CHAPTER XII.

RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

§ 1. THE new Constitution was now fairly before the people of the United States. It met from the outset with very strong opposition; and the attacks were as various as the points of the compass.

§ 2. One class of objectors held that it gave too much power into the hands of the Federal Government; and another, that it did not give enough.

One maintained that the Senate should be elected for life; another, that six years was quite too long. One, that it should be elected by the people; another, that it should be elected by the House of Representatives.

Some held that the terms of office generally were quite too long; others, that they were too short.

§ 3. One class thought the President should be elected for life e; one, for ten years; one, for six; and another, that he should be elected annually. One class held that he ought to be elected by Congress; another, that he should be elected by direct vote of the people; and still another, that we could get along very well without any President at all.

One class thought the Constitution invested the President with too much power; and another, with too little.

§ 4. Similar objections were urged against the House of Representatives. Some were for having the members elected by electors for that purpose appointed; others, for having them elected by the State legislatures. Some thought the term of two years too short; others, too long. The objections against the judiciary were quite as various and opposite.

§ 5. The storm raged with terrible political and personal violence and asperity. Probably at no time in the history of this country has party spirit run so high as at that time. Every feature of the new plan of government was debated by the ablest minds of the day. Profound statesmen were found in the ranks of opposition to the Constitution, men whose patriotism, and purity of motive, could

not be questioned. Even some of the members of the Convention that framed that document, able and influential members too, not only refused to sign it for submission to the people, but went out amongst their constituencies, and denounced it to the last.

§ 6. But the friends of the new Constitution finally triumphed. Three States ratified it before the close of the year 1787, and eight more by the 26th of July, 1788; so that, in less than one year from the time of its submission to the people, a sufficient number of States had accepted it as the fundamental law of the land to warrant the commencement of operations under it.

§ 7. Sept. 13, 1788, Congress passed a resolution appointing the first Wednesday in January following for the choice of electors of President of the United States; the first Wednesday of February of the same year for the meeting of the electors to vote for that officer; and the first Wednesday of March thereafter for commencing proceedings under the Constitution at New York, which was then the place of the meetings of Congress.

§ 8. Electors were accordingly appointed, and their votes given for President. Elections of members of the House of Representatives by the people, and for senators by the State legislatures, were held; so that on Wednesday, the fourth day of March, 1789, the first Constitutional Congress met, and proceedings were commenced under the new organization.

§ 9. In those days, travel was far more difficult than in these later days of railroad facilities. A quorum in Congress, therefore, did not assemble until the 6th of April, at which time the votes for President were counted; and it was found that George Washington was unanimously elected, having received sixty-nine votes, the whole number. John Adams of Massachusetts was elected VicePresident; receiving thirty-four votes, the next highest number.

§ 10. April 30, 1789, the President elect took the constitutional oath of office, it being administered to him by the Chancellor of the State of New York; and the new government went into full operation.

On the twenty-first day of April, John Adams entered on his duties as President of the Senate, and Vice-President of the United States.

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§ 11. Thus was achieved," says Judge Story, "another and still more glorious triumph in the cause of national liberty than even that which separated us from the mother country. By it we fondly trust that our republican institutions will grow up, and be nurtured into more mature strength and vigor; our independence be secured against foreign usurpation and aggression; our domestic blessings be widely diffused and generally felt; and our union, as a people, be perpetuated as our own truest glory and support, and as a proud example of a wise and beneficent government, entitled to the respect, if not the admiration, of mankind."

§ 12. The number of original States, as they are usually called, was thirteen. The following table exhibits the dates of the ratification of the new Constitution by these States respectively : — DELAWARE, Dec. 7, 1787. PENNSYLVANIA, Dec. 12, 1787. NEW JERSEY, Dec. 18, 1787. GEORGIA, Jan. 2, 1788. CONNECTICUT, Jan. 9, 1788. MASSACHUSETTS, Feb. 6, 1788. MARYLAND, April 28, 1788. SOUTH CAROLINA, May 23, 1788. NEW HAMPSHIRE, June 21, 1788. VIRGINIA, June 26, 1788. NEW YORK, July 26, 1788. NORTH CAROLINA, Nov. 21, 1789. RHODE ISLAND, May 29, 1790.

CHAPTER XIII.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

§ 1. THE chief design of this work, but for which it would not have been written, being the treatment of the Constitution by topics, renders it necessary to refer, in this place, to the amendments which have been made to that instrument. Indeed, to carry

out the design, no distinction can be made between the original instrument and its amendments: they must all be treated as one document in the Analysis, as they are in fact.

§ 2. One of the strongest objections urged by its opponents against the adoption of the Constitution as it came from the hands of the Convention was, the want of a recognition of certain rights of citizens, several of which have since been adopted as amendments to the Constitution. Those who were vehement in their opposition to the ratification of the instrument were emphatic in urging that it ought to contain such a bill of rights as would insure individual safety among the people.

§ 3. The people had been unused to a national government that could reach individuals; that is, that could reach them directly: for, under the Confederation, the government was utterly powerless to punish. There was a popular clamor, therefore, for a comprehensive bill of rights. The people feared governmental encroachments on individual rights.

§ 4. Most of the amendments to the Constitution were adopted under this apprehension, and within a few years after the organization of the new government. The Constitution contained provisions for its own amendment; for its illustrious authors never claimed that it was by any means perfect.

§ 5. At the first session of the first Congress under the Constitution, therefore, held in New York, that body passed a resolution, Sept. 25, 1789, two-thirds of both houses concurring, proposing to the legislatures of the several States twelve articles of amendment to the Constitution.

§ 6. Ten of these articles were ratified by the States in the following order, viz. : —

NEW JERSEY, Nov. 20, 1789.

MARYLAND, Dec. 19, 1789.

NORTH CAROLINA, Dec. 22, 1789.
SOUTH CAROLINA, Jan. 19, 1790.
NEW HAMPSHIRE, Jan. 25, 1790.
DELAWARE, Jan. 28, 1790.
PENNSYLVANIA, March 10, 1790.

NEW YORK, March 27, 1790.

RHODE ISLAND, June 15, 1790.
VERMONT, NOV. 3, 1791.

VIRGINIA, Dec. 15, 1791.

§ 7. As the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States concurred in the first ten articles of amendment proposed, they became valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution from Dec. 15, 1791.

§ 8. The eleventh article of amendment was proposed by the Third Congress at its first session, March 15, 1794. President Adams declared in his message to Congress, Jan. 8, 1798, that it had received the ratification of the constitutional number of States, and was therefore a part of the fundamental law of the land.

§ 9. The twelfth article of amendment was proposed at the first session of the Eighth Congress, Dec. 12, 1803, and received the ratification of the requisite number of States during the following year, and became part of the Constitution.

§ 10. The thirteenth article of amendment was proposed at the second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, passing the Senate April 8, 1864, and the House Jan. 31, 1865. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, officially announced to the country, Dec. 18, 1865, that it had been ratified by three-fourths of the States, and was therefore a part of the supreme law of the land.1

CHAPTER XIV.

DEPARTMENTS OF GOVERNMENT.

§ 1. No free government can exist on earth, in which the admin istration of its powers and functions is not distributed. Let one man have the power to make the laws, to interpret them, and to execute the same, and that man will become a despot, and his government a despotism. Human nature must be made anew, or such a result must follow such an investment of authority in a single individual.

The fourteenth Article of Amendments has been adopted since this work was prepared for the press,-too late for comment or analysis in the proper place.See pages 74 and 106.