maintain, as well as to create, the power of making the laws and exercising the elective franchise.

So long as republican government is maintained in America, these distinctions must be held sacred, and the advocates of any other doctrine but promulgate what would work the downfall of the freedom of all. Upon the intelligence of the people depends the perpetuity of republican government; and while schools are maintained in most parts of the States of the Union free to all, a thorough system of education established and enforced by State or Federal authority, wherein every person, regardless of age or sex, should be obliged to enter until they acquired some degree of education, would not only secure some enlightenment to every child born in the Republic, but would shed new life and new light upon the path of many of those from foreign lands who seek homes in the Republic of America. Republican government-long supposed to be incompatible with national greatness and national power-has in our country so completely leveled caste, sectionalism and intolerance, and blended the whole people into one family in ideas, interests and freedom, gathered the wandering exiles from the domination of kings, and wrought them into the concrete elements of American citizenship, as to fully demonstrate the power of Republicanism, not only to perpetuate the institutions of freedom and stable government, but to absorb the subjects of every throne, and mould them into elements of strength against the domination of kings.

Within the sphere of republican institutions, nothing so clearly demonstrates the natural, simple justice of equality, as the facility with which those born and educated in the chains of political and religious bondage in the Old World, unlearn the dogmas and tyranny of priest and king, and learn the paths of freedom and the laws of man's estate.

CHAPTER II.

COLONIAL CONDITION.-EARLY SETTLEMENT. -THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.SIGNERS OF THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.- LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

So far as the political history of the Colonies goes, little can be gathered upon which to build any foundation that the intention of the early settlers was to build up a separate and independent Government; indeed, all the acts of the people go far to establish a contrary opinion. The charters granted by the King of Britain, from the beginning to the middle of the seventeenth century, and the submission of the people, the repeated petitions to the Mother Country to relax her oppressive laws upon them, their oft repeated avowals of filial attachment, their humble supplications through their representatives and commissioners, all tend to the belief that a strong attachment bound the early colonists to the British Goverment and laws.

The Colony of Virginia had from 1607 up to the Revolutionary War, almost two hundred years, conformed to the limits and laws imposed by the Home Government, and the Colonies on the Hudson and Manhattan were equally submissive; and although all seemed equally determined in 1776 to redress their long grievances, yet it is but reasonable to conjecture that what are now called the New England States, did, either by accident or design, gradually fall into a style of government that formed the basis of the General Government of the United States.

The Pilgrim Fathers who landed at Plymouth Rock

Union possessed of sovereign power, wherein each State became but an integral part of the nation; in its political sphere, but a dependent municipality, and in all things of a national character subordinate to the Federal Constitution and Federal laws, and to the United States as a nation.

Looking to the universality of national freedom and political equality, precaution was taken by the friends of the Constitution to "guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government," and to "protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence." But neither the Constitution, nor the laws made in pursuance thereof, defined what degree of liberty should constitute a republican form of government, nor the mode by which the Federal Government should enforce the principles of republicanism upon the States, should any of them assume powers or acts contrary to declared fundamental principles of the National Government— hence the latitude assumed by States, and the singular anomaly of State governments, existing within the Union, presenting every feature of government from absolute despotism to the broadest liberty.

The moderation and hesitation exhibited by the Federal Government in asserting its authority, in holding each State up to a standard of freedom approaching republicanism, and the laxity of the National Government in purging local governments of their royal and despotic tendencies-permitting States to narrow down the republican liberty of the people and the equality of all men before the law to the circles of caste, birthplace and religion are striking illustrations of the patience and disposition of mankind to endure oppression, rather than hastily appeal to the last resort to redress grievances.

In the Federal Constitution there is ample and unmistakable authority, vesting the Federal Government with full authority and jurisdiction in all things pertaining to the maintaining of a republican government in all the States and Territories within the area of the Union. It is the supreme power of the National Government, constituted by the people, and not by the States, declaring the States subordinate to the Union, that placed the sovereign power of the people of all the States in the National Government of the Republic; and through and by this power of sovereignty the affairs of the Republic have been conducted, and all the functions of a sovereign administrated by the National Government.

Strictly speaking, upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution, a national sovereignty was created substituting the people for the "sovereign States," and, thenceforward, the only sovereignty in the land was in the citizens of the Republic in their aggregate capacity.

By the Federal Constitution, the several States are prohibited from "entering into any treaty, alliance or confederation;" yet, so far had some of the States departed from the authority of the law of the land, and so completely had they ignored Federal authority, that in 1861 eleven of them, then slaveholding States, declared the Federal Constitution of no binding force or obligation upon them, and after going through the form of declaring themselves free and "sovereign States," entered into a compact of confederation between themselves, declared their independence, organized a government, elected confederate officers, adopted a constitution, sent ministers abroad, adopted and raised a flag, equipped an army and navy, and declared and waged war against the United States.

So wide a departure from national authority as the

arraying of sections of the Union against the supreme law of the land, and States assuming sovereignty and national functions, is singularly at variance with the proclaimed love of country supposed to be the inspiring spring of every citizen of the American Republic. But, as in every monarchy there are those opposed to royalty and to kings, so in every republic there are those opposed to universal freedom and equality; and in this latter rule America forms no exception. It would indeed be strange if forty million of people, influenced by all the passions incident to the race-wealth, position, ambition and superstition-should have lost all aspirations of the tyrant, and, losing sight of the traditions of their ancestors, acquiesce in universal freedom and the equal rights of all men.

In the affairs of the government of the Republic of America from the earliest period, distinct elements-liberty and oppression-have arrayed themselves against each other in fierce antagonism. And, while a large majority of the people have favored the broadest measures of freedom, a very considerable minority have steadily resisted the advance of liberty, abhorring contact with the masses, and remaining subject to the will of the majority only under protest.

In the moulding of political affairs, the social and pecuniary conditions and interests of the several sections of the country have wielded a powerful influence. Slavery, which existed in the Southern States of the Union from 1620 until the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln of the first of January, 1863, had in its influence drawn distinct lines, not only between liberty and freedom in local State policy, but had engendered a most active and bitter hostility against the freedom of the North, and even against the existence of the Republic.