crime, the preservation of social order, the entire regulation of the affairs of a community, are made by the States for themselves, with the one qualification that they must not be in conflict with the Constitution. And who are the law-makers? The delegates elected by the people-and they are no more than delegates. They constantly consult the sense and wishes of their constituents; and if they frame an obnoxious law, another set of representatives are sent to the State Legislatures the following year to repeal it. It might almost be said that the people are every day of their lives engaged in practising the active duties of government. The Federal Legislature is only in plan the State Legislature on a larger scale. It is an expansion of the local principle of self-government.

In America, then, as the people make their government, and know that they are responsible for it, they submit willingly to its decrees. Lord Brougham thought it a special merit of the English government that it could levy taxes, in case of need, more quietly and successfully than any other. "If it be said," he continued, "that the American government can as well call forth the resources of the people, I have very grave doubt if the national representatives, and especially the President towards the end of his first three years, would inflict a heavy excise or a grinding income-tax upon the people, as our Parliament has so often done; and I have no doubt at all that such an infliction would very

CHAP. I.

POPULARITY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

13

דיי

speedily lead to a termination of hostilities without any very great nicety about the terms of peace.' The signal manner in which this confident prediction has been falsified can never be forgotten, any more than the prediction itself can be repeated. Not only did the American people submit to unparalleled income and excise taxes, and every other kind of tax, during the civil war, but they afterwards accepted these enormous imposts quite voluntarily, paid them almost without a murmur from one end of the country to the other, and continue to pay them to this hour. Could any people do more for their government than this? And why do the Americans make these sacrifices? Because they are deeply, immoveably attached to a certain national ideal, which some believe has been realized already, and others hope to see realized in the future; because they feel that there is no part of their government in which they have not an influence and an interest; because they believe that it exists for their benefit and welfare, and that when it ceases to do so they can rapidly amend or remodel it.

These vital reforms are expedient and justifiable as often as they are necessary. Washington, in his farewell address, emphatically said to the people, “the basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government." Judge Story remarks of the Constitu

7 Lord Brougham on the British Constitution,' chapter xvii.

tion that "its framers were not bold or rash enough
to believe or to pronounce it to be perfect. They
made use of the best lights which they possessed to
form and adjust its parts, and mould its materials.
But they knew that time might develop many
defects in its arrangements, and many deficiencies in
its powers. They desired that it might be open to
improvement, and, under the guidance of the sober
judgment and enlightened skill of the country, to be
perpetually approaching nearer and nearer to per-
fection."s Upon these principles the American people
determined that the country should be governed
after the great rebellion. There were not wanting
those who contended that the Constitution was bind-
ing upon the nation for ever, and could neither be
abridged nor extended, no matter what perils or
difficulties arose. A decision of five judges of the
Supreme Court in the case of a man named Mil-
ligan, who had been imprisoned under the order of a
military commission, and who petitioned for release,
gave authority and sanction to this party.
judges went so far as to say of the Constitution that
"no doctrine involving more pernicious consequences
was ever invented by the wit of man than that any
of its provisions can be suspended during any of the
great emergencies of the government." But the
Chief Justice and three other judges dissented from
this opinion, and held that Congress, in times of

8 'Commentaries,' § 417 (3rd edition, Boston, 1858).
• Delivered at the December term, 1866.

The

СНАР. І.

REPUBLICANISM IDEALISED.

15

extraordinary emergency, had the right to put in force extraordinary powers for the preservation of the country. And common sense confirms this interpretation of the law. If, of the Union or the Constitution one or other must fall, which is it for the interest of the people to abandon? Had the Southern States conquered, Union and Constitution would both have perished. The Northern people fought to save both, but a strict adherence to the Constitution was found during the struggle to be inconsistent with the preservation of the Union, and it was therefore practically disregarded. At first, indeed, it was only sought to alter it in accordance with the terms of constitutional law, that is by the consent of a majority of three-fourths of all the States; but since the Southern States would not voluntarily sign away their liberty, this provision was ignored, and the decision of the conquering States was held to be alone sufficient to recast the agreement of 1787.

The light in which the Americans regard their government can never be understood unless we suppose it to have a double existence-an existence in fact and an existence in the imagination or hopes. of the people. The foreign observer describes only what he sees; the American invests his government with certain fictitious qualities which he knows that it ought to possess, and would possess if the ideas of its founders were truly carried out, and which he retains a firm belief will be grafted upon it by the

good sense of his posterity. You show the American the errors of his government in practice, and he replies by drawing a vivid picture of it as it presents itself to his fancy. It is not always easy in an inquiry upon American affairs to distinguish between the real and the ideal. If the wishes of those who made the Constitution, and the desires of the educated class, could prevail, there would be a perfect government in the United States, and the American will sometimes assert that such a privilege does belong to him. But when its faults and its errors are pointed out he at once changes his ground, and pleads that the country is new, that it has already achieved wonders in a short time, and that there is every reason to suppose it will continue to improve and progress. These arguments are entitled to the utmost attention and respect, but if the admissions which they contain were more carefully borne in mind there would be no necessity to urge them. So much would not be looked for in the American government, because no extravagant pretensions would be made by those who undertake to defend it against criticism. But when Americans challenge comparison with the rest of the world, it is only a proper tribute to them to examine into their claims. They ought to wish all their fellow-creatures the enjoyment of the same blessings which they possess, but in order to induce the world to avail itself of them it must first be taught to appreciate the boon. This cannot be done without explanation and inquiry.

Foreign criticisms