election of Congress necessarily the will of the majority of the people, but the sum of the majorities in the various states. The term of the president is short, but reëlection is not prohibited, though custom has apparently set the limit of two terms for any one man. The legislative department also shows the fear of democracy. Check on The senators were chosen by the legislatures of the states for terms of six years, one third changing every two years, and were thus expected to be the champions of conservatism. The members of the House were elected directly every two years. At one stage in the convention it was proposed to have the representatives chosen, like the senators, by the state legislatures, but it was held wise to give the government as broad a base as possible, and it was decided that the representatives should be chosen directly by the people, each state, however, determining the franchise. The different terms of the president, senators, and representatives and the different methods of election were felt to give security against the unexpected capture of the government by any faction. Thus departmental usurpation, democracy, and monarchy were guarded against. amendment flexibility In the method of amendment the convention improved upon Method of the Articles of Confederation. In that system the assent of all combines the states had been necessary to effect a change, and it has been stability and seen how Rhode Island prevented the adoption of the financial amendment. The old method was a proper one for a confederation of sovereign states where each member was sovereign and equal. But the old Confederation was a failure. The convention framed a national constitution responsive to the majority and not capable of being thwarted by the will of a single state, and yet not so weak as to be at the mercy of the momentary whim of a chance majority. It was to combine stability and flexibility. The scheme adopted was a twofold process and involved the framing and ratification of the amendment. To frame an amendment it was necessary that two thirds of both Houses should agree on the proposed measure or that upon the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the states Congress should call a conven tion to frame the amendment. As a result of either method assent of three fourths of the states was necessary, give by their legislatures or by conventions. The compror' Method of ratification nationalism and confederacy is here seen, as well as the one between the fear of democracy and the necessity for progress. The ratification depends upon state action; and however great the popular demand ratification is not by popular referendum, and no matter how great a popular majority may be rolled up, unless three fourths of the states agree the measure is defeated. With the massing of population in certain states and the admission of thinly settled states it has been calculated that in theory one fortieth of the population could defeat the will of the other thirty-nine fortieths. To accomplish this, however, it is necessary to combine all the small states, a thing practically impossible because of their divergent interests. On the other hand, amendment and change are possible even in the face of opposition by certain large interests in certain states. That the Constitution is not easily amended has been considered one of its good features, but that it can be amended when the necessity has been clearly shown has brought satisfaction if not improvement. THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION When the work of the convention was done the question as to ratification of the Constitution arose. Legally, according to the Articles of Confederation, the new Constitution should be submitted to Congress and, when agreed to by all the different state delegations, should be transmitted to the state legislatures, whose unanimous consent would be necessary for ratification. Since Rhode Island was not represented at the convention her adoption of the Constitution was unlikely, and the acceptance of the instrument by all the state legislatures was problematical. The convention, therefore, disregarding the provisions of the Articles, inserted the provision that the ratification of nine states should be sufficient for the establishment of the Constitution between the states so ratifying. The completed Constitution was transmitted to Congress with an urgent resolution that Congress should submit it to conventions summoned for the purpose of considering it in the various states. Congress somewhat reluc+ly agreed and transmitted the Constitution to the states. The on for ratification lasted over a year, and at times the result seemed doubtful. Delaware ratified it unanimously, Decem- Federalist "' national ratification As a result of the campaign for ratification political parties origin of were solidified. The friends of a strong and efficient govern- political ment acted together for the adoption of the Constitution. Those parties in who believed in reducing the powers of the national government contest to a minimum opposed the ratification. When the new system was put in operation these political divisions continued over the question of liberal or literal interpretation of the Constitution -the strict or loose construction of its powers and formed the beginnings of the first two great political parties. 1 See S. B. Harding, The Contest over the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in Massachusetts. The Bill of Rights The various state conventions had submitted over one hundred amendments to the Constitution on which Congress was called to act. The most common criticism was that the instrument lacked a Bill of Rights. As has been seen, most of the state constitutions contained such articles, and the political philosophy of the time demanded such satisfaction. Consequently Congress yielded. And in spite of Hamilton's assurance that such declarations were unnecessary, as the Constitution was a document granting specific powers, Congress submitted twelve amendments to the states, ten of which were adopted. The first eight amendments deal with private rights, and will be later examined, while the Ninth and Tenth deal with the reservation of powers, preserving to the state or the people all powers not explicitly granted. Thus the 'doctrine is emphasized that the Constitution creates not a sovereign government but a government subordinate to the people, a government of delegated powers, sovereign, it is true, within its sphere, but subordinate not to the will of the state governments, as the Confederation had been, but to the people acting through the process of amendment. Thus the people, not the state governments, have withdrawn powers by the Eleventh Amendment and granted new powers by the Fourteenth and Seventeenth and Eighteenth Amendments. But Congress on its own initiative cannot widen its field of action by the exercise of any power not granted to it. Unlike the sovereign Parliament of Great Britain, Congress is subordinate to the Constitution, and the people are sovereign. CHAPTER IV CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES ONE OF mentary One of the most striking features of the Constitution of the United States, and one which distinguishes it most clearly from the constitution of Great Britain, is the sovereignty of the people. In England, Parliament is legally sovereign, or, to Parliabe more accurate, the king in Parliament, while the actual sovereignty sovereignty is exercised neither by the king nor Parliament but in England by the House of Commons and the Cabinet. The important thing to notice, however, is that Parliament possesses the legal sovereignty, actual and uncontrolled. It has the power not only to pass any and all legislation but also to alter and amend the very constitution under which it acts. Thus, in 1716, a Parliament, elected to sit for three years, prolonged its own existence by the passage of the Septennial Act; and in 1911 Parliament very greatly limited the power of the House of Lords. No act of Parliament can be unconstitutional since Parliament is sovereign, and for a like reason no act is beyond the competency of Parliament. Parliament is thus at once an uncontrolled legislative and constituent assembly. sovereignty Such power in the United States resides not in Congress, Popular nor in any department of the government, nor in the states, but in the United in the people. The first sentence of the Constitution clearly States expresses the American theory in sharp contrast to the English theory: "We the people of the United States... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The Constitution was not the work of the old Congress nor of a committee of Congress but of an extra-legal body, a constituent assembly, whose work was without legal force until approved and ratified by some other body. Doubtless it was |