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thirdly, that if the executive could be trusted with command of the army, they need not fear the people in this particular.

Madison's motion was lost, only Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia voting for it. The clause as it stood, vesting appointment in the Senate, was then adopted; the same States, and no others, voting nay. Thus it was reported by the committee of detail; and thus it passed into the draft Constitution on August 6, under the powers of the Senate. The rest of the first resolution of the committee, in regard to the term of office and compensation, was agreed to without debate, except that the words "no increase" of compensation were struck out. The resolution authorising the creation of inferior tribunals was similarly adopted. The resolution in regard to the jurisdiction of the national courts was then taken up; the clause giving to the judiciary trials of impeachment of national officers was at once struck out; and the rest made to read that the jurisdiction should extend to all cases arising under the national laws and to such as involved the national peace and harmony. These resolutions were reported accordingly and passed also into the draft Constitution.

The resolution in regard to appointing the judges went into the draft, with other matters touching the powers of the Senate, in a distinct section. This section, with other matters of difference, was on August 24 sent to a special committee of five, already referred to, with the result that that committee, on September 4, reported, as a substitute for the section, a provision that the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, should appoint the judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States not otherwise provided for which included appointment to the inferior federal Courts. The report was adopted by the Convention without difficulty on September 7, and the provision passed accordingly into the Constitution. There was no further discussion as to the creation of inferior Courts or over jurisdiction. All that remained therefore was to expand the terms of the resolution upon the last-named subject and put them into the Constitution. The whole subject appears in sections 1 and 2 of Article III.

(10) OTHER RANDOLPH RESOLUTIONS

The substance of the Constitution was now determined; only certain outlying parts remained.

The tenth of the Randolph resolutions made provision (omitting details) for the admission of States "lawfully arising within the limits of the United States." The resolution was agreed to in committee of the whole House, without question, and was reported accordingly to the House, which adopted it; and it was put into the draft Constitution. As it appeared there, the new States were to be admitted on the same terms

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as the original ones; but the national legislature might make stipulations with them concerning the public debt then subsisting.

When the subject was reached by the Convention, Gouverneur Morris moved that the last two sentences be struck out; he would not bind the legislature to admit western States on the terms there laid down. Madison opposed the motion, insisting that the western people neither would nor ought to submit to a union which would degrade them. The motion was rejected, only two States favouring it, Maryland and Virginia, both of which had regions to the West. Morris now moved that the following be substituted for the whole draft provision: "New States may be admitted by the legislature into the Union; but no new States shall be erected within the limits of any of the present States without the consent of the legislature of such States as well as of the general legislature." This was agreed to, after strong objection by Martin against requiring consent of the States to erecting new ones within their territory; six States voting aye to five nay.

Opposition was now raised to the provision as amended, on various grounds. One objection was that it would alarm the new regions; another was, that it was unnecessary, because the Union could not dismember a State without its consent; another was, that certain regions contested jurisdiction over them by any State, as in the case of Vermont. Amended to meet the last-named objection, the provision, with some verbal changes, was adopted. A provision was now added, against forming States by joining two or more, or by joining parts without consent of the legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of Congress. And so the whole passed into the Constitution; where it is the first half of section 3, Article IV.

The eleventh Randolph resolution declared that a republican government, and the territory of each State, except in the instance of a voluntary junction of government and territory, should be guaranteed by the United States to each State. This provision passed through several changes of form, intended only to make it more clear and definite. In its final form it declares that the United States shall guarantee to each State a republican form of government, protecting it from foreign invasion and, on request of the State legislature or of the executive if the legislature cannot be convened, from domestic violence. Thus it appears in section 4, Article IV of the Constitution.

The thirteenth of the Randolph resolutions declared that provision ought to be made for the amendment of the Articles of Union whenever it should seem necessary; and that the assent of the national legislature ought not to be required.

This resolution first came before the committee of the whole House on June 5. It was then postponed, and taken up again on June 11. Several members now thought the resolution unnecessary; but if necessary, the consent of the national legislature ought to go with it. Mason urged

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the need of a provision for amendments. The present plan would doubtless be found defective; amendments would be needed; and it would be wise to provide for them in an easy, regular, and constitutional way, instead of trusting to chance. But he would not require assent of the national legislature, because that body might abuse its powers and then refuse assent.

This part of the clause was subsequently dropped, and the rest of the resolution reported to the House. The House agreed without dissent, on July 23; and the resolution went to the committee of detail, for the draft Constitution. There it appeared, on August 6, as a distinct article, in the following words: "On the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the States in the Union, for an amendment of this Constitution, the legislature of the United States shall call a convention for that purpose."

The article came before the House on September 10, upon a motion by Gerry to reconsider. The Constitution, Gerry observed, was (by an article in the Constitution) to be paramount over the State constitutions. It followed from the article under consideration that two-thirds of the States might obtain a convention a majority of which could bind the Union to innovations subversive of the States altogether.

Hamilton favoured the motion, but with a different view. He did not object to the consequences of which Gerry had spoken; it was no greater evil to subject the people of the United States to the voice of a majority than the people of a particular State. It was desirable that there should be a ready way of supplying defects which would be likely to appear in the new system. The mode proposed by the article was not adequate. The State legislatures would not apply for alterations, except with a view to increase their own powers. The national legislature would be the first to perceive the need of amendments, and the most sensible of it, and ought to be empowered, when two-thirds of each branch concurred, to call a convention.

The motion to reconsider prevailed; and Sherman now moved to add to the article the words, "or the legislature may propose amendments to the several States for their approbation; but no amendments shall be binding until consented to by the several States." The words "threefourths of" having been inserted, on the motion of Wilson, before "the several States," Madison moved to postpone the proposition, and to take up the following: "The legislature of the United States, whenever twothirds of both Houses shall deem necessary, or on the application of twothirds of the legislatures of the several States, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part thereof, when the same shall have been ratified by three-fourths at least of the legislatures of the several States, or by conventions in threefourths thereof, as one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed. by the legislature of the United States."

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The postponement was agreed to, and Madison's proposition adopted, after an amendment proposed by Rutledge, to add to it the words, "provided that no amendments, which may be prior to the year 1808, shall in any manner affect the" provision that Congress should not interfere with the African slave-trade before that year. The subject was completed by the addition of the words, that "no State, without its consent, should be deprived of its equality in the Senate." And the whole passed accordingly, after certain verbal changes, from the committee of detail into the Constitution, where it appears as Article V.

(11) ARTICLES VI AND VII OF THE CONSTITUTION

Two articles of the Constitution remain, so much a matter of course that to state the substance of them will be enough. Article VI provides for the debts of the country, already created; that the Constitution and laws of the United States, and all treaties, shall be the supreme law of the land; that senators and representatives in Congress, members of the State legislatures, and executive and judicial officers of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution; and that no religious test shall be required as a qualification to office under the United States. Article VII provides that ratification of the Constitution by nine States shall be sufficient to establish it between such States.

The Constitution was signed by thirty-nine out of forty-two deputies then present; and the Convention was dissolved on September 17, after a session of nearly four months.

(12) RATIFICATION AND AMENDMENTS

The proceedings were now to be reported, in accordance with the action of the Convention, to the Congress then in session; afterwards the Constitution was to be submitted to conventions in the several States, to be composed of persons chosen by the people, whose Constitution it professed to be. All this was done; and the question of adopting the Constitution was before the country.

Ratification was voted for without difficulty by some of the conventions; by others, not without the most persistent opposition. Delaware, the smallest State in importance in the Union, with everything to gain, was the first to act, accepting the Constitution on December 7, 1787; Rhode Island, the smallest in territory, with much to lose, was the last, not voting for ratification until May 29, 1790. New Hampshire, voting on June 21, 1788, was the ninth to ratify, thus making up the

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required number of ratifying States. North Carolina at first refused, by a large majority, to ratify, though she did not reject, the Constitution; but a later convention of the State accepted it on November 21, 1789. Meantime, on April 30 of the same year, Washington had been inaugurated President; the people of eleven States having at that time ratified the action of the Convention.

Opposition to the Constitution was based on various grounds. A few persons wished for monarchy; but these were out of touch with the people, and neither made nor sought to make headway. Many opposed a general union altogether, preferring a division of the States into three or more confederacies; some would have things as they were; some would have no union at all. It was commonly asserted and believed that the leaders of these classes were in general restless, ambitious men, who hoped to make gain for themselves out of disruption and saw little to hope for under a stable government. In some States, these men, taking up the watchword "liberty," which the masses passionately worshipped, spread the cry everywhere, and swept most of the common people into the ranks of discontent and opposition. Others opposed the Constitution for what they deemed its shortcomings; it had failed to promote cherished principles or projects. The absence of a Bill of Rights was one of the chief objections thus raised; the absence of a declaration in favour of freedom of religious worship was another; the absence of a provision for general trial by jury created widespread distrust; the absence of any reference to the interests of the western regions in the free navigation of the Mississippi was made a most serious cause of offence in States, such as Virginia, which had territory extending to that river.

Amendments were accordingly demanded on every side; and the thoroughgoing foes of the Constitution, in order to defeat it entirely, declared and insisted that these ought to be made before it was adopted. With a new convention everything would be thrown open again. The friends of the Constitution set forth the dangers of such a course in the strongest light. Their arguments prevailed with a sufficient number, and amendments were put off until after ratification; but they were called for in the Acts ratifying the Constitution.

It does not fall within the purpose of these pages to speak in particular of the State convention; of the great struggle in Massachusetts; of the fight made by Patrick Henry in Virginia against the Constitution at every point; of the matchless skill put forth in defence of the Constitution, first in the Federalist and then in the Convention of New York, by Alexander Hamilton, youngest and greatest man of them all. Enough to say, that argument prevailed over argument, and that the Constitution was everywhere ratified on its merits.

Twelve amendments to the Constitution were proposed at the first session of the new Congress, in the spring of 1789. Ten of these were