempted its members will be more discordant and 
 will agree upon no general plan. The Constitution or 
 disunion are before us to choose from. If the Con- 
 stitution is our choice, a Constitutional door is open 
 for amendments, and they may be adopted in a peace- 
 able manner, without tumult or disorder." 
 
 This letter had precisely the effect intended in two 
 respects: it forced the opposition to abandon the fili- 
 buster for another Convention, and forced the friends 
 of the Constitution to promise to make such amend- 
 ments, if the Constitution be adopted, as would meet 
 the wishes of those who demanded a Bill of Rights. 
 Nearly every State Convention proposed amendments,
 
 216 OUE CONSTITUTION 
 
 some of them many, and Washington had quietly laid 
 at rest the fear most generally felt regarding the Con- 
 stitution; had taken out of the debate the one subject 
 on which all parties in opposition agreed. 
 
 But the Antifederalists had plenty of fight in them 
 yet. Says one writer: ''The country was thrown into 
 a fever of excitement that continued to increase until, 
 a year later, the eleventh State had given its ratifica- 
 tion. The press teemed with pamphlets, books, essays, 
 broadsides, articles, poems, letters, allegories and 
 squibs. The land resounded with speeches." The fa- 
 miliar British bogy was set up to affright the people: 
 James Wilson, a Scotchman, advocating the Consti- 
 tution? was asked in horror. There, then, was the 
 print of the cloven foot of British aristocracy. Hamil- 
 ton and Madison advocating it? Visionary boys! 
 Franklin? A dotard! This sort of "argument" went 
 its usual length when one letter was printed declaring 
 that Washington, a good enough soldier, perhaps, was 
 in politics a born fool. While this ancient Chinese 
 manner of fighting was going on in the street, in the 
 convention halls master minds were more effectively 
 at work. Madison, in Virginia, was aided by a young 
 lawyer, John Marshall, later to become Chief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court, and the greatest interpreter of 
 the Constitution. But a man who was then more pow- 
 erful than Marshall was fighting the Constitution in 
 Virginia, Patrick Henry, and with him, besides Mason, 
 who had not gone to Madison's aid, as Randolph had, 
 were Benjamin Harrison and John Tyler, fathers of 
 two future Presidents. Henry's popularity, if not his 
 strength in debate, was offset by "Light Horse Harry" 
 Lee, and again Madison won for the Constitution. The 
 vote was taken on June 25, 1788, after nearly a month's 
 
 I
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 217 
 
 debate, and ratification was carried by the close vote 
 of 89 to 79. 
 
 The first State to ratify was Delaware, which, equal 
 representation in the Senate being granted, was satis- 
 fied with everything else in the Constitution. Its Con- 
 vention called at Dover, December 6, 1787, was only a 
 formal affair, ratifying at once with no negative vote. 
 This was good news to the Federalists of the little 
 State's big neighbor, Pennsylvania, whose Convention 
 had been in session since November 20th. To pass a 
 motion calling the Convention, the Federalists in the 
 Pennsylvania Assembly had taken the extreme meas- 
 ure of kidnapping two Antifederalists whose presence 
 was necessary to secure a quorum, and holding them 
 in their seats in the State House while the vote was 
 passed. Franklin had given the Federalists in his 
 State his support, but the hard fight for the Constitu- 
 tion in Pennsylvania was led by James Wilson, the 
 Scotch- American, who afterwards was appointed a 
 Justice of the Supreme Court by Washington. The 
 State ratified December 12th, by a vote of 46 to 23. 
 The movement was Eastward, for the next to give its 
 vote for the Constitution was New Jersey, whose Con- 
 vention at Trenton ratified December 18th, unani- 
 mously. This was discouraging to the Opposition, 
 which had endeavored to revive the old jealousy be- 
 tween the large and small States. 
 
 The first month of 1788 brought the fourth and fifth 
 States into line for the Constitution : Georgia on Janu- 
 ary 2d, and Connecticut, January 9th. Georgia's ac- 
 tion was important, for it defeated Patrick Henry's 
 plan for a Southern Confederacy. Georgia was satis- 
 fied with the slavery compromise and voted to ratify 
 without a dissenting voice. In Connecticut the vote
 
 218 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 was not unanimous, but the Federalists carried rati- 
 fication by the large majority vote of 128 to 40. The 
 Massachusetts Convention met January 9th, with 350 
 delegates, and, as in Virginia, both parties sent their 
 strongest men. Among them were Gorham, Strong 
 and King who had been in the Philadelphia Conven- 
 tion; Samuel Adams, anxiously trying to find out how 
 public sentiment stood; Heath and Lincoln, Revolu- 
 tionary war generals; Fisher Ames, most eloquent of 
 the Federalists; twenty-four clergymen, and farmers 
 from the hill counties, some of whom had been in arms 
 against the State with Shays, all presided over by 
 Governor Hancock, "gorgeous in crimson velvet and 
 finest laces." In this Convention the Constitution was 
 criticised for nearly everything it did contain and for 
 nearly everything it did not. The breadth of mind 
 displayed by some of the critics may be measured by 
 this expression of one delegate, Amos Singletary by 
 name: "These lawyers and men of learning, and 
 moneyed men that talk so finely and gloss over mat- 
 ters so smoothly, expect to get into Congress them- 
 selves. They mean to get all the money into their 
 hands, and then they will swallow up us little folks, 
 just as the whale swallowed up Jonah." The debate 
 dragged on, but the delegates were so closely divided 
 in opinion that there was nothing in the Convention to 
 inform Samuel Adams how popular opinion was drift- 
 ing. As an aid to the excellent gentleman in this 
 predicament, the workingmen of Boston held a mass- 
 meeting which resolved in favor of the Constitution. 
 The meeting was large and enthusiastic, and Adams 
 saw his duty, and gave his help to Ames and the 
 other Federalists. On February 6th the Convention 
 ratified by a vote of 187 to 168.
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 219 
 
 Maryland followed, April 28th, ratifying by a vote 
 of 63 to 11, making the seventh State to approve, with 
 not one successfully to oppose. But the Opposition 
 was fighting hard, and was hopeful for South Caro- 
 lina, whose Convention was to meet at Charleston, 
 May 12th. The Antifederalists in that State had two 
 strong leaders, but they opposed for different reasons. 
 Rawlins Lowndes wanted the Articles of Confedera- 
 tion preserved: "A most excellent Constitution," he 
 called it. Thomas Sumter favored Patrick Henry's 
 plan for a Southern Confederacy. Cotesworth Pinck- 
 ney led the Federalists, sturdily insisting on ratifica- 
 tion because he and his fellow far-Southern delegates 
 in Philadelphia had been given what they asked for, 
 and the State should abide by the bargain. After 
 eleven days' debate, ratification won, on May 23d, by a 
 vote of 149 to 73. As we have seen, Virginia held its 
 Convention soon after South Carolina, but the fight 
 there was so close and debate so long that that State 
 did not secure the honor of being the ninth State to 
 ratify; the distinction of registering the decisive State 
 vote going to New Hampshire, on June 21st, the Fed- 
 eralists winning by a vote of 57 to 46. Virginia came 
 into the column on the 25th, and the Federalists had 
 a good measure of victory, one more than the neces- 
 sary ten, to give cause for rejoicing. The Fourth of 
 July was at hand, a happy occasion to celebrate suoh a 
 victory, and the chroniclers of the time tell of mile- 
 long processions, great barbecues, mighty salutes by 
 veterans of the war, with a few riots in which the 
 Constitution was burned by hot-headed members of 
 one party, and nailed to masts by partisans of the 
 other. 
 
 However, it was felt by those who remained calm
 
 220 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 in the midst of all this excitement, that without New 
 York there could be but a precarious Union. Although 
 that State was then but fifth in population, she was 
 financially and commercially first; she was a military 
 necessity to a Union, for she separated the North and 
 South by her great triangle of territory extending 
 from ocean to lakes. New York's Convention met in 
 Poughkeepsie, June 17th. Yates and Lansing, who 
 had negatived Hamilton in the Philadelphia Con- 
 vention, were in the State Convention trying to do 
 the same thing again. Their party was led by George 
 Clinton, an astute politician and a bitter opponent of 
 the Constitution, who had with him at the beginning 
 nearly two-thirds of the delegates. Clinton depended 
 for his chief aid in convention debate on Melanchthon 
 Smith. John Jay was the leader of the Federalists, 
 Hamilton his most efficient lieutenant. These two, 
 Jay and Hamilton, had, with Madison, written the 
 series of papers advocating the Constitution, known in 
 book form as The Federalist: "Perhaps," says Fiske, 
 "the most famous of American books, and undoubt- 
 edly the most profound and suggestive treatise on gov- 
 ernment that has ever been written." This work had 
 appeared serially during the seven months from Oc- 
 tober, 1787, to May, 1788. It has been asserted so many 
 times, as a matter of course, that The Federalist had 
 a great effect in influencing public opinion favorably 
 to the Constitution, that one, like the present writer, 
 who holds the opposite view, sets down his opinion 
 with small hope of making converts. It may not be 
 without interest, even if not convincing, to quote from 
 the editor of a recent scholarly edition of The Federal- 
 ist, Paul L. Ford: "That The Federalist produced any 
 marked influence at the time, in leading to the accept-
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 
 
 ance of the new government, is questionable. The 
 New York elections for delegates to the State Conven- 
 tion well proved that 'Publius' (the papers were so 
 signed) had written in vain, for only one-third of the 
 men chosen were Federalists making the contest one 
 of the most crushing defeats ever experienced by the 
 Anti-Clinton party." It must, of course, be true, 
 whether The Federalist itself had much or little influ- 
 ence at the time, that the intense application of the 
 writers' minds to their subject, the reading and special 
 study devoted to it while preparing their papers, the 
 necessity for arranging in orderly and convincing 
 form their arguments in favor of the Constitution, the 
 mentally clarifying process of writing out their con- 
 clusions, did have a great influence for good upon their 
 speeches in convention. It equipped them for attack, 
 and armed them to resist sudden assault in the battle 
 of debate. 
 
 As Madison converted Randolph in Virginia, so 
 Hamilton, by his logic in debate, won over Clinton's 
 chief debater, Melanchthon Smith. After this victory 
 the rest was easy, and on July 27th the Federalists 
 won for ratification by a vote of 30 to 27. This left 
 only Ehode Island and North Carolina "outside the 
 Union," and they remained in that anomalous position 
 until after the new government had been formed. The 
 former ratified November 21, 1789; the latter May 29, 
 1790. 
 
 When New Hampshire had ratified, the President 
 of the Old Congress, Cyrus Griffen of Virginia, noti- 
 fied that body that nine States had approved the Con- 
 stitution, and Congress, in September, 1788, named the 
 first Wednesday in the next January for appointing 
 electors; the first Wednesday in February for the
 
 222 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 electors to vote for President; the first Wednesday in 
 March (which fell on the fourth of that month) for 
 beginning proceedings under the New Constitution. 
 It was April 6th in those days of slow coaches and 
 that season of heavy roads before a quorum of Con- 
 gress answered roll-call, and the electoral vote was 
 counted in a joint session. Messengers were sent to 
 notify Washington and Adams of their election, and 
 Adams arrived in New York April 21st, and Washing- 
 ton a day or two later. On the 30th of April, in front 
 of Federal Hall, in Wall Street at the corner of Broad, 
 a great number of people being present, Chancellor 
 Livingston administered the oath of office to the first 
 President of the United States under the Constitution. 
 Before the President had raised his head, bowed over 
 the Bible upon which he had sworn, the Chancellor 
 exclaimed aloud: "Long live George Washington, 
 President of the United States!" and the crowds ech- 
 oed the words in enthusiastic shouts. 
 
 We have seen that there was a widespread demand 
 for a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, and that its 
 friends agreed that it should be amended in that re- 
 spect, if adopted. The new Congress at once set to 
 work to carry out this understanding, and found itself 
 plentifully supplied with raw material for the pur- 
 pose. The Conventions of no less than eight of the 
 States which had ratified, sent to Congress amend- 
 ments, which numbered in all 189; many were prac- 
 tically alike, but some were independent propositions 
 outside of the general range. Congress, in September, 
 1789, proposed twelve amendments to the States, ten 
 of which received the required.ratifications, and were 
 declared in force in December, 1791. The two amend-
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 223 
 
 ments which failed of ratification (Nos. 1 and 2 as sub- 
 mitted) would have materially modified existing Con- 
 stitutional provisions, while the ten adopted are, in a 
 general sense, supplemental to, rather than amenda- 
 tory of, the Constitution. The rejection of the two 
 was a proof that the people generally were not dis- 
 posed to meddle with original provisions, but to let 
 Congress have a fair chance to give them a trial. As 
 the ten which were adopted have been so often spoken 
 of as a Bill of Rights, it will be interesting to make a 
 few comparisons between some of them and some of 
 the parts of the English Bill of Rights of 1689. 
 
 Article I of the Amendments says: "Congress shall 
 make no law prohibiting the people to petition the 
 government for a redress of grievances." 
 
 Clause 5 of the Bill says: "It is the right of the 
 subject to petition the King, and all prosecutions of 
 such petitioning are illegal." 
 
 Article II of the Amendments says: "The right of 
 the people to keep and bear arms shall not be in- 
 fringed." 
 
 Clause 7 of the Bill says: "The subjects which are 
 Protestants may have arms for defence." 
 
 Article III of the Amendments says: "No soldier 
 shall in time of peace be quartered in any house, with- 
 out the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but 
 in a manner to be prescribed by law." 
 
 Clause 6 of the Bill says: "The raising or keeping of 
 a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, 
 unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against 
 law." 
 
 Article VI of the Amendments says: "In all crimi- 
 nal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
 speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the
 
 224 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 State and district wherein the crime shall have been 
 committed.'' 
 
 Clause 2 of the Bill says: "Jurors ought to be duly 
 impanelled and returned, and jurors which shall pass 
 upon men in trials for high treason ought to be free- 
 holders." 
 
 The entire text of the ten Amendments will be 
 found, with the others, in their proper order, with 
 the Constitution in full in the Appendix to this 
 book. Readers may find other resemblances to 
 the English Bill of Rights, which will be found in the 
 final chapter. One commentator has said of them: 
 "They are a bill of right de facto, although not so 
 called. Some said at the time that they were of no 
 value, since they secured rights never endangered. 
 They satisfied, however, a popular demand, and several 
 of them have proved practical restraints of the Federal 
 Government. We are so little familiar with the acts 
 prohibited, as the abridgement of the freedom of 
 speech, establishments of religion, the quartering of 
 soldiers in private houses, etc., that we but poorly ap- 
 preciate at what cost these immunities were originally 
 obtained by our English ancestors. The men of 1789, 
 who had themselves passed through a struggle with 
 arbitrary power, had a more vivid conception of their 
 value." 
 
 The llth Amendment was proposed by Congress in 
 March, 1794, but was not ratified and declared in force 
 until January, 1798. This we have considered in con- 
 nection with Section 2, Clause 1 of Article II. A de- 
 cision of the Federal Supreme Court held that its 
 jurisdiction extended to the case of an action against 
 a State by a citizen of another State. Such judicial 
 power is expressly denied by the Amendment.
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 225 
 
 The 12th Amendment was submitted to the States 
 by Congress in December, 1803; ratified, and pro- 
 claimed by the Secretary of State as part of the Con- 
 stitution in September, 1804. This, as we saw in the 
 course of our general review, was to remedy a fault 
 developed in the operation of the method of electing 
 the President and Vice-President. 
 
 These relatively slight Amendments having been ap- 
 plied, the Constitution remained further untouched 
 for sixty j-ears. Then, during the period of the Civil 
 War and Reconstruction, the 13th, 14th and 15th 
 Amendments were adopted. In the Constitution as 
 framed at Philadelphia neither the word "slave" nor 
 "slavery" was used, but in the debates both were used 
 frequently; and in the instrument itself the institution 
 of slavery was recognized, the counting of slaves in 
 apportioning Representatives and laying direct taxes, 
 and the importation of slaves for a limited period, 
 were all provided for. These were the result of com- 
 promises without which, it was believed, the Conven- 
 tion would have failed to agree upon any Constitution. 
 It was also believed that slavery would decline and 
 gradually cease in the South, as was the case in the 
 North; that it had entered into politics for the last 
 time in the controversy over making and ratifying the 
 Constitution. But industrial conditions in some of the 
 slave-holding States gradually changed in such a man- 
 ner as to make slave labor seem a necessity to the very 
 existence of those States or at least to their expan- 
 sion and prosperity. This had the effect of making 
 the institution the center and vital concern of poli- 
 tics in those States. While this dogma was becoming 
 a fixed and essential article of political faith in the 
 South, there was in the North a growing feeling that
 
 226 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 no more slave States should be admitted into the 
 Union. Sectionally, the Senate was equally divided 
 between the 11 Northern and 11 Southern States, and 
 Maine and Missouri were asking admission into the 
 Union. Maine, of course, would come in as a free-soil 
 State, and if slavery could be prohibited in Missouri 
 the free States would gain control of the Senate. A 
 long and hotly contested struggle over the proposal to 
 admit Missouri only upon condition that slavery be 
 prohibited by her Constitution, led to the Missouri 
 Compromise of 1820. This admitted that State with- 
 out slave prohibition, but prohibited slavery forever 
 in any and all States which might be made out of that 
 portion of Louisiana Purchase territory lying north 
 of Missouri. After Maine and Missouri, which kept 
 the equal division in the Senate, Arkansas was admit- 
 ted without prohibition, but this gain for the South 
 was equalized six months later by the admission of 
 Michigan, a free-soil State. Early in 1845 Florida was 
 admitted, a gain for the slavery interest, but now 
 there was no more territory available for new slave 
 States, while in the Purchase a vast domain remained 
 (from which nine States have since been made), and 
 Iowa in that territory, as well as Wisconsin, in the 
 old Northwest territory, were asking for admission. 
 Southern statesmen sought to equalize this political 
 disadvantage by admitting to the Union Texas, an 
 independent State which had revolted from Mexico in 
 1836. Texas was admitted without provision for or 
 against slavery, in 1845, and the Mexican war soon 
 followed, resulting in the acquisition by conquest and 
 purchase of the territory from which the States of 
 California, Nevada and, in part, Wyoming and Colo- 
 rado have been formed. But before this an effort was
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 227 
 
 made in Congress to prohibit slavery in any of the 
 States which might be made out of the territory ac- 
 quired ficm Mexico. This failed. Then followed the 
 enactment by Congress of a number of measures 
 known as the Compromise of 1850. By them Califor- 
 nia was admitted as a free State; States to be carved 
 out of Texas were to be free or slave as their inhabit- 
 ants might decide; Utah and New Mexico were organ- 
 ized as Territories without slavery being expressly 
 prohibited or permitted; and a new and rigorous Fugi- 
 tive Slave Act was passed. While these measures did 
 not in term alter the provisions of the Missouri Com- 
 promise, their eft'ect was to give endorsement to the 
 doctrine that Congress should leave to the people of 
 new States the slave question not interfere. This 
 effect was soon reflected in legislation, for in the Act 
 of 1854, organizing the Territories of Kansas and Ne- 
 braska (both in the Purchase territory and in the por- 
 tion of it made Free Soil by the Missouri Compromise), 
 it was declared that the Compromise was "inopera- 
 tive and void." Congress, it further declared, was 
 not to legislate slavery into a Territory, nor exclude 
 it, but leave the people of the Territories free to settle 
 the question. In 1856 the two great parties made slav- 
 ery in the Territories the paramount issue, and those 
 who contended for non-interference elected Mr. Bu- 
 chanan President. 
 
 The operation of the Fugitive Slave Act was at this 
 lime intensifying the anti-slavery sentiment in the 
 North, and a decision by the Federal Supreme Court 
 in the first year of the Buchanan term greatly added 
 to the feeling. This was the famous Dred Scott case 
 which, beginning in the State courts of Missouri in 
 1848, had been carried by appeal through various State
 
 228 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 and Federal courts until its final decision by the 
 United States Supreme Court in 1857. Scott was a 
 slave owned by a Missourian, but who had lived for 
 some years with his owner in Illinois, and in that part 
 of the Louisiana Purchase territory which is now Min- 
 nesota, where slavery had been prohibited by Con- 
 gress in 1820. When Scott returned to Missouri he 
 sued for his freedom on the grounds that by his resi- 
 dence on free soil he had acquired the status of a freed- 
 man. The Missouri court held that on his return to 
 that State the status of slavery reattached to him. 
 The final decision of the Supreme Court, from which 
 two justices dissented, was that Scott, as a Negro, had 
 no legal existence as a person, and that as he therefore 
 could not be a citizen he could not sue in the National 
 Court. Besides deciding the question involved in the 
 case, a majority of the court declared that the Mis- 
 souri Compromise was unconstitutional; that the 
 power of Congress to govern Territories was subor- 
 dinate to its obligation to protect private right in 
 property. 
 
 This decision had the effect of consolidating all op- 
 ponents of slavey, of the extension of slave territory, 
 of the Fugitive Slave Act into one party, and resulted 
 in the election of Lincoln as President. Then fol- 
 lowed the secession of eleven States and the Civil 
 War. Lincoln, in September, 1862, issued a proclama- 
 tion warning inhabitants of the seceding States that 
 on the first of January, 1863, slaves in all States or 
 parts of States then in rebellion would be declared 
 free. On the day named the Emancipation Proclama- 
 tion was issued "as a fit and necessary war measure 
 for suppressing said rebellion." Two years later the 
 13th Amendment was submitted by Congress, and
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 229 
 
 proclaimed as ratified and in force December 18, 
 1865. 
 
 Article XIII. Neither slavery nor involuntary ser- 
 vitude, except as a punishment for crimes whereof 
 the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
 within the United States, or any place subject to their 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 War being over, and Congress struggling with the 
 perplexing problems of reconstructing the govern- 
 ments of the States lately in rebellion, the status of the 
 freedmen presented one of the most difficult phases. 
 The Dred Scott decision had declared that a Negro 
 not necessarily a slave was not a citizen, and here 
 were millions of them whose status must be deter- 
 mined before reconstruction could progress definitely 
 or far. It was accordingly proposed by Congress in 
 June, 1866, to amend the Constitution to effect this 
 and other questions involved in reconstruction, but 
 it was not until July, 1868, that the Secretary of State 
 issued a certificate that the 14th Amendment had been 
 sufficiently ratified and was in effect. 
 
 Article XIV, Section 1. All persons born or nat- 
 uralized in the United States, and subject to the juris- 
 diction thereof, are citizens of the United States and 
 of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make 
 or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges 
 or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor 
 shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or 
 property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any 
 person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of 
 the law. 
 
 This made the freedmen citizens, and thereby gave 
 them a citizen's civil rights; and to fortify those rights 
 against another possible Dred Scott decision, enumer-
 
 230 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ated those rights in important particulars. But the 
 right to vote is not necessarily a citizen's right, "for 
 the suffrage is a political, not a civil right." So the 
 Amendment, in the hope of inducing the Southern 
 States to grant their new citizens the privilege of vot- 
 ing, further provided: 
 
 Article XIV, Section 2. Representatives shall be 
 apportioned among the several States according to 
 their respective numbers, counting the whole number 
 of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. 
 But when the right to vote at any election for the 
 choice of electors for President and Vice President of 
 the United States, Representatives in Congress, the 
 Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the mem- 
 bers of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the 
 male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one 
 years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in 
 any way abridged, except for participation in rebel- 
 lion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein 
 shall be reduced in the proportion which the number 
 of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number 
 of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 
 
 This, it was hoped, would be a strong inducement 
 to the Southern States to grant the suffrage to the 
 Negro; that, rather than suffer the proportional loss 
 of representation in the House, they would enfran- 
 chise the f reedman, and take their chance in the mat- 
 ter of influencing his vote. No State passed laws en- 
 franchising the Negro, but what effect this might have 
 had on the basis of representation there was never 
 opportunity to know, for the 15th Amendment was 
 passed before the next Constitutional census for ap- 
 portionment was taken. 
 
 The 3d Section of the 14th Amendment deals with 
 the question of the political disability of persons who
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 231 
 
 had taken part in the rebellion. It need not be quoted 
 here, as the various amnesty Acts passed since have 
 disposed of that matter. The 4th Section also relates 
 to questions finally settled: validity of all debts in- 
 curred in suppressing the rebellion, and prohibition of 
 the United States or any State from assuming any 
 debt incurred for support of the rebellion. 
 
 It was soon evident that the new citizens were not 
 to have the franchise under the inducement held out 
 by the 14th Amendment, and as a majority of Con- 
 gressmen then believed a vote was a necessary means 
 for the Negro to secure and enjoy his civil rights, and 
 would act as an aid for his advancement in his new 
 relation to society, it was next sought to reach that 
 end by another amendment. 
 
 Article XV. The right of citizens of the United 
 States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 
 United States or by any State on account of race, 
 color, or previous condition of servitude. 
 
 Thus the change in our fundamental law resulting 
 from the war was completed by the 15th Amendment. 
 Considering only the relation this change bore to the 
 one subject which all three of the War Amendments 
 dealt with, the status of the Negro, the sequence and 
 effect of the Amendments are easily followed : The 13th 
 abolished slavery ; the 14th made the Negro a citizen ; 
 the 15th gave him the right to vote so far as it could 
 do so by prohibiting the States from denying him that 
 right because of his race, color, or that he had been a 
 slave. It was not surprising that in those States 
 where the Negro had been chattel for two hundred 
 years and more, when the men descended from genera- 
 tions of slave owners regained control of the govern-
 
 232 OUH CONSTITUTION 
 
 ment of those States, they should deprive the Negro of 
 at least equality in what we may call civic-social privi- 
 leges, such as equal rights in hotels and theatres, the 
 exercise of which rights would throw the Negro into 
 close personal association with the White. This effort 
 thus to segregate the Negro prompted Congress to pass 
 a number of laws known as the Civil Rights Acts, de- 
 signed to secure to the Negro those civic-social privi- 
 leges. As late as 1875, five years after the adoption 
 of the 15th Amendment, a law was made declaring, in 
 effect, that no State should deny to the Negro full and 
 equal enjoyment of the accommodations of hotels, 
 passenger cars and steamboats, theatres, etc. 
 
 But before this law was passed the Supreme Court 
 had clearly indicated its opinion that Congress could 
 not, even under the 14th Amendment, interfere with 
 the rights of States to regulate their purely domestic 
 affairs. In the decision referred to in what are 
 known as the Slaughter House Cases the court up- 
 held the right of the States to regulate their domestic 
 affairs, and declared that it was not the purpose of 
 the 14th Amendment to deprive the States of those 
 police powers; that such powers remained with them 
 undiminished; that there is a citizenship of the United 
 States and a citizenship of the States, and that the 
 privileges and immunities belonging to the citizenship 
 of States rest where they theretofore rested, with the 
 States. "We do not see in those Amendments," said 
 the court, "any purpose to disturb the main features of 
 the general system." But the further Civil Eights 
 Bill referred to was subsequently passed, and it is not 
 surprising that when called upon to determine the 
 question the Supreme Court declared it unconstitu- 
 tional.
 
 RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS 233 
 
 So it is seen that the Negro has secured by the War 
 Amendments freedom, citizenship, such civic-social 
 rights as the States are disposed to give him, and 
 the right to vote, except where that right can be de- 
 nied for causes not relating to his race, color or pre- 
 vious condition of servitude. Other causes to dis- 
 franchise him have been found, and the right to vote 
 is, in effect, denied to the Negro in some of the States. 
 But there is no doubt that when the Negro shows by 
 growth of intelligence, virtue and industry that he is 
 well equipped properly to exercise the privilege of 
 voting, denial of that privilege under any pretence will 
 cease. 
 
 There is the Constitution with its Amendments 
 which are as "valid to all intents and purposes as 
 part of this Constitution." It is the written authority 
 from the people whereby the officers of government 
 are clothed with power; it is the bond of Union of 
 the States, making them a nation; it at once ordains 
 and defines government. Under its direction and con- 
 trol we have grown mightily in domain and numbers, 
 and have passed through a century remarkable in all 
 the centuries of time for its swift and tremendous in- 
 novations in agriculture, commerce and industry, yet 
 the Constitution has proved adaptable to all the de- 
 mands of such vast and varied changes. It has with- 
 stood without flaw the awful shock of prolonged civil 
 war it is pliant but unbreakable. 
 
 Too many of us, perhaps, in our comfortable assur- 
 ance of security under the Constitution, are content 
 to give but little study to the instrument from which 
 we derive that assurance. There is not in existence a 
 political writing which so much deserves thoughtful
 
 234 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 study by every citizen of this country; nothing which 
 will so richly repay study. If it shall ever happen, 
 which God forbid, that some men in this country at-, 
 tempt, for selfish purposes, to plot against the rights 
 and liberties of others, their designs must fail if those 
 against whom they intrigue know why and how their 
 Constitutional rights were guaranteed, what they are, 
 and how they can be enforced.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 
 
 IN preceding chapters reference has been made 
 from time to time to documents which make final 
 records of the most important political movements 
 leading up to our Constitution. All of these are of 
 great interest in themselves, and a knowledge of them 
 is helpful to a broad understanding of the vital prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution. They enable us to trace 
 the course of the progress of religious and political 
 freedom for nearly six centuries, from the Great 
 Charter forced by the barons from King John in 1215, 
 to the inauguration of Washington in 1789. 
 
 The famous documents whose texts follow, and of 
 whose origin and purpose some account will be given, 
 are Magna Charta (1215), Plymouth Compact (1620), 
 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639), Bill of 
 Bights (Parliament, 1689), Franklin's Plan of Union 
 (1754), Declaration of Bights (Colonies, 1765), Decla- 
 ration of Independence (1776), and Ordinance for the 
 Northwest Territory (1787). These, followed by the 
 full text of the Articles of Confederation and the Con- 
 stitution, with its Amendments, may induce readers 
 to return to this chapter, from time to time, with a 
 purpose of tracing some selected idea in its progress 
 from Bunnymede on the Thames, near Windsor, to 
 the State House in Philadelphia. 
 
 235
 
 236 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 To any reader to whom such an inclination may 
 come the present writer feels disposed to say, "follow 
 your inclination." In no other way, perhaps, can we 
 more surely gain a perfect understanding of the 
 words: "For citizens are not for the sake of the Con- 
 suls, nor a nation for the King; but contrariwise the 
 Consuls are for the sake of the citizens, and the King 
 for the sake of the nation. For as a Commonwealth is 
 not subordinate to laws, but laws to the Common- 
 wealth; so men who live according to the law are not 
 for the service of the law-giver, but he for theirs." 
 
 MAGNA CHARTA, 1215 
 
 When Henry I, fourth son of William the Con- 
 queror, became King of England, in August, 1100, he 
 voluntarily published a charter of rights which, more 
 than a century later, was to become the basis of the 
 Magna Charta involuntarily subscribed to by King 
 John. A grandson of Henry I, Henry II, in order to 
 free himself from dependence upon the powerful 
 feudal lords, instituted some highly objectionable 
 measures of finance, among them one known as "scu- 
 tage," a tax collected as a substitute for personal mili- 
 tary service. This was doubly obnoxious as a tax lev- 
 ied without the consent of those who paid, or their 
 representatives, and that it enabled the King to main- 
 tain an army over which he alone had control. John, 
 the youngest son of Henry II, became King of Eng- 
 land in 1199, and besides continuing a policy which 
 lost to the crown the support of the barons, he went 
 much further in antagonizing powerful influences 
 both at home and abroad. This gave to the barons 
 their chance to force reforms. After the manner of
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 237 
 
 their race, which characterized the political acts of 
 their descendants in America who petitioned George 
 III, before they fought him, five and a half centuries 
 later, the barons petitioned John for redress of abuses 
 in the government, and for a charter based on that 
 of Henry I. The King rejected the petition, and the 
 barons marched against him. They met, with their 
 armies, near an island in the Thames, not far from 
 Windsor. The King encamped on one bank, the 
 barons on the other, at Runnymede, and commission- 
 ers from both camps met on the island. Doubtless, 
 before exchanging political views this highly interest- 
 ing joint caucus compared military facts of a stern and 
 practical nature, for the result was that John, virtu- 
 ally a prisoner in his camp, consented to sign such a 
 document as the barons presented to him. That docu- 
 ment, the Magna Charta, foundation of English politi- 
 cal and religious rights and liberties, follows, in the 
 text of the translation used in The English Constitution, 
 by Sheldon Anaos. (A few brief explanations of the 
 most unusual phrases are introduced between 
 brackets.) 
 
 JOHN, by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord 
 of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Count 
 of Anjou, to his Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, 
 Barons, Justiciaries, Foresters, Sheriffs, Governors, 
 Officers, and to all Bailiffs, and his faithful subjects, 
 greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, 
 and for the salvation of our soul, and the souls of all 
 our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of God 
 and the advancement of Holy Church, and amendment 
 of our Realm, by advice of our venerable Fathers, 
 Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all 
 England and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; 
 Henry, Archbishop of Dublin; William, of London;
 
 238 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Peter, of Winchester; Jocelin, of Bath and Glaston- 
 bury; Hugh, of Lincoln; Walter, of Worcester; Wil- 
 liam, of Coventry; Benedict, of Rochester Bishops: 
 of Master Pandulph, Sub-Deacon and Familiar of our 
 Lord the Pope; Brother Aymeric, Master of the Knights- 
 Templars in England; and of the noble Persons, Wil- 
 liam Marescall, Earl of Pembroke; William, Earl of 
 Salisbury; William, Earl of Warren; William, Earl of 
 Arundel; Alan de Galloway, Constable of Scotland; 
 Warin FitzGerald, Peter FitzHerbert, and Hubert de 
 Burgh, Seneschal of Poitou ; Hugh de Neville, Matthew 
 FitzHerbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip of 
 Albiney, Robert de Roppell, John Mareschal, John 
 FitzHugh, and others, our liegemen, have, in the first 
 place, granted to God, and by this our present Charter 
 confirmed, for us and our heirs for ever: 
 
 1. That the Church of England shall be free, and 
 have her whole rights, and her liberties inviolable; 
 and we will have them so observed, that it may appear 
 thence that the freedom of elections, which is reck- 
 oned chief and indispensable to the English Church, 
 and which we granted and confirmed by our Charter, 
 and obtained the confirmation of the same from our 
 Lord the Pope Innocent III., before the discord be- 
 tween us and our barons, was granted of mere free 
 will; which Charter we shall observe, and we do will 
 it to be faithfully observed by our heirs for ever. 
 
 2. We also have granted to all the freemen of our 
 kingdom, for us and for our heirs for ever, all the un- 
 derwritten liberties, to be had and holden by them and 
 their heirs, of us and our heirs for ever: If any of our 
 earls, or barons, or others, who hold of us in chief by 
 military service, shall die, and at the time of his death 
 his heir shall be of full age, and owe a relief, he shall 
 have his inheritance by the ancient relief that is to 
 say, the heir or heirs of an earl, for a whole earldom, 
 by a hundred pounds ; the heir or heirs of a baron, for 
 a whole barony, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs 
 of a knight, for a whole knight's fee, by a hundred 
 shillings at most; and whoever oweth less shall give 
 less, according to the ancient custom of fees.
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 239 
 
 3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, 
 and shall be in ward, when he comes of age he shall 
 have his inheritance without relief and without fine. 
 
 4. The keeper of the land of such an heir being 
 under age, shall take of the land of the heir none but 
 reasonable issues, reasonable customs, and reasonable 
 services, and that without destruction and waste of his 
 men and his goods; and if we commit the custody of 
 any such lands to the sheriff, or any other who is an- 
 swerable to us for the issues of the land, and he shall 
 make destruction and waste of the lands which he 
 hath in custody, we will take of him amends, and the 
 land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet 
 men of that fee, who shall answer for the issues to 
 us, or to him to whom we shall assign them; and if 
 we sell or give to any one the custody of any such 
 lands, and he therein make destruction or waste, he 
 shall lose the same custody, which shall be committed 
 to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall 
 in like manner answer to us as aforesaid. 
 
 5. But the keeper, so long as he shall have the cus- 
 tody of the land, shall keep up the houses, parks, war- 
 rens, ponds, mills, and other things pertaining to the 
 land, out of the issues of the same land; and shall de- 
 liver to the heir, when he comes of full age, his whole 
 land, stocked with ploughs and carriages, according 
 as the time of wainage shall require, and the issues of 
 the land can reasonably bear. 
 
 6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, 
 and so that before matrimony shall be contracted, 
 those who are near in blood to the heir shall have 
 notice. 
 
 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall 
 forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage 
 and inheritance; nor shall she give anything for her 
 dower, or her marriage, or her inheritance, which her 
 husband and she held at the day of his death; and 
 she may remain in the mansion house of her husband 
 forty days after his death, within which time her 
 dower shall be assigned. 
 
 8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself,
 
 240 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 so long as she has a mind to live without a husband; 
 but yet she shall give security that she will not marry 
 without our assent, if she hold of us; or without the 
 consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she hold of 
 another. 
 
 9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land 
 or rent for any debt so long as the chattels of the 
 debtor are sufficient to pay the debt ; nor shall the sure- 
 ties of the debtor be distrained so long as the prin- 
 cipal debtor has sufficient to pay the debt; and if the 
 principal debtor shall fail in the payment of the debt, 
 not having wherewithal to pay it, then the sureties 
 shall answer the debt ; and if they will they shall have 
 the lands and rents of the debtor, until they shall be 
 satisfied for the debt which they paid for him, unless 
 the principal debtor can show himself acquitted 
 thereof against the said sureties. 
 
 10. If any one have borrowed anything of the Jews, 
 more or less, and die before the debt be satisfied, 
 there shall be no interest paid for that debt, so long 
 as the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold; 
 and if the debt falls into our hands, we will only take 
 the chattel mentioned in the deed. 
 
 11. And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, 
 his wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that 
 debt; and if the deceased left children under age, they 
 shall have necessaries provided for them, according to 
 the tenement of the deceased; and out of the residue 
 the debt shall be paid, saving, however, the service 
 due to the lords, and in like manner shall it be done 
 touching debts due to others than the Jews. 
 
 12. No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our king- 
 dom, unless by the general council of our kingdom; 
 except for ransoming our person, making our eldest 
 son a knight, and once for marrying our eldest daugh- 
 ter; and for these there shall be paid no more than a 
 reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be concerning 
 the aids of the City of London. 
 
 13. And the City of London shall have all its an- 
 cient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by 
 water; furthermore, we will and grant that all other
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 241 
 
 cities and boroughs, and towns and ports, shall have 
 all their liberties and free customs. 
 
 14. And for holding the general council of the king- 
 dom concerning the assessment of aids, except in the 
 three cases aforesaid, and for the assessing of scti- 
 tages, we shall cause to be summoned the archbishops, 
 bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons of the realm, 
 singly by our letters. And furthermore, we shall cause 
 to be summoned generally, by our sheriffs and bailiffs, 
 all others who hold of us in chief, for a, certain day, 
 that is to say, forty days before their meeting at least, 
 and to a certain place ; and in all letters of such sum- 
 mons we will declare the cause of such summons. And 
 summons being thus made, the business shall proceed 
 on the day appointed, according to the advice of such 
 as shall be present, although all that were summoned 
 come not. 
 
 15. We will not for the future grant to anyone that 
 he may take aid of his own free tenants, unless to ran- 
 som his body, and to make his eldest son a knight, and 
 once to marry his eldest daughter; and for this there 
 shall be only paid a reasonable aid. 
 
 16. No man shall be distrained to perform more 
 service for a knight's fee, or other free tenement, than 
 is due from thence. 
 
 17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but 
 shall be hoi den in some place certain. 
 
 18. Trials upon the Writs of Novel Disseisin (dis- 
 possession) and of Mort d'ancestor (disputed posses- 
 sion of land), and of Darrein Presentment (the last 
 grant of land by the lord to a vassal), shall not be 
 taken, but in their proper counties, and after this man- 
 ner: We, or if we should be out of the realm, our 
 chief justiciary, will send two justiciaries through 
 every county four times a year, who, with four knights 
 of each county, chosen by the county, shall hold the 
 said assizes (here the word assizes means a court in 
 which a number of knights sat with a justice) in the 
 county, on the day, and at the place appointed. 
 
 19. And if any matters cannot be determined on 
 the day appointed for holding the assizes in each
 
 242 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 county, so many of the knights and freeholders as have 
 been at the assizes aforesaid shall stay to decide them 
 as is necessary, according as there is more or less 
 business. 
 
 20. A freeman shall not be amerced (fined) for a 
 small offence, but only according to the degree of the 
 offence; and for a great crime according to the hein- 
 ousness of it, saving to him his contenement (subsist- 
 ence according to his rank) ; and after the same manner 
 a merchant, saving to him his merchandise. And a 
 villein shall be amerced after the same manner, sav- 
 ing to him his wainage, if he falls under our mercy; 
 and none of the aforesaid amerciaments shall be 
 assessed but by the oath of honest men in the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by 
 their peers, and after the degree of the offence. 
 
 22. No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced for 
 his lay tenement, but according to the proportion of 
 the others aforesaid, and not according to the value 
 of his ecclesiastical benefice. 
 
 23. Neither a town nor any tenant shall be dis- 
 trained to make bridges or embankments, unless that 
 anciently and of right they are bound to do it. 
 
 24. No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bai- 
 liffs, shall hold "Pleas of the Crown" (criminal suits in 
 the name of the Grown). 
 
 25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes (county di- 
 vision, much the same as township) and trethings, shall 
 stand at the old rents, without any increase, except in 
 our demesne manors. 
 
 26. If anyone holding of us a lay fee die, and the 
 sheriff, or our bailiffs, show our letters patent of sum- 
 mons for debt which the dead man did owe to us, it 
 shall be lawful for the sheriff or our bailiff to attach 
 and register the chattels of the dead, found upon his 
 lay fee, to the amount of the debt, by the view of 
 lawful men, so as nothing be removed until our whole 
 clear debt be paid; and the rest shall be left to the 
 executors to fulfil the testament of the dead; and if 
 there be nothing due from him to us, all the chattels
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 243 
 
 shall go to the use of the dead, saving to his wife and 
 children their reasonable shares (to his wife one-third, 
 children one-third). 
 
 27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels 
 shall be distributed by the hands of his nearest rela- 
 tions and friends, by view of the Church, saving 
 to everyone his debts which the deceased owed to 
 him. 
 
 28. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn 
 or other chattels of any man unless he presently give 
 him money for it, or hath respite of payment by the 
 good-will of the seller. 
 
 29. No constable shall distrain any knight to give 
 money for castle-guard, if he himself will do it in his 
 person, or by another able man, in case he cannot do 
 it through any reasonable cause. And if we have car- 
 ried or sent him into the army, he shall be free from 
 such guard for the time he shall be in the army by our 
 command. 
 
 30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall 
 take horses or carts of any freeman for carriage, with- 
 out the assent of the said freeman. 
 
 31. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take any man's 
 timber for our castles or other uses, unless by the con- 
 sent of the owner of the timber. 
 
 32. We will retain the lands of those convicted of 
 felony only one year and a day, and then they shall be 
 delivered to the lord of the fee. 
 
 33. All kydells for the time to come shall be put 
 down in the rivers of Thames and Medway, and 
 throughout all England, except upon the sea-coast. 
 (Commons shall not be enclosed.) 
 
 34. The writ which is called prcecipe, for the future, 
 shall not be made out to anyone, of any tenement, 
 whereby a freeman may lose his court. 
 
 35. There shall be one measure of wine and one 
 of ale through our whole realm; and one measure of 
 corn, that is to say, the London quarter; and one 
 breadth of dyed cloth, and russets, and haberjeets, that 
 is to say, two ells within the lists; and it shall be of 
 weights as it is of measures.
 
 244 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 36. Nothing from henceforth shall be given or 
 taken for a writ of inquisition of life or limb, but it 
 shall be granted freely, and not denied. (No charge 
 shall be made for a writ like our writ of habeas cor- 
 pus.) 
 
 37. If any do hold of us by fee-farm, or by socage, 
 or by burgage, and he hold also lands of any other by 
 knight's service, we will not have the custody of the 
 heir or land, which is holden of another man's fee by 
 reason of that fee-farm, socage (somewhat, like farming 
 land on "shares") or burgage; neither will we have the 
 custody of the fee-farm, or socage, or burgage, unless 
 knight's service was due to us out of the same fee- 
 farm. We will not have the custody of an heir, nor 
 of any land which he holds of another by knight's 
 service, by reason of any petty serjeanty (giving a 
 weapon of war in acknowledgment of land held), by 
 which he holds of us, by the service of paying a knife, 
 an arrow, or the like. 
 
 38. No bailiff from henceforth shall put any man 
 to his law (put him upon oath) upon his own bare 
 saying, without credible witnesses to prove it. 
 
 39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or 
 disseised, or outlawed, or banished, or any ways de- 
 stroyed, nor will we pass upon him, nor will we send 
 upon him, unless by the lawful judgment of his peers, 
 or by the law of the land. 
 
 40. We will sell to no man, we will not deny to any 
 man, either justice or right. 
 
 41. All merchants shall have safe and secure con- 
 duct, to go out of, and to come into England, and to 
 stay there and to pass as well by land as by water, for 
 buying and selling by the ancient and allowed customs, 
 without any unjust tolls; except in time of war, or 
 when they are of any nation at war with us. And if 
 there be found any such in our land, in the beginning 
 of the war, they shall be attached, without damage to 
 their bodies or goods, until it be known unto us, or our 
 chief justiciary, how our merchants be treated in the 
 nation at war with us; and if ours be safe there, the 
 others shall be safe in our dominions.
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 245 
 
 42. It shall be lawful, for the time to come, for 
 anyone to go out of our kingdom, and return safely 
 and securely by land or by water, saving his allegiance 
 to us; unless in time of war, by some short space, for 
 the common benefit of the realm, except prisoners and 
 outlaws, according to the law of the land, and people 
 in war with us, and merchants who shall be treated as 
 is above mentioned. (The Crown had exercised the 
 power to confine subjects within the kingdom.) 
 
 43. If any man hold of any escheat, as of the honour 
 of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or 
 of other escheats which be in our hands, and are baro- 
 nies, and die, his heir shall give no other relief, and 
 perform no other service to us than he would to the 
 baron, if it were in the baron's hand; and we will hold 
 it after the same manner as the baron held it. (This 
 provision became obsolete when the Feudal system 
 was abolished under Charles II.) 
 
 44. Those men who dwell without the forest from 
 henceforth shall not come before our justiciaries of the 
 forest, upon common summons, but such as are im- 
 pleaded, or are sureties for any that are attached for 
 something concerning the forest. (Royal forests.) 
 
 45. We will not make any justices, constables, sher- 
 iffs, or bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the 
 realm and mean duly to observe it. 
 
 46. All barons who have founded abbeys, which 
 they hold by charter from the kings of England, or by 
 ancient tenure, shall have the keeping of them, when 
 vacant, as they ought to have. 
 
 47. All forests that have been made forests in our 
 time shall forthwith be disforested; and the same shall 
 be done with the water-banks that have been fenced in 
 by us in our time. 
 
 48. All evil customs concerning forests, warrens, 
 foresters, and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, 
 water-banks and their keepers, shall forthwith be in- 
 quired into in each county, by twelve sworn knights 
 of the same county, chosen by creditable persons of 
 the same county; and within forty days after the said 
 inquest be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored ;
 
 246 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 so as we are first acquainted therewith, or our jus- 
 ticiary, if we should not be in England. 
 
 49. We will immediately give up all hostages and 
 charters delivered unto us by our English subjects, as 
 securities for their keeping the peace, and yielding us 
 faithful service. 
 
 50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks 
 the relations of Gerard de Atheyes, so that for the 
 future they shall have no bailiwick in England; we will 
 also remove Engelard de Cygony, Andrew, Peter, and 
 Gyon, from the Chancery; Gyon de Cygony, Geoffrey 
 de Martyn, and his brothers; Philip Mark, and his 
 brothers, and his nephew, Geoffrey, and their whole 
 retinue. 
 
 51. As soon as peace is restored, we will send out 
 of the kingdom all foreign knights, cross-bowmen, and 
 stipendiaries, who are come with horses and arms to 
 the molestation of our people. 
 
 52. If anyone has been dispossessed or deprived by 
 us, without the lawful judgment of his peers, of his 
 lands, castles, liberties, or right, we will forthwith 
 restore them to him; and if any dispute arise upon this 
 head, let the matter be decided by the five-and-twenty 
 barons hereafter mentioned, for the preservation of 
 the peace. And for all those things of which any per- 
 son has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, 
 been dispossessed or deprived, either by our father 
 King Henry, or our brother King Kichard, and which 
 we have in our hands, or are possessed by others, and 
 we are bound to warrant and make good, we shall have 
 a respite till the term usually allowed the crusaders; 
 excepting those things about which there is a plea de- 
 pending, or whereof an inquest hath been made, by 
 our order before we undertook the crusade; but as 
 soon as we return from our expedition, or if perchance 
 we tarry at home and do not make our expedition, we 
 will immediately cause full justice to be administered 
 therein. 
 
 53. The same respite we shall have, and in the same 
 manner, about administering justice, disafforesting or 
 letting continue the forests, which Henry our father,
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 247 
 
 and our brother Richard, have afforested; and the same 
 concerning the wardship of the lands which are in 
 another's fee, but the wardship of which we have 
 hitherto had, by reason of a fee held of us by knight's 
 service; and for the abbeys founded in any other fee 
 than our own, in which the lord of the fee says he has 
 a right; and when we return from our expedition, or 
 if we tarry at home, and do not make our expedition, 
 we will immediately do full justice to all the complain- 
 ants in this behalf. 
 
 54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon 
 the appeal (appeal, as here used, means an accusation) 
 of a woman, for the death of any other than her hus- 
 band. 
 
 55. All unjust and illegal fines made by us, and 
 all amerciaments imposed unjustly and contrary to 
 the law of the land, shall be entirely given up, or else 
 be left to the decision of the five-and-twenty barons 
 hereafter mentioned, for the preservation of the peace, 
 or of the major part of them, together with the afore- 
 said Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be 
 present, and others whom he shall think fit to invite; 
 and if he cannot be present, the business shall not- 
 withstanding go on without him; but so that if one 
 or more of the aforesaid five-and-twenty barons be 
 plaintiffs in the same cause, they shall be set aside 
 as to what concerns this particular affair, and others 
 be chosen in their room, out of the said five-and-twenty, 
 and sworn by the rest to decide the matter. 
 
 56. If we have disseised or dispossessed the Welsh 
 of any lands, liberties, or other things, without the 
 legal judgment of their peers, either in England or in 
 Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them; 
 and if any dispute arise upon this head, the matter 
 shall be determined in the Marches by the judgment 
 of their peers; for tenements in England according to 
 the law of England, for tenements in Wales according 
 to the law of Wales, for tenements of the Marches 
 according to the law of the Marches: the same shall 
 the Welsh do to us and our subjects. 
 
 57. As for all those things of which a Welshman
 
 248 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 bath, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been 
 disseised or deprived of by King Henry our father, 
 or our brother King Richard, and which we either have 
 in our hands or others are possessed of, and we are 
 obliged to warrant it, we shall have a respite till the 
 time generally allowed the crusaders; excepting those 
 things about which a suit is depending, or whereof an 
 inquest has been made by our order, before we under- 
 took the crusade; but when we return, or if we stay 
 at home without performing our expedition, we will 
 immediately do them full justice, according to the laws 
 of the Welsh and of the parts before mentioned. 
 
 58. We will without delay dismiss the son of Llew- 
 ellin, and all the Welsh hostages, and release them 
 from the engagements they have entered into with us 
 for the preservation of the peace. 
 
 59. We will treat with Alexander, King of Scots, 
 concerning the restoring his sisters and hostages, and 
 his right and liberties, in the same form and manner 
 as we shall do to the rest of our barons of England; 
 unless by the charters which we have from his father, 
 William, late King of Scots, it ought to be otherwise; 
 and this shall be left to the determination of his peers 
 in our court. 
 
 60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties, which 
 we have granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much 
 as it belongs to us, all people of our kingdom, as well 
 clergy as laity, shall observe, as far as they are 
 concerned, toward their dependents. 
 
 61. And whereas, for the honour of God and the 
 amendment of our kingdom, and for the better quiet- 
 ing the discord that has arisen between us and our 
 barons, we have granted all these things aforesaid; 
 willing to render them firm and lasting, we do give 
 and grant our subjects the underwritten security, 
 namely, that the barons may choose five-and-twenty 
 barons of the kingdom, whom they think convenient; 
 who shall take care, with all their might, to hold and 
 observe, nnd cause to be observed, the peace and liber- 
 ties we have granted them, and by this our present 
 Charter confirmed in this manner; that is to say, that
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 249 
 
 if we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our officers, 
 shall in any circumstance have failed in the perform- 
 ance of them toward any person, or shall have broken 
 through any of these articles of peace and security, 
 and the offence be notified to four barons chosen out 
 of the five-and-twenty before mentioned, the said four 
 barons shall repair to us, or our justiciary, if we are 
 out of the realm, and, laying open the grievance, shall 
 petition to have it redressed without delay: and if it 
 be not redressed by us, or if we should chance to be 
 out of the realm, if it should not be redressed by our 
 justiciary within forty days, reckoning from the time 
 it has been notified to us, or to our justiciary (if we 
 should be out of the realm), the four barons aforesaid 
 shall lay the cause before the rest of the five-and- 
 twenty barons; and the said five-and-twenty barons, 
 together with the community of the whole kingdom, 
 shall distrain and distress us in all the ways in which 
 they shall be able, by seizing our castles, lands, pos- 
 sessions, and in any other manner they can, till the 
 grievance is redressed, according to their pleasure; 
 saving harmless our own person, and the persons of 
 our Queen and children; and when it is redressed they 
 shall behave to us as before. And any person what- 
 soever in the kingdom may swear that he will obey 
 the orders of the five-and-twenty barons aforesaid in 
 the execution of the premises, and will distress us, 
 jointly with them, to the utmost of his power; and we 
 give public and free liberty to anyone that shall please 
 to swear to this, and never will hinder any person from 
 taking the same oath. 
 
 62. As for all those of our subjects who will not, 
 of their own accord, swear to join the five-and-twenty 
 barons in distraining and distressing us, we will issue 
 orders to make them take the same oath as aforesaid. 
 And if any one of the five-and-twenty barons dies, or 
 goes out of the kingdom, or is hindered any other way 
 from carrying the things aforesaid into execution, the 
 rest of the said five-and-twenty barons may choose 
 another in his room, at their discretion, who shall be 
 sworn in like manner as the rest. In all things that
 
 250 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 are committed to the execution of these five-and- 
 twenty barons, it', when they are all assembled to- 
 gether, they should happen to disagree about any 
 matter, and some of them, when summoned, will not 
 or cannot come, whatever is agreed upon, or enjoined, 
 by the major part of those that are present shall be 
 reputed as firm and valid as if all the five-and-twenty 
 had given their consent; and the aforesaid five-and- 
 twenty shall swear that all the premises they shall 
 faithfully observe, and cause with all their power to 
 be observed. And we will procure nothing from any- 
 one, by ourselves nor by another, whereby any of 
 these concessions and liberties may be revoked or less- 
 ened; and if any such thing shall have been obtained, 
 let it be null and void ; neither will we ever make use 
 of it either by ourselves or any other. And all the 
 ill-will, indignations, and rancours that have arisen 
 between us and our subjects, of the clergy and laity, 
 from the first breaking out of the dissensions between 
 us, we do fully remit and forgive: moreover, all tres- 
 passes occasioned by the said dissensions, from Easter 
 in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration 
 of peace and tranquillity, we hereby entirely remit to 
 all, both clergy and laity, and as far as in us lies do 
 fully forgive. We have, moreover, caused to be made 
 for them the letters patent testimonial of Stephen, 
 Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry, Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, and the bishops aforesaid, as also 
 of Master Pandulph, for the security and concessions 
 aforesaid. 
 
 63. Wherefore we will and firmly enjoin, that the 
 Church of England be free, and that all men in our 
 kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, 
 rights and concessions, truly and peaceably, freely and 
 quietly, fully and wholly to themselves and their heirs, 
 of us and our heirs, in all things and places, for ever, 
 as is aforesaid. It is also sworn, as well on our part 
 as on the part of the barons, that all the things afore- 
 said shall be observed in good faith, and without evil 
 subtilty. Given under our hand, in the presence of 
 the witnesses above named, and many others, in the
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 251 
 
 meadow called Runingmede, between Windsor and 
 Staines, the 15th day of June, in the 17th year of our 
 reign. 
 
 THE PLYMOUTH COMPACT 
 
 Some brief comment on the nature of the Plymouth 
 Compact, by several historians, was quoted in an ear- 
 lier chapter. The document itself is so simple that we 
 need no aid, it would seem, for its understanding. A 
 number of men agree to make such laws as shall be 
 meet for the government of an adventurous settle- 
 ment on an unknown and inhospitable shore. Those 
 who have declared the Compact to be a Constitution 
 may hold such views on the question of what a Con- 
 stitution is as shall amply justify them in declaring 
 the Compact to be one. But it does not seem neces- 
 sary to establish any such character for the document 
 to account for the intense interest it has for us. The 
 circumstance of its making, the characters of its sign- 
 ers, the conditions surrounding them so long as they 
 remained "a civil body politick," all combine to lend 
 a romantic interest to the Compact which attaches to 
 no other political document. 
 
 Those Pilgrims were Separatists, not Puritans; 
 plain country folk, farmers and skilled laborers, but 
 some with considerable education, and all so firm in 
 their determination to enjoy religious liberty that they 
 gladly gave up every other enjoyment almost every 
 comfort of life. Those English Separatists who 
 sailed in the Mayflower had been living for some time 
 in Holland, religious refugees; yet their standing at 
 home seems not to have been that of a sect against 
 whom there was great bitterness. When they found 
 conditions of living in Holland very discouraging, and 
 "how little good we did or were likely to do to the
 
 252 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 Dutch in reforming the Sabbath," they prayed God 
 to discover "some place unto us, though in America," 
 and their prayers having been answered, even as they 
 stipulated they should be, they sent agents to Eng- 
 land to arrange for their migration. 
 
 That there was no especial bitterness felt against 
 those Separatists, even at Court, is evident, for their 
 agents were well treated in the matter by King 
 James's ministers; they were able to borrow money, 
 300 pounds, without interest, for their outfitting; and 
 the King himself, being pleased to ask what the Colo- 
 nists would do in America, and being told that they 
 intended to fish, piously responded, "So God have my 
 soul, 'tis an honest trade; 'twas the Apostles' own call- 
 ing." Thus, supplied with funds, the King's approval, 
 even his blessing, the Mayflower company sailed; ar- 
 rived at Cape Cod November 21, 1620; made their 
 Compact, which was signed by all the male adults, 
 who numbered forty-one, and a month later landed 
 and settled at Plymouth, across the mouth of Cape 
 Cod Bay. From then until 1639 the adult male church 
 members, meeting in general assembly, enacted laws 
 for the Colony. In 1639 a representative body con- 
 ducted affairs, and continued to do so until, in 1691, 
 Plymouth was merged, politically, with Massachusetts. 
 
 The text of the Compact follows : 
 
 In the name of God, Amen; We, whose names are 
 underwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread sover- 
 aigne, King James, by the grace of God, of Great 
 Britaine, France and Ireland King, defender of the 
 faith, etc., haveing undertaken, for the glorie of God, 
 and advancemente of the Christian faith and honor 
 of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant the first 
 colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe, by
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 253 
 
 these presents, solemnly and mutualty, in the presence 
 of God, and one of another, covenant and combine 
 ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our 
 better ordering and preservation and furtherance of 
 the ends aforesaid; and, by vertue heareof, to enacte, 
 constitute, and frame, such just and equall laws, orde- 
 nances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to 
 time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient 
 for the generall good of the Colonie. Unto which we 
 promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes 
 whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names, at 
 Cap Codd, the llth of November, in the year of the 
 raigne of our sovereigne lord, King James, of Eng- 
 land, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scot- 
 land the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620. 
 
 FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT, 1639 
 
 It has been related in a former chapter that the 
 Fundamental Orders were adapted at Hartford, Janu- 
 ary 14, 1639, by a general convention of the planters 
 of the three Connecticut Valley towns, Hartford, 
 Wethersfield and Windsor. No further introduction 
 to their text is required, but it is suggested to read- 
 ers to note the similarity between the relations of the 
 Connecticut towns and the Commonwealth, and the 
 several States and the National Government. Alexan- 
 der Johnston, in his work on Connecticut, comments 
 on this most interestingly: "In other States, power 
 rims from the State upwards and from, the State 
 downwards; in Connecticut, the towns have always 
 been to the Commonwealth as the Commonwealth to 
 the Union. It was to be the privilege of Connecticut 
 to keep the notion of this federal relation alive until 
 it could be made the fundamentaJ law of all the Com- 
 monwealths in 1787-89. In this respect, the life princi-
 
 254 OUB CONSTITUTION 
 
 pie of the American Union may be traced straight back 
 to the primitive union of the three little settlements 
 on the bank of the Connecticut Kiver." Professor 
 Johnston calls attention to the further interesting fact 
 that a series of orders passed by the General Court de- 
 fining and securing certain rights to the towns re- 
 semble in their relation to the Fundamental Orders 
 the relation of the first ten Amendments to the Con- 
 stitution. The text of the Fundamental Orders 
 follows: 
 
 Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God 
 by the wise disposition of his diuyne p r uidence so to 
 Order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants 
 and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield 
 are now cohabiting and dwelling in and vppon the 
 River of Conectecotte and the Lands thereunto ad- 
 ioyneing; And well knowing where a people are gath- 
 ered together the word of God requires that to 
 mayntayne the peace and vnion of such a people there 
 should be an orderly and decent Gouerment estab- 
 lished according to God, to order and dispose of the 
 affayres of the people at all seasons as occation shall 
 require; doe therefore assotiate and conioyne our 
 selues to be as one Publike State or Comonwelth; and 
 doe, for our selues and our Successors and such as 
 shall be adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, enter 
 into Combination and Confederation togather, to 
 mayntayne and p r searue the liberty and purity of the 
 gospell of our Lord Jesus, w ch we now p r fesse, as also 
 the disciplyne of the Churches, w ch according to the 
 truth of the said gospell is now practised amongst vs; 
 As also in o r Ciuell Affaires to be guided and gouerned 
 according to such Lawes, Rules, Orders and decrees 
 as shall be made, ordered & decreed, as f olloweth : 
 
 1. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that there 
 shall be yerely two generall Assemblies or Courts, the 
 on the second thursday in Aprill, the other the second 
 thursday in September, following; the first shall be
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 255 
 
 called the Courte of Election, wherein shall be yerely 
 Chosen fro tyme to tynie soe many Magestrats and 
 other publike Officers as shall be found requisitte: 
 Whereof one to be chosen Gouernour for the yeare 
 ensueing and vntill another be chosen, and noe other 
 Magestrate to be chosen for more than one yeare; 
 ]> r uided allwayes there be sixe chosen besids the Gou- 
 ornour; w ch being chosen and sworne according to an 
 Oath recorded for that purpose shall haue power to 
 administer iustice according to the Lawes here estab- 
 lished, and for want thereof according to the rule of 
 the word of God; w ch choise shall be made by all that 
 are admitted freemen and haue taken the Oath of 
 Fidel lity, and doe cohabitte w th in this Jurisdiction, 
 (hauing beene admitted Inhabitants by the maior p r t 
 of the Towne wherein they liue,) or the mayor p r te of 
 such as shall be then p r sent. 
 
 2. It is Ordered, sentensed and decreed, that the 
 Election of the aforesaid Magestrats shall be on this 
 manner: euery p r son p r sent and quallified for choyse 
 shall bring in (to the p r sons deputed to receaue the) 
 one single pap r w th the name of him written in yt 
 whom he desires to haue Gouernour, and he that hath 
 the greatest nuber of papers shall be Gouernor for 
 that yeare. And the rest of the Magestrats or publike 
 Officers to be chosen in this manner: The Secretary 
 for the tyme being shall first read the names of all 
 that are to be put to choise and then shall seuerally 
 nominate them distinctly, and euery one that would 
 haue the p r son nominated to be chosen shall bring in 
 one single paper written vppon, and he that would not 
 haue him chosen shall bring in a blanke: and euery 
 one that hath more written papers then blanks shall 
 be a Magistrat for that yeare; w ch papers shall be re- 
 ceaued and told by one or more that shall be then 
 chosen by the court and sworne to be f aythf ull therein ; 
 but in case there should not be sixe chosen as afore- 
 said, besids the Gouernor, out of those w ch are nomin- 
 ated, then he or they w ch haue the most written pap r s 
 shall be a Magestrate or Magestrats for the ensueing 
 yeare, to make vp the foresaid nuber.
 
 256 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 3. II; is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the 
 Secretary shall not nominate any p r son, nor shall any 
 p r son be chosen newly into the Magestracy w ch was not 
 p r pownded in some Generall Courte before, to be nom- 
 inated the next Election; and to that end yt shall be 
 
 [lawful 1 for ech of the Townes aforesaid by their depu- 
 [tyes to nominate any two who they conceaue fitte to 
 
 be put to election; and the Couote may ad so many 
 
 more as they iudge requisitt. 
 
 4. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that noe 
 p r son be chosen Gouernor aboue cihce in two yeares, 
 and that the Gouernor be always a rneber of some 
 approved congregation, and formerly of the Mages- 
 tracy w th in this Jurisdiction; and all the Magestrats 
 Freemen of this Comonwelth; and that no Magestrate 
 or other publike officer shall execute any p r te of his 
 or their Office before they are seuerally sworne, w ch 
 shall be done in the face of the Courte if they be p r sent, 
 and in case of absence by some deputed for that pur- 
 pose. 
 
 5. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that to the 
 aforesaid Courte of Election the seu r all Townes shall 
 send their deputyes, and when the Elections are ended 
 they may p r ceed in any publike searuice as at other 
 Courts. Also the other Generall Courte in September 
 shall be for makeing of lawes, and any other publike 
 occation, w ch conserns the good of the Comonwelth. 
 
 6. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the 
 Gou r nor shall, either by himselfe or by the secretary, 
 send out sumons to the Constables of eu r Towne for 
 the cauleing of these two standing Courts, on month 
 at lest before their seu r all tymes: And also if the 
 Gou r nor and the gretest p r te of the Magestrats see 
 cause vppon any spetiall occation to call a generall 
 Courte, they may giue order to the secretary soe to doe 
 w th in fowerteene dayes warneing; and if vrgent neces- 
 sity so require, vppon a shorter notice, giueing suffi- 
 cient grownds for yt to the deputyes when they meete, 
 or els be questioned for the same; And if the Gou r nor 
 and Mayor p r te of Magestrats shall ether neglect or 
 refuse to call the two Generall standing Courts or
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 257 
 
 ether of the, as also at other tymes when the occations 
 of the Comonwelth require, the Freemen thereof, or 
 the Mayor p r te of them, shall petition to them soe to 
 doe: if then yt be ether denyed or neglected the said 
 Freemen or the Mayor p r te of them shall haue power 
 to giue order to the Constables of the seuerall Townes 
 to doe the same, and so may meete togather, and chuse 
 to themselues a Moderator, and may p r ceed to do 
 any Acte of power, w ch any other Generall Courte may. 
 
 7. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that after 
 there are warrants giuen out for any of the said Gen- 
 erall Courts, the Constable or Constables of ech Townc 
 shall forthw th give notice distinctly to the inhabitants 
 of the same, in some Publike Assembly or by goeing 
 or sending fro howse to howse, that at a place and 
 tyme by him or them lymited and sett, they meet and 
 assemble the selues togather to elect and chuse certen 
 deputyes to be att the Generall Courte then following 
 to agitate the afayres of the comonwelth; w ch said 
 Deputyes shall be chosen by all that are admitted 
 Inhabitants in the seu r all Townes and haue taken the 
 oath of fidellity; p r uided that non be chosen a Deputy 
 for any Generall Courte w ch is not a Freeman of this 
 Comonwelth. 
 
 The aforesaid deputyes shall be chosen in manner 
 following: euery p r son that is p r sent and quallified as 
 before exp r ssed, shall bring the names of such, written 
 in seu T rall papers, as they desire to haue chosen for 
 that Imployment, and these 3 or 4, more or lesse, being 
 the nuber agreed on to be chosen for that tyme, that 
 haue greatest nuber of papers written for the shall 
 be deputyes for that Courte; whose names shall be 
 endorsed on the backe side of the warrant and returned 
 into the Courte, w th the Constable or Constables hand 
 vnto the same. 
 
 8. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that Wynd- 
 sor, Hartford and Wethersfield shall haue power, ech 
 Towne, to send fower of their freemen as deputyes to 
 euery Generall Courte; and whatsoeuer other Townes 
 shall be hereafter added to this Jurisdiction, they shall 
 send so many deputyes as the Courte shall judge
 
 258 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 meete, a reasonable p r portion to the nuber of Freemen 
 that are in the said Townes being to be attended 
 therein; w ch deputyes shall have the power of the 
 whole Towne to giue their voats and alowance to all 
 such lawes and orders as may be for the publike good, 
 and unto w ch the said Townes are to be bownd. 
 
 9. It is ordered and decreed, that the deputyes thus 
 chosen shall haue power and liberty to appoynt a tyme 
 and a place of meeting togather before any Generall 
 Courte to aduise and consult of all such things as may 
 concerne the good of the publike, as also to examine 
 their owne Elections, whether according to the order, 
 and if they or the gretest p r te of them find any election 
 to be illegall they may seclud such for p r sent fro their 
 meeting, and returne the same and their resons to the 
 Courte; and if yt proue true, the Courte may fyne the 
 p r ty or ptyes so intruding and the Towne, if they see 
 cause, and giue out a warrant to goe to a newe elec- 
 tion in a legall way, either in p r te or in whole. Also 
 the said deputyes shall haue power to fyne any that 
 shall be disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming 
 in due tyme or place according to appoyntment; and 
 they may returne the said fynes into the Courte if yt 
 be refused to be paid, and the tresurer to take notice 
 of yt, and to estreete or levy the same as he doth other 
 fynes. 
 
 10. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that euery 
 Generall Courte, except such as through neglecte of 
 the Gou r nor and the greatest p r te of Magestrats the 
 Freemen themselves doe call, shall consist of the Gou- 
 ernor, or some one chosen to moderate the* Court, and 
 4 other Magestrats at lest, w th the mayor p r te of the 
 deputyes of the seuerall Townes legally chosen; and in 
 case the Freemen or mayor p r te of the, through neglect 
 or refusall of the Gouernor and mayor p r te of the mag- 
 estrats, shall call a Courte, y l shall consist of the 
 mayor p r te of Freemen that are p r sent or their depu- 
 tyes, w th a Moderator chosen by the: In w ch said Gen- 
 erall Courts shall consist the supreme power of the 
 Comonwelth, and they only shall haue power to make 
 laws or repeale the, to graunt leuyes, to admit of Free-
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 259 
 
 men, dispose of lands vndisposed of, to seuerall 
 Townes or p r sons, and also shall haue power to call 
 ether Courte or Magestrate or any other p r son what- 
 soeuer into question for any misdemeanour, and may 
 for just causes displace or deale otherwise according 
 to the nature of the offence; and also may deale in 
 any other matter that concerns the good of this comon 
 welth, excepte election of Magestrats, w ch shall be done 
 by the whole boddy of Freemen. 
 
 In w ch Courte theGouernour or Moderator shall haue 
 power to order the Courte to giue liberty of spech, 
 and silence vnceasonable and disorderly speakeings, to 
 put all things to voate, and in case the vote shall be 
 equall to haue the casting voice. But non of these 
 Courts shall be adiorned or dissolued w th out the con- 
 sent of the maior p r te of the Court. 
 
 11. It is ordered, sentenced and decreed, that when 
 any Generall Courte vppon the occations of the Comon- 
 welth haue agreed vppon any sume or somes of mony 
 to be leuyed vppon the seuerall Townes w th in this 
 Jurisdiction, that a Comittee be chosen to sett out 
 and appoynt w* shall be the p r portion of euery Towne 
 to pay of the said leuy, p r vided the Comittees be made 
 vp of an equall nuber out of each Towne. 
 
 14 th January, 1638, the 11 Orders abouesaid are 
 voted. 
 
 (Until 1752 the legal year in England began March 
 25 (Lady Day), and the days between January 1, 1639, 
 as we write now, and Lady Day of that year, would 
 then be written as of 1638.) 
 
 THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION, 1643 
 
 A suggestion that the New England Colonies and 
 towns should form a league which would afford means 
 for better protection, by concert of action, against the 
 Indians, was made by the Connecticut River towns
 
 260 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 as early as 1637, before they,, themselves, confederated. 
 But concert of action between bodies of people so far 
 separated as were New Haven and Boston, with not 
 so much as the beginning of a coach road or coach 
 service to aid intercourse, was a slow and difficult 
 matter, and it was not until May, 1643, that such a 
 league was formed. It included Massachusetts, Con- 
 necticut, New Haven and Plymouth. Khode Island 
 was not asked to join because she was thought to be 
 too liberal in her views on religious matters to deserve 
 aid in fighting the Indians. A diligent study of the 
 two thousand five hundred words employed in ex- 
 pressing the purpose and powers of the Confederation 
 fails to disclose anything which justifies much of the 
 language which has been employed in its praise. It 
 was a very limited, close-corporation sort of associa- 
 tion; it expressly provided that it would never admit 
 any "Plantation" other than such as might be erected 
 within the jurisdiction of the original four. "Nor 
 shall any other plantation or jurisdiction, in present 
 being, and not already in combination or under the 
 jurisdiction of any of these Confederates be received 
 by any of them." An illiberal provision, surely, for 
 as it read, poor, struggling, little Rhode Island was 
 not only barred from the league, but kept from com- 
 bining with New Haven if its weakness should ever 
 have suggested that course. 
 
 The purpose of the league is thus expressed: "The 
 said United Colonies * * * hereby enter into a 
 firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity, 
 for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor," 
 for "propagating * * * the Gospel, and for their 
 own mutual safety and welfare." Elaborate provi- 
 sions are made for apportioning men and supplies
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 261 
 
 needed for war, and for "division of spoils and what- 
 soever is got by conquest." Two commissioners from 
 each Confederate were to be appointed to attend to 
 the division of spoils and propagation of the Gospel, 
 but "not intermeddling with the government of any 
 of the jurisdictions." 
 
 No political body was formed, no worthy principle 
 of government proclaimed, no liberties extended, by 
 the league, which ceased to exist for lack of purpose 
 to live, in 1684. Lest the writer be suspected of un- 
 fairness toward the "instrument of government" of 
 the New England Confederation, in seeming to deny 
 that it was formed for any other purpose than war 
 and division of spoils, he hastens to quote a passage 
 from its Article VIII, which easily proves that other 
 purposes were in view: "It is also agreed that if any 
 servant run away from his master into any other of 
 these confederated jurisdictions, that in such case, 
 upon the certificate of one magistrate in the jurisdic- 
 tion out of which the said servant fled, or upon other 
 due proof, the said servant shall be delivered either to 
 his master or any other that pursues and brings such 
 certificate of proof." The full text of the Articles is 
 not given, as it is not worthy of a place in a collection 
 which seeks to include only those which were legacies 
 of helpful inspiration to the framers of our Constitu- 
 tion. The statesmen of 1787 were not inspired by a 
 document which proclaimed that those who preached 
 the Gospel according to the views of John Winthrop 
 deserved to be protected from the scalping-knife ; those 
 who preached according to Roger Williams were not 
 so deserving.
 
 262 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 THE BILL OF RIGHTS, 1689 
 
 The Revolution of 1688, which ended the reign of 
 James II and brought William and Mary to the Eng- 
 lish throne, secured constitutional government to the 
 country and practically made it a republic. Says Sam- 
 uel Gardiner, an English historian : "After the Revo- 
 lution, England became practically a republic, in 
 which the crown possessed various constitutional pow- 
 ers." Says Green, in his History of the English People: 
 "The revels of Whitehall, the scepticism and debauch- 
 ery of courtiers, the corruption of statesmen, left the 
 mass of Englishmen what Puritanism had made them 
 serious, earnest, sober in life and conduct. In the 
 Revolution of 1688, Puritanism did the work of civil 
 liberty which it had failed to do in that of 1642. * * * 
 The Bill of Rights restored to the monarchy the char- 
 acter which it had lost under the Tudors and the 
 Stuarts. William, Mary and Anne were sovereigns 
 simply by virtue of the Bill of Rights. An English 
 monarch is now as much the creature of an Act of 
 Parliament as the pettiest tax-gatherer in his realm.'' 
 
 As has previously been explained, William and 
 Mary "did accept the crown and royal dignity" after 
 subscribing to the Bill of Rights and the order of suc- 
 cession accompanying it, and provided by Parliament. 
 
 The text of so much of the Bill of Rights as relates 
 to our subject follows: 
 
 "Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, 
 and freely representing all the estates of the people 
 of this realm, did upon the Thirteenth day of Febru- 
 ary, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hun- 
 dred Eighty-eight (New Style, 1689) present unto their
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 263 
 
 Majesties, then called and known by the names and 
 style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess of 
 Orange, being present in their proper persons, a cer- 
 tain Declaration in writing, made by the said Lords 
 and Commons, in the words following, viz. : 
 
 Whereas the late King James II., by the assist- 
 ance of divers evil counsellors, judges, and ministers 
 employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extir- 
 pate the Protestant religion, and the laws and liberties 
 of this kingdom : 
 
 1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispens- 
 ing with and suspending the laws, and the execution 
 of laws, without consent of Parliament. 
 
 2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy 
 prelates for humbly petitioning to be excused from 
 concurring to the said assumed power. 
 
 3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commis- 
 sion under the Great Seal for erecting a court, called 
 the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes. 
 
 4. By levying money for and to the use of the 
 Crown by pretence of prerogative, for other time and 
 in other manner than the same was granted by Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 5. By raising and keeping a standing army within 
 this kingdom in time of peace, without consent of 
 Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law. 
 
 6. By causing several good subjects, being Protest- 
 ants, to be disarmed, at the same time when Papists 
 were both armed and employed contrary to law. 
 
 7. By violating the freedom of election of members 
 to serve in Parliament. 
 
 8. By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench 
 for matters and causes cognisable only in Parliament, 
 and by divers other arbitrary and illegal causes. 
 
 9. And whereas of late years, partial, corrupt, and 
 unqualified persons have been returned, and served 
 on juries in trials, and particularly divers jurors in 
 trials for high treason, which were not freeholders. 
 
 10. And excessive bail hath been required of per- 
 sons committed in criminal cases, to elude the benefit 
 of the laws made for the liberty of the subjects.
 
 264 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 11. And excessive fines have been imposed; and 
 illegal and cruel punishments inflicted. 
 
 12. And several grants and promises made of fines 
 and forfeitures before any conviction or judgment 
 against the persons upon whom the same were to be 
 levied. 
 
 All which are utterly and directly contrary to the 
 known laws and statutes, and freedom of this realm. 
 
 And whereas the said late King James II. having 
 abdicated the government, and the throne being 
 thereby vacant, , his Highness the Prince of Orange 
 (whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glo- 
 rious instrument of delivering this kingdom from Pop- 
 ery and arbitrary power) did (by the advice of the 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and divers principal 
 persons of the Commons) cause letters to be written 
 to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protes- 
 tants, and other letters to the several counties, cities, 
 universities, boroughs, and cinque ports, for the choos- 
 ing of such persons to represent them as were of right 
 to be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at Westmin- 
 ster upon the two-and-twentieth day of January, in 
 this year One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty and 
 Eight, in order to such an establishment, as that their 
 religion, laws, and liberties might not again be in 
 danger of being subverted; upon which letters elec- 
 tions have been accordingly made. 
 
 And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
 poral, and Commons, pursuant to their respective 
 letters and elections, being now assembled in a full 
 and free representation of this nation, taking into their 
 most serious consideration the best means for attain- 
 ing the ends aforesaid, do in the first plac^e (as their 
 ancestors in like case have usually done) for the vin- 
 dicating and asserting their ancient rights and liber- 
 ties, declare: 
 
 1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, 
 or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without 
 consent of Parliament, is illegal. 
 
 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with 
 laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority, as 
 it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal.
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 265 
 
 3. That the commission for erecting the late Court 
 of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all 
 other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal 
 and pernicious. 
 
 4. That levying money for or to the use of the 
 Crown by pretence and prerogative, without grant of 
 Parliament, for longer time or in other manner than 
 the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. 
 
 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition 
 the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for 
 such petitioning are illegal. 
 
 6. That the raising or keeping a standing army 
 within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with 
 consent of Parliament, is against law. 
 
 7. That the subjects which are Protestants may 
 have arms for their defence suitable to their condi- 
 tions, and as allowed by law. 
 
 8. That election of members of Parliament ought 
 to be free. 
 
 9. That the freedom of speech-, and debates or pro- 
 ceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached 
 or questioned in any court or place out of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, 
 nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual 
 punishments inflicted. 
 
 11. That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and 
 returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials 
 for high treason ought to be freeholders. 
 
 12. That all grants and promises of fines and for- 
 feitures of particular persons before conviction are 
 illegal and void. 
 
 13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for 
 the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the 
 laws, Parliament ought to be held frequently. 
 
 And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and 
 singular the premises, as their undoubted rights and 
 liberties; and that no declarations, judgments, doings 
 or proceedings, to the prejudice of the people in any 
 of the said premises, ought in any wise to be drawn 
 hereafter into consequence or example."
 
 266 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 FRANKLIN'S PLAN OP UNION, 1754 
 
 The Albany Convention of 1754 met at the request 
 of the British Lords of Trade, a Committee of the 
 Privy Council having charge of Colonial affairs. The 
 Convention was directed to adjust Indian affairs, and 
 propose measures for general defence, with regard to 
 the impending French War. Benjamin Franklin was 
 one of the delegates to the Convention, and shrewdly 
 concluded to endeavor to try a federal government 
 scheme, under the authority of the Lords of Trade to 
 devise "general measures." The Convention adopted 
 his Plan of Union, and Dr. Franklin's own account 
 of its subsequent history will best serve as an intro- 
 duction to its text: 
 
 "Its fate was singular," Franklin wrote : "the assem- 
 blies (Colonial) did not adopt it, as they all thought 
 there was too much prerogative in it, and in England 
 it was judg'd to have too much of the democratic. The 
 Board of Trade therefore did not approve of it, nor 
 recommend it for the approbation of his majesty. The 
 different and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan 
 makes me suspect that it was really the true medium ; 
 and I am still of opinion it would have been happy for 
 both sides the water if it had been adopted. The 
 colonies, so united, would have been sufficiently strong 
 to have defended themselves; there would then have 
 been no need of troops from England; of course, the 
 subsequent pretence for taxing America, and the 
 bloody contest it occasioned, would have been avoided. 
 But such mistakes are not new : history is full of the 
 errors of states and princes." 
 
 The text of the Plan follows : 
 
 "It is proposed that humble application be made for 
 an act of Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 267 
 
 which one general government may be formed in Amer- 
 ica, including all the said Colonies, within and under 
 which government each Colony may retain its present 
 constitution, except in the particulars wherein a 
 change may be directed by the said act, as hereafter 
 follows. 
 
 That the said general government be administered 
 by a President-General, to be appointed and supported 
 by the crown; and a Grand Council, to be chosen by 
 the representatives of the people of the several Colo- 
 nies met in their respective assemblies. 
 
 That within months after the passing such 
 
 act, the House of Representatives that happen to be 
 sitting within that time, or that shall be especially 
 for that purpose convened, may and shall choose mem- 
 bers for the Grand Council, in the following propor- 
 tion, that is to say : Massachusetts Bay 7, New Hamp- 
 shire 2, Connecticut 5, Rhode Island 2, New York 4, 
 New Jersey 3, Pennsylvania 6, Maryland 4, Virginia 7, 
 North Carolina 4, South Carolina 4, total 48; who shall 
 meet for the first time at the city of Philadelphia in 
 Pennsylvania, being called by the President-General 
 as soon as conveniently may be after his appointment. 
 
 That there shall be a new election of the members 
 of the Grand Council every three years; and, on the 
 death or resignation of any member, his place should 
 be supplied by a new choice at the next sitting of the 
 Assembly of the Colony he represented. 
 
 That after the first three years, when the propor- 
 tion of money arising out of each Colony to the general 
 treasury can be known, the number of members to be 
 chosen for each Colony shall, from time to time, in 
 all ensuing elections, be regulated by that proportion, 
 yet so as that the number to be chosen by any one 
 Province be not more than seven, nor less than two. 
 
 That the Grand Council shall meet once in every 
 year, and oftener if occasion require, at such time and 
 place as they shall adjourn to at the last preceding 
 meeting, or as they shall be called to meet at by the 
 President-General on any emergency; he having first 
 obtained in writing the consent of seven of the mem-
 
 268 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 bers to such call, and sent due and timely notice to 
 the whole. 
 
 That the Grand Council have power to choose their 
 speaker; and shall neither be dissolved, prorogued, 
 nor continued sitting longer than six weeks at one 
 time, without their own consent or the special com- 
 mand of the crown. 
 
 That the members of the Grand Council shall be 
 allowed for their service ten shillings sterling per 
 diem, during their session and journey to and from 
 the place of meeting; twenty miles to be reckoned a 
 day's journey. 
 
 That the assent of the President-General be requisite 
 to all acts of the Grand Council, and that it be his 
 office and duty to cause them to be carried into execu- 
 tion. 
 
 That the President-General, with the advice of the 
 Grand Council, hold or direct all Indian treaties, in 
 which the general interest of the Colonies may be 
 concerned; and make peace or declare war with Indian 
 nations. 
 
 That they make such laws as they judge necessary 
 for regulating all Indian trade. 
 
 That they make all purchases from Indians, for the 
 crown, of lands not now within the bounds of particu- 
 lar Colonies, or that shall not be within their bounds 
 when some of them are reduced to more convenient 
 dimensions. 
 
 That they make new settlements on such purchases, 
 by granting lands in the King's name, reserving a 
 quitrent to the crown for the use of the general treas- 
 ury. 
 
 That they make laws for regulating and governing 
 such new settlements, till the crown shall think fit 
 to form them into particular governments. 
 
 That they raise and pay soldiers and build forts 
 for the defence of any of the Colonies, and equip ves- 
 sels of force to guard the coasts and protect the trade 
 on the ocean, lakes, or great rivers; but they shall 
 not impress men in any Colony, without the consent 
 of the legislature.
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 269 
 
 That for these purposes they have power to make 
 laws, and lay and levy such general duties, imposts, 
 or taxes, as to them shall appear most equal and just 
 (considering the ability and other circumstances of 
 the inhabitants in the several Colonies), and such as 
 may be collected with the least inconvenience to the 
 people; rather discouraging luxury, than loading in- 
 dustry with unnecessary burdens. 
 
 That they may appoint a General Treasurer and 
 Particular Treasurer in each government when neces- 
 sary; and, from time to time, may order the sums in 
 the treasuries of each government into the general 
 treasury; or draw on them for special payments, as 
 they find most convenient. 
 
 Yet no money to issue but by joint orders of the 
 President-General and Grand Council; except where 
 sums have been appropriated to particular purposes, 
 and the President-General is previously empowered by 
 an act to draw such sums. 
 
 That the general accounts shall be yearly settled 
 and reported to the several Assemblies. 
 
 That a quorum of the Grand Council, empowered to 
 act with the President-General, do consist of twenty- 
 five members; among whom there shall be one or more 
 from a majority of the Colonies. 
 
 That the laws made by them for the purposes afore- 
 said shall not be repugnant, but, as near as may be, 
 agreeable to the laws of England, and shall be trans- 
 mitted to the King in Council for approbation, as soon 
 as may be after their passing; and if not disapproved 
 within three years after presentation, to remain in 
 force. 
 
 That, in case of the death of the President-General, 
 the Speaker of the Grand Council for the time being 
 shall succeed, and be vested with the same powers and 
 authorities, to continue till the King's pleasure be 
 known. 
 
 That all military commission officers, whether for 
 land or sea service, to act under this general constitu- 
 tion, shall be nominated by the President-General ; but 
 the approbation of the Grand Council is to be obtained
 
 270 DUE CONSTITUTION 
 
 before they receive their commissions. And all civil 
 officers are to be nominated by the Grand Council, and 
 to receive the President-General's approbation before 
 they officiate. 
 
 But, in case of vacancy by death or removal of any 
 officer, civil or military, under this constitution, the 
 Governor of the Province in which such vacancy hap- 
 pens may appoint, till the pleasure of the President- 
 General and Grand Council can be known. 
 
 That the particular military as well as civil estab- 
 lishments in each Colony remain in their present state, 
 the general constitution notwithstanding; and that on 
 sudden emergencies any Colony may defend itself, and 
 lay the accounts of expense thence arising before the 
 President-General and General Council, who may al- 
 low and order payment of the same, as far as they 
 judge such accounts just and reasonable." 
 
 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, 1765 
 
 The Stamp Act Congress, in which sat 28 delegates 
 representing Colonies, met in New York from October 
 7 to 25, 1765, and gave long and serious consideration 
 to the condition of affairs as affected by the Stamp 
 Act. There had been many disorderly protests, riots, 
 in Boston, New York and other cities; the Con- 
 gress could early have provoked war. But its utter- 
 ances were calm and grave, touching, as we see evi- 
 dence that the men gathered there longed for a 
 peaceful continuance of their colonial relation to the 
 mother country. They open and close their address in 
 language of honorable loyalty; they infer that they 
 will gladly continue to assess themselves for those 
 "supplies to the crown, being free gifts of the people." 
 But "it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a 
 people * * * that no taxes be imposed upon them 
 but with their own consent."
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 271 
 
 Language so calm, so measured, readily won the 
 praise of British statesmen, yet its full meaning they 
 could not or would not accept. We have seen that the 
 British Parliament, having considered the Declaration 
 of the Congress, and all the papers touching the Stamp 
 Act disturbances in America, repealed the Act, but 
 passed, at the same time, a Declaratory Act affirming 
 the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies the pre- 
 cise right against which the Colonies had protested! 
 
 Following is the text of the Declaration of Rights: 
 
 "The Congress, upon mature deliberation, agreed to 
 the following declarations of the rights and grievances 
 of the colonists in America: 
 
 The members of this congress, sincerely devoted, 
 with the warmest sentiments of affection and duty, 
 to His Majesty's person and government, inviolably 
 attached to the present happy establishment of the 
 Protestant succession, and with minds deeply im- 
 pressed by a sense of the present and impending mis- 
 fortunes of the British colonies on this continent ; hav- 
 ing considered as maturely as time will permit, the 
 circumstances of the said colonies, esteem it our indis- 
 pensable duty to make the following declarations of 
 our humble opinion respecting the most essential 
 rights and liberties of the colonies and of the griev- 
 ances under which they labor by reason of the several 
 late acts of Parliament. 
 
 1. That His Majesty's subjects in these colonies 
 owe the same allegiance to the crown of Great Britain 
 that is owing from his subjects born within the realm; 
 and all due subordination to that august body, the 
 Parliament of Great Britain. 
 
 2. That His Majesty's liege subjects, in these col- 
 onies, are entitled to all the inherent rights and 
 liberties of his natural born subjects within the king- 
 dom of Great Britain. 
 
 3. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom 
 of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen,
 
 212 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 that no taxes be imposed on them but with their 
 own consent, given personally, or by their representa- 
 tives. 
 
 4. That the people of these colonies are not, and 
 from their local circumstances cannot be, represented 
 in the House of Commons, in Great Britain. 
 
 5. That the only representatives of the people of 
 these colonies are persons chosen therein by them- 
 selves; and that no taxes ever have been, or can be 
 constitutionally imposed on them, but by their re- 
 spective legislatures. 
 
 6. That all supplies to the crown, being the free 
 gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent 
 with the principles and spirit of the British constitu- 
 tion, for the people of Great Britain to grant to His 
 Majesty the property of the colonists. 
 
 7. That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable 
 right of every British subject in these colonies. 
 
 8. That the late act of Parliament, entitled 'An 
 act for granting and applying certain stamp duties, 
 and other duties in the British colonies and planta- 
 tions, in America, etc.,' by imposing taxes on the inhab- 
 itants of these colonies, and the said act, and several 
 other acts, by extending the jurisdiction of the courts 
 of admiralty beyond its ancient limits, have a mani 
 fest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of 
 the colonists. 
 
 9. That the duties imposed by several late acts of 
 Parliament, from the peculiar circumstances of these 
 colonies, will be extremely burthensome and grievous, 
 and from the scarcity of specie, the payment of them 
 absolutely impracticable. 
 
 10. That as the profits of the trade of these colonies 
 ultimately center in Great Britain, to pay for the 
 manufactures which they are obliged to take from 
 thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all 
 supplies granted there to the crown. 
 
 11. That the restrictions imposed by several late 
 acts of Parliament on the trade of these colonies will 
 render them unable to purchase the manufactures of 
 Great Britain.
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 273 
 
 12. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of 
 these colonies depend on the full and free enjoyments 
 of their rights and liberties, and an intercourse with 
 Great Britain, mutually affectionate and advantage- 
 ous. 
 
 13. That it is the right of the British subjects in 
 these colonies to petition the King, or either house of 
 Parliament. 
 
 Lastly. That it is the indispensable duty of these 
 colonies, to the best of sovereigns, to the mother 
 country, and to themselves, to endeavour by a loyal 
 and dutiful address to His Majesty, and humble appli- 
 cations to both houses of Parliament, to procure the 
 repeal of the act for granting and applying certain 
 stamp duties, of all clauses of any other acts of Par- 
 liament, whereby the jurisdiction of the admiralty is 
 extended, as aforesaid, and of the other late acts for 
 the restriction of American commerce." 
 
 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1776 
 
 Eleven years passed after the Stamp Act Congress 
 issued its Declaration of Rights and before the Con- 
 tinental Congress issued its Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. Parliament passed other revenue bills affecting 
 the Colonies; Massachusetts petitioned against them; 
 Virginia resolved to resist them; after the "Boston 
 massacre" Parliament repealed all the revenue bills 
 but the one laying a tax on tea; taxed tea arrived and 
 was thrown over in Boston Bay; the port of Boston is 
 closed; the Continental Congress meets and again de- 
 clares Colonial rights; but British troops arrive, the 
 battles of Lexington and Concord are fought; Wash- 
 ington, at the head of New England troops, drives the 
 British out of Boston; and on July 4, Congress 
 declares American independence in these immortal 
 words:
 
 374 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 IN CONGRESS JULY 4, 1776 
 
 The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States 
 of America. 
 
 When in the course of human events, it becomes 
 necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
 which have connected them with another, and to as- 
 sume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and 
 equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of 
 Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the 
 opinions of mankind requires that they should declare 
 the causes which impel them to the separation. 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
 are created equal, that they are endowed by their 
 Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among 
 these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 
 That to secure these rights, Governments are insti- 
 tuted among Men, deriving their just powers from 
 the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form 
 of Government becpmes destructive of these ends, it 
 is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and 
 to institute new Government, laying its foundation on 
 such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 
 as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety 
 and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that 
 Governments long established should not be changed 
 for light and transcient causes; and accordingly all 
 experience hath shown, that mankind are more dis- 
 posed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right 
 themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are 
 accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and 
 usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, 
 evinces a design to reduce them under absolute des- 
 potism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off 
 such Government, and to provide new Guards for their 
 future security. Such has been the patient sufferance 
 of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which 
 constrains them to alter their former Systems of Gov- 
 ernment. The history of the present King of Great 
 Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa-
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 275 
 
 tions, all having in direct object the establishment of 
 an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, 
 let Facts be submitted to a candid world. 
 
 He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most whole- 
 some and necessary for the public good. 
 
 He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of 
 immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended 
 in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; 
 and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to 
 attend to them. 
 
 He has refused to pass other laws for the accommo- 
 dation of large districts of people, unless those people 
 would relinquish the right of Representation in the 
 Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formi- 
 dable to tyrants only. 
 
 He has called together legislative bodies at places 
 unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depos- 
 itory of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of 
 fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
 
 He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, 
 for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the 
 rights of the people. 
 
 He has refused for a long time, after such dissolu- 
 tions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the Legis- 
 lative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have re- 
 turned to the People at large for their exercise; the 
 State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the 
 dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions 
 within. 
 
 He has endeavored to prevent the population of 
 these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws 
 for Naturalization of Foreigners : refusing to pass oth- 
 ers to encourage their migration hither, and raising 
 the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. 
 
 He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, 
 by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judi- 
 ciary Powers. 
 
 He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone 
 for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and pay- 
 ment of their salaries. 
 
 He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
 
 276 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and 
 eat out their substance. 
 
 He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing 
 Armies without the Consent of our legislature. 
 
 He has affected to render the Military independent 
 of and superior to the Civil Power. 
 
 He has combined with others to subject us to a 
 jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unac- 
 knowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their 
 Acts of pretended Legislation: 
 
 For quartering large bodies of armed troops among 
 us: 
 
 For Protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punish- 
 ment for any murders which they should commit on 
 the inhabitants of these States : 
 
 For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: 
 
 For imposing taxes on us without our consent: 
 
 For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of 
 Trial by Jury: 
 
 For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for 
 pretended offenses: 
 
 For abolishing the free System of English Laws in 
 a neighboring province, establishing therein an Arbi- 
 trary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as 
 to render it at once an example and fit instrument for 
 introducing the same absolute rule into these Colo- 
 nies: 
 
 For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most 
 valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms 
 of our Governments: 
 
 For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring 
 themselves invested with power to legislate for us in 
 all cases whatsoever. 
 
 He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us 
 out of his Protection and waging War against us. 
 
 He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, 
 burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people. 
 
 He is at this time transporting large armies of for- 
 eign mercenaries to complete the works of death, deso- 
 lation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances 
 of Cruelty, and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 277 
 
 barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a 
 civilized nation. 
 
 He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Cap- 
 tive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Coun- 
 try, to become the executioners of their friends and 
 Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 
 
 He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, 
 and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of 
 our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages, whose 
 known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- 
 tion of all ages, sexes and conditions. 
 
 In every stage of these Oppressions We have Peti- 
 tioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our 
 repeated Petitions have been answered only by re- 
 peated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus 
 marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is 
 unfit to be the ruler of a free People. 
 
 Nor have We been wanting in attention to our Brit- 
 ish brethren. We have warned them from time to time 
 of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwar- 
 rantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them 
 of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement 
 here. We have appealed to their native justice and 
 magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties 
 of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, 
 which would inevitably interrupt our connections and 
 correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice 
 of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, ac- 
 quiesce in the necessity which denounces our Separa- 
 tion, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, 
 Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. 
 
 We, therefore, the representatives of the United 
 States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 
 appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
 rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by 
 Authority of the good People of these Colonies, sol- 
 emnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies 
 are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent 
 States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to 
 the British Crown, and that all political connection 
 between them and the State of Great Britain is and
 
 278 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and 
 Independent States, they have full power to levy War, 
 conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Com- 
 merce, and to do all other Acts and Things which 
 Independent States may of right do. And for the sup- 
 port of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the 
 Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge 
 to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred 
 Honor." 
 
 ORDINANCE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTHWEST, 
 
 1787 
 
 In 1784 Virginia delivered to Congress a deed by 
 which she ceded to the United States all her territory 
 northwest of the Ohio River. From that territory has 
 been erected the five great States of Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. In 1787 Congress 
 passed an Act for the government of that territory, 
 an Act which usually is referred to as "The Ordinance 
 of 1787," and which has been praised by statesmen in 
 almost unmeasured terms. Said Webster: "I doubt 
 whether one single law of any law-giver, ancient or 
 modern, has produced effects of more distinct, marked 
 and lasting character." Said Senator Hoar: "As the 
 American youth for uncounted centuries shall visit 
 the capital of his country and look upon the records 
 of great wars and the statues of great commanders, 
 there is nothing in all these which will so stir his heart 
 as two faded and time-soiled papers, the original rec- 
 ords of the acts which devoted this nation forever 
 to equality, to education, to religion and to liberty. 
 One is the Declaration of Independence, the other the 
 Ordinance of 1787." Washington was deeply inter- 
 ested in the settlement and development of the North- 
 west, which was made possible by and quickly fol-
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 279 
 
 lowed the enactment of the Ordinance, and, speaking 
 of the first settlement in the territory, he said: "No 
 Colony in America was ever settled under such favor- 
 able auspices. Information, property, strength, will 
 be its character. I know many of the settlers person- 
 ally, and there never were men better calculated to 
 promote the welfare of such a community." 
 
 The men Washington spoke of were the first settlers 
 under the charter of the Ohio Company, who, led by 
 General Kufus Putnam, founded Marietta on the banks 
 of the Ohio, April 7, 1788. Within a year after the 
 organization of the Territory 20,000 settlers, mostly 
 from the New England States, had settled there, and 
 its growth was rapid, substantial and prosperous. The 
 Ordinance forever prohibited slavery in the Territory, 
 and thereby, said Webster, "fixed forever the charac- 
 ter of the population in the vast region northwest of 
 the Ohio. It impressed on the soil itself, while it was 
 yet a wilderness, an incapacity to sustain any other 
 than freemen." 
 
 AN ORDINANCE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRI- 
 TORY OF THE UNITED STATES NORTHWEST OF THE 
 RIVER OHIO. 
 
 Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assem- 
 bled, That the said territory, for the purposes of 
 temporary government, be one district, subject, 
 however, to be divided into two districts, as future 
 circumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make 
 it expedient. 
 
 Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the 
 estates, both of resident and non-resident proprietors 
 in the said territory, dying intestate, shall descend to, 
 and be distributed among, their children, and the de- 
 scendants of a deceased child, in equal parts; the 
 descendants of a deceased child or grandchild to take
 
 280 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the share of their deceased parent in equal parts 
 among them: And where there shall be no children or 
 descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin in 
 equal degree; and, among collaterals, the children of 
 a deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall have, 
 in equal parts among them, their deceased parents' 
 share; and there shall, in no case, be a distinction 
 between kindred of the whole and half-blood; saving, 
 in all cases, to the widow of the intestate her third 
 part of the real estate for life, and one-third part of 
 the personal estate; and this law, relative to descents 
 and dower, shall remain in full force until altered by 
 the legislature of the district. And, until the governor 
 and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, 
 estates in the said territory may be devised or be- 
 queathed by wills in writing, signed and sealed by 
 him or her, in whom the estate may be (being of full 
 age,) and attested by three witnesses; and real estates 
 may be conveyed by lease and release, or bargain and 
 sale, signed, sealed, and delivered by the person, being 
 of full age, in whom the estate may be, and attested 
 by two witnesses, provided such wills be duly proved, 
 and such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execu- 
 tion thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one 
 year after proper magistrates, courts, and registers 
 shall be appointed for that purpose; and personal prop- 
 erty may be transferred by delivery; saving, however, 
 to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other 
 settlers of the Kaskaskias, St. Vincents, and the neigh- 
 boring villages who have heretofore professed them- 
 selves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now 
 in force among them, relative to the descent and con- 
 veyance of property. 
 
 Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That there 
 shall be appointed, from time to time, by Congress, a 
 governor, whose commission shall continue in force for 
 the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by 
 Congress; Le shall reside in the district, and have a 
 freehold estate therein in 1,000 acres of land, while in 
 the exercise of his office. 
 
 There shall be appointed, from time to time, by
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 281 
 
 Congress, a secretary, whose commission shall con- 
 tinue in force for four years unless sooner revoked; 
 he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold 
 estate therein in 500 acres of land, while in the exer- 
 cise of his office; it shall be his duty to keep and pre- 
 serve the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and 
 1he public records of the district, and the proceedings 
 of the governor in his Executive department; and 
 transmit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings, 
 every six months, to the Secretary of Congress: There 
 shall also be appointed a court to consist of three 
 judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall 
 have a common law jurisdiction, and reside in the dis- 
 trict, and have each therein a freehold estate in 500 
 acres of land while in the exercise of their offices; and 
 their commissions shall continue in force during good 
 behavior. 
 
 The governor and judges, or a majority of them, 
 shall adopt and publish in the district such laws of 
 the original States, criminal and civil, as may be neces- 
 sary and best suited to the circumstances of the dis- 
 trict, and report them to Congress from time to time: 
 which laws shall be in force in the district until the 
 organization of the General Assembly therein, unless 
 disapproved of by Congress ; but, afterwards, the legis- 
 lature shall have authority to alter them as they shall 
 think fit. 
 
 The governor, for the time being, shall be comman- 
 der-in-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all 
 officers in the same below the rank of general officers; 
 all general officers shall be appointed and commis- 
 sioned by Congress. 
 
 Previous to the organization of the General Assem- 
 bly, the governor shall appoint such magistrates and 
 other civil officers, in each county or township, as he 
 shall find necessary for the preservation of the peace 
 and good order in the same : After the General Assem- 
 bly shall be organized, the powers and duties of the 
 magistrates and other civil officers, shall be reg- 
 ulated and defined by the said assembly; but all 
 magistrates and other civil officers, not herein oth-
 
 282 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 erwise directed, shall, during the continuance of 
 this temporary government, be appointed by the gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws 
 to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts 
 of the district, and for the execution of process, crim- 
 inal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions 
 thereof; and he shall proceed, from time to time, as 
 circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the 
 district in which the Indian titles shall have been 
 extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, 
 however, to such alteration as may thereafter be made 
 by the legislature. 
 
 So soon as there shall be 5,000 free male inhabitants 
 of full age in the district, upon giving proof thereof 
 to the governor, they shall receive authority, with time 
 and place, to erect representatives from their counties 
 or townships to represent them in the General Assem- 
 bly: Provided, That, for every 500 free male inhabi- 
 tants, there shall be one representative, and so on 
 progressively with the number of free male inhabi- 
 tants, shall the right of representation increase, until 
 the number of representatives shall amount to 25; 
 after which, the number and proportion of representa- 
 tives shall be regulated by the legislature: Provided, 
 That no person be eligible or qualified to act as a 
 representative unless he shall have been a citizen of 
 one of the United States three years, and be a resident 
 in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the 
 district three years; and, in either case, shall likewise 
 hold in his own right, in fee simple, 200 acres of land 
 within the same: Provided, also, That a freehold in 50 
 acres of land in the district, having been a citizen of 
 one of the States, and being resident in the district, or 
 the like freehold and two years' residence in the dis- 
 trict, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector 
 of a representative. 
 
 The representatives thus elected, shall serve for the 
 term of two years; and, in case of the death of a rep- 
 resentative, or removal from office, the governor shall 
 issue a writ to the county or township for which he
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 283 
 
 was a member, to elect another in his stead, to serve 
 for the residue of the term. 
 
 The General Assembly, or Legislature, shall consist 
 of the governor, legislative council, and a house of 
 representatives. The legislative council shall consist 
 of five members, to continue in office for five years, 
 unless sooner removed by Congress; any three of whom 
 to be a quorum: and the members of the council shall 
 be nominated and appointed in the following manner, 
 to wit: As soon as representatives shall be elected, 
 the governor shall appoint a time and place for them 
 to meet together; and, when met, they shall nominate 
 ten persons, residents in the district, and each pos- 
 sessed of a freehold in 500 acres of land, and return 
 their names to Congress; five of whom Congress shall 
 appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid; and, 
 whenever a vacancy shall happen in the council, by 
 death or removal from office, the house of representa- 
 tives shall nominate two persons, qualified as afore- 
 said, for each vacancy, and return their names to 
 Congress; one of whom Congress shall appoint and 
 commission for the residue of the term. And every 
 five years, four months at least before the expiration 
 of the time of service of the members of council, the 
 said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified as 
 aforesaid, and return their names to Congress; five 
 of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to 
 serve as members of the council five years, unless 
 sooner removed. And the governor, legislative coun- 
 cil, and house of representatives, shall have authority 
 to make laws in all cases, for the good government of 
 the district, not repugnant to the principles and arti- 
 cles in this ordinance established and declared. And 
 all bills, having passed by a majority in the house, and 
 by a majority in the council, shall be referred to the 
 governor for his assent; but no bill, or legislative act 
 whatever, shall be of any force without his assent. 
 The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, 
 and dissolve the General Assembly, when, in his opin- 
 ion, it shall be expedient. 
 
 The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary,
 
 284 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in 
 the district, shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity 
 and of office; the governor before the President of 
 Congress, and all other officers before the governor. 
 As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, 
 the council and house assembled in one room, shall 
 have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to 
 Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a 
 right of debating but not of voting during this tem- 
 porary government. 
 
 And, for extending the fundamental principles of 
 civil and religious liberty, which form the basis 
 whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions 
 are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the 
 basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, 
 which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said 
 territory: to provide also for the establishment of 
 States, and permanent government therein, and for 
 their admission to a share in the federal councils on an 
 equal footing with the original States, at as early peri- 
 ods as may be consistent with the general interest: 
 
 It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority 
 aforesaid, That the following articles shall be consid- 
 ered as articles of compact between the original States 
 and the people and States in the said territory and 
 forever remain unalterable, unless by common consent, 
 to wit: 
 
 ART. 1st. No person, demeaning himself in a peace- 
 able and orderly manner, shall ever be molested on 
 account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments, 
 in the said territory. 
 
 ART. 2d. The inhabitants of the said territory shall 
 always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas 
 corpus, and of the trial by jury; of a proportionate 
 representation of the people in the legislature; and of 
 judicial proceedings according to the course of the 
 common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for 
 capital offences, where the proof shall be evident or 
 the presumption great. All fines shall be moderate; 
 and no cruel or unusual punishments shall be inflicted. 
 No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property,
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 285 
 
 but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the 
 land ; and, should the public exigencies make it neces- 
 sary, for the common preservation, to take any per- 
 son's property, or to demand his particular services, 
 full compensation shall be made for the same. And, 
 in the just preservation of rights and property, it is 
 understood and declared, that no law ought ever to 
 be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall, 
 in any manner whatever, interfere with or affect pri- 
 vate contracts or engagements, bona fide, and without 
 fraud, previously formed. 
 
 ART. 3d. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being 
 necessary to good government and the happiness of 
 mankind, schools and the means of education shall 
 forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall 
 always be observed toward the Indians; their lands 
 and property shall never be taken from them without 
 their consent; and, in their property, rights, and lib- 
 erty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless 
 in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but 
 laws founded in justice and humanity, shall, from time 
 to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done 
 to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with 
 them. 
 
 ART. 4th. The said territory, and the States which 
 may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part of 
 this confederacy of the United States of America, sub- 
 ject to the Articles of Confederation, and to such alter- 
 ations therein as shall be constitutionally made; and 
 to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in 
 Congress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhab- 
 itants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject 
 to pay a part of the federal debts contracted or to be 
 contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of 
 government, to be apportioned on them by Congress 
 according to the same common rule and measure by 
 which apportionments thereof shall be made on the 
 other States; and the taxes, for paying their propor- 
 tion, shall be laid and levied by the authority and 
 direction of the legislatures of the district or districts, 
 or new States, as in the original States, within the
 
 286 OUB CONSTITUTION. 
 
 time agreed upon by the United States in Congress 
 assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new 
 States, shall never interfere with the primary disposal 
 of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, 
 nor with any regulations Congress may find necessary 
 for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide pur- 
 chasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property 
 of the United States; and, in no case, shall non-resi- 
 dent proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The 
 navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. 
 Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, 
 shall be common highways, and forever free, as well 
 to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citi- 
 zens of the United States, and those of any other 
 States that may be admitted into the Confederacy, 
 without any tax, impost, or duty, therefor. 
 
 ART. 5th. There shall be formed in the said terri- 
 tory, not less than three nor more than five States; 
 and the boundaries of the States, as soon as Virginia 
 shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, 
 shall become fixed and established as follows, to wit: 
 The Western State in the said territory, shall be 
 bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash riv- 
 ers; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post 
 St. Vincent's, due North, to the territorial line between 
 the United States and Canada; and, by the said terri- 
 torial line, to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. 
 The middle State shall be bounded by the said direct 
 line, the Wabash from Post Vincent's, to the Ohio; by 
 the Ohio, by a direct line, drawn due North from the 
 mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, 
 and by the said territorial line. The Eastern State 
 shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the 
 Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: Pro- 
 tided, however, and it is further understood and 
 declared, that the boundaries of these three States 
 shall be subject so far to be altered, that, if Congress 
 shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have an 
 thority to form one or two States in that part of the 
 said territory which lies North of an East and West 
 line drawn through the Southerly bend or extreme of
 
 SOME IMPORTANT INSPIRATIONS 287 
 
 lake Michigan. And, whenever any of the said States 
 shall have 60,000 free inhabitants therein, such State 
 shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the Congress 
 of the United States, on an equal footing with the 
 original States in all respects whatever, and shall be 
 at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State 
 government: Provided, the constitution and govern 
 ment so to be formed, shall be republican, and in 
 conformity to the principles contained in these arti- 
 cles; and, so far as it can be consistent with the 
 general interest of the confederacy, such admission 
 shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there 
 may be a less number of free inhabitants in the State 
 than 60,000. 
 
 ART. 6th. There shall be neither slavery nor invol 
 untary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than 
 in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall 
 have been duly convicted: Provided always, That any 
 person escaping into the same, from whom labor or 
 services is lawfully claimed in any one of the original 
 States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and 
 conveyecl to the person claiming his or her labor or 
 service as aforesaid. 
 
 Done by the United States, in Congress assembled, the 
 13th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1787, and 
 of their sovereignty and independence the twelfth.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between 
 the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, 
 Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Con- 
 necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
 ware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, and Georgia. 
 
 ARTICLE I. The style of this Confederacy shall be, 
 "The United States of America." 
 
 ART. II. Each State retains its sovereignty, free- 
 dom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, 
 and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly 
 delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 ART. III. The said States hereby severally enter 
 into a firm league of friendship with each other, for 
 their common defense, the security of their liberties, 
 and their mutual and general welfare, binding them- 
 selves to assist each other against all force offered to, 
 or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account 
 of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense 
 whatever. 
 
 ART. IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mu- 
 tual friendship and intercourse among the people of 
 the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants 
 of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugi- 
 tives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all 
 privileges and immunities of free citizens in the sev- 
 eral States; and the people of each State shall have 
 free ingress and egress to and from any other State,
 
 APPENDIX 289 
 
 and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and 
 commerce subject to the same duties, impositions, and 
 restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively; 
 provided that such restrictions shall not extend so 
 far as to prevent the removal of property imported 
 into any State to any other State of which the owner 
 is an inhabitant; provided, also, that no imposition, 
 duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State on the 
 property of the United States or either of them. If 
 any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, 
 or other high misdemeanor in any State shall flee from 
 justice and be found in any of the United States, he 
 shall, upon demand of the governor or executive power 
 of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and 
 removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offense. 
 Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these 
 States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings 
 of the courts and magistrates of every other State. 
 
 ART. V. For the more convenient management of 
 the general interests of the United States, delegates 
 shall be annually appointed in such manner as the 
 Legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Con- 
 gress on the first Monday in November, in every year, 
 with a power reserved to each State to recall its dele- 
 gates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and 
 to send others in their stead for the remainder of the 
 year. No State shall be represented in Congress by 
 less than two, nor by more than seven members; and 
 no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more 
 than three years in any term of six years; nor shall 
 any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any 
 office under the United States for which he, or another 
 for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument 
 of any kind. Each State shall maintain its own dele- 
 gates in any meeting of the States and while they act 
 as members of the Committee of the States. In de- 
 termining questions in the United States in Congress 
 assembled, each State shall have one vote. Freedom 
 of speech and debate in Congress shall not be im- 
 peached or questioned in any court or place out of 
 Congress; and the members of Congress shall be pro-
 
 290 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 teoted in their persons from arrests and imprisonment 
 during the time of their going to and from, and attend- 
 ance on, Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach 
 of the peace. 
 
 ART. VI. No State, without the consent of the 
 United States, in Congress assembled, shall send any 
 embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into 
 any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty with any 
 king, prince, or state ; nor shall any person holding any 
 office of profit or trust under the United States, or any 
 of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or 
 title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or 
 foreign state; nor shall the United States, in Congress 
 assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. 
 
 No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, 
 confederation, or alliance whatever between them, 
 without the consent of the United States, in Congress 
 assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for 
 which the same is to be entered into, and how long it 
 shall continue. 
 
 No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may 
 interfere with any stipulations in treaties entered into 
 by the United States, in Congress assembled, with any 
 king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties 
 already proposed by Congress to the courts of France 
 and Spain. 
 
 No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace 
 by any State, except such number only as shall be 
 deemed necessary by the United States, in Congress 
 assembled, for the defense of such State or its trade, 
 nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State in 
 time of peace except such number only as, in the judg- 
 ment of the United States, in Congress assembled, 
 shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts neces- 
 sary for the defense of such State; but every State 
 shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined 
 militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall pro- 
 vide and constantly have ready for use in public stores 
 a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper 
 quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. 
 
 No State shall engage in any war without the con-
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 sent of the United States, in Congress assembled, 
 unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or 
 shall have received certain advice of a resolution being 
 formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, 
 and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a 
 delay till the United States, in Congress assembled, 
 can be consulted; nor shall any State grant commis- 
 sions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of 
 marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of 
 war by the United States, in Congress assembled, and 
 then only against the kingdom or state, and the sub- 
 jects thereof, against which war has been so declared, 
 and under such regulations as shall be established by 
 the United States, in Congress assembled, unless such 
 State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of 
 war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so 
 long as the danger shall continue, or until the United 
 States, in Congress assembled, shall determine other- 
 wise. 
 
 ART. VII. When land forces are raised byany State 
 for the common defense, all officers of or under the 
 rank of Colonel shall be appointed by the Legislature 
 of each State respectively by whom such forces shall 
 be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct, 
 and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which 
 first made the appointment. 
 
 ART. VIII. All charges of war, and all other ex- 
 penses that shall be incurred for the common defense, 
 or general welfare, and allowed by the United States, 
 in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a 
 common treasury, which shall be supplied by the sev- 
 eral States in proportion to the value of all land within 
 each State, granted to, or surveyed for, any person, 
 as such land and the buildings and improvements 
 thereon shall be estimated, according to such mode as 
 the United States, in Congress assembled, shall, from 
 time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for paying 
 that proportion shall be laid and levied by the author- 
 ity and direction of the Legislatures of the several 
 States, within the time agreed upon by the United 
 States, in Congress assembled.
 
 292 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ART. IX. The United States, in Congress asseni 
 bled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power 
 of determining on peace and war, except in the cases 
 mentioned in the sixth Article; of sending and receiv- 
 ing ambassadors; entering into treaties and alliances, 
 provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made, 
 whereby the legislative power of the respective States 
 shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and 
 duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected 
 to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation 
 of any species of goods or commodities whatever; of 
 establishing rules for deciding, in all cases, what cap- 
 tures on land and water shall be legal, and in what 
 manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the 
 service of the United States shall be divided or appro- 
 priated; of granting letters of marque and reprisal in 
 times of peace; appointing courts for the trial of pira- 
 cies and felonies committed on the high seas; and 
 establishing courts for receiving and determining 
 finally appeals in all cases of captures; provided that 
 no member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of 
 any of the said courts. 
 
 The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also 
 be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differ- 
 ences now subsisting, or that hereafter may arise be- 
 tween two or more States concerning boundary, juris- 
 diction, or any other cause whatever; which authority 
 shall always be exercised in the manner following: 
 Whenever the legislative or executive authority, or 
 lawful agent of any State in controversy with another, 
 shall present a petition to Congress, stating the matter 
 in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof 
 shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative 
 or executive authority of the other State in contro- 
 versy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the 
 parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be di- 
 rected to appoint, by joint consent, commissioners or 
 judges to constitute a court for hearing and determin- 
 ing the matter in question; but if they cannot agree. 
 Congress shall name three persons out of each of the 
 United States, and from the list of such persons each
 
 APPENDIX 293 
 
 party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners 
 beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thir 
 teen; and from that number not less than seven nor 
 more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, 
 in the presence of Congress, be drawn out by lot; and 
 the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five 
 of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and 
 finally determine the controversy, so always as a major 
 part of the judges who shall hear the cause shall agree 
 in the determination ; and if either party shall neglect 
 to attend at the day appointed, without showing rea- 
 sons which Congress shall judge sufficient, or being 
 present, shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall pro- 
 ceed to nominate three persons out of each State, and 
 the secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of 
 such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and 
 sentence of the court, to be appointed in the manner 
 before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive; and if 
 any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the author- 
 ity of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or 
 cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pro 
 nounce sentence or judgment, which shall In like man- 
 ner be final and decisive; the judgment or sentence 
 and other proceedings being in either case transmitted 
 to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress 
 for the security of the parties concerned; provided, 
 that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, 
 shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the 
 judges of the supreme or superior court of the State 
 where the cause shall be tried, "well and truly to hear 
 and determine the matter in question, according to the 
 best of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope 
 of reward." Provided, also, that no State shall be de- 
 prived of territory for the benefit of the United States. 
 All controversies concerning the private right of soil 
 claimed under different grants of two or more States, 
 whose jurisdictions, as they may respect such lands, 
 and the States which passed such grants are adjusted, 
 the said grants or either of them being at the same 
 time claimed to have originated antecedent to such 
 settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of
 
 294 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 either party to the Congress of the United States, be 
 finally determined, as near as may be, in the same 
 manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes 
 respecting territorial jurisdiction between different 
 States. 
 
 The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also 
 have the sole and exclusive right and power of regu- 
 lating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own 
 authority, or by that of the respective States; fixing 
 the standard of weights and measures throughout the 
 United States; regulating the trade and managing all 
 affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the 
 States; provided that the legislative right of any State, 
 within its own limits, be not infringed or violated; 
 establishing and regulating post-offices from one State 
 to another, throughout all the United States, and ex- 
 acting such postage on the papers passing through the 
 same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of 
 the said office; appointing all officers of the land 
 forces in the service of the United States, except- 
 ing regimental officers; appointing all the officers 
 of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers 
 whatever in the service of the United States; mak- 
 ing rules for the government and regulation of 
 the said land and naval forces, and directing their 
 operations. 
 
 The United States, in Congress assembled, shall 
 have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the 
 recess of Congress, to be denominated "A Committee 
 of the States," and to consist of one delegate from 
 each State, and to appoint such other committees and 
 civil officers as may be necessary for managing the 
 general affairs of the United States under their direc- 
 tion; to appoint one of their number to preside; pro- 
 vided that no person be allowed to serve in the office 
 of president more than one year in any term of three 
 years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to 
 be raised for the service of the United States, and to 
 appropriate and apply the same for defraying the 
 public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills on the 
 credit of the United States, transmitting every half
 
 APPENDIX 295 
 
 year to the respective States an account of the sums 
 of money so borrowed or emitted; to build and equip 
 a navy; to agree upon the number of land forces, and 
 to make requisitions from each State for its quota, 
 in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in 
 such State, which requisition shall be binding; and 
 thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint 
 the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, 
 and equip them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense 
 of the United States; and the officers and men so 
 clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place 
 appointed, and within the time agreed on by the 
 United States, in Congress assembled; but if the 
 United States, in Congress assembled, shall, on consid- 
 eration of circumstances, judge proper that any State 
 should not raise men, or should raise a smaller num- 
 ber than its quota, and that any other State should 
 raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, 
 such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, 
 armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota 
 of such State, unless the Legislature of such State 
 shall judge that such extra number can not be safely 
 spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, 
 officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra 
 number as they judge can be safely spared, and the 
 officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall 
 march to the place appointed, and within the time 
 agreed on by the United States, in Congress assem- 
 bled. 
 
 The United States, in Congress assembled, shall 
 never engage in war, nor grant letters of marque or 
 reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties 
 or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value 
 thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses neces- 
 sary for the defense and welfare of the United States, 
 or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on 
 the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, 
 nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be 
 built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces 
 to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the 
 army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same.
 
 296 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 nor shall a question on any other point, except for 
 adjourning from day to day, be determined, unless by 
 the votes of a majority of the United States, in Con- 
 gress assembled. 
 
 The Congress of the United States shall have power 
 to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place 
 within the United States, so that no period of adjourn- 
 ment be for a longer duration than the space of six 
 months, and shall publish the journal of their proceed- 
 ings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to 
 treaties, alliances, or military operations as in their 
 judgment require secresy; and the yeas and nays of 
 the delegates of each State, on any question, shall 
 be entered on the journal when it is desired by any 
 delegate; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, 
 at his or their request, shall be furnished with a 
 transcript of the said journal except such parts as 
 are above exempted, to lay before the Legislatures of 
 the several States. 
 
 ART. X. The Committee of the States, or any nine 
 of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess 
 of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the 
 United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent 
 of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedient 
 to vest them with; provided that no power be dele- 
 gated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, 
 by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine 
 States in the Congress of the United States assembled 
 is requisite. 
 
 ART. XI. Canada, acceding to this Confederation, 
 and joining in the measures of the United States, shall 
 be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of 
 this Union ; but no other colony shall be admitted into 
 the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine 
 States. 
 
 ART. XII. All bills of credit emitted, moneys bor- 
 rowed, and debts contracted by or under the authority 
 of Congress, before the assembling of the United 
 States, in pursuance of the present Confederation, 
 shall be deemed and considered as a charge against 
 the United States, for payment and satisfaction
 
 APPENDIX 297 
 
 whereof the United States and the public faith are 
 hereby solemnly pledged. 
 
 ART. XIII. Every State shall abide by the deter- 
 minations of the United States, in Congress assembled, 
 on all questions which by this Confederation are sub- 
 mitted to them. And the Articles of this Confedera- 
 tion shall be inviolably observed by every State, and 
 the Union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alteration 
 at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless 
 such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the 
 United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the 
 Legislatures of every State. 
 
 AND WHEREAS it hath pleased the great Governor of 
 the world to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we 
 respectively represent in Congress to approve of, and 
 to authorize us to ratify, the said Articles of Confed- 
 eration and perpetual Union, know ye, that we, the 
 undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and 
 authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these 
 presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective 
 constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each 
 and every of the said Articles of Confederation and 
 perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and 
 things therein contained. And we do further solemnly 
 plight and engage the faith of our respective constitu- 
 ents, that they shall abide by the determinations of 
 the United States, in Congress assembled, on all ques- 
 tions which by the said Confederation are submitted 
 to them; and that the Articles thereof shall be invio- 
 lably observed by the States we respectively represent, 
 and that the Union shall be perpetual. 
 
 In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands 
 in Congress. Done at Philadelphia, in the State 
 of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the year 
 of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sev- 
 enty-eight, and in the third year of the independ- 
 ence of America.
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 WE, the people of the United States, in order to form 
 a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domes- 
 tic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
 of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain 
 and establish this Constitution for the United State* 
 of America. 
 
 ARTICLE I 
 
 SECTION I 
 
 All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested 
 in a Congress of the United States, which shall con- 
 sist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 The House of Representatives shall be composed of 
 members chosen every second year by the people of 
 the several States, and the electors in each State shall 
 have the qualifications requisite for electors of the 
 most numerous branch of the State legislature. 
 
 No person shall be a Representative who shall not 
 have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been 
 seven years a citizen of the United States, and who 
 shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State 
 in which he shall be chosen. 
 
 Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- 
 tioned among the several States which may be included 
 within this Union, according to their respective num-
 
 APPENDIX 299 
 
 bers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
 number of free persons, including those bound to ser- 
 vice for a term of years, and excluding Indians not 
 taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual 
 enumeration shall be made within three years after 
 the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, 
 and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such 
 manner as they shall by law direct. The number of 
 Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
 thousand, but each State shall have at least one Rep- 
 resentative; and until such enumeration shall be made, 
 the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose 
 three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence 
 Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New 
 Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Mary- 
 land six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, 8outh 
 Carolina five, and Georgia three. 
 
 When vacancies happen in the representation from 
 any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue 
 writs of election to fill such vacancies. 
 
 The House of Representatives shall choose their 
 Speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole 
 power of impeachment. 
 
 SECTION III 
 
 The Senate of the United States shall be composed 
 of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legisla- 
 ture thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have 
 one vote. 
 
 Immediately after they shall be assembled in con- 
 sequence of the first election, they shall be divided 
 as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of 
 the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the 
 expiration of the second year; of the second class, at 
 the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third 
 class, at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one- 
 third may be chosen every second year; and if vacan- 
 cies happen by resignation or otherwise during the 
 recess of the legislature of any State, the executive 
 thereof may make temporary appointments until the
 
 300 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill 
 such vacancies. 
 
 No person shall be a Senator who shall not have 
 attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years 
 a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
 elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he 
 shall be chosen. 
 
 The Vice-President of the United States shall be 
 President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless 
 they be equally divided. 
 
 The Senate shall choose their other officers, and 
 also a President pro tempore in the absence of the Vice- 
 President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all 
 impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they 
 shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President 
 of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall 
 preside: and no person shall be convicted without the 
 concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 
 
 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend 
 further than to removal from office, and disqualifica- 
 tion to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or 
 profit under the United States; but the party convicted 
 shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indict- 
 ment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to 
 law. 
 
 SECTION IV 
 
 The times, places, and manner of holding elections 
 for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed 
 in each State by the legislature thereof; but the Con- 
 gress may at any time by law make or alter such regu- 
 lations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 
 
 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every 
 year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday 
 in December, unless they shall by law appoint a differ- 
 ent day.
 
 APPENDIX 301 
 
 SECTION V 
 
 Each house shall be the judge of the elections, re- 
 turns, and qualifications of its own members, and a, 
 majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do busi- 
 ness; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to 
 day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance 
 of absent members, in such manner, and under such 
 penalties, as each house may provide. 
 
 Each house may determine the rules of its proceed- 
 ings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and 
 with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 
 
 Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
 and from time to time publish the same, except- 
 ing such parts as may in their judgment require 
 secrecy, and the yeas and nays of the members of 
 either house on any question shall, at the desire of 
 one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 
 
 Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, 
 without the consent of the other, adjourn for more 
 than three days, nor to any other place than that in 
 which the two houses shall be sitting. 
 
 SECTION VI 
 
 The Senators and Representatives shall receive a 
 compensation for their services, to be ascertained by 
 law and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. 
 They shall, in all cases except treason, felony, and 
 breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during 
 their attendance at the session of their respective 
 houses, and in going to and returning from the same; 
 and for any speech or debate in either house they shall 
 not be questioned in any other place. 
 
 No Senator or Representative shall, during the time 
 for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil 
 office under the authority of the United States, which 
 shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof 
 shall have been increased during such time; and no 
 person holding any office under the United States shall 
 be a member of either house during his continuance 
 in office.
 
 302 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 SECTION VII 
 
 All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 
 House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose 
 or concur with amendments as on other bills. 
 
 Every bill which shall have passed the House of 
 Representatives and the Senate shall, before it be- 
 come a law, be presented to the President of the United 
 States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he 
 shall return it, with his objections, to that house in 
 which it shall have originated, who shall enter the 
 objections at large on their journal and proceed to 
 reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds 
 of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be 
 sent, together with the objections, to the other house, 
 by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if ap* 
 proved by two thirds of that house it shall become a 
 law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses 
 shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names 
 of the persons voting for and against the bill shall 
 be entered on the journal of each house respectively. 
 If any bill shall not be returned by the President 
 within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have 
 been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like 
 manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress 
 by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case 
 it shall not be a law. 
 
 Every order, resolution, or vote to which the con- 
 currence of the Senate and House of Representatives 
 may be necessary (except on a question of adjourn- 
 ment) shall be presented to the President of the United 
 States; and before the same shall take effect, shall 
 be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall 
 be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of 
 Representatives, according to the rules and limitations 
 prescribed in the case of a bill. 
 
 SECTION VIII 
 
 The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
 taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts
 
 APPENDIX 303 
 
 and provide for the common defense and general wel- 
 fare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, 
 and exercises shall be uniform throughout the United 
 States ; 
 
 To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 
 
 To regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
 among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; 
 
 To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and 
 uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies through- 
 out the United States; 
 
 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of 
 foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and meas- 
 ures; 
 
 To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the 
 securities and current coin of the United States; 
 
 To establish post-offices and post-roads; 
 
 To promote the progress of science and useful arts 
 by securing for limited times to authors and inventors 
 the exclusive right to their respective writings and 
 discoveries; 
 
 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme 
 Court; 
 
 To define and punish piracies and felonies commit- 
 ted on the high seas and offenses against the law of 
 nations; 
 
 To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, 
 and make rules concerning captures on land and 
 water; 
 
 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation 
 of money to that use shall be for a longer term than 
 two years; 
 
 To provide and maintain a navy; 
 
 To make rules for the government and regulation 
 of the land and naval forces ; 
 
 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
 the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
 repel invasions; 
 
 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining 
 the militia, and for governing such part of them as may 
 be employed in the service of the United States, re- 
 serving to the States respectively the appointment of
 
 304 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 the officers, and the authority of training the militia 
 according to the discipline prescribed by Congress ; 
 
 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what- 
 soever over such district (not exceeding ten miles 
 square) as may, by cession of particular States and 
 the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the 
 Government of the United States, and to exercise like 
 authority over all places purchased by the consent of 
 the legislature of the State in which the same shall 
 be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock- 
 yards, and other needful buildings; and 
 
 To make all laws which shall be necessary and 
 proper for carrying into execution the foregoing pow- 
 ers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution 
 in the Government of the United States, or in any 
 department or officer thereof. 
 
 SECTION IX 
 
 The migration or importation of such persons as 
 any of the States now existing shall think proper to 
 admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior 
 to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but 
 a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, 
 not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 
 
 The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not 
 be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or 
 invasion the public safety may require it. 
 
 No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be 
 passed. 
 
 No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, un- 
 less in proportion to the census or enumeration here- 
 inbefore directed to be taken. 
 
 No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported 
 from any State. 
 
 No preference shall be given by any regulation of 
 commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over 
 those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from 
 one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in 
 another. 
 
 No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in
 
 APPENDIX 305 
 
 consequence of appropriations made by law; and a 
 regular statement and account of the receipts and 
 expenditures of all public money shall be published 
 from time to time. 
 
 No title of nobility shall be granted by the United 
 States; and no person holding any office of profit or 
 trust under them shall, without the consent of the 
 Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or 
 title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or 
 foreign State-. 
 
 SECTION X 
 
 No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or 
 confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; 
 coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but 
 gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass 
 any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impair 
 ing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of 
 nobility. 
 
 No State shall, without the consent of Congress, 
 lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except 
 what may be absolutely necessary for executing its 
 inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and 
 imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall 
 be for the use of the Treasury of the United States; 
 and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and 
 control of the Congress. 
 
 No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay 
 any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in 
 time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
 with another State or with a foreign power, or engage 
 in war, unless actually invaded or in such imminent 
 danger as will not admit of delay. 
 
 ARTICLE II 
 
 SECTION I 
 
 The executive power shall be vested in a President 
 of the United States of America. He shall hold his 
 office during the term of four years, and together with
 
 306 OUB CONSTITUTION 
 
 the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be 
 elected as follows: 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the 
 legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, 
 equal to the whole number of Senators and Represen- 
 tatives to which the State may be entitled in the Con 
 gress; but no Senator or Representative, or person 
 holding an office of trust or profit under the United 
 States, shall be appointed an elector. 
 
 [The electors shall meet in their respective States 
 and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at 
 least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with 
 themselves. And they shall make a list of all the per- 
 sons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; 
 which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
 sealed to the seat of government of the United States, 
 directed to the President of the Senate. The President 
 of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
 House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and 
 the votes shall then be counted. The person having 
 the greatest number of votes shall be the president, 
 if such number be a majority of the whole number 
 of electors appointed; and if there be more than one 
 who have such majority, and have an equal number 
 of votes, then the House of Representatives shall im- 
 mediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; 
 and if no person have a majority, then from the five 
 highest on the list the said House shall in like manner 
 choose the President. But in choosing the President 
 the votes shall be taken by States, the representation 
 from each State having one vote; a quorum for this 
 purpose shall consist of a member or members from 
 two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the 
 States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, 
 after the choice of the President, the person having 
 the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be 
 the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or 
 more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose 
 from them by ballot the Vice-President.]* 
 
 *This clause of the Constitution has been amended. See twelfth 
 article of the amendments.
 
 APPENDIX 307 
 
 The Congress may determine the time of choosing 
 the electors and the day on which they shall give their 
 votes, which day shall be the same throughout the 
 United States. 
 
 No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen 
 of the United States at the time of the adoption of 
 this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of Presi- 
 dent; neither shall any person be eligible to that office 
 who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five 
 years, and been fourteen years a resident within the 
 United States. 
 
 In case of the removal of the President from office, 
 or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge 
 the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall 
 devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may 
 by law provide for the case of removal, death, resigna- 
 tion, or inability, both of the President and Vice- 
 President, declaring what officer shall then act as 
 President, and such officer shall act accordingly until 
 the disability be removed or a President shall be 
 elected. 
 
 The President shall, at stated times, receive for his 
 services a compensation, which shall neither be in- 
 creased nor diminished during the period for which 
 lie may have been elected, and he shall not receive 
 within that period any other emolument from the 
 United States or any of them. 
 
 Before he enter on the execution of his office he shall 
 take the following oath or affirmation : 
 
 "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 
 execute the office of President of the United States, 
 and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 The President shall be Commander-in-chief of the 
 A rmy and Navy of the United States, and of the militia 
 of the several States when called into the actual ser- 
 vice of the United States; he may require the opinion, 
 in writing, of the principal officer in each of the execu-
 
 ?08 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 tive departments, upon any subject relating to the 
 duties of their respective offices, and he shall have 
 power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses 
 against the United States, except in cases of impeach- 
 ment. 
 
 He shall have power, by and with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two 
 thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall 
 nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public 
 ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court. 
 and all other officers of the United States, whose ap- 
 pointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and 
 which shall be established by law; but the Congress 
 may by law vest the appointment of such inferior offi- 
 cers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in 
 the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.. 
 
 The President shall have power to fill up all vacan- 
 cies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, 
 by granting commissions which shall expire at the end 
 of their next session. 
 
 SECTION III 
 
 He shall from time to time give to the Congress 
 information of the state of the Union, and recommend 
 to their consideration such measures as he shall judge 
 necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary 
 occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and 
 in case of disagreement between them with respect 
 to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to 
 such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive 
 ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take 
 care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall 
 commission all the officers of the United States. 
 
 SECTION IV 
 
 The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers 
 of the United States shall be removed from office on 
 impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, 
 or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
 
 APPENDIX 309 
 
 ARTICLE III 
 
 SECTION I 
 
 The judicial power of the United States shall be 
 vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior 
 courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain 
 and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and 
 inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good 
 behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their 
 services a compensation which shall not be diminished 
 during their continuance in office. 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
 and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws 
 of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall 
 be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting 
 ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to 
 all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to 
 controversies to which the United States shall be a 
 party; to controversies between two or more States; 
 between a State and citizens of another State; between 
 citizens of different States; between citizens of the 
 same State claiming lands under grants of different 
 States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, 
 and foreign States, citizens, or subjects. 
 
 In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public min- 
 isters and consuls, and those in which a State shall 
 be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original 
 jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned 
 the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, 
 both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and 
 under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 
 
 The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeach- 
 ment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in 
 the State where the said crimes shall have been com- 
 mitted; but when not committed within any State, 
 the trial shall be at such place or places as the Con- 
 gress may by law have directed.
 
 J10 OUB CONSTITUTION 
 
 SECTION III 
 
 Treason against the United States shall consist only 
 in levying war against them, or in adhering to their 
 enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person 
 shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony 
 of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession 
 in open court. 
 
 The Congress shall have power to declare the pun- 
 ishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall 
 work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during 
 the life of the person attainted. 
 
 ARTICLE IV 
 
 SECTION I 
 
 Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to 
 the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of 
 every other State. And the Congress may by general 
 laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, 
 and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 
 privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
 States. 
 
 A person charged in any State with treason, felony, 
 or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be 
 found in another State, shall, on demand of the execu- 
 tive authority of the State from which he fled, be 
 delivered up, to be removed to the State having juris- 
 diction of the crime. 
 
 No person held to service or labor in one State, 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in 
 consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- 
 charged from such service or labor, but shall be deliv 
 ered up on claim of the party to whom such service 
 or labor may be due.
 
 APPENDIX 311 
 
 SECTION* III 
 
 New States may be admitted by the Congress into 
 this Union; but no new State shall be formed or 
 erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor 
 any State be formed by the junction of two or more 
 States or parts of States, without the consent of the 
 legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the 
 Congress. 
 
 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and 
 make all needful rules and regulations respecting the 
 territory or other property belonging to the United 
 States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so 
 construed as to prejudice any claims of the United 
 States or of any particular State. 
 
 SECTION IV 
 
 The United States shall guarantee to every State 
 in this Union a republican form of government, and 
 shall protect each of them against invasion, and on 
 application of the legislature, or of the executive 
 (when the legislature cannot be convened), against do- 
 mestic violence. 
 
 ARTICLE V 
 
 The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses 
 shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to 
 this Constitution, or, on the application of the legis- 
 latures of two thirds of the several States, shall call 
 a convention for proposing amendments, which in 
 either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes 
 as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legis- 
 latures of three fourths of the several States, or by 
 conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the 
 other mode of ratification may be proposed by the 
 Congress, provided that no amendments which may be 
 made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
 and eight shall in any manner affect the first and
 
 512 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; 
 and that no State, without its consent, shall be de- 
 prived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 
 
 ARTICLE VI 
 
 All debts contracted and engagements entered into, 
 before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as 
 valid against the United States under this Constitu- 
 tion as under the confederation. 
 
 This Constitution, and the laws of the United States 
 which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all 
 treaties made, or which shall be made, under the au- 
 thority of the United States, shall be the supreme law 
 of the land; and the judges in every State shall be 
 bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws 
 of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, 
 and the members of the several State legislatures, and 
 all executive and judicial officers both of the United 
 States and of the several States, shall be bound by 
 oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but 
 no religious test shall ever be required as a qualifica- 
 tion to any office or public trust under the United 
 States. 
 
 ARTICLE VII 
 
 The ratification of the conventions of nine States 
 shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Consti- 
 tution between the States so ratifying the same. 
 
 Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the 
 States present, the seventeenth day of September, 
 in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 
 dred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of 
 the United States of America the twelfth. In wit- 
 ness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our 
 names. 
 
 George Washington, President, and Deputy from VIR- 
 GINIA.
 
 APPENDIX 313 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE John Langdon, Nicholas Oilman. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King. 
 
 CONNECTICUT William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sher- 
 man. 
 
 NEW YORK Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 NEW JERSEY William Livingston, David Brearly, 
 William Paterson, Jonathan Dayton. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, 
 Robert Morris, George Clyrner, Thomas Fitzsim- 
 ons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Gouverneur 
 Morris. 
 
 DELAWARE George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John 
 Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. 
 
 MARYLAND James McHenry, Daniel of St. Thomas 
 Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. 
 
 VIRGINIA John Blair, James Madison, Jr. 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA William Blount, Richard Dobbs 
 Spaight, Hugh Williamson. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth 
 Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler. 
 
 GEORGIA William Few, Abraham Baldwin. 
 
 Attest: William Jackson, Secretary. 
 
 AMENDMENTS 
 
 ARTICLE I 
 
 Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- 
 ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
 thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the 
 press; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- 
 ble, and to petition the government for a redress of 
 grievances.
 
 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ARTICLE II 
 
 A well-regulated militia being necessary to the se- 
 curity of a free State, the right of the people to keep 
 and bear arms shall not be infringed. 
 
 ARTICLE III 
 
 No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in 
 any house without the consent of the owner, nor in 
 time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 ARTICLE IV 
 
 The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
 houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable 
 searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no 
 warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, sup- 
 ported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describ- 
 ing the place to be searched, and the person or things 
 to be seized. 
 
 ARTICLE V 
 
 No person shall be held to answer for a capital or 
 otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or 
 indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in 
 the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in act- 
 ual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall 
 any person be subject for the same offense to be twice 
 put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled 
 in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, 
 nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without 
 due process of law; nor shall private property be taken 
 for public use without just compensation. 
 
 ARTICLE VI 
 
 In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy 
 the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial 
 jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall
 
 APPENDIX 315 
 
 have been committed, which district shall have been 
 previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of 
 the nature and cause of the accusation; to be con- 
 fronted with the witnesses against him; to have com- 
 pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, 
 and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 
 
 ARTICLE VII 
 
 In suits at common law, where the value in contro- 
 versy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by 
 jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury 
 shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the 
 United States, than according to the rules of the com- 
 mon law. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII 
 
 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 
 fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments in- 
 flicted. 
 
 ARTICLE IX 
 
 The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights 
 shall not be construed to deny or disparage others 
 retained by the people. 
 
 ARTICLE X 
 
 The powers not delegated to the United States by 
 the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
 reserved to the States respectively or to the people. 
 
 ARTICLE XI 
 
 The judicial power of the United States shall not be 
 construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, com- 
 menced or prosecuted against one of the United States 
 by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects 
 of any foreign State.
 
 316 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 ARTICLE XII 
 
 The electors shall meet in their respective States 
 and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, 
 one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of 
 the same State with themselves; they shall name in 
 their ballots the person voted for as President, and 
 in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-Presi- 
 dent, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
 voted for as President and of all persons voted for as 
 Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each; 
 which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
 sealed to the seat of the government of the United 
 States, directed to the President of the Senate. The 
 President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the 
 Senate and House of Representatives, open all the 
 certificates and the votes shall then be counted. The 
 person having the greatest number of votes for Presi- 
 dent shall be the President, if such number be a 
 majority of the whole number of electors appointed; 
 and if no person have such majority, then from the 
 persons having the highest numbers not exceeding 
 three on the list of those voted for as President, the 
 House of Representatives shall choose immediately, 
 by ballot, the President. But in choosing the Presi- 
 dent the votes shall be taken by States, the representa- 
 tion from each State having one vote; a quorum for 
 this purpose shall consist of a member or members 
 from two thirds of the States, and a majority of .ill 
 the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the 
 House of Representatives shall not choose a President 
 whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, 
 before the fourth day of March next following, then 
 the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the 
 case of the death or other constitutional disability of 
 the President. 
 
 The person having the greatest number of votes as 
 Vice-President shall be the Vice-President. if such 
 number be a majority of the whole number of electors 
 appointed; and if no person have a majority, then from 
 the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall
 
 APPENDIX 317 
 
 choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose 
 shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of 
 Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall 
 be necessary to a choice. But no person constitution- 
 ally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible 
 to that of Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 ARTICLE XIII 
 
 SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 
 tude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the 
 party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within 
 the United States or any place subject to their juris 
 diction. 
 
 SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to enforce 
 this article by appropriate legislation. 
 
 ARTICLE XIV 
 
 SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the 
 United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
 are citizens of the United States and of the State 
 wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce 
 any law which shall abridge the privileges or immu- 
 nities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any 
 State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
 without due process of law; nor deny to any person 
 within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 
 
 SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned 
 among the several States according to their respective 
 numbers, counting the whole number of persons in 
 each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when 
 the right to vote at any election for the choice of 
 electors for President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and 
 judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 
 legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male in 
 habitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, 
 and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
 abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other
 
 318 OUR CONSTITUTION 
 
 crime, the basis of representation therein shall bo 
 reduced in the proportion which the number of such 
 male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 
 citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 
 
 SECTION 3. No person shall be a Senator or Repre- 
 sentative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- 
 President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 
 the United States or under any State, who, having 
 previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, 
 or as an officer of the United States, or as a member 
 of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial 
 officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the 
 United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or 
 rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to 
 the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of 
 two thirds of each house, remove such disability. 
 
 SECTION 4. The validity of the public debt of the 
 United States, authorized by law, including debts in- 
 curred for payment of pensions and bounties for ser- 
 vices in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not 
 be questioned. But neither the United States nor any 
 State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation in- 
 curred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
 United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipa- 
 tion of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and 
 claims shall be held illegal and void. 
 
 SECTION 5. The Congress shall have power to en- 
 force, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this 
 article. 
 
 ARTICLE XV 
 
 SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United 
 States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 
 United States or by any State on account of race, 
 color, or previous condition of servitude. 
 
 SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to en- 
 force this article by appropriate legislation. 
 
 r
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 319 
 
 STATISTICS OF ORIGINAL STATES 
 
 STATE. 
 
 Date of rati- 
 fication. 
 
 Pop. at 
 date of 
 ratifica- 
 tion. 
 
 Slave 
 pop. in 
 1790* 
 
 Total 
 pop. in 
 1900. 
 
 Negro 
 pop. in 
 1900. 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Dec. 7 1787 
 
 59,096 
 
 8 887 
 
 184,735 
 
 30,697 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Dec. 12, 1787 
 
 432,373 
 
 
 6,302,115 
 
 156.845 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Dec. 18 1787 
 
 184 139 
 
 
 1 883,669 
 
 i;8 844 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Jan. 2 1788 
 
 82,548 
 
 29,264 
 
 2,216,331 
 
 1,034,813 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Jan. 9, 1788 
 
 238.141 
 
 
 1 J08,420 
 
 15,226 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Feb. 6 1788 
 
 378 787 
 
 
 2,805 346 
 
 31.974 
 
 
 Apr 28 1788 
 
 319,728 
 
 103,036 
 
 1,188.044 
 
 235,064 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 May 23 1788 
 
 249,073 
 
 107,094 
 
 1,340,316 
 
 782,321 
 
 
 June 21, 1788 
 
 141,899 
 
 
 411,588 
 
 622 
 
 Virginia 
 
 June 26, 1788 
 
 747,610 
 
 305,257 
 
 1,854,184 
 
 660,722 
 
 New York 
 
 July 26. 1788 
 
 340,120 
 
 
 7,268,894 
 
 99,232 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Nov. 21 1788 
 
 397,751 
 
 103,989 
 
 1.893,810 
 
 624,469 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 May 29, 1790 
 
 217,353 
 
 
 428,556 
 
 9,092 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * Slavery had almost ceased in the Northern States at this time.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Adams, John, 64, 73, 180, 222. 
 Adams, John Quincy, 89, 182. 
 Adams, Samuel, 64, 66, 218. 
 Amendment, Fourteenth, 231. 
 Amendment, Fifteenth, 231. 
 Ames, Fisher, 218. 
 Antlfederalists, The, 210. 
 
 B 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, 28, 29. 
 
 Bancroft, 44. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, 26. 
 
 Bernard, Governor, 58. 
 
 Bill of Rights, American, 68, 
 
 198, 214, 222. 
 Bill of Rights, English, 20, 223, 
 
 224, 262; Macaulay on the, 20. 
 Bill, The Grab, 139, 188. 
 Boston Port Bill, 61. 
 Boston Tea Party, 60. 
 Bryce, James, 164, 184. 
 Burke, Edmund, 60, 65. 
 Burr, Aaron, 181. 
 
 Cabinet, The, 102, 131, 144, 160, 
 
 187, 190. 
 Calvin, 17. 
 Canada, 49. 64. 
 
 Carolines, The, 39, 62, 151, 219. 
 Charles I, 19, 20, 28, 45. 
 Charles II, 20, 27, 29, 38. 
 Chatham, Lord, 65. 
 Civil Rights Acts, 232. 
 Civil Service Laws, 190. 
 Civil War, 148. 
 Clay, Henry, 182. 
 Cleveland, Grover, 145, 148, 193. 
 Clinton, George, 220. 
 
 Colonies, The, 21, 22, 33, 34, 35, 36 
 
 37, 38, 39, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58 61, 
 
 63, 64, 66. 
 Columbia, District of, Laws for, 
 
 161. 
 Confederation, Articles of, 69, 
 
 73, 76, 94, 97, 117, 120, 157, 235, 
 
 288; New England, 259. 
 Congress, 47, 48, 55, 59, 63, 66, 
 
 69, 72, 76, 79, 100, 122, 131, 132, 
 
 136, 138, 172, 185. 
 Connecticut, 34, 43, 45, 68, 99; 
 
 Fundamental orders of, 253. 
 Constitution, The first written, 
 
 25; The Confederation, 45, 48, 
 
 69, 75. 
 Philadelphia Convention, 78, 81, 
 
 90, 97, 99, 108; Signers of, 84, 
 
 87; Articles and amendments, 
 
 108, 298; Ratification of, 211; 
 
 Documents relating to, 235. 
 Copyright, 157. 
 
 Court of Appeals, Circuit, 196. 
 Cranmer, 17. 
 Crawford, Will H., 182. 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 19, 20, 26. 
 
 D 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 21, 
 
 68, 80. 209, 274. 
 Declaration of Rights, 55, 56, 64, 
 
 270. 
 
 Delancy, James, 50. 
 Delaware, 38, 217. 
 Dickinson, 81, 103. 
 Dutch, The, 34, 35, 38, 46. 
 
 E 
 
 Edward VI, 17. 
 Electoral College, 100, 184. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 17. 
 Ellsworth, 80. 150. 
 Emancipation Proclamation, 228. 
 
 320
 
 INDEX. 
 
 321 
 
 England, Constitutional Rights, 
 18, 19, 20; Colonies, 22, 40; 
 Jurisdiction over colonies, 53; 
 Political beliefs in 17th cen- 
 tury, 17; Revolution in, 48; 
 Taxes on colonies, 56, 59, 60; 
 War with colonies, 66. 
 
 England, King of, 52, 57, 60, 64, 
 167. 
 
 Federal Union, 64, 75. 
 
 Federalist, The, 213, 220. 
 
 Federalists, The 219. 
 
 Field, Justice, 151. 
 
 Fiske, John, 42, 68, 120, 220. 
 
 Ford, Paul L., 220. 
 
 France, Treaty with, 72. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 50, 56, 57, 
 66, 73, 81, 90, 99, 102, 118, 206, 
 207, 209, 216; His plan of union, 
 266. 
 
 French, The, 41, 46, 48. 
 
 Gadsden, Christopher, 55, 62, 64. 
 George III, 55, 57, 58, 67. 
 Georgia, 39, 82, 151, 153. 
 Gerry, Elbridge, 80, 83, 98, 100, 
 
 120, 128, 174, 206, 207, 214. 
 Griffen, Cyrus, 221. 
 
 Hamilton, Alex., 78, 82, 93, 97, 
 132, 159, 163, 169, 174, 177, 181, 
 186, 197, 203, 209, 215, 216, 220. 
 
 Hancock, John, 66. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, 216. 
 
 Hayes, R. B., 182. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 51, 54, 63, 64, 65, 
 73. 216. 
 
 Hooker, Thomas, 43, 46. 
 
 Hudson, Henry, 34. 
 
 Indiana, 40, 46, 49. 
 
 Jackson, William, 90. 
 James I, 17, 18, 21, 22. 
 
 James II, 20, 34, 48. 
 
 Jay, John, 64, 73, 77, 220. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 63, 64, 68, 145, 
 
 163, 180. 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, 130, 132. 
 Johnson, William, 80. 
 Johnston, Alexander, 42. 
 Judicial System, Federal, 194, 
 
 195. 
 
 King, Rufus, 170. 
 Knox, John, 17, 20. 
 
 Langdon, John, 81, 150. 
 
 Laurens, Henry, 73. 
 
 Dee, Henry, 213, 216. 
 
 Lee, Richard Henry, 64, 213. 
 
 Leisler, Jacob, 42. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 130, 161, 200, 
 
 228. 
 
 Livingston, 81. 
 Lodge, Henry Cabot, 42. 
 Louis XIV, 48. 
 Lowndes, Rawlin, 219. 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay on the Bill of Rights, 
 
 20. 
 Madison, James, 78, 80, 83, 88, 90, 
 
 93, 100, 103, 117, 121, 128, 139, 
 
 150, 176, 213, 216, 220. 
 Magna Charta, 18, 19, 166, 236. 
 Marshall, John, 216. 
 Maryland. 28, 78, 152, 219. 
 Mason, George, 86, 98, 150, 153, 
 
 177, 206, 207, 209, 214. 
 Massachusetts, 36, 37, 43, 46, 52, 
 
 55, 57, 62, 76. 
 
 Mayflower Compact, 35, 42. 
 Missouri Compromise, 226. 
 Morris, Gouverneur, 82, 97, 117, 
 
 127. 150, 176, 177. 
 
 N 
 
 Navigation Acts, 26. 
 
 New England, 45, 51, 66, 152, 113, 
 
 165. 
 New Hampshire, 37, 38, 220.
 
 322, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 New Jersey, 79. 
 New York, 60, 62, 77, 78, 226. 
 North, Lord, 60. 
 Northwest, Ordinances for the 
 government of, 278, 279. 
 
 Oglethorpe, James, 39. 
 Otis, James, 52, 55. 
 
 Parliament, 19, 20, 26, 53, 56, 58, 
 
 61, 64, 67, 72, 167, 213. 
 Patent Rights, 158. 
 Paterson, William, 81, 82, 93, 
 
 108. 
 Penn, William, 38, 48; Plan of 
 
 union, 49. 
 Pennsylvania, 217. 
 Petition of Rights, 19. 
 Pierce, William, 82. 
 Pinckney, Charles, 89, 93, 97, 102, 
 
 152, 174, 177, 181, 207. 
 Pinckney, Cotesworth, 219. 
 Plymouth Colony, 36. 
 Plymouth Compact, 251. 
 President, The, 47, 90, 100, 102, 
 
 124, 131, 138, 144, 157, 172, 174, 
 
 185, 186, 189, 192, 222. 
 
 Q 
 
 Quebec Act, 61. 
 
 R 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, 83, 93, 97, 
 
 100. 102, 108, 144, 150, 174, 177, 
 
 202. 
 
 Randolph, John, 206, 209. 
 Randolph, Peyton, 64. 
 Repeal Act. 56, 58. 
 Representatives, House of, 98, 
 
 114, 118, 128, 130, 133, 135, 176, 
 
 225. 
 
 Revolution, American, 53, 66. 
 Rhode Island, 37, 80, 92. 
 Rutledge, John, 64, 73, 80, 177. 
 
 S 
 
 Scott, Dred, decision, 227, 228. 
 
 Senate, The, 98, 104, 125, 126, 129, 
 135, 138, 190. 
 
 Sherman, Roger, 83, 99, 103, 143, 
 178. 
 
 Singletary, Amos, 218. 
 
 Slavery in colonies, 63; Ques- 
 tion of, at Constitutional Con- 
 vention, 121, 152, 153, 165; 
 Fugitive Slave Law, 200, 225, 
 227, 228, 233. 
 
 Smith, Captain John, 23. 
 
 Smith, Melanchthon, 221. 
 
 Speaker, The, 123, 136. 
 
 Stamp Act, 53, 55, 56. 
 
 State Rights, 46, 75, 139, 155, 171, 
 212. 
 
 Strong, Caleb, 81. 
 
 Stuarts, The, 17. 
 
 Sumter, Thomas, 219. 
 
 Supreme Court, The, 144, 148, 150, 
 158, 171, 194, 198, 227. 
 
 Tariff Bills, 145. 
 Tea Act, The, 59, 60. 
 Tilden, Samuel J., 183. 
 Treasury, Secretary of the, 169. 
 Tyler, John, 216. 
 
 U 
 
 Union, American, 
 plan of, 49. 
 
 44; Penn's 
 
 Vice-President, The, 128, 129, 
 
 175, 185, 187, 222. 
 Virginia, 22, 24, 27, 29, 54, 59, 62. 
 
 63, 80, 86, 89, 121. 
 
 W 
 
 War, Secretary of, 159. 
 
 Washington, George, 49, 59, 62. 
 63, 66, 71, 73, 74, 76, 78, 80, 84, 
 90, 102, 109, 162, 180, 192, 195, 
 206, 209, 210, 215, 216, 222. 
 
 Wilson, James, 81, 102, 173, 186. 
 195, 202, 208, 216. 
 
 Writs of Assistants, 52,
 
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