complicated, since provision has to be made for uniformity in a greater number of matters, sovereign powers for the central body, preservation of State and Federal rights, and the direct dealing of the Federal Government with the people as an entity more or less apart from State boundaries.

CHAPTER XII.

The Continental
Congress.

Union.

THE UNITED STATES.

In the year 1775, thirteen British colonies in North America revolted against the tyrannical colonial system of the mother country, and in the following year declared themselves independent. For the next five years the States remained leagued together with but an apology for national government in the "Continental Congress." This body, consisting of delegates sent by the various State Legislatures, had no defined powers; it had no jurisdiction and no constitutional means of securing a revenue. It was utterly dependent on the charity of the States. A slight advance was made when the thirteen States ratified the

The Confederation" Articles of Confederation and Perpetual and Perpetual Union." This Constitution was operative from 1781 to 1787. A few additional powers were vested in a Congress, the delegates to which were chosen annually, and voted by States. But even then the position was unsatisfactory. No powers of taxation were vested in the Congress, no legislation on questions of im

portance could be effected without the consent of at least nine States, and no amendment of the Constitution without absolute unanimity The federal body had no direct dealings with the citizens, and no direct control over them Consequently the first few years of the Union. seemed destined to be its last. Local patriotism. or provincialism asserted itself strongly in a determination to maintain State sovereignty on all occasions and guard jealously against any independent act on the part of the Congress. Each State wished to reserve for itself the right to coin, levy taxes, control tariffs, raise armies, and maintain authority that would be better in the hands of a federal executive. An appeal to the States for 6,000,000 dollars to meet the national debt provoked the poor response of 1,000,000 dollars. The trend of

events seemed to be towards inevitable dissolution of the Confederation. Washington complained that "the disinclination of the individual States to yield competent powers to the Congress for the Federal Government, their unreasonable jealousy of that body and of one another, and the disposition which seems to pervade each of being all wise and all powerful within itself, will, if there is not a change in the system, be our downfall as a nation."

In 1787 the Philadelphia Convention met to The Philadelphia revise the Articles of the Confederation, but, Convention. exceeding its instructions, drafted an entirely.

The Revised Constitution.

new Constitution, allowing for more complete federal legislative, administrative and judicial powers, a federal revenue, and direct dealing of the federal bodies with the people. It further resolved that the acceptance of the revised Constitution by nine States should bring the Union into existence. The new Constitution was finally adopted in 1788, by the requisite number of States; and in April of the following year (1789), Washington was unanimously chosen President, with John Adams as Vice-President.

The Constitution of the United States is especially interesting as the first of the modern constitutions and the basis of nearly all subsequent federal drafts. At the time it was thought to be a copy of the British Constitution, with an elected President substituted for an hereditary monarch. In accordance with the resolution of the 1787 Convention that "A National Government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme Legislature, Executive and Judiciary," the Constitution allowed for a President, two Houses of Legislature and a Supreme Court. The first body was to make the laws, the second to administer them, whilst the third ultimately tested their validity by the touchstone of the Constitution.

We will now proceed to a closer inspection of the Constitution.

I. THE EXECUTIVE.

the The President.

The Executive power is vested in President, assisted by a Vice-President. The former must be a native-born American, at least thirty-five years of age, and must have resided within the States for fourteen years. He is elected for a term of four years and may be re-elected. His position is equivalent neither to that of a European monarch, nor to that of a Prime Minister, and yet in some respects he resembles both. He has personal powers far exceeding those of an English monarch, though he is restricted by constitutional limitations. These limitations are as follows: (1) He can make treaties only with the concurrence of a two-thirds majority of the Senate; (2) his appointments of Ambassadors, Public Ministers, Consuls, Judges and other public officials are subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. With the exception of these limitations, and the possible nullifying of his veto by special majorities in Congress, the President's personal will prevails. He resembles a Prime Minister in that he is the head of a Cabinet, but is unlike him in that he is independent of Parliamentary control or censure. Responsible government, as we understand it, is non-existent in the United

The last-mentioned condition was to ensure that only one who was a citizen at the time of the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 should occupy the Presidential Chair. It is now practically inoperative.