serving to each state the power to recall its delegates or any of them, at any time during the year, and to send others in their stead. Each state was required to "maintain" its own delegates. Each state was given one vote in "determining questions in the United States." Provision was made for freedom of speech and debate, and for the protection of members of the congress from arrest. The prohibitions laid upon the individual states were as follows: They could not send or receive embassies or make treaties, without the consent of congress, nor grant titles of nobility. They could not make treaties with. each other, without the same consent. They could not lay imposts or duties which might interfere with treaties made by the United States. They could not, in time of peace, maintain armies or navies, except to such extent as congress should judge to be necessary for their defense. They could not engage in war, without the consent of congress, except in case of actual invasion or a threatened Indian depredation, nor commission ships of war, nor grant letters of marque or reprisal, unless after the United States had declared war, and then only against the other belligerent and under congressional regulation, "unless such state be infested by pirates." "All charges of war and all other expenses 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 several 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 authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the United States in congress assembled." The powers confided to "the United States in congress assembled" were principally as follows: To determine on peace and war; send and receive ambassadors; enter into treaties and alliances; establish rules for prizes and captures on land; to grant letters of marque and reprisal; establish courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas; to act as the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences between the states on questions of boundary, jurisdiction, or other cause; to regulate the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority or that of the respective states; to fix the standard of weights and measures; to regulate trade and manage affairs with the Indians; to establish and regulate post-offices from one state to another; to appoint superior officers of the army and navy, and make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces, and direct their operations; to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of congress, to be denominated a "committee of the states," and consisting of one delegate from each state; to appropriate and apply money for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money and emit bills on the credit of the United States; and to raise and maintain an army and navy. But in regard to nearly all these powers (and certainly all the most important of them), it was provided that they should never be exercised by the congress "unless nine states assent to the same." Defects of the Articles of Confederation. The articles of confederation were designed to bind the states together in a "firm league," but they proved to be no better than a rope of sand. Washington spoke of the confederation as "a shadow without the substance" and described congress as a "nugatory body." The Union, as thus constituted, was dependent on the states. was a central government, but it was not intrusted with the means of its own preservation. It had no executive; it had no courts; it "Congress had hardly more than There had no power to raise supplies. an advisory power at the best. It had no power to prevent or punish offenses against its own laws, or even to perform effectively the duties enjoined upon it by the articles of confederation. It alone could declare war, but it had no power to compel the enlistment, arming, or support of an army. It alone could fix the needed amount of revenue, but the taxes could only be collected by the states at their own pleasure. It alone could make treaties with foreign nations, but it had no power to prevent individual states from violating them. Even commerce, foreign and domestic, was to be regulated entirely by the states, and it was not long before state selfishness began to show itself in the regulation of duties on imports. In everything the states were to be sovereign, and their creature, the federal government, was to have only strength enough to bind the states into nominal unity, and only life enough to assure Congress had the power to It could emit bills of credit, but it of its own practical impotence." coin money, but had no bullion. had no funds to redeem them. Even the expenses of its own members were to be defrayed by the states which sent them and which could recall them. In effect, all the powers granted to the general government by this constitution, if they were not self-executing, were entirely at the mercy of the individual states. It therefore became necessary to "form a more perfect Union" by establishing a constitution which should provide the central authority with adequate powers and adequate means for securing their enforcement.* ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 21. The constitution of the United States was framed by a constitutional convention called for the purpose of revising the articles of confederation. Being submitted to the people, it was duly ratified by them, acting within their respective states, and became the fundamental law of the nation. The constitutional convention met in 1787, in pursuance of a resolution of congress, whereby it was recommended that a convention of delegates, who should be appointed by the several states, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as should, when agreed to in congress and confirmed by the states, render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union. The convention was composed of delegates from all the states except Rhode Island. The resolution from which they derived their authority contemplated nothing more than a revi sion of the articles of confederation. But the convention was not long in determining that the whole scheme of government therein contained was so defective that it was beyond hope that the evils and inconveniences complained of by the people could be remedied 3 Johns. Am. Pol. 7. 4 On the articles of confederation, see 1 Story, Const. §§ 218-271; Pom. Const. Law, §§ 57-75; Rawle, Const. pp. 26-28; Federalist, Nos. 15-22, In by any process of patching or mending the old constitution. their judgment, what was needed was an entirely new frame of government. And this they proceeded to construct. Technically, they exceeded their authority, and hence, in a strict sense, their proceedings may be said to have been extra-legal, or even revolutionary. But they did not assume to impose the result of their labors upon the nation as a binding organic law, but offered it as a constitution to be discussed and to be ratified and confirmed before it should become operative. As a group of citizens, they had the unquestionable right to suggest a new constitution of government. And this was what in effect was done. The convention did not "report alterations and provisions" to be made in the articles of confederation. The authority granted to them was never exercised. But in lieu thereof, they submitted to congress and the people a new frame of government, which was eventually accepted and confirmed. The draft of the constitution was laid before congress and by them submitted to the several states. It contained a provision that as soon as it should have been ratified by nine of the states, it should become binding on those states. There ensued long, exhaustive, and acrimonious debates on the question of its adoption. But in the course of a year eleven of the states had ratified the constitution, and in September, 1788, congress made provision for the first election of federal officers and the inauguration of the national government under the new constitution. the 30th of April, 1789, the first President of the United States took the oath of office, and the present government began the exercise of its functions as marked out in the constitution. The states of North Carolina and Rhode Island were not in the Union from the beginning. The former ratified the constitution in 1789, and the latter in 1790.5 AMENDMENT OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. On 22. Amendments to the federal constitution may be proposed in two methods: (a) By congress. (b) By a convention called by congress for that pur pose. See 1 Story, Const. §§ 272-279. 23. Amendments proposed in either method must be ratified by three-fourths of the states; and this may be done in either of two ways, according as one or the other mode may be proposed by congress, viz.: (a) By the legislatures of the states, acting as the representatives of the people. (b) By conventions held in each state for the purpose. 24. Fifteen amendments to the federal constitution have thus far been adopted. The fifth article of the constitution provides that "the congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures 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 legislatures 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." Thus far, fifteen amendments have been made to the federal constitution. In every case the amendment has been proposed by congress and ratified by the states. No convention for revising the constitution, or proposing amendments to it, has ever been called. It should be noted that the article which contains the provision for amendments also enacts that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate. This is the one irrepealable clause of the constitution. And it is the provision which, more than all others, secures to each state its rightful independence and autonomy. The First Ten Amendments. United States was pro- The ratification of the constitution of the cured from the states with great difficulty. fered to almost every one of its provisions. local pride and jealousies, and partly from a strong distrust of the central government about to be erected. The several states, in yielding their assent, proposed and strongly urged the addition of such amendments as would guaranty, on the one hand, the protection of personal rights and liberties against federal oppression, and on the other hand, the retention by the states of such powers |