deprived of property or made to accept such low prices for services as to destroy the value of their property. The last two amendments are products of very modern conditions, the Sixteenth changing the old rule about direct taxes,10 and the Seventeenth providing for the popular election of senators. The plan of the Constitution, its general idea, as we have already said, was to leave the great mass of powers with the States and to turn over to the general government only specific powers. To the general or central government went indeed authority to make laws on very important subjects; its powers are more striking, more august one might say; and yet as a rule the relations between man and man were left to State law and State authority. The vast number of laws that you and I in our daily life come into contact with, which we know about and which deeply affect our well-being, are either State laws or acts and ordinances passed by inferior bodies subordinate to the State, like city councils. To the States were left by the Constitution, and are still left, such great powers and political duties as the power to provide for education, to control the subjects of marriage and divorce, to preserve the peace, to punish criminals, to provide for the title to property and the laws whereby one may buy and sell, to make corporations, to establish cities and towns and give them rights of local self-government. If one is daily more and more impressed by the activities and the responsibilities of the government at Washington, the government which can make war and peace and pass tariff laws if the government has year by year extended and widened its functions and is more and more acting broadly for public welfare, still the governments of the States and the local governments in the States are the ones we see; their laws are the ones we are likely most immediately to 10 See Const., Art. I, Sec. 2, Par. 3, and Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 4; McLaughlin, ibid., p. 508. feel. It is still true that one might possibly pass his lifetime in America without seeing or knowing a United States officer save a letter carrier or a postmaster. QUESTIONS A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. How has the Constitution been adapted without amendment to the changing needs of the Nation? Explain in your own words the sense in which the Constitution of the United States means more now than it did when it was framed? In what important particular did the government ordained by the Constitution differ from the government of the Confederation? What did the men of 1788 sometimes call the system established by the Constitution? Explain the difference between a federal and a unitary state. In general what powers did the Constitution assign the Federal Government? What is the function of the Preamble of the Constitution? Look up the text of the Preamble. (In answering the succeeding questions the student should compare what is said of each of the seven articles with the corresponding text of the Constitution.) With what does Article I of the Constitution deal? How are the qualifications entitling men to vote for member of the House of Representatives determined? How were senators to be elected? How are they elected now? Can you see in this article the original reason for taking the United States Census? How often is the Census taken? What is meant by impeachment? What functions have the Senate and the House of Representatives in case of an impeachment? For what may a civil officer be impeached? Has the President of the United States ever been impeached? (See A History of the Am. Nation, p. 441.) How many votes are necessary to carry a measure over the president's veto? Can you see any way in which a law can go into effect without the president's signature? Can you think of any way in which the president can prevent a bill from becoming law without vetoing it? What is a pocket veto? What powers does Article I confer on Congress? What additional powers have been deduced from the last paragraph of Section 8? (See Selection 19.) What powers does the Article withhold from Congress? What powers does it withhold from the States? With what does Article II deal? How did the Constitution originally provide for the election of the president and vicepresident? How are these officers elected at the present time? How has Congress exercised the power granted it in the sixth paragraph of Article II, Section 1? (See McLaughlin's, A Hist. of the Am. Nation, p. 494.) What powers does the Constitution assign the president? With what does Article III deal? Does the Con stitution say exactly what courts the federal government shall have? Does the Constitution give the Supreme Court the power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional? On what grounds did the Supreme Court claim this power? How does the Constitution define treason? Notice the decision in the case of Aaron Burr. (McLaughlin's A Hist. of the Am. Nation, p. 229.) With what does Article IV deal? How may new States be admitted to the Union? Has Congress ever admitted States into the Union which before their admission were not American territory? What two methods of amending the Constitution are provided in Article V? In practice which method has been used? In what one point is the Constitution now unamendable except by the unanimous assent of the States? What is the significance of the declaration that the Constitution and laws and treaties of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land? What duty did the Constitution assign in this connection to the State courts? Name the powers withheld from the Federal Government in the first ten amendments? What term is applied to these amendments? What was the origin of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments? What sorts of questions have come before the courts under the Fourteenth Amendment? Notice not only that rights of corporations have been considered, but also the right of the States to regulate hours of employment in industries, and other matters of that kind. Is a person deprived of his liberty unjustly when he is forbidden by law to employ laborers for more than a certain number of hours a day? In general what principle governs the division of powers between the Federal and State governments? PART III THE NEW GOVERNMENT XIX HAMILTON ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF February 15, 1791, Jefferson submitted to Washington a paper arguing that the Act to establish a National Bank was unconstitutional and therefore should be vetoed. He reached this conclusion by means of a narrow, strict construction of the clauses of the Constitution defining the powers of Congress. Hamilton, on February 23, presented to Washington a paper in answer to Jefferson, an extract from which is here given. It is the first and in many respects the ablest short defense of the liberal construction of the Constitution that has in general characterized our constitutional history. It must be remembered that, in theory, Congress has only the power granted by the Constitution (See Amendment X); inasmuch as the powers granted are commonly stated in general terms, there naturally arose questions as to the extent of the power granted. 1 The first of these arguments 1 is, that the foundation of the Constitution is laid on this ground: "That all powers. not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved for the States, or to the people." Whence it is meant to be inferred, that Congress can in no case exercise any power not included in those enumerated in the Constitution. And it is affirmed, that the power of erecting a corporation is not included in any of the enumerated powers. 1 Against the constitutionality of the Bank. The main proposition here laid down, in its true signification is not to be questioned. . . . But how much is delegated in each case, is a question of fact, to be made out by fair reasoning and construction upon the particular provisions of the Constitution, taking as guides the general principles and general ends of governments. It is not denied that there are implied as well as express powers, and that the former are as effectually delegated as the latter. And for the sake of accuracy it shall be mentioned that there is another class of powers, which may be properly denominated resulting powers. It will not be doubted that, if the United States should make a conquest of any of the territories of its neighbors, they would possess sovereign jurisdiction over the conquered territory. This would be rather a result, from the whole mass of the powers of the government and from the nature of political society, than a consequence of either of the powers specially enumerated. . . To return: It is conceded that implied powers are to be considered as delegated equally with express ones. Then it follows that, as a power of erecting a corporation may as well be implied as any other thing, it may as well be employed as an instrument or mean of carrying into execution any of the specified powers, as any other instrument or mean whatever. The only question must be, in this as in every other case, whether the mean to be employed, or in this instance the corporation to be erected, has a natural relation to any of the acknowledged objects or lawful ends of the government. Thus a corporation may not be erected by Congress for superintending the police of the city of Philadelphia, because they are not authorized to regulate the police of that city. But one may be erected in relation to the collection of taxes, or to the trade with foreign countries, or to the trade between the States, or with the Indian tribes; because it is the province of the federal government to regulate those objects, and because it is incident to a general sovereign or legislative |