was first annexed to the United States, never having been made a Territory. There are now thirty-eight States in the Union, and seven organized Territories, which will in time, as their population becomes sufficient, be admitted as States. Each State has a constitution and a complete system of government of its

own.

From this meagre outline of a most interesting chapter in history it will be perceived that the States which originally adopted the Constitution were independent and separate, and entered the Union voluntarily, on a footing of entire equality. There was no subordinate and no superior, nor any conquest or compulsion of one by the others. And the cardinal idea upon which the Constitution is founded is that every State which becomes subject to it is independent of the other States, and retains its full sovereignty, except so far as by the express terms of the Constitution, or by necessary implication, certain powers are relinquished by the States, or conferred upon the Federal government. In determining, therefore, in which jurisdiction any governmental power resides, the inquiry is whether it has been parted with by the States, under the provisions of the Constitution, and, if so, whether it has been granted to the national government. There are certain powers that are prohibited to the States, but which that government has not acquired.

The most serious question under the Constitution that has ever arisen was that which involved the nature of the compact upon which it was founded-whether the Union thus formed could be dissolved by some of the States that were parties to it, and they be allowed to withdraw without the consent of the others. No discus

sion of a constitutional question in America was ever so prolonged, so excited, and so bitter as this. It culminated finally in the Civil War of 1861, and then received its final settlement. It was contended on the part of the Southern States, in which slavery existed when the Constitution was adopted, that the Union was virtually a partnership of States, voluntarily entered into, and depending for its existence upon the continued consent of the parties; that those who made the compact could dissolve it; and that no power was conferred upon the Federal government by the Constitution to compel States to remain under its authority, or to continue an alliance from which they found it to their interest to withdraw. This view was urged with great earnestness by Southern statesmen, under the leadership of Mr. Calhoun. In the earlier stages of the discussion it was plausible, and not without force, and Southern sentiment was generally, though not universally, in its favor. But in the great debate on the subject in the United States Senate, in 1830, the answer to this construction of the Constitution was brought forward by Mr. Webster with extraordinary and convincing power. No speech in America was ever so widely read, so striking in its immediate effect, so lasting in its ultimate results. From that time there has been no difference in opinion among the Northern people as to the question involved. It was shown that the compact of the Constitution was of a far higher and more enduring character than a mere dissoluble partnership existing upon sufferance; that it was a national government, permanent and perpetual in its nature, not contracted for by the States, but ordained by the people; that while the assent to it

in the first instance was voluntary, and was expressed through the medium of the State governments, it was an assent that, once given and acted upon, could not be recalled; from which no power of recession was reserved, or could exist, consistently with the object of the contract, or the nature of the government; and that the States, though retaining their independence and sovereignty in many particulars, had parted with their right to a political existence separate from the government they had created.

When this question finally came to the arbitrament of arms, there was no hesitation in the minds of the Northern people touching the merits of the quarrel, or the indispensable necessity of maintaining it. Nor did the theory of the right of secession command universal acceptance in the Southern States. Four of them declined to join the Confederacy, and remained on the Union side through the war. Since the war, this question is at an end. It is not likely ever to reWith the disappearance of slavery, no reason for asserting a right of secession remains. No respectable vote could be obtained in any Southern State to-day in favor of a dissolution of the Union.

cur.

The Constitution of the United States reproduces, under a different form of government, and under different conditions, all the principles of English liberty and the safeguards of English law. These are the foundations upon which it rests, and the model upon which it is constructed. It affords the highest proof that those principles are neither local nor national in their character, nor dependent upon the form of government under which they exist, so long as it is in its nature a free government. Sovereignty is distributed,

as in England, among three principal and independent departments-the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.

I. The President is the head of the government, the chief executive officer, and the commander-inchief of the army and the navy. He is required to be of American birth, to be not less than thirty-five years of age, and a resident of the United States for fourteen years when elected. He holds office for four years, and is constitutionally eligible to repeated re-elections. No President, however, has been re-elected more than once; and political tradition, as well as general sentiment, is opposed to a second re-election.

Both the President and Vice-President are elected by a college of electors, chosen in each State in numbers corresponding to the number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the State is entitled, and in such manner as the State may by law provide. In South Carolina they have always been chosen by the Legislature, and no popular election for presidential electors has ever been held there. In the other States they are elected by the people. The electors so chosen are required to meet in January following the election, in their respective States, and to cast their votes for President and Vice-President. The votes are transmitted to the seat of government, and are opened and counted by the president of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives. The persons having the greatest number of votes are declared elected, provided they receive a majority of all the electoral votes, and they hold office from the 4th day of March next ensuing. If no person has a majority of votes for the office of President, the

House of Representatives then elects the President from the persons-not exceeding three-who received the highest number. But in this election each State has but one vote, which is cast by the majority of its Representatives. If no person has received a majority of electoral votes for the office of Vice-President, the Senate elects that officer from the two persons having the highest number. If the House fails to elect a President before the 4th of March next following, the Vice-President becomes the President.

It was intended by the Constitution that the President and the Vice-President should be chosen by the electoral college, acting independently and in the exercise of their own judgment; but recent elections have proceeded upon the nomination in the different States, as electors, of persons pledged to the support of particular candidates for President and Vice-President, who have been proposed in party conventions. The election becomes, therefore, to all intents and purposes, an election of these officers by the people, the electors chosen being a mere medium for registering the popular vote, without any discretion of their own.

The Constitution contemplated the election of no Federal officer whatever by popular vote, except members of the House of Representatives in Congress, and, in States where it should be so provided, members of the electoral college. That office, originally a very important one, has become insignificant, and only formal in its duties.

The President appoints his own Cabinet, subject to confirmation by the Senate, which in the case of a Cabinet officer is never refused. They hold office during his pleasure, and irrespective of the majority