REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THIS work, founded upon the statute law of the United States, and of the several states of the Union - the State of New York being especially treated as illustrative of the othersdoes not claim originality, and does not pretend to literary style. The words of the statutes are adopted as much as possible; and where other sources of information are tapped, as the President's annual message to Congress, reports of heads of departments, newspapers, &c., the same are quoted or closely followed. Though closely allied to a law-book, it is by no means one upon which a lawyer should build a house. It does not give all the law-only so much as seems necessary to afford an intelligent reader, who can apply his mind to such hard reading, a thorough insight into the machinery of republican institutions in operation in the United States of America, and in the states and territories composing these A United States, now the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, because it has ample population, developed and inexhaustible resources, the needful capital, and brains, and energy, and skill, and adhesion, to be unconquerable by any combination of uncivilised, or civilised, or mixed nations. It has all the needed resources within its own territory to subsist, independent of importations; to carry on, at the least, a defensive war for an indefinite period, certainly long enough to exhaust all other nations; and the indomitable energy of its people would enable it to become aggressive, as a second wind, in the exhausting war-struggle. The blockade of its seaports, the destruction of New York, Boston, and other seaboard cities, would be cruel blows, but would not be fatal to the life of the nation. The young giant among nations is semi-conscious of his strength, but the time has not yet come to overshadow the world. The foster-mother, Europe, still gives him in abundance the rich warm milk of her bosom; his bones are knitting firmer in fibre, and growing in size; his muscles are hardening with development and exercise; his blood is assuming a distinctive conglomeration; his nerves are well strung and sensitive; his brain is original and vigorous. Is this conglomerate nation to spread over all North America, and to domineer over all other nations? It seems unnatural. It is impossible to predict what manner of nation, or nations, shall inhabit North America in the year 2000. One century ago the citizens of the United States were of a different type to what they are now; and it may reasonably be assumed that there will be at least as great a change during the coming century. The refrain has hitherto run through the march of time, and may possibly continue for ages. The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, is operative to-day. It forms a part of the state system of government; it is incorporated into the constitution and accepted by the citizens of each state admitted into the Union. It was the conception of the thirteen revolted colonies, and continues the backbone of each state, as the reader can see by turning to that part of this work describing the transformation of a territory into a state. There is nothing mean in the declarations that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Bible and nature satisfy us that we do not bring readymade garments from another world, or gold or silver, or anything, with us from the wombs of our respective mothers. It is true that, without 66 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are, at least in this world, of no importance to the deceased; so that, not granted life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are of no practical account. The terms " liberty" and 'pursuit of happiness" are descriptive terms, whose definitions vary according to the ideas of each individual. In point of fact, complete liberty is a monopoly inconsistent with intercourse between men, or men and animate or inanimate creation. The elements even resist man and qualify his liberty. The fate of mankind is well described in the third chapter of Genesis. The Lord God said unto the woman, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception : in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." These words are as apt to the citizens of the United States as to any other people upon earth. The daughters of Eve have not unqualified liberty. The sons of Adam eat in toil all the days of their lives-eat the herbs of the field, in the sweat of their faces eat bread, without rest until as dust they return to dust from which they are. It is not the pursuit of happiness, but the doing of the will of God with the least possible friction, under all circumstances, which is the duty of man, and which is the right : of man. The happiness, or so-called | ing the declaration that "all men happiness, of a base nature is very are created equal," ceased. By the different from the happiness of a son Articles of Confederation, July 9, of God. The unqualified use of the 1778-paupers, vagabonds, and fugiterms "liberty" and "pursuit of tives from justice excepted the happiness" is mere clap-trap in the free inhabitants of each of the states Declaration of Independence. The were entitled to all privileges and enumeration of the "repeated injuries immunities of free citizens in the and usurpations, all having in direct several states, and the people of object the establishment of an absol- each state had free ingress and reute tyranny over these states," at gress to and from any other state, this date, strikes the calm mind as and enjoyed therein all the privileges exhibiting a good deal of irritation of trade and commerce, subject to and partisanship, which requires ton- the same duties, impositions, and ing down in order to form a judicial restrictions as the inhabitants thereof decision as to the merits of the mis- respectively, provided that such reunderstanding, or unpleasantness, be- strictions did not extend so far as to tween the colonies and the mother prevent the removal of property imcountry. There are always two sides ported into any state to any other to a question, and that the colonies state of which the owner was an inwere successful in gaining their inde- habitant; provided, also, that no pendence is neither here nor there in imposition, duties, or restrictions absolving them entirely from blame. were laid by any state on the proIn point of fact, there was justice upon perty of the United States, or either each side, and fault upon both. It of them. Canada, upon acceding to ought now to be a matter of no mo- this confederation of the thirteen ment upon which side was the greater revolted colonies, and joining in the fault. The sun has gone down about measures of the United States, was forty thousand times since the colonies to be admitted into and entitled to became the United States of America, all the advantages of this union. and peace with the mother country These articles did not contain any was restored. The separation had to prohibition of titles, and it was, notcome sooner or later. The laws of withstanding the Declaration of Innature decreed it; and nature has dependence of 1776, not so impossible consistently shown that what is good that a monarchy might not have been for one (be it an individual or a na- established, or a reconciliation with tion) may not be good for all. The the mother country brought about. genius of a nation is formed by na- The establishment of a republican ture, according to circumstances, but form of government was not then consistent with nature; and the irrevocably decided upon. But the genius of each nation differs more or republican ideas grew with the cirless from that of every other nation. cumstances, and developed into the Constitution of the United States of September 17, 1787, which began with this preamble, "We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our It happened, fortunately for the United States, that it was in the power of the framers of the Constitution to banish and to prevent the importation, or the adoption, of prominent relics of a barbarous age. Feudalism was justly decreed a barbarity; and the favouring of the first son, as part of it, or as infring selves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." This Constitution does not contain any declarations as to all men being created equal, or as to the inalienable rights, among them those of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because it properly fell to the several state constitutions to embody them. But by Art. I., sec. xi., clause 7, "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or foreign state.' This provision was intended to be, and has proved, an effectual barrier to the vaulting ambition of little earthly minds, who hold that man can ennoble blood which God has ordained is, and shall for ever be, in His sight equal; and it prevents the injustice done to unborn generations by the creation of a privileged class by right of birth alone, and a consequently degraded class, also by right of birth alone both the work of usurpers of God's inalienable rights. Art. IV., sec. ii., clause 1, provides that "The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states "; and sec. iv., that "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application of the legislature, or of the executive when the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence." When the Constitution of the United States was being framed by the representatives of the several states in convention, very great difficulty was experienced in bringing about the compromise agreement afterwards adopted as the Consti tution. Each of the thirteen states was determined to maintain its individuality, and when the number of representatives in Congress was agreed to be in proportion to population, as from time to time fixed by the United States census, the number not to exceed one to every 30,000, but each state to have one representative, -it was, in order that the smaller states should not be swamped by the larger but have an equal voice in the senate, agreed that the Senate of the United States should be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislatures of the respective states for six years; and each senator should have one vote. This was at the time a perfectly proper compromise. But at the present day it does seem strange that Rhode Island, with a land area of 1085 square miles, and a population of 276,531 at the last census, taken in 1880; Delaware, with 1960 square miles, and 146,608 inhabitants, or that these two and the six states, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont (not one of which has 10,000 square miles of land), with an aggregate area of 51,385 square miles, and a total population of 5,574,250, should have sixteen of the seventy-six-or more than one-fifth of the wholesenatorial votes in Congress. The total population of the United States, according to the census, was in 1880, 50,155,783; and the aggregate area of all the states and territories, about 3,525,217 square miles of land (inclusive of Indian territory). New York had 5,082,871 inhabitants, with 47,620 square miles; Illinois had 3,077,871 inhabitants, with 58,000 square miles; Missouri, 2,168,380 inhabitants, with 68,735 square miles; California, 864,694 inhabitants, with 155,980 square miles. Year by year this disproportion of influence in the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.' Hither. to no state has been absorbed by another state. There seems good reason to suppose that this weak point, now rapidly developing, will sooner or later cause trouble. United States Senate is increasing, | states, without the consent of the and thus the necessity for a new distribution of state representation in the United States Senate has to be looked in the face and provided for. A civil war, or other unpleasantness, may be obviated by voluntary surrender, and an amicable arrangement under Art. IV., sec. iii., clause 1, which provides that "new states may be admitted by the Congress into the Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of The qualifications required of voters in the several states vary, and the attention of the reader is directed to the accompanying statement, taken from the American Almanac for 1886, edited by Ainsworth R. Spofford, Esq., Librarian of Congress. [TABLE. |