Origin of the Convention which framed the Constitution.

16. In this emergency, a Convention which had assembled at Annapolis in the autumn of 1786, to devise a uniform system of commercial regulations, in consequence of imperfect powers, and an inadequate representation, forbore to consider that subject, but instead thereof recommended the appointment of commissioners from all the states, to devise such additional provisions as should appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.

17. This action of the Annapolis Convention met with a favorable response. On the 21st of the following February, Congress formally recommended a convention of delegates, to be appointed by the several states, for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein, as should, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the states under the Federal Constitution, scem adequate to the exigencies of the government and the preservation of the Union.

The Meeting and Result of the Convention.

18. Delegates were accordingly appointed by the several state legislatures, except the legislature of Rhode Island, who assembled in convention at Philadelphia, in May, 1787. This Convention, which was composed of the most distinguished abilities of the country, continued in session nearly four months.

19. The Constitution, or plan of government, which they framed, was finally adopted on the 17th of September, 1787. It was then laid before the Congress of the Confederation, together with the opinion of the Convention that it should be submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each state by the people thereof, under the recommendation of its legislature, for their assent and ratification. This mode of proceeding was adopted, and the Constitution was thus submitted to the people of the several states. They acted upon it, through delegates assembled in convention within their respective states. From these conventions the Constitution derives its whole authority. By their assent and ratification it became of complete obligation, and bound the state sovereignties.

Organization of the Government.

20. Eleven of the states, that is, all but North Carolina and Rhode Island, having notified Congress of their ratification of the Constitution, that body, on the 13th of September, 1788, passed a resolution appointing the first Wednesday in January following, for the choice of Electors of President; the first Wednesday in February following, for the assembling of the Electors to vote for a President; and the first Wednesday in March following, for the government, under the Constitution, to go into operation.

21. Electors were accordingly chosen in the several states, who met at the designated time and voted for President and Vice-President. George Washington, as afterwards appeared upon opening and counting the votes, was unanimously elected President, and John Adams was elected Vice-President. Senators and Representatives were also duly chosen in the several states, and the First Congress assembled at New York, then the seat of government, on the 4th of March, 1789, when the Constitution went into legal operation.

22. A quorum of the House of Representatives, however, was not formed until the first of April, nor of the Senate until the 6th. Several months, too, elapsed before Congress could pass the necessary

laws for organizing the judiciary and the several executive departments. But, in the course of a year, the machinery, so to speak, of the new government was adjusted and put in harmonious operation. In November, 1789, North Carolina, through her convention, ratified the Constitution, and Rhode Island followed her example in May, 1790. And thus the original circle of thirteen states was completed.

THE OBJECT FOR WHICH THE CONSTITUTION WAS ORDAINED.

Definitions.

23. Government may be briefly defined as the power or authority which rules a community. When there is no control upon the persons who exercise this power or authority but their own will, the government is arbitrary. On the contrary, when the methods and the limits, within which they must exercise it, are marked out and prescribed, the government is constitutional, no matter what particular form it may assume.

24. A constitution, then, may be defined as the rule which limits the action and prescribes the powers and duties of a government, and the methods by which those powers and duties shall be administered.

How Constitutions originate.

25. It is not necessary that a constitution should be written or exist in visible form. On the contrary, the instances are rare, in the history of mankind, of a constitution being drawn up in a formal manner, and for the purpose of instituting a new form of