Conventions and legislatures, but in the courts, have impelled the author to issue subsequent editions of the work until this, the fourth edition, now appears. His object in writing it having been simply to throw light upon a part of our constitutional apparatus which had not previously attracted the attention of lawyers and publicists, should the work have effected this, whatever the result otherwise may have been, the author will regard the many years of labor devoted by him to its preparation as not spent in vain. In reference to the execution of the work a word of explanation may, perhaps, be necessary. In the citation of parts of Constitutions and statutes the figures denoting the articles or sections referred to have been generally, with a view to economy of space, omitted, seeing that the constitutional clauses cited have been those relating to the amendment of Constitutions, or to the calling of Conventions, both of which are always embraced in an article of one, or at most two, sections placed near the end of the respective instruments. So, in regard to parts of statutes, when not otherwise specified, they have always been cited from Acts calling Conventions, which are short, and found in the volumes of laws published by the several States in the year in which the respective Conventions met, or in the year preceding. They are, therefore, referred to as the Convention Acts of such or such a Convention, giving the year in which it met. On the other hand, Acts of Congress have been generally cited by naming the volume and page of the United States Statutes at Large in which they are to be found. To name all the gentlemen throughout the Union who have kindly aided the author in the collection of materials for the work would be hardly possible. Special reference ought, however, to be made to the following persons, to whom the author is indebted for important information or documents relating to Conventions in the various States of the Union: Ex-Senators Charles Sumner, deceased, of Massachusetts; and Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois. Ex-Governors, Henry C. Warmoth, of New Orleans; F. H. Pierpoint, and Gilbert C. Walker, deceased, of Virginia; Robert McClelland, deceased, of Michigan; and D. H. Chamberlain, of South Carolina. Judges, John G. Rogers, deceased, of Chicago, Ill.; John G. Speer, Oakland, Fla.; Willard Hall, deceased, of Wilmington, Del.; James T. Mitchell, of Philadelphia, Pa.; C. I. Bradley, of Rhode Island; John W. May, deceased, of Boston, Mass.; James McM. Shafter, of California; Hugh Buchanan, of Newnan, Ga.; Hiram A. Gillett, of Valparaiso, Ind.; Matthew Hale, of Albany, N. Y.; George Denison, of St. Louis, Mo.; L. Crounse, Nebraska. College Presidents, Sidney H. Marsh, deceased, of Salem, Or.; Israel W. Andrews, of Marietta, Ohio. Professors, Dr. Francis Lieber, deceased, of New York; and James Denison, of the National Deaf Mute College, Washington, D. C. The Hon. John C. Hurd, New York; Francis L. Barlow, New York; W. G. De Saussure, Charleston, S. C.; James M. Barrett, Cincinnati, Ohio; Edward Cantwell, Wilmington, N. C.; Edward I. Golladay, Nashville, Tenn.; W. O. Tuggle, Georgia; B. D. Silliman, New York; William P. Wells, Detroit, Mich.; Edward Russell, Leavenworth, Kan.; R. D. Benedict, New York; H. F. Prentiss, deceased, Milwaukee, Wis.; J. Hammond Trumbull, Hartford, Conn.; H. B. Dawson, New York; Charles E. Gorman, Providence, R. I.; George S. Denison, deceased, New Orleans; John H. Sahler, Omaha, Neb.; W. P. Ballinger, Austin, Tex.; W. W. Wilshire, Little Rock, Ark.; R. N. Ely, Atlanta, Ga.; S. B. McCracken, Detroit, Mich.; and R. T. Merrick, deceased, Washington, D. C., Esquires. Charles Reed, late State Librarian of Vermont, and John Langdon Sibley, deceased, late Librarian of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., and the Secretaries of State of nearly all the States in the Union. To those gentlemen the thanks of the author are due for many and valued courtesies in supplying him with detailed information and often with important docuJOHN A. JAMESON. ments. CHICAGO, May, 1887. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Leading principles of the American system of government. The function of legislation, how distributed abroad, and how in America. § 1. Importance of the Constitutional Convention. Enacts the fundamental law. Constitutional Conventions and Secession. § 3. Various species of Conventions described and distinguished. §§ 4-16. I. THE SPONTANEOUS CONVENTION, or PUBLIC MEETING. §§ 4, 5. Examples of, in early American history. §§ 9, 10. IV. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. § 11. Where the Constitutional Convention exercises the powers of a Revolutionary Convention, or vice versâ, how to be classed. § 12. History of the origin and development of the Constitutional Con- vention in the United States. §§ 13, 14. Misconceptions respecting the origin, constitution, and powers of the - Fundamental conceptions to be first developed — sovereignty, or a sovereign body, and a Constitution, or law fundamental. § 17. Direct manifestations through public opinion, and through the irregular exhibi- Indirect manifestations of sovereignty, through governmental agencies, as, the electors, the legislative, executive, and judicial departments, and the Constitu- Relative rank of these five systems of agencies. § 24. The doctrine of constitutional presumptions stated. § 25. Corollaries by their aid deduced from the foregoing principles. § 25. II. In the United States of America. §§ 27-53. (a). The question considered from the point of view of the elementary principles above developed. §§ 27-29. The definition of sovereignty considered and applied. § 27. The marks or tests of sovereignty, given by Austin, applied. § 28. The additional marks or tests before stated, applied. § 29. (b). The question considered from the point of view of historical facts and principles tending to determine the question of Amer- What it is to be a nation. § 30. What it is not to be a nation. § 31. In the light of these definitions, that the United States consti- 1. From the fact, that, in their development, there is ob- servable a perfect conformity to the method of Na- ture in the genesis of nations. §§ 32-35. The method of Nature exemplified. §§ 33, 34. View of the "States Rights School." § 37. Observations on the mode of ratification adopted. § 38. 3. From the expressed opinions of contemporary states- men, friends as well as enemies of the Constitution. 4. From the arguments employed to defeat the Federal Constitution in the Conventions called to ratify it. 5. From judicial decisions and the opinions of statesmen, historians, and publicists subsequent to the establish- ment of the Constitution. §§ 46-48. Opinion of Mr. Just ce Wilson, of the Supreme Court Opinions of Washington, Dr. Ramsay, C. C. Pinckney, |