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REPUBLICANISM IN AMERICA

CHAPTER I.

ORGANIZATION OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.- CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS. - UNIVERSAL EQUALITY.-SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE.-ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.

THE Republican Government of the United States of America is founded upon the acknowledged sovereignty of the citizens-denominated in the fundamental law of the land the people—in whom all national power abides, and whose equality was announced in the emphatic language of the Declaration of Independence of 1776, that "all men are created equal."

The Government, as a nation, was established when, on the ninth day of July, 1778, at the City of Philadelphia, the thirteen Colonies, by their delegates, adopted the Articles of Confederation, forming a Union styled The United States of America.

Following these acts in the formation of the Federal Union, the American people, on the seventeenth day of September, 1787, in convention assembled, adopted a Con-stitution, which in its preamble declares that "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

By this Constitution, all legislative power of the nation was vested in a Congress of the United States, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives. By the authority incorporated in the Federal Constitution, the States became divested of their previous independent character, and became merged into a Central National

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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

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