West, (10) Constitutional Convention, (11) Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, (12) the states versus the nation, (13) compromises in the Constitution, (14) chief provisions of the Constitution, (15) ratification, (16) record of the people for thirteen years after the Declaration of Independence.

Activities. Talk for three minutes on what the people who stayed at home had to do for the army.

Explain to the class why the United States could not have continued to be governed by the Articles of Confederation.

Write one hundred words on the most important facts about the Constitution.

In three minutes tell the class what the people accomplished in the thirteen years from 1776 to 1789.

References for Teachers.-Fish, Development of American Nationality, 1-43; Greene, Foundations of Am. Nationality, XXIV.-XXVIII.; Clark, History of Manufactures in U. S., 215-232; Tryon, Household Manufactures in U.S., 112-122; Fiske, Critical Period of American History, III., IV., V.; McLaughlin, The Confederation and the Constitution; Channing, Hist. of the U.S., III.; Farrand, Fathers of the Constitution (Chron. of Am.); Elliot, Biographical Story of Constitution, 3-45; Hart, Am. Hist. Told by Contemp., II., 463-465, 467-469, 591-593, III., 120-249.

For Pupils. Hart, Camps and Firesides of the Revolution, 216-220; Earle, Colonial Dames and Goodwives, 240-257; Elson, Side Lights on Am. Hist., 24-53; Sparks, Men Who Made the Nation, 119-180.

CHAPTER XV

BEGINNING OF GOVERNMENT UNDER THE
CONSTITUTION

Organization. The first of the three branches of the new government to be organized was the lawmaking body, called Congress. This body is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Constitution gave each state two senators but made the number of its representatives proportional to its population; so Delaware had two senators and one representative, while Virginia, then the largest state, had two senators and ten representatives.

It was necessary for Congress to organize first, because the President and Vice President could not be elected until Congress met and counted the electoral vote. The old Congress of the Confederation called the new Congress under the Constitution to meet in New York, then the capital of the nation, on March 4, 1789. March 4 has continued to be the date when new sessions of Congress begin and Presidents are inaugurated. March was not a good month for traveling by sea or land. Stagecoaches often sank in mud up to the hubs, and a man on horseback sometimes had to dismount so that the poor animal could get out of the mire. Congress took its time about assembling and did not have a quorum in New York until April.

When the electoral vote was counted, Washington's name was found on every ballot, and he was elected President. John Adams of Massachusetts had the next highest number of votes and became Vice President. Four years later, near the end of Washington's first term, all the electors again voted for him. No other President has been elected by a unanimous vote.

The last of the three branches of the national government to be organized was the judiciary. The Constitution directs that

the President shall appoint the judges of the courts of the United States. Washington selected John Jay, of New York, as the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of the nation. He had been one of the three commissioners who made the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain.

Washington's triumphal journey and inauguration. — Congress sent a special messenger to Mount Vernon, Virginia, to notify Washington of his election as President. Washington, then fifty-seven years old, wanted to stay at home and manage his plantation in quiet; but when Hamilton and Madison told him that he was the only man who could make the people accept the new government, he followed the call of duty in this case as in others. Washington must have felt almost repaid for his sacrifice before he reached New York. He made the journey on horseback, and found the people everywhere waiting to greet him. Bells were rung and cannon fired to welcome him. Processions of citizens and soldiers marched in his honor.

The inauguration of George Washington, the first President of the United States, took place in New York on the last day of

THE BIBLE UPON WHICH WASHINGTON TOOK HIS OATH OF OFFICE

It is opened at the page he chose. This Bible has been carefully preserved in New York. In 1921 it was taken to Washington and used in President Harding's inauguration.

April, 1789. While in office he kept his plantation habit of going to bed at nine and rising at four. So many people called to see him that early rising was necessary to give him time for reading applications for positions and general correspondence that would to-day be attended to by the President's secretary.

The cabinet. The Constitution gives in about 400 words an outline of what the President may do. Washington gave life to that mere skeleton; he may almost be said to have created the presidency. Congress established at its first session a Department of State, a Department of the Treasury, and a War Department. Washington might have filled these departments with ordinary clerks, and taken all the credit to himself for managing the nation's affairs, for the Constitution says nothing about the consulting body, known as the President's cabinet, which soon became part of the government. This may be rightly called Washington's creation, since he selected for his cabinet some of the greatest men in the country, men whom he consulted as his equals, thus raising the cabinet to its present position of honor and influence. Alexander Hamilton, Washington's Secretary of the Treasury, and Thomas Jefferson, his Secretary of State, have made a lasting place for themselves in American history.

The President's cabinet has been enlarged since Washington's time, as the business of the government has grown. The post office was in operation then, but it was not yet thought important enough to be represented in the cabinet. Washington ranked the Attorney-General as a member of his cabinet, but the Department of Justice, of which the Attorney-General is the head, was not created for three quarters of a century.

The cabinet now includes the following heads of departments (the date shows the time of the creation of each department):

Secretary of State, 1789.

Secretary of the Treasury, 1789.
Secretary of War, 1789.
Secretary of the Navy, 1798.
Postmaster-General, 1829.

Secretary of the Interior, 1849.
Attorney-General, 1870.
Secretary of Agriculture, 1889.
Secretary of Commerce, 1903.
Secretary of Labor, 1913.

Hamilton begins the management of the nation's finances.The most original and masterly work of Washington's administration was done in managing the finances. A large amount of money was necessary to run the three branches of government ordered by the Constitution. The new government was not having a fair start, because it had to take on its shoulders the debts of the Confederation. In Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, Washington chose a genius to manage the finances of the nation. It has been the fashion among some to say that the acts of men and nations are guided by "economic motives," that is, by the desire for monetary gain. If such motives had guided Washington, Hamilton, and many other Americans, this government would not now exist. Hamilton's friends urged him in vain not to give up his paying law practice to accept an office that would bring abuse and persecution.

Hamilton knew that Americans did not like taxation, and he was sure that the new government would fail unless he could raise large sums of money without causing widespread public discontent. No one had yet succeeded in avoiding trouble over taxes. In order to raise money for the everyday expenses of government, he advised duties on imported articles and persuaded Congress to adopt this plan. He was acute enough to see that such duties would be more popular than before, because an increasing number wished to engage in manufacturing, and these duties would help protect them from foreign competition. Thus it was under his guidance that the Union adopted its first protective tariff.

Hamilton later secured from Congress a charter for the Bank of the United States, because he wanted (1) a safe place in which to deposit money received from duties and other sources, and (2) an agency to issue bank notes acceptable as currency in all the states, in place of state bills of uncertain value.

Payment of debts.-Washington and Hamilton were determined that the new Union should preserve its honor by paying the inherited debts. There was no dispute about paying the