a bill of rights. Besides, the people will surrender none of these rights in adopting the Constitution, and their future interest in them will be protected by their Representatives in Congress. Indeed, the statement of a bill of rights would be dangerous as implying the grant to the Federal Government of all powers not expressly withheld therefrom.

The Constitution does not provide for debts due to the United States. This is unnecessary, as it is an established rule of national law that "States neither lose any of their rights, nor are discharged from any of their obligations, by a change in the form of their civil government."

The proposed government is economical, the number of State officers being diminished to the extent of the addition of Federal, and the sessions of State legislatures being diminished in number and shortened in duration by the sessions of Congress.

V. Additional Securities to Republican Government The additional securities to republican government, to liberty, and to property, to be derived from the adoption of the plan under consideration, consist chiefly in the restraints which the preservation of the Union will impose on local factions and insurrections, and on the ambition of powerful individuals in single States, who might acquire credit and influence enough, from leaders and favorites, to become the despots of the people; in the diminution of the opportunities to foreign intrigue, which the dissolution of the Confederacy would invite and facilitate; in the prevention of extensive military establishments, which could not fail to grow out of wars between the States in a disunited situation; in the express guaranty of a republican form of government to each; in the absolute and universal exclusion of titles of nobility; and in the precautions against the repetition of those practices on the part of the State governments which have undermined the foundations of property and credit, have planted mutual distrust in the breasts of all classes of citizens, and have occasioned an almost universal prostration of morals.

VI. Adopt the Constitution and Amend It Afterward. It is susceptible of absolute demonstration that it will be far more easy to obtain subsequent than previous amendments to the Constitution. The moment an alteration is made in the present plan it becomes, to the purpose of adoption, a new one, and must undergo a new decision of each State. To its complete establishment throughout the Union it will therefore require the concurrence of thirteen States. If, on the contrary, the Consti

tution proposed should once be ratified by all the States as it stands, alterations in it may at any time be effected by nine States. Here, then, the chances are as thirteen to nine1 in favor of subsequent amendments, rather than of the original adoption of an entire system.

This is not all. Every Constitution for the United States must inevitably consist of a great variety of particulars, in which thirteen independent States are to be accommodated in their interests or opinions of interest. We may of course expect to see, in any body of men charged with its original formation, very different combinations of the parts upon different points. Many of those who form a majority on one question may become the minority on a second, and an association dissimilar to either may constitute the majority on a third. Hence the necessity of moulding and arranging all the particulars which are to compose the whole, in such a manner as to satisfy all the parties to the compact; and hence, also, an immense multiplication of diffi culties and casualties in obtaining the collective assent to a final Act. The degree of that multiplication must evidently be in a ratio to the number of particulars and the number of parties.

But every amendment to the Constitution, if once established, would be a single proposition, and might be brought forward singly. There would then be no necessity for management or compromise, in relation to any other point; no giving, nor taking. The will of the requisite number would at once bring the matter to a decisive issue. And, consequently, whenever nine, or rather ten, States were united in the desire of a particular amendment, that amendment must infallibly take place. There can, therefore, be no comparison between the facility of effecting an amendment and that of establishing in the first instance a complete Constitution.

In opposition to the probability of subsequent amendments, it has been urged that the persons delegated to the administration of the national Government will always be disinclined to yield up any portion of the authority of which they were once possessed. [But] any amendments which may, upon mature consideration, be thought useful will be applicable to the organization of the Government, not to the mass of its powers; and the intrinsic difficulty of governing thirteen States at any rate, independent of calculations upon an ordinary degree of public spirit and integrity, will constantly impose on the national rulers the necessity of a spirit of accommodation to the reasonable ex

'It may rather be said ten, for, though two-thirds may set on foot the measure, three-fourths must ratify.

pectations of their constituents. But there is yet a further consideration, which proves beyond the possibility of doubt that the observation is futile. It is this, that the national rulers, whenever nine States concur, will have no option upon the subject. By the fifth article of the plan, the Congress will be obliged, "on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the States" (which at present amount to nine) "to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States, or by conventions in three-fourth thereof." The words of this article are peremptory. The Congress "shall call a convention." Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that body. And, of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to a change vanishes in air. Now, however difficult it may be supposed to unite two-thirds, or three-fourths, of the State legislatures in amendments which may affect local interests, can there be any room to apprehend any such difficulty in a union on points which are merely relative to the general liberty or security of the people? We may safely rely on the disposition of the State legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority.

VII. Appeal to the People.

It may be in me a defect of political fortitude, but I acknowledge that I cannot entertain an equal tranquillity with those who affect to treat the dangers of a longer continuance in our present situation as imaginary. A nation without a national government is, in my view, an awful spectacle. The establishment of a Constitution, in time of profound peace, by the voluntary consent of a whole people, is a prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I can reconcile it to no rules of prudence to let go the hold we now have, in so arduous an enterprise, upon seven out of the thirteen States;1 and after having passed over so considerable a part of the ground to recommence the course. I dread the more the consequences of new attempts, because I know that powerful individuals, in this and in other States, are enemies to a general national government in every possible shape.

ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION

The ratification of the Constitution by the State of New Hampshire, being the ninth in order, was laid be

1 When this letter was written seven States had ratified the Constitution.

fore Congress on the 2d of July, 1788, and, with the ratifications of the other States, referred to a committee to report an act for carrying the new system into operation. An act for this purpose was reported on the 14th of the same month, but, in consequence of a division as to the place where the first Congress should meet, did not pass until the 13th of September following. By this act the electors of the President were to be appointed on the first Wednesday of January, 1789, and to give in their votes on the first Wednesday of the succeeding February; the first Wednesday of March, being the 4th day of that month, was fixed as the time, and the city of New York as the place, for beginning proceedings under the new Constitution.

CHAPTER XVI

THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS AMENDMENTS

Text of the Constitution-History of the Amendments to the ConstitutionText of Amendments.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

W

OF AMERICA

E the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I

SECTION I

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.

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 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.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined