20

FAILURE OF THE CONFEDERATION.

ought to be considered hostile to the liberty and independence of America, and the authors of them treated accordingly."

But matters were fast coming to a dead-lock under the league-of-states plan. Congress had only a power of recommendation, both as respects taxation and the raising of troops. It had no power of enforcing its own laws. It was, to use the words of Colonel Benton, of Missouri, in his "Thirty Years' View," "powerless for government, and a rope of sand for union." By 1787, the following is described as the state of affairs under it-There was an enormous debt, with public credit in the last stage of depreciation. A system of taxation had been devised and recommended, but only partly adopted, and never put in operation. The ordinances of Congress were disregarded, the several states neglecting or refusing their quotas of expenditure. Treaties, particularly that with Great Britain, were disregarded or openly violated. England, in return, refused to give up the possession of forts on American frontiers. There had been repeated mutinies in the army. Under the burthen of a heavy debt and heavy taxes, with money scarce, and trade and manufactures decaying, an insurrection had broken out in 1786 in the Puritan stronghold of order and religious faith, Massachusetts. It had spread through four counties, taken possession of court-houses, defied the governor's proclamations. The flame had extended to New Hampshire, where the General Assembly had found itself surrounded by a mob, clamorous for paper money.

ORIGIN OF THE CONSTITUTION.

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Although stifled in the latter state, it had only been put an end to in Massachusetts (1787) by force of arms, and three insurgents had fallen dead under the fire of the troops. "In this state of things," we are told, "it was the opinion of the wisest citizens that an energetic system of national government only could revive the ruined state of commerce, restore public and private credit, give a national character to the states, secure the faith of public treaties, and prevent the evils of anarchy and civil war." As early as 1783 Washington had recommended " an indissoluble union of the states under one general head," as one of the "pillars on which the glorious fabric of our independency and national character must be supported."

From this need of practical union-of a stronglyorganized nationality-sprang the American Constitution. And nothing proves the absolute and imperative nature of that need more than the seemingly fortuitous character of the steps by which its fulfilment was brought about. The two states of Virginia and Maryland, in 1785, appointed commissioners to frame a compact between them as to the navigation of the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke, and of Chesapeake Bay. The commissioners met,-found their powers inadequate to the need, were led on to the wider subject of the trade of the country in general, and how it should be regulated. So the next year (1786), Virginia appointed commissioners who should meet those from other states, to consider the trade of the United States, and how far a uniform system in commercial relations was

22

THE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED.

necessary to the common interest, and to permanent harmony. Five states met by their commissioners at Annapolis (September, 1786)-New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia. They met, and again the object in view expanded before them. They demanded greater powers, and recommended the appointment of commissioners to consider the situation of the United States, and to devise provisions to render the constitution of the Federal Government "adequate to the exigencies of the Union." New commissioners from twelve states met accordingly in convention, and adopted a constitution (17th September, 1787), which was soon ratified in separate conventions by eleven out of the twelve.

Such, then, was the history of the United States' Constitution. From the petty necessities of two neighbour states as to the use of a water-line there sprang a document under which, but last year, some thirty millions of the most enterprising people on the face of the earth were peaceably ruled. The story is a very homely one, but, through its very homeliness, I think, strangely impressive.

LECTURE II.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES-SLAVERY, AND THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.

THE subject of the present lecture may not seem an inviting one. Constitutions are not lively reading. An old Frenchman, who had been a school-boy at the time of the first French revolution, once said to me, "When they told us there were to be no more Sundays, we threw up our caps and cried, 'Vive la République,' thinking that we should have no more catechism to learn, and no more rappings over the knuckles for not knowing it. But we found that on the 'décadis' (the tenth days of the revolutionary week) we had to learn the constitution, and were rapped over the knuckles all the same for not knowing it, and it was much more stupid still than the catechism: so we found we had only lost by the change."

Dull or not, however, no man who wishes to understand the present crisis can avoid looking into and trying to master the American Constitution. So far from its being of less importance now than it was, its importance is simply doubled for the future. Having been copied, with a few variations, by the Seceders, it is now the law, not of one country alone but of two;

24 THE PRINCIPLE OF REPRESENTATION.

claiming, however, to interpret it upon an entirely different principle. Such a phenomenon is one, so far as I am aware, unparalleled in history, and surely deserves careful investigation.

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We, 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."

So begins the American Constitution. It proceeds to enact (Art. I. sec. 1, § 1). That all Legislative powers "herein granted" shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, the latter being chosen (sec. 2, § 1) every second year by the people, and their qualifications being that they should be twenty-five years of age, should have been for seven years citizens of the United States, and should inhabit the state for which they are named. The principle of representation is peculiar. "Representation 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 by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, threefifths of all other persons" (§ 3). By "other persons" you are to understand slaves. The ratio of representation is determined every ten years, according to the results