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EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 IN UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
jiKacmtllan's Pocket American anto 3EnrjIis{) ©lassies. 
 
 A Series of English Texts, edited for use in Secondary Schools, 
 with Critical Introductions, Notes, etc. 
 
 l6mo. 
 
 Cloth. 
 
 25c. each. 
 
 Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley. 
 
 Browning's Shorter Poems. 
 
 Browning, Mrs., Poems (Selected). 
 
 Burke's Speech on Conciliation. 
 
 Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 
 
 Carlyle's Essay on Burns. 
 
 Chaucer's Prologue and Knight's Tale. 
 
 Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner. 
 
 Cooper's The Deerslayer. 
 
 Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. 
 
 De Quincey's Confessions of an 
 English Opium-Eater. 
 
 Dryd?n's Palamon and Arcite. 
 
 Ear,, ' ' can Orations, 1760-1824. 
 
 Eliot's S ..is Marner. 
 
 Epoch-making Papers in U. S. History. 
 
 Franklin's Autobiography. 
 
 Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. 
 
 Hawthorne's Twice-told Tales : Selec- 
 tions. 
 
 Irving's The Alhambra. 
 
 Irving's Sketch Book. 
 
 Longfellow's Evangeline. 
 
 Lowell's The Vision of Sir Launfal. 
 Macaulay's Essay on Addison. 
 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Clive. 
 Macaulay's Essay on Milton. 
 Macaulay's Essay on Hastings. 
 Milton's Comus and Other Poems. 
 Milton's Paradise Lost, Bks. I and II. 
 Poe's Prose Tales (Selections from). 
 Pope's Homer's Iliad. 
 Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. 
 Scott's Ivanhoe. 
 Scott's The Lady of the Lake. 
 Scott's Marmion. 
 Shakespeare's As You Like It. 
 Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. 
 Shakespeare's Macbeth. 
 Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. 
 Shelley and Keats : Poems. 
 Southern Poets : Selections. 
 Stevenson's Treasure Island. 
 Tennyson's Idylls of the King. 
 Tennyson's The Princess. 
 Wordsworth's Shorter Poems. 
 
 OTHERS TO FOLLOW. 
 
EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 IN 
 
 UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
 EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 
 BY 
 
 MARSHALL STEWART BROWN" 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
 1903 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
THfc LIBRARY OF 
 CONGRESS 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 FEB 24 1903 
 
 CLASS CKn XXc. No. 
 COPY 6. x 
 
 COPTKIGHT, 1903, 
 
 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped February, 1903. 
 
 Nortoooti ^Prcss 
 
 J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It is the aim of the editor of this little book to 
 contribute, even if but slightly, to the remarkable 
 movement for the betterment of the teaching and 
 study of history in the schools of the United States 
 which has gained such impetus during the past decade. 
 Several excellent but more extensive collections of 
 documents are already in very general use among 
 more advanced students, and several series of ex- 
 tremely valuable leaflets containing single documents 
 are at the disposal of students. 
 
 It was thought that a collection embracing the more 
 important constitutional and political papers of our 
 national period, published with short historical intro- 
 ductions and with notes, in a form and at a price that 
 would make the book available for pupils in the 
 public schools, would meet a need that neither of 
 the collections of documents above mentioned succeeds 
 in filling. 
 
 The editor has taken the liberty, which in a volume 
 intended for more mature students would not be par- 
 
 v 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 donable, of modernizing capitalization, spelling, and 
 punctuation, with the exception that, for obvious 
 reasons, the punctuation of the Constitution has been 
 left as in the original. 
 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech has been included, be- 
 cause, while not of the same class of papers as the 
 other documents, it sums up in a masterly manner 
 the issues of the greatest constitutional and political 
 struggle this country has undergone. 
 
 M. S. B. 
 
 New York University. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ^ PAGE 
 
 PREFACE v 
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 BOOKS FOR CONSULTATION xxi 
 
 TEXTS : 
 
 Declaration of Independence .... 1 
 
 Articles of Confederation 11 
 
 Ordinance of 1787 32 
 
 Constitution of the United States ... 48 
 
 "Washington's Farewell Address ... 84 
 
 Missouri Compromise 115 
 
 Monroe Doctrine 122 
 
 Compromise of 1850 131 
 
 Kansas-Nebraska Act 149 
 
 Dred Scott Decision 155 
 
 Proclamation of Emancipation .... 163 
 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech .... 169 
 
 NOTES 173 
 
 INDEX TO NOTES 205 
 
 vii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 A disciple of the great French thinker, Voltaire, 
 gives the following expression to his master's epoch- 
 making idea concerning the scope and nature of his- 
 tory, " Why should history be only a recital of battles, 
 sieges, intrigues, and negotiations, and why should it 
 contain merely a mass of petty facts rather than a 
 great picture of the opinions, customs, and even incli- 
 nations of a people ? " 
 
 To Voltaire's conception of history as an account 
 of the life of the people rather than a chronicle of the 
 acts of king and court, the nineteenth century added 
 the idea of growth, development, or evolution. A 
 recent German definition of history well expresses 
 this modern view, " History is the science of the de- 
 velopment of men in their activity as social beings." 
 The state is a living organism, and is subject to the 
 same laws of growth that control and determine the 
 development of any other living being. This being 
 true, society politically organized on a given territory 
 
 ix 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 as a state must be studied from the point of view of 
 growth, if the real meaning of its history is to be 
 ascertained. No lasting constitution of a country is 
 ever a spontaneous development. Such a constitution 
 is the concrete manifestation, in written form, of the 
 gradually evolved customs and practices of the society 
 which it is meant to govern. 
 
 American history is no exception to this general 
 rule. Any given period or event is the child of its 
 past and the father of its future. Every great occur- 
 rence of our national life has been the result of causes, 
 some of them operating perhaps for centuries ; and in 
 its turn it has affected future history, it may be for 
 ages to come. The greatest of our constitutional 
 papers, the Constitution itself, was not the creation 
 of a body of eminent men, known in our annals as 
 the constitutional convention ; it was rather the appli- 
 cation to new conditions of the political principles 
 and practices that had been worked out by the people, 
 in colony and mother-country, during a period extend- 
 ing over many centuries. The success of the Consti- 
 tution has been largely due to the fact that its great 
 features were not inventions, but were completely in 
 accord with race precedent and with the genius of the 
 American people. The one great feature of the Con- 
 
INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 stitution which had not been thoroughly tested in the 
 school of experience, the relation of the federal gov- 
 ernment to the states, likewise demanded time and 
 progressive trial and tests by generations before the 
 people of the United States as a whole would accept 
 a practical and necessary interpretation of that all- 
 important relation. Nearly seventy-five years of bitter 
 sectional and political strife and one of the mightiest 
 conflicts of armed forces that the world has ever seen 
 were found necessary to atone for the lack of race 
 experience before 1787 upon this fundamental problem 
 of American federal government. 
 
 What is true of our most famous constitutional 
 document is also true of the other principal political 
 papers that are monuments of our national progress. 
 Each was a concrete expression of the life and thought 
 of the people of the time. Each, in a more or less 
 extended sphere of state activity, summed up the 
 achievements of the past, and was in its turn a 
 foundation for subsequent growth. This conception 
 of the meaning of history has been one of the chief 
 factors in the elevation of its study to a position of 
 equality with other studies in the more progressive 
 schools of this country. 
 
 The fight that history has made in the American 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION 
 
 college for equal recognition with the older subjects 
 has been won. No longer is the course in history 
 given to the professor whose time schedule permits 
 the addition of another course. The educational value 
 of history has ceased to be the subject of debate in 
 college faculties, while students show their apprecia- 
 tion of its worth to them by electing historical courses 
 more largely than almost any other. 
 
 In the school, however, the struggle still continues, 
 but no doubt exists as to which will eventually be 
 victorious. Since the Madison Conference of 1892 
 there has been a revolution in ideas concerning the 
 teaching and study of history in the schools of this 
 country. Of necessity, theory has outrun practice. 
 Time is necessary to bring teachers and schools to a 
 realization in practice of the accepted educational 
 thought of the time. It is still possible to find 
 schools, though fortunately their number is rapidly 
 decreasing, in which a teacher, without knowledge of 
 history, is asked to instruct in that subject, although 
 in the same schools it would be regarded as an utter 
 absurdity to allow one ignorant of modern languages 
 to teach French or German. 
 
 History regarded merely as a culture study, although 
 its value as such is very great, would not merit the 
 
INTRODUCTION Xlll 
 
 place that has been given it in the school curricula of 
 to-day. Properly taught, it is one of the best studies 
 for mental discipline. It develops the highest power 
 of the human intellect, that of judgment ; for evidence 
 must be weighed, values estimated, and data analyzed. 
 By far the most important mental characteristic in 
 the practical affairs of life is the ability to draw 
 correct conclusions from available data and to trace 
 the proper relation between cause and effect ; history, 
 efficiently taught, trains more than almost any other 
 study this power of the mind, for the problems of 
 e very-day life require for their solution just such men- 
 tal processes as the study of history demands. Proper 
 methods of historical study develop the ability to 
 gather and use information, a power which is of the 
 greatest practical importance and the possession of 
 which is peculiarly the mark of an educated man. 
 A well-trained memory is one of the chief aids to, 
 and at the same time one of the products of, historical 
 study, but it should never be made the main end of 
 such study ; the function of memory is to furnish 
 the facts upon which the judgment bases its conclu- 
 sions. No real appreciation of what history means 
 can be acquired unless the historical sense is a part 
 of the student's mental equipment. By historical 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 sense is meant the ability to place one's self, through 
 the exercise of the imagination, one of the very high- 
 est qualities of the human mind, which the study of 
 history calls for and strengthens, in sympathy with 
 the life and events of the period which is the subject 
 of study. 
 
 Next to the sacred and fundamental relations of the 
 family, much the most important that the individual 
 is called upon to enter in life, are those of politically 
 organized society, the state; that is, those pertaining 
 to the privileges and obligations of citizenship. En- 
 lightened patriotism in the citizen is essential if the 
 state is to be preserved or if it is to be worth preserv- 
 ing, and enlightened patriotism is dependent upon a 
 knowledge, not only of what the state is, but also of 
 how it came to be. Its value is best realized by an 
 appreciation of what its creation, development, and 
 maintenance have cost. Hence the history of one's 
 own country ought to form a part of the training of 
 every public school pupil. 
 
 It is obvious that the benefits to be derived from 
 the study of history, which have been thus briefly 
 and far from exhaustively stated, can be conferred 
 upon the pupil only when the subject is taught after 
 approved methods by well-equipped instructors. It 
 
JOHN HANCOCK 
 
INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 cannot be too strongly emphasized that a knowledge 
 of history is by far the most influential factor in the 
 successful teaching of history. The knowledge of 
 how to teach is of great value, but it must always 
 take a place second to the knowledge of what to 
 teach. In other words, mastery of the subject should 
 in the mind of the teacher greatly outweigh what, in 
 the language of pedagogy, is known as method. 
 
 The teacher who is called upon to teach a course in 
 history, without having obtained previously a thor- 
 ough knowledge of the subject, should read and study, 
 as exhaustively as time will permit, the leading sec- 
 ondary authorities. Wide reading is not, however, 
 sufficient; the information obtained should be care- 
 fully analyzed and thoroughly digested. A firm grasp 
 of essentials is of far greater value than a mass of 
 unrelated information. Kecent bibliographies place 
 at the disposal of the teacher of American history 
 lists_of the best authorities to which reference should 
 be made. Next to the possession of information 
 comes the knowledge of where such information can 
 be found. The teacher should learn to know and to 
 use books, the tools of his trade. Where limitations 
 of time do not permit one to read all or even a part 
 of the volumes referred to, it will be found useful to 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 handle them and to look over their tables of contents. 
 Such an inspection of books is by no means an evi- 
 dence of superficiality. A book thus examined at 
 once acquires individuality, and hence leaves a more 
 lasting impression upon the mind than the mere read- 
 ing of a title ; moreover, a general idea of its contents 
 has been obtained which may prove of great future 
 benefit. 
 
 While there is a difference of opinion as to the 
 value of original sources to the young student, all 
 authorities are agreed that the teacher should obtain 
 the inspiration which comes to the one who goes to 
 the very founts of knowledge. It is manifestly im- 
 possible for the teacher to consult sources for the 
 whole period covered by his subject, yet the use even 
 of a limited number of sources will give to him an 
 understanding of the processes of history writing, a 
 means of testing the conclusions of the secondary 
 authorities, and the self-confidence and sense of power 
 which comes to the possessor of first-hand informa- 
 tion, that are indispensable to the thoroughly efficient 
 teacher. 
 
 The material equipment needed for good teaching 
 in history, until very recently lacking, is at the pres- 
 ent time fortunately procurable and within the reach 
 
INTRODUCTION XV11 
 
 of nearly every school. While much improvement is 
 still hoped for in text-books for younger students of 
 history, it is no longer necessary to use utterly inade- 
 quate manuals ; good ones are obtainable. Maps and 
 a school library of a few well-selected books are abso- 
 lutely necessary to supplement the use of the text- 
 book. The teacher of ability will develop his own 
 method of using the school library to advantage; 
 such teachers are, however, very generally agreed 
 upon the value of the written exercise, based upon a 
 limited amount of outside reading, and of the report 
 upon an assigned topic prepared after reading in more 
 than one book upon the subject. The preparation of 
 such exercises and reports arouses the pupil's interest, 
 excites his powers of criticism, teaches him how to 
 acquire information, and develops the power of using 
 the information thus acquired. It may well happen 
 that differing or conflicting opinions of the authors 
 may lead the pupil to question the statements made 
 in the books he has just read ; if it is possible to place 
 in his hands the original source which settles the 
 matter, that boy will at once acquire an insight into 
 the way history is written that will awaken a new 
 and livelier interest in the study of the subject. 
 This suggests the question of the advisability of 
 
xvm INTRODUCTION 
 
 adopting the so-called source-method in schools. It 
 is the opinion of the present writer that the source- 
 method is emphatically not adapted for graded schools, 
 and that its use is of doubtful benefit in secondary 
 schools. Such a system is unquestionably better fitted 
 for more advanced students, and while, in ways like 
 that indicated above, sources may be of benefit to the 
 younger pupil, they should be used as supplementary 
 to the main work of the course and not as the basis 
 for such work. 
 
 There is, however, a certain class of the most im- 
 portant sources which should be read and studied by 
 the pupil in the documents themselves, not so much 
 because they are sources from which the historian 
 derives his information, as that they are themselves 
 the great epoch-making acts of the nation with which 
 every student of his country's history should famil- 
 iarize himself. While it is a truism to say that pupils 
 of the secondary schools are better fitted to use docu- 
 ments in their study of history than those of the 
 graded schools, the same can be said of the graduate 
 student in the university as compared to the college 
 student. The statement in either case is not an argu- 
 ment against their use in the lower grade. Pupils of 
 the eighth grade are mature enough, especially when 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 assisted by intelligent instruction, to use profitably a 
 few of the most decisive constitutional and political 
 documents. The pupil, by their use, will better ap- 
 preciate the fact that the history studied is a por- 
 trayal of real events and of human actors. History 
 thus vivified will take on a new interest, and the 
 text-book will be seen to be an account of men and 
 of forces that actually had a part in making our 
 country what it is. 
 
 Wholly aside from their value as aids in the general 
 study of American history, such documents as the 
 Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the 
 Farewell Address, and the Proclamation of Emanci- 
 pation should be read and studied first-hand, as a 
 part of the education of every American citizen, man 
 or woman. The great majority of children do not 
 pursue their studies beyond the highest grammar 
 grade, and it is highly important, both for themselves 
 and for the state, that before graduation all pupils 
 should acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the 
 state papers that have exerted the greatest influence 
 upon the growth and national policy of the country 
 in whose government they are to participate. 
 
BOOKS FOR CONSULTATION 
 
 Bibliographies : — 
 
 Charming and Hart, Guide to the Study of American His- 
 tory. Ginn & Company. 
 Larned, J. W., Literature of American History. A. L. A. 
 
 by Houghton, Mifflin & Company. 
 
 Charters and Sources: — 
 
 Hart and Channing, American History Leaflets. 30 nos. 
 A. Lovell & Company. 
 
 Hart, A. B., American History told by Contemporaries. 
 4 vols. The Macmillan Company. 
 
 Hart, A. B., Source Book of American History. The 
 Macmillan Company. 
 
 Hill, Mabel, Liberty Documents. A Working Book in 
 Constitutional History. Longmans, Green & Company. 
 
 Macdonald, William, Select Documents illustrative of the 
 History of the United States, 1776-1861. The Macmillan 
 Company. 
 
 Preston, H. W., Documents illustrative of American His- 
 tory, 1606-1863. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 
 
 Old South Leaflets. 133 nos. Directors of the Old South 
 Work. 
 
 xxi 
 
XXll BOOKS FOR CONSULTATION 
 
 Methods : — 
 
 Bourne, Henry E., The Teaching of History and Civics. 
 Longmans, Green & Company. 
 
 Channing and Hart, Guide to the Study of American His- 
 tory. Ginn & Company. 
 
 Hall, G. S., Methods of Teaching History. Ginn & 
 Company. 
 
 Hinsdale, B. A., How to Study and Teach History. D. 
 Appleton & Company. 
 
 Mace, W. H. , Method in History for Teachers and Stu- 
 dents. Ginn & Company. 
 
 Shorter General Works : — 
 
 Channing, Edward, The United States of America. The 
 Macmillan Company. 
 
 Channing, Edward, Students' 1 History of the United States. 
 The Macmillan Company. 
 
 Johnston, Alexander, American Politics. H. Holt & 
 Company. 
 
 Johnston, Alexander, Ed. Wra. Macdonald, High School 
 History of the United States. H. Holt & Company. 
 
 McLaughlin, A. C, History of the American Nation. 
 D. Appleton & Company. 
 
 Smith, Goldwin, The United States. An Outline of 
 Political History. The Macmillan Company. 
 
 Longer General Works : — 
 
 Adams, Henry, History of the United States (1800-1817). 
 9 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
BOOKS FOR CONSULTATION xxill 
 
 American History Series. 7 vols. Charles Scribner's 
 Sons. 
 
 Epochs of American History. 3 vols. Longmans, Green 
 & Company. 
 
 Hoist, H. von, Constitutional History of the United States. 
 8 vols. Callaghan & Company. 
 
 McMaster, J. B., A History of the People of the United 
 States (1783-1830). 5 vols. D. Appleton & Company. 
 
 Schouler, James, History of the United States under the 
 Constitution (1783-1865). 6 vols. Dodd, Mead & Company. 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow, A History of the American People. 
 5 vols. Harper & Brothers. 
 
 Note. — For books on special periods consult Channing and 
 Hart, Guide to the Study of American History. 
 
EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 Historical Note. — The Second Continental Congress which 
 assembled in Philadelphia on the 10th of May, 1775, was obliged, 
 owing to the outbreak of actual war with Great Britain, to take 
 upon itself the character of a national government. This revo- 
 lutionary government stepped into the place formerly occupied 
 by the mother country, assumed the powers which it deemed 
 necessary for the prosecution of the war, and finally, as the 
 culmination of a long series of revolutionary acts, declared the 
 thirteen colonies free and independent States. 
 
 Congress, on the 10th of May, 1776, recommended the several 
 colonies to establish governments for themselves to supersede 
 those under which they had been living as British dependencies. 
 Throughout the month of June the subject of a declaration of 
 independence was seriously discussed. While a majority of 
 the delegates were in favor of independence, it was thought 
 wise to defer action until the course of events should convince 
 the waverers, especially in the middle colonies, that the step 
 was necessary and inevitable. On the 10th of June, a com- 
 mittee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin 
 
 B 1 
 
2 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, was ap- 
 pointed to draft a declaration " That these United Colonies are, 
 and of right ought to be, free and independent states." Thomas 
 Jefferson, at the request of the committee, prepared a form of 
 declaration which, after a few changes in committee, was pre- 
 sented to Congress on the 28th of June. Several days of debate 
 followed, and on the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was formally adopted. 
 
 This remarkable document created a new nation among the 
 powers of the world, or rather it did not create, it affirmed the 
 independence of a state already brought into existence by revo- 
 lution. It did not establish a framework of government, but it 
 solemnly declared to the world that the United States of America 
 had a right to determine for itself its own government. It did 
 not constitute a body of laws, but it laid down the fundamental 
 principles upon which a free government ought to be based. 
 
 THE DECLAKATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 In Congress, July 4, 1??6 
 
 THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 When in the course of human events, it becomes 
 necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 
 which have connected them with another, and to as- 
 sume among the powers of the earth the separate and 
 equal station to which the laws of nature and of 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 3 
 
 nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the 
 opinions of mankind requires that they should declare 
 the causes which impel them to the separation. 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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. 
 That to secure these rights, governments are insti- 
 tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the 
 consent of the governed. That whenever any form of 
 government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
 the °right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and 
 to institute new government, laying its foundation on 
 such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 
 as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety 
 and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that 
 governments long established should not be changed 
 for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all ex- 
 perience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed 
 to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them- 
 selves by abolishing the forms to which they are 
 accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and 
 usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, 
 evinces a design to reduce them under absolute des- 
 potism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off 
 
4 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 such government, and to provide new guards for their 
 future security. Such has been the patient sufferance 
 of these Colonies ; and such is now the necessity which 
 constrains them to alter their former systems of govern- 
 ment. The history of the present king of Great Britain 
 is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all 
 having in direct object the establishment of an abso- 
 lute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let 
 facts be submitted to a candid world, 
 io °He has refused his assent to laws, the most whole- 
 some and necessary for the public good. 
 
 °He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of 
 immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended 
 in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; 
 and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to 
 attend to them. 
 
 He has refused to pass other laws for the accommo- 
 dation of large districts of people, unless those people 
 would relinquish the right of representation in the leg- 
 20 islature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to 
 tyrants only. 
 
 He has called together legislative bodies at places 
 unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the deposi- 
 tory of their public records, for the sole purpose of 
 fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 5 
 
 °He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, 
 for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the 
 rights of the people. 
 
 He has refused for a long time after such dissolu- 
 tions to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legis- 
 lative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned 
 to the people at large for their exercise; the State 
 remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers 
 of invasion from without, and convulsions within. 
 
 He has endeavoured to prevent the population of 10 
 these States ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for 
 naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass others to 
 encourage their migration hither, and raising the con- 
 ditions of new appropriations of lands. 
 
 He has obstructed the administration of justice, by 
 refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary 
 powers. 
 
 °He has made judges dependent on his will alone, 
 for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and pay- 
 ment of their salaries. 20 
 
 °He has erected a multitude of new offices, and 
 sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, 
 and eat out their substance. 
 
 °He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing 
 armies without the consent of our legislatures. 
 
6 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 He has affected to render the military independent 
 of and superior to the civil power. 
 
 He has combined with others to subject us to a juris- 
 diction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged 
 by our laws ; giving his °assent to their acts of pre- 
 tended legislation : 
 
 for quartering large bodies of armed troops among 
 us: 
 
 °for protecting them, by a mock trial, from punish- 
 io ment for any murders which they should commit on 
 the inhabitants of these States : 
 
 °for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 
 
 °for imposing taxes on us without our consent : 
 
 °for depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of 
 trial by jury : 
 
 °for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pre- 
 tended offences : 
 
 °for abolishing the free system of English laws in 
 
 a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbi- 
 
 20 trary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as 
 
 to render it at once an example and fit instrument for 
 
 introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies : 
 
 °for taking away our charters, abolishing our most 
 valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms 
 of our governments : 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 7 
 
 °for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring 
 themselves invested with power to legislate for us in 
 all cases whatsoever. 
 
 He has abdicated government here, by declaring us 
 out of his protection and waging war against us. 
 
 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt 
 our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 
 
 He is at this time transporting large armies of 
 °foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, 
 desolation and tyranny, already begun with circum- 10 
 stances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in 
 the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the 
 head of a civilized nation. 
 
 He has excited domestic insurrection among us, 
 and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of 
 our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose 
 known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruc- 
 tion of all ages, sexes and conditions. 
 
 He has constrained our fellow citizens taken cap- 
 tive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, 20 
 to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, 
 or to fall themselves by their hands. 
 
 In every stage of these oppressions we have peti- 
 tioned for redress in the most humble terms : Our 
 repeated petitions have been answered only by 
 
8 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 repeated injuries. A prince, whose character is thus 
 marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is 
 unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 
 
 Nor have we been wanting in attention to our 
 °British brethren. We have warned them from time 
 to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an 
 unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have re- 
 minded them of the circumstances of our emigration 
 and settlement here. We have appealed to their native 
 
 io justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them 
 by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these 
 usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our con- 
 nection and correspondence. They too have been deaf 
 to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We 
 must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which 
 denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold 
 the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. 
 °We, therefore, the representatives of the United 
 States of America, in General Congress, assembled, 
 
 20 appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
 rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by 
 authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly 
 publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, 
 and of right ought to be free and independent States ; 
 that they are absolved from all allegiance to the 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 9 
 
 British crown, and that all political connection be- 
 tween them and the State of Great Britain, is and 
 ought to be totally dissolved ; and that as free and 
 independent States, they have full power to levy war, 
 conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, 
 and to do all other acts and things which independent 
 States may of right do. And for the support of this 
 declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of 
 Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other 
 our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. 
 
 JOHN HANCOCK. 
 
 New Hampshire — Josiah Bartlett, William 
 Whipple, Matthew Thornton. 
 
 3fassachusetts Bay — Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
 Bobert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. 
 
 Rhode Island — Stephen Hopkins, William El- 
 
 LERY. 
 
 Connecticut — Boger Sherman, Samuel Hunting- 
 ton, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. 
 
 New York — William Floyd, Philip Livingston, 
 Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris. 
 
 New Jersey — Bichard Stockton, John Wither- 
 spoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham 
 Clark. 
 
10 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Pennsylvania — Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, 
 Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, 
 James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, 
 George Ross. 
 
 Delaware — Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas 
 M'Kean. 
 
 Maryland — Samuel Chase, William Paca, 
 Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 
 
 Virginia — George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, 
 io Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas 
 Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter 
 Braxton. 
 
 North Carolina — William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, 
 John Penn. 
 
 South Carolina — Edward Rutledge, Thomas 
 Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur 
 Middleton. 
 
 Georgia — Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, 
 George Walton. 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 Historical Note. — This country was governed from the out- 
 break of the war with Great Britain until March 2, 1781, by the 
 Second Continental Congress, as a revolutionary body. There 
 was no written instrument of government, and Congress as- 
 sumed the powers that were absolutely essential for the success- 
 ful conduct of the war for independence. The value of a written 
 constitution to limit and define the powers of government was 
 fully appreciated in the American colonies, and as early as the 
 11th of June, 1776, Congress appointed a committee, consisting 
 of one member from each colony, to draw up a constitution. 
 This committee, on the 12th of July, 1776, reported a draft of 
 Articles of Confederation, supposed to have been written by 
 John Dickinson of Delaware, which, after a long delay, were 
 finally agreed to by Congress, November 15, 1777, and submitted 
 to the several States. Over three years passed before all the 
 States had instructed their delegates in Congress to ratify the 
 Articles. The document bears the date, July 9, 1778, when 
 the engrossed copy was signed by eight States. 
 
 Dissatisfaction with certain provisions of the Articles, disin- 
 clination to surrender a portion of their sovereign powers, and 
 above all, the unwillingness of States having claims to western 
 lands to cede them to the Union, were the principal causes of 
 this protracted delay in ratifying the Articles. Maryland, the 
 
 11 
 
12 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 last State to ratify, signed the Articles of Confederation on the 
 1st of March, 1781. On the next day, March 2d, Congress 
 assembled for the first time under a written constitution. 
 
 The State thus formed was a loose confederation, in which 
 the confederate government was not given strength enough, as 
 events proved, to enforce the powers granted it by the Articles 
 of Confederation. Six years of the Confederation sufficed to 
 convince the people of this country that a new division of sov- 
 ereign powers between the State and national governments was 
 absolutely necessary. The very defects of the instrument were 
 blessings in disguise, for without a practical knowledge of their 
 disastrous consequences, the people of the States would never 
 have surrendered to the national government the powers that 
 have made it great and strong. 
 
 AETICLES OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 
 
 We, the undersigned, Delegates of the States affixed to 
 our names, send greeting : 
 
 Whereas the delegates of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled, did, on the fifteenth 
 day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 seven hundred and seventy seven, and in the second 
 year of the Independence of America, agree to cer- 
 io tain Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, 
 between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 13 
 
 Bay, Ehode Island and Providence Plantations, Con- 
 necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
 Carolina, and Georgia, in the words following, viz. : — 
 
 Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union betiveen 
 the ° States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, 
 Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Con- 
 necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
 South Carolina, and Georgia. 
 
 Article I. — The style of this Confederacy shall 
 be, "The United States of America." 
 
 Art. II. — Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom 
 and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and 
 right, which is not by this Confederation expressly 
 delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 Art. III. — The said States hereby severally enter 
 into a firm league of friendship with each other, for 
 their common defense, the security of their liberties, 
 and their mutual and general welfare, binding them- 
 selves to assist each other against all force offered 
 to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on 
 account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other 
 pretense whatever. 
 
14 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Art. IV. — The better to secure and perpetuate 
 mutual friendship and intercourse among the people 
 of the different States in this Union, °the free inhabit- 
 ants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and 
 fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to 
 all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the 
 several States; and the people of each State shall 
 have free ingress and regress to and from any other 
 State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of 
 
 io trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, im- 
 positions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof 
 respectively ; provided that such restrictions shall not 
 extend so far as to prevent the removal of property 
 imported into any State, to any other State of which 
 the owner is an inhabitant; provided also, that no 
 imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any 
 State on the property of the United States or either 
 of them. 
 
 °If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, 
 
 20 felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State shall 
 flee from justice and be found in any of the United 
 States, he shall, upon demand of the governor or 
 executive power of the State from which he fled, be 
 delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdic- 
 tion of his offense. 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 15 
 
 °Full faith and credit shall be given in each of 
 these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceed- 
 ings of the courts and magistrates of every other State. 
 
 A KT . V. °For the more convenient management of 
 
 the general interests of the United States, delegates 
 shall be annually appointed in such manner as the 
 legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Con- 
 gress on the first Monday in November, in every year, 
 with a power reserved to each State to recall its dele- 
 gates, or any of them, at any time within the year, w 
 and to send others in their stead for the remainder 
 
 of the year. 
 
 No State shall be represented in Congress by less 
 than two, nor by more than seven members ; and no 
 person shall be capable of being a delegate for more 
 than three years in any term of six years ; °nor shall 
 any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding 
 any office under the United States, for which he, or 
 another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or 
 emolument of any kind. 
 
 Each State shall maintain its own delegates in any 
 meeting of the States and while they act as members 
 of the Committee of the States. 
 
 In determining questions in the United States in 
 Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote. 
 
16 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 °Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall 
 not be impeached or questioned in any court or place 
 out of Congress ; and the members of Congress shall 
 be protected in their persons from arrests and im- 
 prisonment during the time of their going to and 
 from, and attendance on, Congress, except for treason, 
 felony, or breach of the peace. 
 
 Art. VI. — °No State, without the consent of the 
 United States in Congress assembled, shall send any 
 
 to embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter 
 into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty 
 with, any king, prince, or state ; °nor shall any person 
 holding any office of profit or trust under the United 
 States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolu- 
 ment, office, or title of any kind whatever from any 
 king, prince, or foreign state ; °nor shall the United 
 States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant 
 any title of nobility. 
 
 °ISro two or more States shall enter into any treaty, 
 
 !o confederation, or alliance whatever between them, 
 without the consent of the United States in Congress 
 assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for 
 which the same is to be entered into, and how long it 
 shall continue. 
 
 No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 17 
 
 interfere with any stipulations in treaties entered into 
 by the United States in Congress assembled, with any 
 king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties 
 already proposed by Congress to the courts of France 
 and Spain. 
 
 °No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace 
 by any State, except such number only as shall be 
 deemed necessary by the United States in Congress 
 assembled, for the defense of such State or its trade, 
 nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State 10 
 in time of peace, except such number only as, in the 
 judgment of the United States in Congress assembled, 
 shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts neces- 
 sary for the defense of such State ; but every State 
 shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined 
 militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall 
 provide and constantly have ready for use in public 
 stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents, and 
 a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp 
 equipage. 2Q 
 
 No State shall engage in any war without the con- 
 sent of the United States in Congress assembled, 
 unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or 
 shall have received certain advice of a resolution 
 being formed by some nation of Indians to invade 
 
18 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to 
 admit of a delay till the United States in Congress 
 assembled can be consulted ; nor shall any State grant 
 commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters 
 of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration 
 of war by the United States in Congress assembled, 
 and then only against the kingdom or state, and the 
 subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, 
 and under such regulations as shall be established by 
 
 io the United States in Congress assembled, unless such 
 State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of 
 war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so 
 long as the danger shall continue, or until the United 
 States in Congress assembled shall determine other- 
 wise. 
 
 Art. VII. — °When land forces are raised by any 
 State for the common defense, all officers of or under 
 the rank of Colonel, shall be appointed by the legisla- 
 ture of each State respectively by whom such forces 
 
 20 shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall 
 direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State 
 which first made the appointment. 
 
 Art. VIII. — °A 11 charges of war, and all other 
 expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense, 
 or general welfare, and allowed by the United States 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 19 
 
 in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a 
 common treasury, which shall be supplied by the 
 several States in proportion to the value of all land 
 within each State, granted to, or surveyed for, any 
 person, as such land and the buildings and improve- 
 ments thereon shall be estimated, according to such 
 mode as the United States in Congress assembled 
 shall from time to time direct and appoint. 
 
 The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid 
 and levied by the authority and direction of the legis- 10 
 latures of the several States, within the time agreed 
 upon by the United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 Art. IX. — °The United States in Congress as- 
 sembled shall have the sole and exclusive right and 
 power of determining on peace and war, except in the 
 cases mentioned in the sixth article ; of sending and 
 receiving ambassadors ; entering into treaties and 
 alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall 
 be made, whereby the legislative power of the respec- 
 tive States shall be restrained from imposing such 20 
 imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people 
 are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation 
 or importation of any species of goods or commodities 
 whatsoever ; of establishing rules for deciding, in all 
 cases, what captures on land and water shall be legal, 
 
20 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval 
 forces in the service of the United States shall be di- 
 vided or appropriated ; of granting °letters of marque 
 and reprisal in times of peace ; Appointing courts for 
 the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the 
 high seas; and establishing courts for receiving and 
 determining finally appeals in all cases of captures; 
 provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed 
 a judge of any of the said courts. 
 
 °The United States in Congress assembled shall also 
 be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differ- 
 ences now subsisting, or that hereafter may arise 
 between two or more States concerning boundary, 
 jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; which 
 authority shall always be exercised in the manner 
 following : whenever the legislative or executive 
 authority, or lawful agent of any State in controversy 
 with another, shall present a petition to Congress, stat- 
 ing the matter in question, and praying for a hearing, 
 notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to 
 the legislative or executive authority of the other 
 State in controversy, and a day assigned for the appear- 
 ance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall 
 then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commis- 
 sioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 21 
 
 determining the matter in question ; but if they can- 
 not agree, Congress shall name three persons out of 
 each of the United States, and from the list of such 
 persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the 
 petitioners beginning, until the number shall bo 
 reduced to thirteen ; and from that number not less 
 than seven nor more than nine names, as Congress shall 
 direct, shall, in the presence of Congress, be drawn out 
 by lot ; and the persons whose names shall be so 
 drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or 10 
 judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, 
 so always as a major part of the judges who shall 
 hear the cause shall agree in the determination ; and 
 if either party shall neglect to attend at the day 
 appointed, without showing reasons which Congress 
 shall judge sufficient, or being present, shall refuse to 
 strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three 
 persons out of each State, and the secretary of Con- 
 gress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or 
 refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court, 20 
 to be appointed in the manner before prescribed, shall 
 be final and conclusive ; and if any of the parties 
 shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, 
 or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court 
 shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence or 
 
22 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 judgment, which shall in like manner be final and deci- 
 sive ; the judgment or sentence and other proceedings 
 being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged 
 among the acts of Congress for the security of the 
 parties concerned ; provided, that every commissioner, 
 before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be 
 administered by one of the judges of the supreme or 
 superior court of the State where the cause shall be 
 tried, "well and truly to hear and determine the matter 
 
 io in question, according to the best of his judgment, with- 
 out favor, affection, or hope of reward : " provided, also, 
 that no State shall be deprived of territory for the 
 benefit of the United States. 
 
 All controversies concerning the private right of 
 soil, claimed under different °grants of two or more 
 States, whose jurisdictions, as they may respect such 
 lands and the States which passed such grants, are ad- 
 justed, the said grants or either of them being at the 
 same time claimed to have originated antecedent to 
 
 20 such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition 
 of either party to the Congress of the United States, 
 be finally determined, as near as may be, in the same 
 manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes 
 respecting territorial jurisdiction between different 
 States. 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 23 
 
 °The United States in Congress assembled shall also 
 have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulat- 
 ing the alloy and value of coin struck by their own 
 authority, or by that of the respective States ; fixing 
 the standard of weights and measures throughout the 
 United States ; regulating the trade and managing all 
 affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the 
 States; provided that the legislative right of any 
 State, within its own limits, be not infringed or vio- 
 lated; establishing and regulating post-offices from 10 
 one State to another, throughout all the United States, 
 and exacting such postage on the papers passing 
 through the same as may be requisite to defray the 
 expenses of the said office; appointing all officers of 
 the land forces in the service of the United States, 
 excepting regimental officers ; appointing all the offi- 
 cers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers 
 whatever in the service of the United States ; making 
 rules for the government and regulation of the said 
 land and naval forces, and directing their operations. 20 
 
 The United States in Congress assembled shall have 
 authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess 
 of Congress, to be denominated " A Committee of the 
 States," and to consist of one delegate from each State, 
 and to appoint such other committees and °civil officers 
 
24 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 as may be necessary for managing the general affairs 
 of the United States under their direction ; to appoint 
 one of their number to preside ; provided that no per- 
 son be allowed to serve in the office of °president more 
 than one year in any term of three years ; to ascertain 
 the necessary sums of money to be raised for the ser- 
 vice of the United States, and to appropriate and apply 
 the same for defraying the public expenses ; to borrow 
 money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, 
 
 io transmitting every half year to the respective States 
 an account of tm3 sums of money so borrowed or 
 emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon 
 the number of land forces, and to make requisitions 
 from each State for its quota, in proportion to the 
 number of white inhabitants in such State, which 
 requisition shall be binding ; and thereupon the legis- 
 lature of each State shall appoint the regimental offi- 
 cers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them 
 in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United 
 
 20 States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, 
 and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and 
 within the time agreed on by the United States in 
 Congress assembled ; but if the United States in Con- 
 gress assembled shall, on consideration of circum- 
 stances, judge proper that any State should not raise 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 25 
 
 men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, 
 and that any other State should raise a greater number 
 of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall 
 be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in 
 the same manner as the quota of such State, unless 
 the legislature of such State shall judge that such 
 extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, 
 in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and 
 equip as many of such extra number as they judge can 
 be safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, 10 
 armed, and equipped shall march to the place ap- 
 pointed, and within the time agreed on by the United 
 States in Congress assembled. 
 
 The United States in Congress assembled shall never 
 engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and re- 
 prisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties 
 or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value 
 thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary 
 for the defense and welfare of the United States, or 
 any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the 20 
 credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, 
 nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built 
 or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to 
 be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army 
 or navy, unless °nine States assent to the same, nor 
 
26 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 shall a question on any other point, except for ad- 
 journing from day to day, be determined, unless by the 
 votes of a majority of the United States in Congress 
 assembled. 
 
 The Congress of the United States shall have power 
 to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any 
 place within the United States, so that no period of 
 adjournment be for a longer duration than the space 
 of six months, and shall publish the journal of their 
 proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relat- 
 ing to treaties, alliances, or military operations as in 
 their judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays 
 of the delegates of each State, on any question, shall 
 be entered on the journal when it is desired by any 
 delegate ; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, 
 at his or their request, shall be furnished with a tran- 
 script of the said journal except such parts as are above 
 excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several 
 States. 
 
 Art. X. — The °Committee of the States, or any nine 
 of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess 
 of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the 
 United States in Congress assembled, by the consent 
 of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedi- 
 ent to vest them with ; provided that no power be dele- 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 27 
 
 gated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, 
 by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine 
 States in the Congress of the United States assembled 
 is requisite. 
 
 Art. XI. — °Canada, acceding to this Confederation, 
 and joining in the measures of the United States, shall 
 be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of 
 this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted 
 into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by 
 nine States. 10 
 
 Art. XII. — All bills of credit emitted, moneys bor- 
 rowed, and debts contracted by or under the authority 
 of Congress, before the assembling of the United 
 States, in pursuance of the present Confederation, 
 shall be deemed and considered as a charge against 
 the United States, for payment and satisfaction 
 whereof the said United States and the public faith 
 are hereby solemnly pledged. 
 
 Art. XIII. — Every State shall abide by the deter- 
 minations of the United States in Congress assembled, 20 
 on all questions which by this Confederation are sub- 
 mitted to them. And the articles of this Confedera- 
 tion shall be inviolably observed by every State, and 
 the Union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alteration 
 at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless 
 
28 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the 
 United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the 
 legislatures of °every State. 
 
 And Whereas it hath pleased the great Governor 
 of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures 
 we respectively represent in Congress to approve of, 
 and to authorize us to ratify, the said Articles of Con- 
 federation and perpetual Union, know ye, that we, the 
 undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and 
 
 io authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these 
 presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective 
 constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm 
 each and every of the said Articles of Confederation 
 and perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters 
 and things therein contained. And we do further 
 solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respec- 
 tive constituents, that they shall abide by the deter- 
 minations of the United States in Congress assembled, 
 on all questions which by the said Confederation are 
 
 20 submitted to them ; and that the articles thereof shall 
 be inviolably observed by the States we respectively 
 represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual. 
 
 In witness whereof we have hereunto set our 
 hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia, in 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 29 
 
 the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of 
 July, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 seven hundred and seventy-eight, and in the 
 third year of the independence of America. 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of New Hampshire. 
 
 Josiah Bartlett, John Wentworth, Jr. 
 
 August 8, 1778. 
 
 On the pa.rt and behalf of the State of Massachusetts 
 Bay. 
 
 John Hancock, Francis Dana, 
 
 Samuel Adams, James Lovell, 
 
 Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holten. 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations. 
 
 William Ellery, John Collins. 
 
 Henry Marchant, 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Connecticut. 
 
 Eoger Sherman, Titus Hosmer, 
 
 Samuel Huntington, Andrew Adams. 
 
 Oliver Wolcott, 
 
30 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of New York. 
 
 James Duane, William Duer, 
 
 Francis Lewis, Gouverneur Morris. 
 
 On the part and in behalf of the State of New Jersey, 
 Novr. 26, 1778. 
 
 John Witherspoon, Nathaniel Scudder. 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Eobert Morris, William Clingan, 
 
 Daniel Roberdeau, Joseph Reed, 
 
 Jonathan Bayard Smith, 22d July, 1778. 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Delaware. 
 
 Thomas M'Kean, John Dickinson, 
 
 Feby. 12, 1779. May 5th, 1779, 
 
 Nicholas Vandyke. 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Maryland. 
 
 John Hanson, Daniel Carroll, 
 
 March 1, 1781. Mar. 1, 1781. 
 
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 31 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Virginia. 
 
 Richard Henry Lee, John Harvie, 
 
 John Banister, Francis Lightfoot Lee. 
 
 Thomas Adams, 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of No. Carolina. 
 John Penn, Cornelius Hartnett, 
 
 July 21st, 1778. John Williams. 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of South Carolina. 
 Henry Laurens, Richard Hutson. 
 
 William Henry Drayton, Thomas IIayward, Jr. 
 John Mathews, 
 
 On the part and behalf of the State of Georgia. 
 John Walton, Edward Telfair, 
 
 24th. July, 1778. Edward Langworthy. 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 
 
 Historical Note. — The territory included in the present 
 States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, now 
 not only the centre of population, but also of political influence 
 of the United States, by 1786 had been ceded to the United 
 States by the original States having claims to them. The Ordi- 
 nance of 1784, an act of the Confederate Congress, drafted by 
 Thomas Jefferson, first gave to this territory, acquired or to be 
 acquired from the States, a temporary government. 
 
 A year before the passage of this ordinance, General Rufus 
 Putnam and a large number of army officers applied to Congress 
 for a grant of land in the West which might eventually be 
 formed into a State of the Union. The grant was not made at 
 this time, but the project of western settlement on a large scale 
 was not abandoned, and in 1786 the Ohio Company was formed 
 in Boston for the purpose of acquiring land and settling the 
 district of Ohio with New Engenders. Manesseh Cutler was 
 sent to New York as the agent of the Ohio Company, with 
 full powers to purchase from Congress a large tract of land in 
 Ohio, provided Congress would establish a suitable and per- 
 manent form of government for the territory. He arrived in 
 New York in time to suggest a number of changes in the draft 
 of "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the 
 United States Northwest of the Ohio," of which Nathan Dane 
 
 32 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 33 
 
 of Massachusetts was the author. Cutler ably championed the 
 bill, and its final passage, July 13, 1787, was due largely to 
 his effective labors in its behalf. Two weeks later he secured 
 the passage of an ordinance by Congress, selling to the compa- 
 nies he represented about five million acres of land in the new 
 territory. 
 
 Early in the next year General Rufus Putnam led out a 
 company of emigrants under the auspices of the Ohio Company 
 which made, at Marietta, the first settlement of importance in 
 Ohio, and within a year twenty thousand people had found 
 homes for themselves in the Northwest Territory. 
 
 The ordinance of 1787 deserves to rank among the greatest 
 and most beneficent legislative acts in history. By prohibiting 
 slavery it preserved an imperial domain for the cause of human 
 freedom and forged the most important link in the chain of 
 events that finally led to the abolition of slavery in the United 
 States. By providing for the eventual admission of portions 
 of the territory as States of the Union, it laid the foundations 
 for the sound territorial (colonial) policy that has made possible 
 a union of forty-five States in one great federation. And by 
 establishing a territorial government, which, while preserving 
 the rights and liberties of the individual and securing social 
 well-being and economic prosperity, at the same time reserved 
 to the national government that degree of control necessary for 
 federal interests, it furnished the model for all subsequent acts 
 of Congress for the government of federal territories. 
 
34 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 AN ORDINANCE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRI- 
 TORY OF THE UNITED STATES NORTHWEST OF THE 
 RIVER OHIO 
 
 Be it ordained by the United States in Congress 
 assembled, That the said territory, for the purposes of 
 temporary government, be one district, subject, how- 
 ever, to be divided into two districts, as future cir- 
 cumstances may, in the opinion of Congress, make it 
 expedient. 
 
 io Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the 
 °estates, both of resident and non-resident proprietors 
 in the said territory, dying intestate, shall descend to, 
 and be distributed among their children, and the 
 descendants of a deceased child, in equal parts; the 
 descendants of a deceased child or grandchild to take 
 the share of their deceased parent in equal parts 
 among them. And where there shall be no children 
 or descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin 
 in equal degree ; and, among collaterals, the children 
 
 20 of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall 
 have, in equal parts among them, their deceased par- 
 ents' share ; and there shall, in no case, be a distinc- 
 tion between kindred of the whole and half-blood ; 
 saving, in all cases, to the widow of the intestate her 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 35 
 
 third part of the real estate for life, and one-third 
 part of the personal estate ; and this law, relative to 
 descents and dower, shall remain in full force until 
 altered by the legislature of the district. And, until 
 the governor and judges shall adopt laws as herein- 
 after mentioned, estates in the said territory may be 
 devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and 
 sealed by him or her, in whom the estate may be, 
 being of full age, and attested by three witnesses; 
 and real estates may be conveyed by lease and release, 10 
 or bargain and sale, signed, sealed, and delivered by 
 the person, being of full age, in whom the estate may 
 be, and attested by two witnesses, provided such wills 
 be duly proved, and such conveyances be acknowl- 
 edged, or the execution thereof duly proved, and be 
 recorded within one year after proper magistrates, 
 courts, and registers shall be appointed for that pur- 
 pose ; and personal property may be transferred by 
 delivery ; saving, however, to the French and Cana- 
 dian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskas- 20 
 Idas, St. Vincents, and the neighboring villages who 
 have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Vir- 
 ginia, their laws and customs now in force among 
 them, relative to the descent and conveyance of prop- 
 erty. 
 
36 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 °Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That there 
 shall be appointed from time to time, by Congress, a 
 governor, whose commission shall continue in force 
 for the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by 
 Congress ; he shall reside in the district, and have a 
 °freehold estate therein in one thousand acres of land, 
 while in the exercise of his office. 
 
 There shall be appointed from time to time, by 
 Congress, a secretary, whose commission shall con- 
 
 io tinue in force for four years, unless sooner revoked ; 
 he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold 
 estate therein in five hundred acres of land, while in 
 the exercise of his office ; it shall be his duty to keep 
 and preserve the acts and laws passed by the legisla- 
 ture, and the public records of the district, and the 
 proceedings of the governor in his executive depart- 
 ment ; and transmit authentic copies of such acts and 
 proceedings, every six months, to the Secretary of 
 Congress. There shall also be appointed a court to 
 
 20 consist of three judges, any two of whom to form a 
 court, who shall have a °common law jurisdiction, and 
 reside in the district, and have each therein a freehold 
 estate in five hundred acres of land while in the exer- 
 cise of their offices ; and their commissions shall con- 
 tinue in force during good behavior. 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 37 
 
 The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall 
 adopt and publish in the district such laws of the origi- 
 nal States, criminal and civil, as may be necessary and 
 best suited to the circumstances of the district, and 
 report them to Congress from time to time : which 
 laws shall be in force in the district until the organiza- 
 tion of the general assembly therein, unless disapproved 
 of by Congress ; but, afterwards, the legislature shall 
 have authority to alter them as they shall think fit. 
 
 The governor for the time being, shall be commander- 10 
 in-chief of the militia, appoint and commission all 
 officers in the same below the rank of general officers ; 
 all general Officers shall be appointed and commissioned 
 by Congress. 
 
 Previous to the organization of the general assembly, 
 the governor shall appoint such magistrates and other 
 civil officers, in each °county or township, as he shall 
 find necessary for the preservation of the peace and 
 good order in the same. After the general assembly 
 shall be organized, the powers and duties of the magis- 20 
 trates and other civil officers shall be regulated and 
 defined by the said assembly ; but all magistrates and 
 other civil officers, not herein otherwise directed, shall, 
 during the continuance of this temporary government, 
 be appointed by the governor. 
 
38 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws 
 to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of 
 the district, and for the execution of process, criminal 
 and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions 
 thereof 5 and he shall proceed, from time to time, as 
 circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the 
 district in which the Indian titles shall have been 
 extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, 
 however, to such alterations as may thereafter be 
 
 10 made by the legislature. 
 
 So soon as there shall be five thousand free male 
 inhabitants of full age in the district, upon giving 
 proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive 
 authority, with time and place, to elect representa- 
 tives from their counties or townships to represent 
 them in the general assembly: provided, that, for 
 every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall 
 be one representative, and so on progressively with 
 the number of free male inhabitants, shall the right 
 
 20 of representation increase, until the number of repre- 
 sentatives shall amount to twenty-five; after which, 
 the number and proportion of representatives shall be 
 regulated by the legislature : provided, that no person 
 be eligible or qualified to act as a representative unless 
 he shall have been a citizen of one of the United 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 39 
 
 States three years, and be a resident in the district, or 
 unless he shall have resided in the district three years ; 
 and, in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, 
 in fee simple, two hundred acres of land within the 
 same : provided, also, that a freehold in fifty acres of 
 land in the district, having been a citizen of one of 
 the States, and being resident in the district, or the 
 like freehold and two years' residence in the district, 
 shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a 
 representative. 10 
 
 The representatives thus elected, shall serve for the 
 term of two years ; and, in case of the death of a 
 representative, or removal from office, the governor 
 shall issue a writ to the county or township for which 
 he was a member, to elect another in his stead, to 
 serve for the residue of the term. 
 
 The general assembly, or legislature, shall consist 
 of the governor, legislative council, and a house of 
 representatives. °The legislative council shall consist 
 of five members, to continue in office five years, unless 20 
 sooner removed by Congress; any three of whom to 
 be a quorum : and the members of the council shall 
 be nominated and appointed in the following manner, 
 to wit : as soon as representatives shall be elected, the 
 governor shall appoint a time and place for them to 
 
40 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 meet together; and, when met, they shall nominate 
 ten persons, residents in the district, and each pos- 
 sessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and 
 return their names to Congress ; five of whom Con- 
 gress shall appoint and commission to serve as afore- 
 said; and, whenever a vacancy shall happen in the 
 council, by death or removal from office, the house of 
 representatives shall nominate two persons, qualified 
 as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names 
 
 io to Congress, one of whom Congress shall appoint and 
 commission for the residue of the term ; and every 
 five years, four months at least before the expiration 
 of the time of service of the members of council, the 
 said house shall nominate ten persons, qualified as 
 aforesaid, and return their names to Congress ; five of 
 whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve 
 as members of the council five years, unless sooner 
 removed. And the .governor, legislative council, and 
 house of representatives, shall have authority to make 
 
 20 laws in all cases, for the good government of the 
 district, not repugnant to the principles and articles 
 in this ordinance established and declared. And all 
 bills, having passed by a majority in the house, and 
 by a majority in the council, shall be referred to the 
 governor for his assent ; but no bill, or legislative act 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 41 
 
 whatever, shall be of any force without his assent. 
 The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, 
 and dissolve the general assembly, when, in his 
 opinion, it shall be expedient. 
 
 The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, 
 and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in the 
 district, shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity 
 and of office ; the governor before the President of 
 Congress, and all other officers before the governor. 
 As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the dis- 10 
 trict, the council and house assembled in one room, 
 shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a dele- 
 gate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, 
 with a right of debating but not of voting during this 
 temporary government. 
 
 And, for extending the fundamental principles of 
 civil and religious liberty, which form the basis 
 whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions 
 are erected; to fix and establish those principles as 
 the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, 20 
 which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said 
 territory ; to provide also for the establishment of 
 States, and permanent government therein, and for 
 their admission to a share in the federal councils on 
 an equal footing with the original States, at as early 
 
42 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 periods as may be consistent with the general in- 
 terest : 
 
 It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority 
 aforesaid, That the following articles shall be con- 
 sidered as articles of compact between the original 
 States and the people and States in the said territory 
 and forever remain unalterable, unless by common con- 
 sent, to wit : 
 
 Art. 1st. No person, demeaning himself in a 
 io peaceable and orderly manner, shall ever be molested 
 on account of his mode of worship or religious senti- 
 ments, in the said territory. 
 
 Art. 2d. °The inhabitants of the said territory 
 shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ 
 of "habeas corpus, and of the trial by jury ; of a pro- 
 portionate representation of the people in the legisla- 
 ture; and of judicial proceedings according to the 
 course of the common law. All persons shall be 
 bailable, unless for capital offences, where the proof 
 20 shall be evident or the presumption great. All fines 
 shall be moderate ; and no cruel or unusual punish- 
 ments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived 
 of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of 
 his peers or the law of the land; and, should the 
 public exigencies make it necessary, for the common 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 43 
 
 preservation, to take any person's property, or to 
 demand his particular services, full compensation 
 shall be made for the same. °And, in the just pres- 
 ervation of rights and property, it is understood and de- 
 clared, that no law ought ever to be made, or have force 
 in the said territory, that shall, in any manner what- 
 ever, interfere with or affect private contracts or engage- 
 ments, bona fide, and without fraud, previously formed. 
 
 Art. 3d. Eeligion, morality, and knowledge, being 
 necessary to good government and the happiness of 10 
 mankind, °schools and the means of education shall 
 forever be encouraged. The utmost good faith shall 
 always be observed towards the Indians ; their lands 
 and property shall never be taken from them with- 
 out their consent ; and, in their property, rights, and 
 liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, un- 
 less in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress ; 
 but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall, from 
 time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being 
 done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship 20 
 with them. 
 
 Art. 4th. The said territory, and the States which 
 may be formed therein, shall forever remain a part 
 of this confederacy of the United States of America, 
 subject to the Articles of Confederation, and to such 
 
44 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made ; 
 and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States 
 in Congress assembled, conformable thereto. The 
 inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be 
 subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted 
 or to be contracted, and a proportional part, of the 
 expenses of government, to be apportioned on them 
 by Congress, according to the same common rule and 
 measure by which apportionments thereof shall be 
 
 io made on the other States ; and the taxes, for paying 
 their proportion, shall be laid and levied by the 
 authority and direction of the legislatures of the 
 district or districts, or new States, as in the original 
 States, within the time agreed upon by the United 
 States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of 
 those districts or new States, shall never interfere 
 with the primary disposal of the soil by the United 
 States in Congress assembled, nor with any regula- 
 tions Congress may find necessary for securing the 
 
 20 title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax 
 shall be imposed on lands the property of the United 
 States ; and, in no case, shall non-resident proprietors 
 be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters 
 leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and 
 the carrying places between the same, shall be com- 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 45 
 
 mon highways, and forever free, as well to the in- 
 habitants of the said territory as to the citizens of 
 the United States, and those of any other States that 
 may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any 
 tax, impost, or duty, therefor. 
 
 Art. 5th. °There shall be formed in the said 
 territory, not less than three nor more than five 
 States ; and the boundaries of the States, as soon 
 as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent 
 to the same, shall become fixed and established as 
 follows, to wit : The western State in the said terri- 
 tory, shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, 
 and Wabash rivers ; a direct line drawn from the 
 Wabash and Post Vincents, due north, to the terri- 
 torial line between the United States and Canada; 
 and, by the said territorial line, to the Lake of the 
 Woods and Mississippi. The middle State shall be 
 bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash from 
 Post Vincents, to the Ohio ; by the Ohio, by a direct 
 line, drawn due north from the mouth of the Great 
 Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said 
 territorial line. The eastern State shall be bounded 
 by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and the said territorial line : provided, however, 
 and it is further understood and declared, that the 
 
46 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 boundaries of these three States shall be subject so 
 far to be altered, that, if Congress shall hereafter 
 find it expedient, they shall have authority to form 
 one or two States in that part of the said territory 
 which lies north of an east and west line drawn 
 through the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michi- 
 gan. °Ancl, whenever any of the said States shall 
 have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such 
 State shall be admitted, by its delegates, into the 
 
 io Congress of the United States, on an equal footing 
 with the original States in all respects whatever, and 
 shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution 
 and State government : provided, the constitution and 
 government so to be formed, shall be republican, and 
 in conformity to the principles contained in these 
 articles ; and, so far as it can be consistent with the 
 general interest of the confederacy, such admission 
 shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there 
 may be a less number of free inhabitants in the 
 
 2 o State than sixty thousand. 
 
 Art. 6th. °There shall be neither slavery nor in- 
 voluntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise 
 than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
 shall have been duly convicted : provided, always, that 
 any °person escaping into the same, from whom labor 
 
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 47 
 
 or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the orig- 
 inal States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed 
 and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor 
 or service as aforesaid. 
 
 Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the 
 resolutions of the 23d of April, 1784, relative to the 
 subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby, 
 repealed and declared null and void. 
 
 Done by the United States, in Congress assembled, 
 the 13th day of July, in the year of our io 
 Lord 1787, and of their sovereignty and 
 independence the twelfth. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 
 STATES 
 
 Historical Note. —The disastrous and humiliating experi- 
 ences through which the country passed under the weak gov- 
 ernment of the Articles of Confederation convinced thoughtful 
 men that one of two alternatives was inevitable ; the dissolution 
 of the Union, or the formation of a stronger federal government 
 capable of dealing with the problems that had proved too difficult 
 for the confederate Congress to solve. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, as early as 1780, had pointed out the 
 defects of the Articles of Confederation, and had recommended 
 a convention of delegates from all the States for the purpose of 
 formulating a new plan of government. The subject of a con- 
 stitutional convention was frequently broached during the clos- 
 ing years of the confederation. A plan proposed in the Virginia 
 legislature for the purpose of regulating commerce upon waters 
 bordering on both Virginia and Maryland was developed, under 
 the influence of Madison, into an invitation to all the States to 
 send delegates to a conference at Annapolis, in September, 
 1786, to devise and submit to the States a scheme for the fed- 
 eral control of commerce. As commissioners from five States 
 only appeared, the convention simply adopted a resolution urg- 
 ing that delegates be appointed by the several States to meet in 
 Philadelphia the following May to " take into consideration the 
 
 48 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 49 
 
 situation of the United States, to devise such further provision 
 as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of 
 the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union, 
 and to report such an act for that purpose to the United States 
 in Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, and after- 
 wards confirmed by the legislatures of every State, will effectu- 
 ally provide for the same." 
 
 After some delay Congress passed the desired action, and on 
 the 25th of May, 1787, the convention assembled in Philadel- 
 phia, organized itself with George Washington as President, and 
 continued in session until the 17th of September, 1787. The 
 States had followed the example of Virginia, and had sent their 
 ablest citizens as delegates. Washington, Madison, Hamilton, 
 Franklin, Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, King, C. C. Pinckney, 
 and Edmund Randolph were the principal leaders of this 
 remarkable body of fifty-five men. 
 
 Although the delegates were only authorized by their States 
 to propose amendments to the existing instrument of govern- 
 ment, they assumed the responsibility of adopting an entirely 
 new constitution. The task was a difficult one. State interests 
 conflicted with national, large States were arrayed against 
 small, slave States against free, and agricultural States against 
 commercial. The final adoption of the Constitution was made 
 possible only by the spirit of concession and compromise. 
 
 Congress, on the 28th of September, 1787, ordered the sub- 
 mission of the proposed constitution to the States, in order that 
 they might be acted upon by conventions elected by the people 
 in each State. The campaign for ratification was a long and 
 severe one. Delaware (December 7, 1787) was the first to 
 
 E 
 
50 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 ratify, and New Hampshire (June 21, 1788), as the ninth State, 
 completed the number which it had been decided should be 
 necessary before the Constitution could go into effect. Vir- 
 ginia and New York ratified five days later, North Carolina and 
 Rhode Island failing to do so until after the inauguration of the 
 new government. 
 
 The Constitution thus adopted created a federal State in 
 which the people are sovereign, and in which the functions of 
 government are apportioned between the national and State 
 governments by the sovereign people. The federal government 
 was given powers ample for its own preservation. Clothed 
 with these powers it has successfully met every danger which 
 has threatened its life. Planned for a State of less than four 
 million people, the Constitution has wonderfully adapted itself 
 to the needs of a rapidly growing nation, and now gives to 
 eighty million freemen peace, prosperity, and enlightened 
 government. 
 
°THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 
 STATES 
 
 °We, the people of the United States, in order to 
 form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
 domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
 of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and 
 establish this Constitution for the United States of 
 America. 
 
 Article. I J 
 
 SECTION. 1 
 
 °A11 legislative powers herein granted shall be vested 
 in a Congress of the United States, which shall con- 
 sist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 
 
 SECTION. 2 
 
 The House of Representatives shall be composed of 
 members chosen every second year by the people of 
 the several States, °and the electors in each State shall 
 have the V alincations re( l uisite for electors of the 
 most numerous branch of the State legislature. 
 
 No person shall be ^Representative who shall not 
 51 
 
52 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 have attained tfie age of twenty -five years, and been 
 seven years a citizen of the United States, and who 
 shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State 
 in which he shall be chosen. 
 
 Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor- 
 tioned among the several States which may be included 
 within this Union, according to their respective num- 
 bers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
 number of free persons, including those bound to ser- 
 
 io- vice for a term of years, and excluding Indians not 
 taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual 
 enumeration shall be made within three years after 
 the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, 
 and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such 
 manner as they shall by law direct. The number of 
 Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
 thousand, but each State shall have at least one Rep- 
 resentative ; and until such Enumeration shall be made, 
 the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose 
 
 20 three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provi- 
 dence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, 
 New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, 
 Maryland six, Virginia, ten, North Carolina five, South 
 Carolina five, and Georgia three. 
 
 When vacancies happen in the representation from 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 53 
 
 any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue 
 writs of election to fill such vacancies. 
 
 The House of [Representatives shall °choose their 
 Speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole 
 power of impeachment. 
 
 section. 3 
 
 The Senate of the United States shall be composed 
 of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legis- 
 lature thereof, for six years ; and each Senator shall 
 have one vote. 
 
 Immediately after they shall be assembled in conse- 
 quence of the first election, they shall be divided as 
 equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the 
 Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the ex- 
 piration of the second year, of the second class at the 
 expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at 
 the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may 
 be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen 
 by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the 
 legislature of any State, the executive thereof may 
 make temporary appointments until the next meeting 
 of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 
 
 No person shall be a Senator who shall not have 
 attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years 
 
54 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
 elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he 
 shall be chosen. 
 
 The Vice-President of the United States shall be 
 President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless 
 they be equally divided. 
 
 The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also 
 a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice- 
 President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi- 
 io dent of the United States. 
 
 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all im- 
 peachments. °When sitting for that purpose, they 
 shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President 
 of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall 
 preside : and no person shall be convicted without the 
 concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 
 
 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend 
 further than to removal from office, and disqualifica- 
 tion to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or 
 20 profit under the United States : but the party convicted 
 shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, 
 trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. 
 
 : 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 55 
 SECTION. 4 
 
 The times, places and manner of holding elections 
 for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed 
 in each State by the legislature thereof; °but the Con- 
 gress may at any time by law make or alter such regu- 
 lations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 
 
 °The Congress shall assemble at least once in every 
 year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in 
 December, unless they^shall by law appoint a different 
 day. I0 
 
 section. 5 
 
 Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns 
 and qualifications of its own members, and a majority 
 of each shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but 
 a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and 
 may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent 
 members, in such manner, and under such penalties as 
 each house may provide. 
 
 Each house may determine the rules of its proceed- 
 ings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and 20 
 with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 
 
 Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, 
 and from time to time publish the same, excepting 
 such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; 
 and the yeas and nays of the members of either house 
 
56 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of 
 those present, be entered on the journal. 
 
 Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, 
 without the consent of the other, adjourn for more 
 than three days, nor to any other place than that in 
 which the two houses shall be sitting. 
 
 section. 6 
 
 The Senators and Representatives shall receive a 
 compensation for their services, to be ascertained by 
 
 io law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United 
 States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony 
 and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest 
 during their attendance at the session of their respec- 
 tive houses, and in going to and returning from the 
 same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, 
 they shall not be questioned in any other place. 
 
 No Senator or Representative shall, during the time 
 for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil 
 office under the authority of the United States, which 
 
 20 shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof 
 shall have been increased during such time ; and no 
 person holding any office under the United States, 
 shall be a member of either house during his con- 
 tinuance in office. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 57 
 
 SECTION. 7 
 
 All bills for °raising revenue shall originate in the 
 House of Representatives ; but the Senate may pro- 
 pose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 
 
 Every bill which shall have passed the House of 
 Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become 
 a law, be presented to the President of the United States ; 
 if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall 
 return it, with his objections to that house in which it 
 shall have originated, who shall enter the objections 10 
 at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. 
 If after such reconsideration two thirds of that house 
 shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together 
 with the objections, to the other house, by which it 
 shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two 
 thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in 
 ail such cases the votes of both houses shall be deter- 
 mined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons 
 voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the 
 journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall 20 
 not be returned by the President within ten days 
 (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented 
 to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if 
 he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjourn- 
 
58 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 ment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a 
 law. 
 
 Every order, resolution, or vote to which the" con- 
 currence of the Senate and House of Eepresentatives 
 may be necessary (except on a question of adjourn- 
 ment) shall be presented to the President of the 
 United States ; and before the same shall take effect, 
 shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by 
 him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and. 
 io House of Eepresentatives, according to the rules and 
 limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 
 
 section. 8 
 
 The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
 taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts 
 and provide for the common defense and °general wel- 
 fare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts and 
 excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 
 
 To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 
 
 To regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
 20 among the several States, and with the Indian tribes ; 
 
 To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and 
 uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies through- 
 out the United States ; 
 
 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 59 
 
 foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and 
 measures ; 
 
 To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting 
 the securities and current coin of the United States ; 
 
 To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 
 
 To promote the progress of science and useful arts, 
 by securing for limited times to authors and inventors 
 the exclusive right to their respective writings and 
 discoveries ; 
 
 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme 10 
 Court ; 
 
 To define and punish piracies and felonies com- 
 mitted on the high seas, and offenses against the law 
 of nations ; 
 
 To declare war, grant letters of marque and re- 
 prisal, and make rules concerning captures on land 
 and water ; 
 
 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation 
 of money to that use shall be for a longer term than 
 two years ; 20 
 
 To provide and maintain a navy ; 
 
 To make rules for the government and regulation of 
 the land and naval forces ; 
 
 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
 the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
 repel invasions ; 
 
60 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining 
 the militia, and for governing such part of them as 
 may be employed in the service of the United States, 
 reserving to the States respectively, the appointment 
 of the officers, and the authority of training the 
 militia according to the discipline prescribed by Con- 
 gress ; 
 
 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what- 
 soever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles 
 10 square) as may, by cession of particular States and 
 the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the 
 Government of the United States, and to exercise like 
 authority over all places purchased by the consent of 
 the legislature of the State in which the same shall 
 be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock- 
 yards, and other needful buildings ; — and 
 
 °To make all laws which shall be necessary and pro- 
 per for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, 
 and all other powers vested by this Constitution in 
 20 the Government of the United States, or in any de- 
 partment or officer thereof. 
 
 SECTION. 9 
 
 °The migration or importation of such persons as 
 any of the States now existing shall think proper to 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 61 
 
 admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior 
 to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but 
 a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, 
 not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 
 
 The privilege of the °writ of habeas corpus shall not 
 be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or in- 
 vasion the public safety may require it. 
 
 No °bill of attainder or °ex post facto law shall be 
 passed. 
 
 No °capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, 10 
 unless in proportion to the census or enumeration 
 hereinbefore directed to be taken. 
 
 No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported 
 from any State. 
 
 No preference shall be given by any regulation of 
 commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over 
 those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, 
 one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in 
 another. 
 
 No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in 20 
 consequence of appropriations made by law; and a 
 regular statement and account of the receipts and 
 expenditures of all public money shall be published 
 from time to time. 
 
 No title of nobility shall be granted by the United 
 
62 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 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. 
 
 SECTION. 10 
 
 No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or 
 confederation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; 
 coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but 
 io gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; 
 pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law 
 impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any 
 title of nobility. 
 
 No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay 
 any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except 
 what may be absolutely necessary for executing its in- 
 spection laws : and the net produce of all duties and 
 imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall 
 be for the use of the Treasury of the United States ; 
 20 and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and 
 °control of the Congress. 
 
 No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay 
 any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in 
 time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact 
 with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 63 
 
 in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent 
 danger as will not admit of delay. 
 
 Article. II 
 sectiox. l 
 
 °The executive power shall be vested in a President 
 of the United States of America. He shall hold his 
 office during the term of four years, and together with 
 the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected, 
 as follows 
 
 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the to 
 legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, 
 equal to the whole number of Senators and Represen- 
 tatives to which the State may be entitled in the Con- 
 gress: but no Senator or Representative, or person 
 holding an office of trust or profit under the United 
 States, shall be appointed an elector. 
 
 °[The electors shall meet in their respective States, 
 and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at 
 least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with 
 themselves. And they shall make a list of all the 20 
 persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; 
 which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
 sealed to the seat of government of the United States, 
 directed to the President of the Senate. The Presi- 
 
64 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 dent of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
 and House of Eepresentatives, open all the certificates, 
 and the votes shall then be counted. The person hav- 
 ing the greatest number of votes shall be the Presi- 
 dent, if such number be a majority of the whole number 
 of electors appointed ; and if there be more than one 
 who have such majority, and have an equal number of 
 votes, then the House of Eepresentatives shall immedi- 
 ately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and 
 
 10 if no person have a majority, then from the five high- 
 est on the list the said House shall in like manner 
 choose the President. But in choosing the President, 
 the votes shall be taken by States, the representation 
 from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this 
 purpose shall consist of a member or members from 
 two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the 
 States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, 
 after the choice of the President, the person having 
 the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be 
 
 20 the Vice-President. But if there should remain two 
 or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose 
 from them by ballot the Vice-President.] 
 
 The Congress may determine the time of choosing 
 the electors, and the day on which they shall give their 
 votes; which day shall be the same throughout the 
 United States. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 65 
 
 No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen 
 of the United States, at the time of the adoption of 
 this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of 
 President; neither shall any person be eligible to that 
 office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty- 
 five years, and been fourteen years a resident within 
 the United States. 
 
 In case of the removal of the President from office, 
 or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge 
 the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall 10 
 devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may 
 by law provide for the case of removal, death, resigna- 
 tion, or inability, both of the President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent, declaring what °officer shall then act as Presi- 
 dent, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the 
 disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 
 
 The President shall, at stated times, receive for his 
 services, a compensation, which shall neither be in- 
 creased nor diminished during the period for which he 
 shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within 20 
 that period any other emolument from the United 
 States, or any of them. 
 
 Before he enter on the execution of his office, he 
 shall take the following oath or affirmation : — 
 
 " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faith- 
 
66 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 "fully execute the office of President of the United 
 " States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, 
 "protect and defend the Constitution of the United 
 " States." 
 
 SECTION. 2 
 
 The President shall be Commander-in-chief of the 
 Army and Navy of the United States, and of the mili- 
 tia of the several States, when called into the actual 
 service of the United States ; he may require the 
 
 10 opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each 
 of the executive departments, upon any subject relat- 
 ing to the duties of their respective offices, and he 
 shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for 
 offenses against the United States, except in cases of 
 impeachment. 
 
 He shall have power, by and with the °advice and 
 consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two 
 thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall 
 nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of 
 
 20 the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public 
 ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, 
 and all other officers of the United States, whose 
 appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, 
 and which shall be established by law : but the Con- 
 gress may by law vest the appointment of such in- 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 67 
 
 ferior officers, as they think proper, in the President 
 alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The President shall have power to fill up all vacan- 
 cies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, 
 by granting commissions which shall expire at the end 
 of their next session. 
 
 section. 3 
 He shall from time to time give to the Congress 
 information of the state of the Union, and recommend io 
 to their consideration such measures as he shall judge 
 necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary 
 occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and 
 in case of disagreement between them, with respect 
 to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to 
 such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive 
 ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall 
 take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and 
 shall commission all the officers of the United States. 
 
 SECTION. 4 20 
 
 The President, Vice-President and all civil officers 
 of the United States, shall be removed from office on 
 impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, 
 or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 
 
68 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Article. Ill 
 
 SECTION. 1 
 
 The judicial power of the United States, shall be 
 vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior 
 courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain 
 and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and 
 inferior courts, shall °hold their offices during good 
 behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their 
 services, a compensation, which shall not be dimin- 
 io ished during their continuance in office. 
 
 section. 2 
 The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
 and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws 
 of the United States, and treaties made, or which 
 shall be made, under their authority; — to all cases 
 affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and con- 
 suls; — to all cases of admiralty and maritime juris- 
 diction ; — to controversies to which the United States 
 shall be a party ; — to controversies between two or 
 20 more States ; — between a State and citizens of another 
 State; — between citizens of different States; — be- 
 tween citizens of the same State claiming lands under 
 grants of different States, and between a State, or the 
 citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 69 
 
 In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public 
 ministers and consuls, and those in which a State 
 shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have origi- 
 nal jurisdiction. In all the other cases before men- 
 tioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate 
 jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such excep- 
 tions, and under such Regulations as the Congress 
 shall make. 
 
 The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeach- 
 ment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held 10 
 in the State where the said crimes shall have been 
 committed; but when not committed within any 
 State, the trial shall be at such place or places as 
 the Congress may by law have directed. 
 
 SECTION. 3 
 
 Treason against the United States, shall consist 
 only in levying war against them, or in adhering to 
 their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No 
 person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 
 testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or 20 
 on confession in open court. 
 
 The Congress shall have power to declare the 
 punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason 
 shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except 
 during the life of the person attainted. 
 
70 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Article. IV 
 
 SECTION. 1 
 
 Full faith and credit shall be given in each State 
 to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of 
 every other State. And the Congress may by general 
 laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records 
 and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 
 
 section. 2 
 
 The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 
 io privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
 States. 
 
 A person charged in any State with treason, felony, 
 or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be 
 found in another State, shall on demand of the execu- 
 tive authority of the State from which he fled, be 
 delivered up, to be removed to the State having juris- 
 diction of the crime. 
 
 °No person held to service or labor in one State, 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
 20 in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
 discharged from such service or labor, but shall be 
 delivered up on claim of the party to whom such ser- 
 vice or labor may be due. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 71 
 SECTION. 3 
 
 New States may be admitted by the Congress into 
 this 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 States, without the consent 
 of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as 
 of the Congress. 
 
 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and 
 make all needful rules and regulations respecting the 10 
 territory or other property belonging to the United 
 States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so 
 construed as to prejudice any claims of the United 
 States, or of any particular State. 
 
 SECTION. 4 
 
 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 20 
 domestic violence. 
 
72 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Article. V 
 
 The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses 
 shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments 
 to this Constitution, or, on the application of the 
 legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall 
 call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in 
 either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, 
 as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the 
 legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or 
 10 by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or 
 the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the 
 Congress, °provided that no amendments which may 
 be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
 and eight shall in any manner affect the first and 
 fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; 
 and that °no State, without its consent, shall be 
 deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 
 
 Article. VI 
 
 All debts contracted and engagements entered into, 
 20 before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as 
 valid against the United States under this Constitution 
 as under the confederation. 
 
 This Constitution, and the laws of the United 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 73 
 
 States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and 
 all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
 authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
 law of the land; and the judges in every State shall 
 be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or 
 laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, 
 and the members of the several State legislatures, and 
 all executive and judicial officers, both of the United 
 States and of the several States, shall be bound by 10 
 oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution ; but 
 no religious test shall ever be required as a qualifica- 
 tion to any office or public trust under the United 
 States. 
 
 Article. VII 
 
 The ratification of the conventions of nine States, 
 shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Consti- 
 tution between the States so ratifying the same. 
 
 Done in convention by the unanimous consent 
 of the States present the seventeenth day of 20 
 September in the year of our Lord one thou- 
 sand seven hundred and eighty-seven and of 
 the independence of the United States of 
 
74 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 America the twelfth. In witness whereof, we 
 have hereunto subscribed our names. 
 
 George Washington 
 {President, and Deputy from Virginia) 
 
 New Hampshire 
 John Langton Nicholas Gilman 
 
 Massachusetts 
 Nathaniel Gorham Eufus King 
 
 Connecticut 
 William Samuel Johnson Eoger Sherman 
 
 New York 
 
 Alexander Hamilton 
 
 New Jersey 
 William Livingston William Patterson 
 
 David Brearly Jonathan Dayton 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 Benjamin Franklin Thomas Fitzsimons 
 
 Thomas Mifflin Jared Ingersoll 
 
 Robert Morris James Wilson 
 
 George Clymer Gouverneur Morris 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 75 
 
 Delaware 
 
 George Read John Dickinson 
 
 Gunning Bedford, Jr. Richard Bassett 
 
 Jacob Broom 
 
 Maryland 
 
 James Mctienry Daniel Carroll 
 
 Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer 
 
 Virginia 
 John Blair James Madison, Jr. 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 William Blount Richard Dobbs Spaight 
 
 Hugh Williamson 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 John Rutledge Charles Pinckney 
 
 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Pierce Butler 
 
 Georgia 
 William Few Abraham Baldwin 
 
 Attest : William Jackson, Secretary. 
 
76 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 AMENDMENTS 
 °Article I 
 °Congress shall make no law respecting an estab- 
 lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
 thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
 press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- 
 ble, and to petition the government for a redress of 
 
 grievances. 
 
 Article II 
 
 io A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the 
 security of a free State, the right of the people to 
 keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 
 
 Article III 
 No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in 
 any house without the consent of the owner, nor in 
 time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 
 
 Article IV 
 The right of the people to be secure in their per- 
 sons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable 
 20 searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no war- 
 rants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by 
 oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place 
 to be searched, and the person or things to be seized. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 77 
 
 Article V 
 
 No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or 
 otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment 
 or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising 
 in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in 
 actual service in time of war or public danger; nor 
 shall any person be subject for the same offense to be 
 twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be 
 compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against 
 himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 10 
 without due process of law; nor shall private prop- 
 erty be taken for public use, without just compen- 
 sation. 
 
 Article VI 
 
 In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy 
 the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial 
 jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall 
 have been committed, which district shall have been 
 previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of 
 the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be con- 20 
 fronted with the witnesses against him ; to have com- 
 pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, 
 and to have the assistance of counsel for his de- 
 fense. 
 
78 EPOCH-MAKIXG PAPERS 
 
 Article VII 
 
 In suits at common law, where the value in con- 
 troversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial 
 by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury 
 shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the 
 United States, than according to the rules of the 
 common law. 
 
 Article VIII 
 
 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 
 
 io fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments 
 
 inflicted. 
 
 Article IX 
 
 The enumeration in the Constitution of certain 
 rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage 
 others retained by the people. 
 
 °Article X 
 
 The powers not delegated to the United States by 
 the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
 are reserved to the States respectively or to the 
 
 20 people. 
 
 °Article XI 
 
 The judicial power of the United States shall not be 
 construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, com- 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 79 
 
 menced or prosecuted against one of the United States 
 by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects 
 of any foreign State. 
 
 °Article XII 
 
 °The electors shall meet in their respective States, 
 and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, 
 one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of 
 the same State with themselves ; they shall name in 
 their ballots the person voted for as President, and in 
 distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, 10 
 and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted 
 for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice- 
 President, and of the number of votes for each, which 
 lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed 
 to the seat of the government of the United States, 
 directed to the President of the Senate; — The Presi- 
 dent of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
 and House of Representatives, open all the certificates 
 and the votes shall then be °counted : — The person 
 having the greatest number of votes for President, 20 
 shall be the President, if such number be a majority 
 of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no 
 person have such majority, then from the persons hav- 
 ing the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list 
 
80 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 
 of those voted for as President, the House of Kepre- 
 sentatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the 
 President. But in choosing the President, the votes 
 shall be taken by States, the representation from each 
 State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose 
 shall consist of a member or members from two thirds 
 of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be 
 necessary to a choice. And if the House of repre- 
 sentatives shall not choose a President whenever the 
 
 io right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the 
 fourth day of March next following, then the Vice- 
 President shall act as President, as in the case of the 
 death or other constitutional disability of the Presi- 
 dent. — The person having the greatest number of 
 votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, 
 if such number be a majority of the whole number of 
 electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, 
 then from the two highest numbers on the list, the 
 Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for 
 
 20 the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole 
 number of Senators, and a majority of the whole num- 
 ber shall be necessary to a choice. But no person con- 
 stitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall 
 be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United 
 States. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 81 
 
 °Akticle XIII 
 
 Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 
 tude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the 
 party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
 within the United States, or any place subject to 
 their jurisdiction. 
 
 Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce 
 this article by appropriate legislation. 
 
 c Article XIV 
 
 Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the io 
 United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 
 are citizens of the United States and of the State 
 wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce 
 any law which shall abridge the privileges or immu- 
 nities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any 
 State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
 without due process of law ; nor deny to any person 
 within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 
 
 Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned 
 among the several States according to their respective 20 
 numbers, counting the whole number of persons in 
 each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when 
 the right to vote at any election for the choice of elec- 
 
 G 
 
82 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 tors for President and Vice-President of the United 
 States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and 
 judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 
 legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male in- 
 habitants of such State, being twenty-one years of 
 age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
 abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other 
 crime, the basis of representation therein shall be 
 reduced in the proportion which the number of such 
 
 io male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 
 citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 
 
 Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Repre- 
 sentative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- 
 President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 
 the United States, or under any State, who, having 
 previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, 
 or as an officer of the United States, or as a member 
 of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial 
 officer of any State, to support the Constitution of 
 
 20 the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection 
 or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort 
 to the enemies thereof. °But Congress may by a vote 
 of two thirds of each house, remove such disability. 
 
 Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the 
 United States, authorized by law, including debts 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 83 
 
 incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
 services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall 
 not be questioned. But neither the United States nor 
 any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 
 incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
 United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipa- 
 tion of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, and 
 claims shall be held illegal and void. 
 
 Section 5, The Congress shall have power to en- 
 force, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this 10 
 article. 
 
 Article XV 
 
 Section 1. The right of citizens of the United 
 States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 
 United States or by any State on account of race, 
 color, or previous condition of servitude. 
 
 Section 2. The Congress shall have power to 
 enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAKEWELL ADDRESS 
 
 Historical Note. — Washington had accepted the presidency 
 of the United States with great reluctance and, as his first term 
 of office drew near its close, he planned to retire from public 
 affairs and to take up again the congenial life of a country gen- 
 tleman. He determined to issue a farewell address to the 
 American people which should contain his matured ideas on 
 governmental policy and an exhortation to his fellow-citizens 
 to follow certain principles and to avoid dangers which he saw 
 threatened the State. In 1792 he wrote to Madison asking his 
 assistance in embodying ideas, noted in the letter, in a written 
 address to the citizens of the United States. Great pressure 
 was brought to bear upon Washington to accept another term 
 as President, and believing that his refusal might work injury 
 to the country, he consented to stand for a second election. 
 
 During the middle of his second term Washington recurred 
 to the idea of a farewell address. This time he sought the 
 advice and assistance of Hamilton. On the 15th of May, 179(5, 
 he sent a rough draft of his proposed address to Hamilton with 
 the request that he very carefully revise, add to, or if he thought 
 advisable, entirely rewrite the paper. 
 
 On July 30th Hamilton submitted a revised draft to the 
 President and, on the 10th of August, a second revision, which 
 in its turn he further altered in accordance with Washington's 
 suggestions. The President very carefully revised Hamilton's 
 
 84 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 85 
 
 final draft and on the 17th of September, 1796, gave the mes- 
 sage to the editor of the Daily Advertiser for publication. 
 Hamilton's aid was of great value in the preparation of the 
 address, yet the ideas were largely Washington's own and all 
 expressed his matured opinions and profound convictions. Be- 
 cause others aided him with pen and counsel, it would be unfair 
 and childish to withhold from its great author full credit for the 
 masterly production. 
 
 The extraordinary influence exerted by the Farewell Address 
 in American political history is due, not alone to the reverence 
 felt for the opinions of the august author, but also and primarily 
 to the fact that the principles advocated are so important and 
 so essentially correct that successive generations of American 
 statesmen recognize in them rules of public conduct necessary 
 to the continued prosperity and safety of the American nation. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Friends and Fellow-Citizens : 
 
 The period for a new election of a citizen to admin- 
 ister the executive government of the United States, 
 being not far distant, and the time actually arrived, 
 when your thoughts must be employed in designating 
 the person, who is to be clothed with that important 
 trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may 
 conduce to a more distinct expression of the public 
 
86 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 voice, that I should now apprize you of the resolution 
 I have formed, to decline being considered among the 
 number of those, out of whom a choice is to be made. 
 I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to 
 be assured, that this resolution has not been taken 
 without a strict regard to all the considerations apper- 
 taining to the relation, which binds a dutiful citizen 
 to his country ; and that, in withdrawing the tender 
 of service, which silence in my situation might imply, 
 
 10 I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your 
 future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for 
 your past kindness ; but am supported by a full con- 
 viction that the step is compatible with both. 
 
 The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the 
 office to which your suffrages have twice called me, 
 have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the 
 opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared 
 to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would 
 have been much earlier in my power, consistently 
 
 20 with motives, which I was not at liberty to disregard, 
 to return to that retirement, from which I had been 
 reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to 
 do this, previous to the last election, had even led to 
 the preparation of an address to declare it to you; 
 but mature reflection on the then perplexed and criti- 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 87 
 
 cal posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and 
 the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confi- 
 dence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 
 
 I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, external 
 as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of 
 inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty, 
 or propriety; and am persuaded, whatever partiality 
 may be retained for my services, that, in the present 
 circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove 
 my determination to retire. 
 
 The impressions, with which I first undertook the 
 arduous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. 
 In the discharge of this trust, I will only say, that I 
 have, with good intentions, contributed towards the 
 Organization and administration of the government 
 the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment 
 was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the 
 inferiority of my qualifications, experience, in my 
 own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, 
 has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself ; 
 and every day the increasing weight of years admon- 
 ishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement 
 is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied, 
 that, if any circumstances have given peculiar value 
 to my services, they were temporary, I have the con- 
 
88 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 solation to believe, that, while choice and prudence 
 invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does 
 not forbid it. 
 
 In looking forward to the moment, which is intended 
 to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings 
 do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledg- 
 ment of that debt of gratitude, which I owe to my 
 beloved country for the many honors it has conferred 
 upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with 
 
 io which it has supported me ; and for the opportunities 
 I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable 
 attachment, by services faithful and persevering, 
 though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If bene- 
 fits have resulted to our country from these services, 
 let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an 
 instructive example in our annals, that under circum- 
 stances in which the passions, agitated in every direc- 
 tion, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances 
 sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often dis- 
 
 20 couraging, in situations in which not unfrequently 
 want of success has countenanced the spirit of criti- 
 cism, the constancy of your support was the essential 
 prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by 
 which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated 
 with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 89 
 
 as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven 
 may continue to you the choicest tokens of its benefi- 
 cence ; that your union and brotherly affection may 
 be perpetual ; that the free constitution, which is the 
 work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; 
 that its administration in every department may be 
 stamped with wisdom and virtue ; that, in line, the 
 happiness of the people of these States, under the 
 auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so 
 careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this 10 
 blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recom- 
 mending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption 
 of every nation, which is yet a stranger to it. 
 
 Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for 
 your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and 
 the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, 
 urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to 
 your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your 
 frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result 
 of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, 20 
 and which appear to me all-important to the perma- 
 nency of your felicity as a people. These will be 
 offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only 
 see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting 
 friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to 
 
90 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encourage- 
 ment to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments 
 on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 
 
 Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every liga- 
 ment of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is 
 necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 
 
 The °unity of government, which constitutes you 
 one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so: 
 for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real inde- 
 
 10 pendence, the support of your tranquillity at home, 
 your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity ; 
 of that very liberty, which you so highly prize. But 
 as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and 
 from different quarters, much pains will be taken, 
 many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the 
 conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your 
 political fortress against which the batteries of internal 
 and external enemies will be most constantly and ac- 
 tively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, 
 
 20 it is of infinite moment, that you should properly esti- 
 mate the immense value of your national Union to 
 your collective and individual happiness; that you 
 should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable at- 
 tachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and 
 speak of it as of the °palladium of your political safety 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 91 
 
 and prosperity; watching for its preservation with 
 jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may 
 suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event 
 be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the 
 first dawning of every attempt to alienate any por- 
 tion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
 the sacred ties which now link together the various 
 parts. 
 
 For this you have every inducement of sympathy 
 and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a com- 10 
 mon country, that country has a right to concentrate 
 your affections. The name of American, which be- 
 longs to you, in your national capacity, must always 
 exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appel- 
 lation derived from local discriminations. With slight 
 shades of difference, you have the same religion, man- 
 ners, habits, and political principles. You have in a 
 common cause fought and triumphed together; the 
 independence and liberty you possess are the work of 
 joint counsels, and joint efforts, of common dangers, 20 
 sufferings, and successes. 
 
 But these considerations, however powerfully they 
 address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly out- 
 weighed by those which apply more immediately to 
 your interest. Here every portion of our country finds 
 
92 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 the most commanding motives for carefully guarding 
 and preserving the Union of the whole. 
 
 °The North,, in an unrestrained intercourse with the 
 South, protected by the equal laws of a common gov- 
 ernment, finds, in the productions of the latter, great 
 additional resources of maritime and commercial enter- 
 prise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. 
 The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the 
 agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its 
 
 io commerce expand. Turning partly into its own chan- 
 nels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular 
 navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in 
 different ways, to nourish and increase the general 
 mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to 
 the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself 
 is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse 
 with the West, already finds, and in the progressive 
 improvement of interior communications by land and 
 water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for 
 
 20 the commodities which it brings from abroad, or man- 
 ufactures at home. The West derives from the East 
 supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what 
 is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of ne- 
 cessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable out- 
 lets for its own productions to the weight, influence, 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 93 
 
 and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side 
 of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community 
 of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which 
 the West can hold this essential advantage, whether 
 derived from its own separate strength, or from an 
 apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign 
 power, must be intrinsically precarious. 
 
 While, then, every part of our country thus feels an 
 immediate and particular interest in Union, all the 
 parts combined in the united mass of means and efforts 10 
 cannot fail to find greater strength, greater resource, 
 proportionabiy greater security from external danger, 
 a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign 
 nations ; and, what is of inestimable value, they must 
 derive from Union an exemption from those broils and 
 wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict 
 neighbouring countries not tied together by the same 
 governments, which their own rivalships alone would 
 be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign 
 alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate 20 
 and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the 
 necessity of those overgrown military establishments, 
 which, under any form of government, are inauspicious 
 to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly 
 hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that 
 
94 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 your Union ought to be considered as a main prop of 
 your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to 
 endear to you the preservation of the other. 
 
 These considerations speak a persuasive language 
 to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the 
 continuance of the Union as a primary object of 
 patriotic desire. Is there a doubt, whether a common 
 government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let ex- 
 perience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in 
 
 io such a case were criminal. We are authorized to 
 hope, that a proper organization of the whole, with 
 the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective 
 subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experi- 
 ment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. 
 With such powerful and obvious motives to Union, 
 affecting all parts of our country, while experience 
 shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there 
 will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of 
 those, who in any quarter may endeavour to weaken 
 
 20 its bands. 
 
 In contemplating the causes which may disturb our 
 Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern, that any 
 ground should have been furnished for characterizing 
 parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and 
 Southern, Atlantic and Western ; whence designing men 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 95 
 
 may endeavour to excite a belief, that there is a real 
 difference of local interests and views. One of the 
 expedients of party to acquire influence, within par- 
 ticular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and 
 aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves 
 too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, 
 which spring from these misrepresentations ; they 
 tend to render alien to each other those, who ought 
 to be bound together by fraternal affection. The 
 inhabitants of our western country have lately had a 10 
 useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the 
 negotiation by the executive, and in the unanimous 
 ratification by the Senate, of the °treaty with Spain, 
 and in the universal satisfaction at that event, through- 
 out the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded 
 were the suspicions propagated among them of a 
 policy in the general government and in the Atlantic 
 States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the 
 Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the forma- 
 tion of two treaties, that with °G-reat Britain, and that 20 
 with Spain, which secure to them every thing they 
 could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, 
 towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be 
 their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these 
 advantages on the Union by which they were pro- 
 
96 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 cured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those 
 advisers, if such there are, who would sever them 
 from their brethren, and connect them with aliens ? 
 
 To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a 
 government for the whole is indispensable. No alli- 
 ances, however strict, between the parts can be an 
 adequate substitute. They must inevitably experi- 
 ence the infractions and interruptions, which all 
 alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of 
 
 10 this momentous truth, you have improved upon your 
 first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of govern- 
 ment better calculated than your former for an inti- 
 mate Union, and for the efficacious management of 
 your common concerns. This Government, the off- 
 spring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, 
 adopted upon full investigation and mature delibera- 
 tion, completely free in its principles, in the distribu- 
 tion of its powers, uniting security with energy, and 
 containing within itself a provision for its own 
 
 20 amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and 
 your support. Eespect for its authority, compliance 
 with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties 
 enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. 
 The basis of our political systems is the right of the 
 people to make and to alter their constitutions of 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 97 
 
 government. Bnt the constitution which at any time 
 exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act 
 of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. 
 The very idea of the power and the right of the people 
 to establish government presupposes the duty of every 
 individual to obey the established government. 
 
 All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all 
 combinations and Associations, under whatever plau- 
 sible character, with the real design to direct, control, 
 counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action 10 
 of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this 
 fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They 
 serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and 
 extraordinary force ; to put, in the place of the dele- 
 gated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a 
 small but artful and enterprising minority of the 
 community; and, according to the alternate triumphs 
 of different parties, to make the public administration 
 the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous pro- 
 jects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent 20 
 and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, 
 and modified by mutual interests. 
 
 However combinations or associations of the above 
 descriptions may now and then answer popular ends, 
 they are likely, in the course of time and things, to 
 
98 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitions, 
 and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the 
 power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the 
 reins of government ; destroying afterwards the very 
 engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion. 
 
 Towards the preservation of your government, and 
 the permanency of your present happy state, it is 
 requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance 
 irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, 
 
 io but also that you resist with care the spirit of inno- 
 vation upon its principles, however specious the pre- 
 texts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the 
 forms of the constitution, alterations which will im- 
 pair the energy of the system, and thus to under- 
 mine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the 
 changes to which you may be invited, remember that 
 time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true 
 character of governments, as of other human institu- 
 tions ; that experience is the surest standard, by which 
 
 20 to test the real tendency of the existing constitution 
 of a country ; that facility in changes, upon the credit 
 of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual 
 change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and 
 opinion ; and remember, especially, that, for the effi- 
 cient management of your common interests, in a 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 99 
 
 country so extensive as ours, a government of as 
 much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security 
 of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in 
 such a government, with powers properly distributed 
 and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little 
 else than a name, where the government is too feeble 
 to withstand the enterprise of faction, to confine each 
 member of the society within the limits prescribed by 
 the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tran- 
 quil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. 
 
 I have already intimated to you the danger of 
 parties in the state, with particular reference to the 
 founding of them on geographical discriminations. 
 Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and 
 warn you in the most solemn manner against the 
 baneful effects of the spirit of °party, generally. 
 
 This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our 
 nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the 
 human mind. It exists under different shapes in all 
 governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or re- 
 pressed ; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen 
 in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst 
 enemy. 
 
 The alternate domination of one faction over an- 
 other, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to 
 
 LofC. 
 
100 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 party dissension, which in different ages and countries 
 has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself 
 a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a 
 more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders 
 and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds 
 of men to seek security and repose in the absolute 
 power of an individual ; and sooner or later the chief 
 of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortu- 
 nate than his competitors, turns this disposition to 
 
 io the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of 
 public liberty. 
 
 Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
 kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out 
 of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the 
 spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest 
 and duty of a wise people to discourage and re- 
 strain it. 
 
 It serves always to distract the public councils, and 
 enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the com- 
 
 20 m unity with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, 
 kindles the animosity of one part against another, 
 foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens 
 the door to foreign influence and corruption, which 
 find a facilitated access to the government itself 
 through the channels of party passions. Thus the 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 101 
 
 policy and the will of one country are subjected to 
 the policy and will of another. 
 
 There is an opinion, that parties in free countries 
 are useful checks upon the administration of the 
 government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of 
 liberty. This within certain limits is probably true ; 
 and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism 
 may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the 
 spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, 
 in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be 
 encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is cer- 
 tain there will always be enough of that spirit for 
 every salutary purpose, and there being constant dan- 
 ger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of pub- 
 lic opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to 
 be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to pre- 
 vent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warm- 
 ing, it should consume. 
 
 It is important, likewise, that the habits of think- 
 ing in a free country should inspire caution in those 
 intrusted with its administration, to confine them- 
 selves within their respective constitutional spheres, 
 avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one depart- 
 ment to encroach upon another. °The spirit of en- 
 croachment tends to consolidate the powers of all .the 
 
102 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the 
 form of government, a real despotism. A just esti- 
 mate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, 
 which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient 
 to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The 
 necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of politi- 
 cal power, by dividing and distributing it into differ- 
 ent depositories, and constituting each the guardian 
 of the public weal against invasions by the others, has 
 
 io been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; 
 some of them in our country and under our own eyes. 
 To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute 
 them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribu- 
 tion or modification of the constitutional powers be 
 in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an 
 amendment in the way which the constitution desig- 
 nates. But let there be no change by usurpation ; 
 for, though this, in one instance, may be the instru- 
 ment of good, it is the customary weapon by which 
 
 20 free governments are destroyed. The precedent must 
 always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any 
 partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any 
 time yield. 
 
 Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to 
 political prosperity, religion and morality are indis- 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 103 
 
 pensabie supports. In vain would that man claim the 
 tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert 
 these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
 props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere 
 politician, equally with the £>ious man, ought to respect 
 and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all 
 their connections with private and public felicity. Let 
 it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, 
 for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obli- 
 gation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of 10 
 investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with 
 caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be 
 maintained without religion. Whatever may be con- 
 ceded to the influence of refined education on minds 
 of peculiar structure, reason and experience both for- 
 bid us to expect, that national morality can prevail 
 in exclusion of religious principle. 
 
 J Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a 
 necessary spring of popular government. The rule, 
 indeed, extends with more or less force to every species 20 
 of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to 
 it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake 
 the foundation of the fabric ? 
 
 Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, 
 institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. 
 
104 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Iii proportion as the structure of a government gives 
 force to public opinion, it is essential that public opin- 
 ion should be enlightened. 
 
 As a very important source of strength and security, 
 cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, 
 to use it as sparingly as possible ; avoiding occasions 
 of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also 
 that timely disbursements to prepare for danger fre- 
 quently prevent much greater disbursements to repel 
 
 io it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not 
 only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigor- 
 ous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, 
 which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not 
 ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, 
 which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of 
 these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is 
 necessary that public opinion should cooperate. To 
 facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is 
 essential that you should practically bear in mind, that 
 
 20 towards the payment of debts there must be revenue ; 
 that to have revenue there must be taxes ; that no 
 °taxes can be devised, which are not more or less 
 inconvenient and unpleasant, that the intrinsic embar- 
 rassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper 
 objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 105 
 
 to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the 
 conduct of the government in making it, and for a 
 spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining 
 revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time 
 dictate. 
 
 Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. 
 Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and 
 morality enjoin this conduct ; and can it be, that good 
 policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy 
 of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a 10 
 great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and 
 too novel example of a people °always guided by an 
 exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that, 
 in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a 
 plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, 
 which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? 
 Can it be, that Providence has not connected the per- 
 manent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The 
 experiment, at least, is recommended by every senti- 
 ment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it 20 
 rendered impossible by its vices ? 
 
 In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more 
 essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies 
 against particular nations, and passionate attachments 
 for others, should be excluded ; and that, in place of 
 
106 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 them, just and amicable feelings towards all should 
 be cultivated. The nation, which indulges towards 
 another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is 
 in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity 
 or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead 
 it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in 
 one nation against another disposes each more readily 
 to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes 
 of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when 
 
 10 accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. 
 Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
 bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and 
 resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, 
 contrary to the best calculations of policy. The govern- 
 ment sometimes participates in the national propensity, 
 and adopts through passion what reason would reject; 
 at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation 
 subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, 
 ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. 
 
 20 The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of 
 nations has been the victim. 
 
 So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation 
 for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy 
 for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an 
 imaginary common interest, in cases where no real 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 107 
 
 common interest exists, and infusing into one the 
 enmities of the other, betrays the former into a partici- 
 pation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without 
 adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to 
 concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied 
 to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation 
 making the concessions ; by unnecessarily parting with 
 what ought to have been retained; and by exciting 
 jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the 
 parties from whom equal privileges are withheld ; and 10 
 it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, 
 (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility 
 to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, 
 without odium, sometimes even with popularity ; gild- 
 ing, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obliga- 
 tion, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a 
 laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish com- 
 pliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. 
 
 As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable 
 ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to 20 
 the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How 
 many opportunities do they afford to tamper with 
 domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to 
 mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public 
 councils ! Such an attachment of a small or weak, 
 
108 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former 
 to be the satellite of the latter. 
 
 Against the insidious wiles of °foreign influence, I 
 conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy 
 of a free people ought to be constantly awake ; since 
 history and experience prove that foreign influence is 
 one of the most baneful foes of republican government. 
 But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else 
 it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be 
 io avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive 
 partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dis- 
 like of another, cause those whom they actuate to see 
 danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even 
 second the arts of influence on the other. Eeal 
 patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, 
 are liable to become suspected and odious ; while its 
 tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of 
 the people, to surrender their interests. 
 
 The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to for- 
 20 eign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, 
 to have with them as little political connection as 
 possible. So far as we have already formed engage- 
 ments, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. 
 Here let us stop. 
 
 Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 109 
 
 have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she 
 must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes 
 of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
 Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to impli- 
 cate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicis- 
 situdes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations 
 and collisions of her friendships or enmities. 
 
 Our detached and distant situation invites and en- 
 ables us to pursue a different course. If we remain 
 one people, under an efficient government, the period 10 
 is not far off, when we may defy material injury from 
 external annoyance ; when we may take such an atti- 
 tude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time 
 resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected ; when bel- 
 ligerent nations, under the impossibility of making 
 acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giv- 
 ing us provocation; when we may choose peace or 
 war, as our interest, guided by our justice, shall 
 counsel. 
 
 Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situa- 20 
 tion? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign 
 ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with 
 that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
 prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
 ship, interest, humor, or caprice? 
 
110 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
 alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so 
 far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for let 
 me not be understood as capable of patronizing infi- 
 delity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no 
 less applicable to public than to private affairs, that 
 honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, there- 
 fore, let those engagements be observed in their 
 genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary 
 10 and would be unwise to extend them. 
 
 Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable 
 establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we 
 may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraor- 
 dinary emergencies. 
 
 Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are 
 recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But 
 even our commercial policy should hold an equal and 
 impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclu- 
 sive favors or preferences ; consulting the natural 
 20 course of things ; diffusing and diversifying by gentle 
 means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing ; 
 establishing, with powers so disposed, in order to give 
 trade a stable course, to define the rights of our mer- 
 chants, and to enable the government to support them, 
 conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 111 
 
 circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but 
 temporary, and liable to be from time to time aban- 
 doned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall 
 dictate ; constantly keeping in view, that 'tis folly in 
 one nation to look for disinterested favors from another ; 
 that it must pay with a portion of its independence 
 for whatever it may accept under that character ; that, 
 by such acceptance, it may place itself in the con- 
 dition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, 
 and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not 
 giving more. There can be no greater error than to 
 expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to 
 nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, 
 which a just pride ought to discard. 
 
 In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels 
 of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they 
 will make the strong and lasting impression I could 
 wish ; that they will control the usual current of the 
 passions, or prevent our nation from running the 
 course, which has hitherto marked the destiuy of 
 nations. But, if I may even natter myself, that they 
 may be productive of some partial benefit, some 
 occasional good ; that they may now and then recur 
 to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against 
 the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the 
 
112 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will 
 be a full recompense for the solicitude for your wel- 
 fare, by which they have been dictated. 
 
 How far, in the discharge of my official duties, I 
 have been guided by the principles which have been 
 delineated, the public' records and other evidences of 
 my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To 
 myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I 
 have at least believed myself to be guided by them. 
 ic In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my 
 Proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index 
 to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and 
 by that of your representatives in both Houses of Con- 
 gress, the spirit of that measure has continually gov- 
 erned me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or 
 divert me from it. 
 
 After deliberate examination, with the aid of the 
 best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our 
 country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a 
 20 right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to 
 take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I deter- 
 mined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain 
 it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness. 
 
 The considerations, which respect the right to hold 
 this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to 
 
WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS 113 
 
 detail. I will only observe, that, according to my 
 understanding of the matter, that right, so far from 
 being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has 
 been virtually admitted by all. 
 
 The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be in- 
 ferred, without any thing more, from the obligation 
 which justice and humanity impose on every nation, 
 in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate 
 the relations of peace and amity towards other nations. 
 
 The inducements of interest for observing that con- 10 
 duct will best be referred to your own reflections and 
 experience. With me, a predominant motive has been 
 to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and 
 mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress with- 
 out interruption to that degree of strength and consist- 
 ency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, 
 the command of its own fortunes. 
 
 Though, in reviewing the incidents of my adminis- 
 tration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am 
 nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think 20 
 it probable that I may have committed many errors. 
 Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Al- 
 mighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they 
 may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that 
 my country will never cease to view them with indul- 
 
114 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 gence ; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedi- 
 cated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of 
 incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as 
 myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. 
 
 Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, 
 and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is 
 so natural to a man, who views in it the native soil of 
 himself and his progenitors for several generations ; I 
 anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in 
 io which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the 
 sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fel- 
 low-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a 
 free government, the ever favorite object of my heart, 
 and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, 
 labors, and dangers. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 United States, September 17th, 1796. 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 
 
 Historical Note. — The first two decades of the nineteenth 
 century saw a marked change in the attitude of the people of 
 the United States towards negro slavery. On account of the 
 increased financial returns of cotton culture, slavery was, in 
 1820, deemed by the South economically profitable and neces- 
 sary to its continued prosperity. The North had abolished 
 slavery and, wedded to the system of free labor, had adopted a 
 position of pronounced antagonism to further slave extension. 
 
 The Ordinance of 1787 had preserved the old Northwest 
 States for freedom, while the new States, south of the Ohio, had 
 all become slaveholding. Seven of the original thirteen States 
 had abolished slavery, while six had retained the system. Four 
 of the nine new States were free and five were slave. Thus 
 there were, in 1819, eleven free and eleven slave States. The 
 territory acquired by purchase from France in 1803 was, by 
 French law, affirmed by Congress, open to slavery throughout 
 its whole extent. As the equal division of States between free 
 and slave interests made impossible any amendment to the 
 federal constitution restricting or abolishing slavery, its oppo- 
 nents hoped to accomplish their ends by imposing freedom from 
 slavery, as a condition of admission, upon all States to be re- 
 ceived, in the future, into the Union, and thus eventually to 
 obtain the three-fourths majority necessary for the passage of 
 a constitutional amendment. 
 
 115 
 
116 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 The great struggle between the North and South was pre- 
 cipitated by the Tallniadge amendment of February 13, 1819, to 
 a bill admitting Missouri as a State of the Union, which pro- 
 vided for the eventual abolition of slavery in the proposed 
 State. The House passed the bill thus amended, but the amend- 
 ment was rejected in the Senate, and the measure was lost. At 
 the next session of Congress the contest was renewed, and after 
 a long and bitter struggle a compromise was agreed to forbid- 
 ding slavery in all the Louisiana purchase, excluding Missouri, 
 north of 30° 30' north latitude. Maine was, at the same time, 
 admitted as a free State to preserve the balance between the 
 two sections. 
 
 A clause in the Missouri constitution, imposing upon the 
 State legislature the duty of prohibiting mulattoes and free 
 negroes from acquiring residence in the State, brought about a 
 renewal of the great controversy when that document was pre- 
 sented to the next Congress for its approval. This clause was 
 considered contrary to the Constitution of the United States ; 
 and by a second compromise, proposed by Henry Clay, Mis- 
 souri was finally admitted to the Union only on the condition 
 that the above-mentioned clause should be virtually nullified. 
 
 By the Missouri Compromise the North won the advantage 
 from the material point of view, as she obtained a far greater 
 area of territory capable of division into future free States, while 
 the South won the main constitutional points involved. The 
 struggle over the Compromise taught the South that the security 
 of their system lay in a strict construction of the Constitution, 
 and confirmed them in their support of the " States Rights" 
 theory of the Constitution. The settlement has been often and 
 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 117 
 
 bitterly assailed as a national recognition of a great evil, but 
 its alternative — secession of the Southern States — could not, 
 in ail probability, have been prevented by the North in 1820. 
 It unquestionably delayed for a generation the great struggle 
 between the sections, and when the issue was again clearly 
 joined, the balance of power had definitely inclined to the 
 northern side. 
 
 THE MISSOUEI COMPROMISE 
 
 An Act to authorize the people of Missouri Territory 
 to form a constitution and State government, and for 
 the admission of such State into the Union on an equal 
 footing with the original States, and to prohibit slavery 
 in certain territories. 
 
 Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States of America in Congress as- 
 sembled, That the inhabitants of that portion of the 
 "Missouri Territory included within the ^boundaries 
 hereinafter designated, be, and they are hereby, author- 
 ized to form for themselves a constitution and State 
 government, and to assume such name as they shall 
 deem proper ; and the said State, when formed, shall 
 be admitted into the Union, upon an °equal footing 
 with the original States, in all respects whatsoever. 
 
 Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all free 
 white male citizens of the United States, who shall 
 
v 118 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and have 
 resided in said Territory three months previous to the 
 day of election, and all other persons qualified to vote 
 for representatives to the General Assembly of the 
 said Territory, shall be qualified to be elected, and they 
 are hereby qualified and authorized to vote, and choose 
 representatives to form a convention, . . . 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the mem- 
 bers of the convention thus duly elected, shall be, and 
 
 io they are hereby, authorized to meet at the seat of gov- 
 ernment of said Territory, on the second Monday of 
 the month of June next; and the said convention, 
 when so assembled, shall have power and authority to 
 adjourn to any other place in the said Territory, which 
 to them shall seem best for the convenient transaction 
 of their business ; and which Convention, when so 
 met, shall first determine, by a majority of the whole 
 number elected, whether it be, or be not, expedient at 
 that time to form a constitution and State government, 
 
 20 for the people within the said Territory, as included 
 within the boundaries above designated ; and, if it be 
 deemed expedient, the convention shall be, and hereby 
 is, authorized to form a constitution and State govern- 
 ment; or, if it be deemed more expedient, the said 
 convention shall provide by ordinance for electing 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 119 
 
 representatives to form a constitution or frame of 
 government; which said representatives shall be 
 chosen in such manner, and in such proportion, as 
 they shall designate ; and shall meet at such time and 
 place as shall be prescribed by the said ordinance ; 
 and shall then form for the people of said Territory, 
 within the boundaries aforesaid, a constitution and 
 State government : Provided, That the same, whenever 
 formed, shall be Republican and not repugnant to the 
 Constitution of the United States ; and that the Legis- 10 
 lature of said State shall never interfere with the pri- 
 mary disposal of the °soil by the United States, nor 
 with any regulations Congress may find necessary for 
 securing the title in such soil to the bona fide pur- 
 chasers; and that no tax shall be imposed on lands 
 the property of the United States; and in no case 
 shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than 
 residents. 
 
 Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That, in case a 
 constitution and State government shall be formed 20 
 for the people of said Territory of Missouri, the said 
 convention or representatives, as soon thereafter as 
 may be, shall cause a true and attested copy of such 
 constitution, or frame of State government, as shall 
 be formed or provided, to be transmitted to Congress. 
 
120 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That in all that 
 territory ceded by France to the United States, under 
 the name of Louisiana^ which lies north of thirty-six 
 degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not in- 
 cluded within the limits of the State contemplated by 
 this act, °slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise 
 than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the par- 
 ties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is 
 hereby, forever prohibited : Provided always, That any 
 person escaping into the same, from whom labor or 
 service is lawfully claimed, in any State or Territory 
 of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully 
 claimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or 
 her labor or services as aforesaid. 
 
 Approved, March 6, 1820. 
 
 THE RESOLUTION OF MARCH 2, 1821 
 
 RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR THE ADMISSION OF MIS- 
 SOURI INTO THE UNION ON A CERTAIN CONDITION 
 
 Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 
 20 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
 
 That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on 
 
 an equal footing with the original States, in all re- 
 
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 121 
 
 spects whatever, upon the fundamental condition, that 
 the "fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the 
 third article of the constitution submitted on the part 
 of said State to Congress, shall never be construed 
 to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law 
 shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any 
 citizen, of either of the States in this Union, shall be 
 excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges 
 and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under 
 the Constitution of the United States : Provided, That 10 
 the Legislature of said State, by a solemn public act, 
 shall declare the assent of the said State, to the said 
 fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the Presi- 
 dent of the United States on or before the fourth 
 Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the 
 said act ; upon the receipt whereof, the President, by 
 proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and 
 without any further proceeding on the part of Con- 
 gress, the admission of the said State into the Union 
 shall be considered as complete. 20 
 
 Approved, March 2, 1821. 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 Historical Note. — The allied monarchs of Europe, after 
 the downfall of Napoleon, entered into an agreement called 
 the Holy Alliance, the purpose of which was to unite these 
 powerful rulers in the interest of the peace and religious and 
 moral welfare of Europe. This, or more properly speaking, a 
 succeeding alliance, soon became a league of the great conti- 
 nental monarchs for the purpose of repressing liberal or consti- 
 tutional movements and of maintaining everywhere the principle 
 of absolute monarchy. 
 
 In 1820 revolutions broke out in southern Europe which 
 occasioned armed intervention by Prussia, Austria, and Russia 
 for the purpose of overthrowing liberalism and of reestablishing 
 the legitimate sovereigns on the thrones from which they had 
 been driven. France, supported by the three powers above 
 mentioned, sent an army into Spain in 1822, put down the revo- 
 lution, and restored the absolutist Ferdinand. An intimation 
 that the powers meant to go farther, and assist Spain in recov- 
 ering her revolted provinces in America, which had long main- 
 tained their practical independence, led President Monroe to 
 issue his famous message declaring that such an attempt would 
 be considered an act unfriendly to the United States. The 
 protest was decisive, and no further attempt was made by the 
 allied powers to extend their system to America or to interfere 
 in transatlantic affairs. The weakness of the Spanish- American 
 States, which constantly invited conquest or control by ambi- 
 
 122 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 123 
 
 tious European powers, and the advantages which we derived 
 from our unique position on the American continents and from 
 the absence of great military powers in America, induced Presi- 
 dent Monroe to go farther and declare, as a cardinal feature of 
 American state policy, that we would oppose the attempt of any 
 European power to conquer or control the independent States 
 of North and South America. 
 
 The principles of the Monroe Doctrine had been for twenty- 
 five years slowly taking shape at the hands of American 
 statesmen. The Monroe Doctrine is a logical development of 
 Washington's policy of non-intervention in European affairs. 
 Washington, Hamilton, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and 
 John Quincy Adams all contributed to its development. 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine was a statement of policy which bound 
 only the executive department of government for the time being. 
 Subsequent governments have been free to act as the interests of 
 the country dictated. It is not the law of the land. Its binding 
 force has arisen from the belief of successive presidents that it fur- 
 nishes a safe and necessary rule for governmental action. The 
 fact that so many administrations have guided their action by its 
 principles, successfully enforcing them against foreign powers, 
 have given it great prestige. European nations do not recognize 
 the doctrine as a part of international law, hence its observance 
 by them is due, and due only, to our power to enforce the doctrine. 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AT 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 
 EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS 
 
 Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives : 
 
 Many important subjects will claim" y on r attention 
 during the present session, of which I shall endeavor 
 to give, in aid of your deliberations, a just idea in this 
 
 io communication. I undertake this duty with diffidence, 
 from the vast extent of the interests on which I have 
 to treat, and of their great importance to every portion 
 of our Union. I enter on it with zeal, from thorough 
 conviction that there never was a period since the 
 establishment of our Revolution when, regarding 
 the condition of the civilized world and its bearing 
 on us, there was greater necessity for devotion in the 
 public servants to their respective duties, or for virtue, 
 patriotism, and union in our constituents. 
 
 20 Meeting in you a new Congress, I deem it proper 
 to present this view of public affairs in greater detail 
 than might otherwise be necessary. I do it, however, 
 with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that in 
 
 124 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 125 
 
 this respect I shall comply more fully with the sound 
 principles of our Government. The people being with 
 us exclusively the sovereign, it is indispensable that 
 full information be laid before them on all important 
 subjects to enable them to exercise that high power 
 with complete effect. 
 
 A precise knowledge of our relations with foreign 
 powers, as respects our negotiations and transactions 
 with each, is thought to be particularly necessary. 
 ... It is by rendering justice to other nations that 10 
 we may expect it from them. It is by our ability to 
 resent injuries and redress wrongs that we may avoid 
 them. 
 
 At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Govern- 
 ment, made through the minister of the Emperor 
 residing here, a full power and instructions have been 
 transmitted to the minister of the United States at 
 St. Petersburg, to arrange, by amicable Negotiation 
 the respective rights and interests of the two nations 
 on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar 20 
 proposal has been made by his Imperial Majesty to 
 the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise 
 been acceded to. The Government of the United 
 
126 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 States has been desirous, by this friendly proceeding, 
 of manifesting the great value which they have inva- 
 riably attached to the friendship of the Emperor, and 
 their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding 
 with his Government. In the discussions to which 
 this interest has given rise, and in the arrangements 
 by which they may terminate, the occasion has been 
 judged proper for asserting as a principle in which 
 the rights and interests of the United States are in- 
 10 volved, that the American continents, by the free and 
 independent condition which they have assumed and 
 maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as sub- 
 jects for °future colonization by any European powers. 
 
 It was stated at the commencement of the last 
 session that a great effort was then making in Spain 
 and Portugal to improve the condition of the people 
 of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted 
 with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be 
 remarked that the result has been, so far, very different 
 20 from what was then anticipated. Of events in that 
 quarter of the globe with which we have so much 
 intercourse, and from which we derive our origin, we 
 have- always been anxious and interested spectators. 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 127 
 
 The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments 
 the most friendly in favor of the liberty arid happiness 
 of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In 
 the wars of the European powers in matters relating 
 to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does 
 it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when 
 our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we 
 resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. 
 \yith the movements in this hemisphere we are, of 
 necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes 10 
 which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial 
 observers. The °political system of the allied powers 
 is essentially different in this respect from that of 
 America. This difference proceeds from that which 
 exists in their respective Governments. And to the 
 defense of our own, which has been achieved by the 
 loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by 
 the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and 
 under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, 
 this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, 20 
 to candor, and to the amicable relations existing 
 between the United States and those powers, to de- 
 clare that we should consider any attempt on their 
 part to extend their °system to any portion of this 
 hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. 
 
128 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 With the existing colonies or dependencies of any 
 European power we have not interfered and shall 
 not interfere. But with the Governments who have 
 declared their independence, and maintained it, and 
 whose independence we have, on great consideration 
 and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not 
 view °any interposition for the purpose of oppressing 
 them, or controlling in any other manner their des- 
 tiny, by any European power, in any other light than 
 
 10 as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition 
 towards the United States. In the war between 
 these new Governments and Spain we declared our 
 neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this 
 we have adhered and shall continue to adhere, pro- 
 vided no change shall occur which, in the judgment 
 of the competent authorities of this Government, shall 
 make a corresponding change on the part of the United 
 States indispensable to their security. 
 
 The late events in Spain and Portugal show that 
 
 20 Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no 
 stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied 
 powers should have thought it proper, on any prin- 
 ciple satisfactory to themselves, to have °interposed, 
 by force, in the internal concerns of Spain. To what 
 extent such interposition may be carried, on the same 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 129 
 
 principle, is a question in which all independent 
 powers whose governments differ from theirs are in- 
 terested, even those most remote, and surely none 
 more so than the United States. Our °policy in re- 
 gard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage 
 of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter 
 of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, 
 not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its 
 powers ; to consider the Government °de facto as the 
 legitimate Government for us; to cultivate friendly ™ 
 relations with it, and to preserve those relations by 
 a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting, in all in- 
 stances, the just claims of every power; submitting 
 to injuries from none. But in regard to these conti- 
 nents, circumstances are eminently and conspicuously 
 different. It is impossible that the allied powers 
 should extend their political system to any portion of 
 either continent without endangering our peace and 
 happiness ; nor can any one believe that our Southern 
 brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their 20 
 own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that 
 we should behold such interposition, in any form, 
 with indifference. If we look to the comparative 
 strength and resources of Spain and those new Gov- 
 ernments, and their distance from each other, it must 
 
130 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is 
 still the true policy of the United States to leave the 
 parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers 
 will pursue the same course. 
 
 JAMES MONKOE. 
 Washington, Dec. 2, 1823. 
 
THE COMPEOMISE OF 1850 
 
 Historical Note. — The acquisition of a vast territory from 
 Mexico as the result of the war with that country precipitated a 
 struggle between the slave and anti-slave interests of the United 
 States that aroused sectional passion to a degree never before 
 shown and threatened to disrupt the Union. The Wilmot 
 Proviso was a clear and concise statement of the anti-slavery 
 position. It was to the effect that slavery should not exist in 
 the territory to be acquired from Mexico. The southern position 
 was that Union was based upon a solemn compromise between 
 the sections, and that the preservation of the Union depended 
 upon a faithful adherence to the spirit of the compromise which 
 demanded that new territory, acquired by the nation, should 
 be divided equally, as to its status respecting slavery, between 
 the two sections. On no other basis, the slave owner said, 
 could Union be preserved, or would it be worth preserving. On 
 the other hand, the Wilmot Proviso was the expression of a 
 public opinion which had been rapidly gaining ground in the 
 North, and a large party demanded that slave extension should be 
 prohibited, where Congress had the undoubted right to legislate. 
 
 Meanwhile the interests of the inhabitants of the region in 
 dispute were suffering greatly from the failure of Congress to 
 provide some form of government for them. The rapid influx 
 of settlers into California, as a result of the discovery of gold, 
 made some action by Congress an imperative necessity. The 
 
 131 
 
132 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 thirty-first Congress found that the Californians, acting upon 
 the advice of President Taylor, had taken the matter into their 
 own hands, had held a convention, had adopted a state constitu- 
 tion, and were knocking at the doors of Congress for admission 
 as a State. 
 
 Henry Clay thought that by combining all the important 
 points at issue between the sections in one great measure, in 
 which by mutual concessions and fair compromise substantial 
 justice would be done to each side, a permanent solution of the 
 great problem would be reached, and the Union he so dearly 
 loved would be saved. It was found impossible to pass an 
 omnibus bill, as Clay desired ; but by dividing his measures, the 
 more important of them were finally passed as separate bills. 
 By the series of acts which constituted the Compromise of 1850, 
 California was admitted as a free State, the remaining territory 
 acquired from Mexico was given regular territorial organization 
 without congressional restriction as to slavery, the dispute con- 
 cerning the boundary of Texas was compromised, ten million 
 dollars being paid her in compensation for the claims surren- 
 dered, slave trade in the District of Columbia was abolished, 
 and a rigorous fugitive slave law was passed. 
 
 The hope of the framers that the Compromise would allay 
 sectional strife was made impossible of fulfilment by the last of 
 these provisions. Instead of removing the occasion for contro- 
 versy or discussion, it increased the agitation in the North. The 
 enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law so outraged public senti- 
 ment in the North that great numbers, who were formerly indif- 
 ferent, decided to oppose by every means in their power a system 
 that was thus in its worst features brought to their very doors. 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE SERIES OF ACTS WHICH TO- 
 GETHER FORM THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 
 
 Chap. XL IX. An Act proposing to the State of Texas 
 the Establishment of her Northern and Western 
 Boundaries, the Relinquishment by the said State of 
 all Territory claimed by her exterior to said Boun- 
 daries, and of all her Claims upon the United States, 
 and to establish a territorial Government for New 
 Mexico. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepre- 10 
 sentatives of the United States of America in Congress 
 assembled, That the following propositions shall be, 
 and the same hereby are, offered to the State of Texas, 
 which, when agreed to by the said State in an act 
 passed by the general assembly, shall be binding and 
 obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said 
 State of Texas : Provided, The said agreement by the 
 said general assembly shall be given on or before the 
 first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty : 
 
 First. The State of Texas.will agree that her °boun- 20 
 dary on the north shall commence at the point at 
 which the meridian of one hundred degrees west from 
 
 133 
 
134 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Greenwich is intersected by the parallel of thirty-six 
 degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and shall run 
 from said point due west to the meridian of one hun- 
 dred and three degrees west from Greenwich ; thence 
 her boundary shall run due south to the thirty-second 
 degree of north latitude ; thence on the said parallel 
 of thirty-two degrees of north latitude to the °Rio 
 Bravo del Norte, and thence with the channel of said 
 river to the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 io Second. The State of Texas cedes to the United 
 States all her claim to territory exterior to the limits 
 and boundaries which she agrees to establish by the 
 first article of this agreement. 
 
 Third. The State of Texas relinquishes all claim 
 upon the United States for liability of the debts of 
 Texas, and for compensation or indemnity for the 
 surrender to the United States of her ships, forts, 
 arsenals, custom-houses, custom-house revenue, arms 
 and munitions of war, and public buildings with their 
 
 20 sites which became the property of the United States 
 at the time of the annexation. 
 
 Fourth. The United States, in consideration of said 
 establishment of boundaries, cession of claim to terri- 
 tory, and relinquishment of claims, will pay to the 
 State of Texas the sum of ten millions of dollars in 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 135 
 
 a stock bearing five per cent, interest, and redeemable 
 at the end of fourteen years, the interest payable half- 
 yearly at the treasury of the United States. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all that por- 
 tion of the territory of the United States bounded as 
 follows : Beginning at a point in the Colorado River, 
 where the boundary line with the republic of Mexico 
 crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said 
 boundary line to the Rio Grande; thence following 
 the main channel of said river to the parallel of the io 
 thirty-second degree of north latitude ; thence east 
 with said degree to its intersection with the one hun- 
 dred and third degree of longitude west of Greenwich ; 
 thence north with the said degree of longitude to the 
 parallel of thirty-eighth degree of north latitude ; 
 thence west with said parallel to the summit of Sierra 
 Madre ; thence south with the crest of said mountains 
 to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude ; thence 
 west with said parallel to its intersection with the 
 boundary line of the State of California ; thence with 20 
 said boundary line to the place of beginning — be, and 
 the same is hereby, erected into a temporary govern- 
 ment, by the name of the Territory of New Mexico ; 
 Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be 
 
136 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 construed to inhibit the government of the United 
 States from dividing said Territory into two or more 
 Territories, in such manner and at such times as Con- 
 gress shall deem convenient and proper, or from 
 attaching any portion thereof to any other Territory 
 or State : And provided further That, when admitted 
 as a State, the said Territory, or any portion of the 
 same shall be received into the Union, °with or with- 
 out slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the 
 io time of their admission. . . . 
 Approved, September 9, 1850. 
 
 Chap. L. An Act for the Admission of the State of 
 California into the Union. 
 
 Whereas the people of California have presented a 
 constitution and asked admission into the Union, which 
 constitution was submitted to Congress by the President 
 of the United States by message dated February thir- 
 teenth, eighteen hundred and fifty, and which, on due 
 examination, is found to be republican in its form of 
 20 government. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 
 bled, That the State of California shall be one, and is 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 137 
 
 hereby declared to be one, of the United States of 
 America; and admitted into the Union on an equal 
 footing with the original States in all respects whatever. 
 Approved, September 9, 1850. 
 
 Chap. LI. An Act to establish a Territorial Government 
 for Utah. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That 
 all that part of the territory of the United States 
 included within the following limits, to wit : bounded io 
 on the west by the State of California, on the north by 
 the Territory of Oregon, and on the east by the sum- 
 mit of the Rocky Mountains, and on the south by the 
 thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, be, and the 
 same is hereby, created into a temporary government, 
 by the name of the Territory of Utah ; and when ad- 
 mitted as a State, the said Territory, or any portion 
 of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or 
 without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at 
 the time of their admission: Provided, That nothing 20 
 in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the 
 government of the United States from dividing said 
 Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner 
 
138 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient 
 and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Terri- 
 tory to any other State or Territory of the United States. 
 Approved, September 9, 1850. 
 
 Chap. LX. An °Act to amend and supplementary to, the 
 Act entitled " An Act respecting Fugitives from Jus- 
 tice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their 
 Masters," approved February twelfth, one thousand 
 seven hundred and ninty-three. 
 
 io Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States of America in Congress 
 assembled, That the persons who have been, or may 
 hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in virtue of any 
 act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts of the United 
 States, and who, in consequence of such appointment, 
 are authorized to exercise the powers that any justice 
 of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United 
 States, may exercise in respect to offenders for any 
 crime or offense against the United States, by arrest- 
 
 20 ing, imprisoning, or bailing the same under and by 
 virtue of the thirty-third section of the act of the 
 twenty-fourth of September seventeen hundred and 
 eighty-nine, entitled "An Act to establish the judicial 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 139 
 
 courts of the United States " shall be, and are hereby, 
 authorized and required to exercise and discharge all 
 the powers and duties conferred by this act. 
 
 Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commis- 
 sioners above named shall have concurrent jurisdiction 
 with the judges of the Circuit and District Courts of 
 the United States, in their respective circuits and dis- 
 tricts within the several States, and the judges of the 
 Superior Courts of the Territories, severally and col- 
 lectively, in term-time and vacation j and shall grant io 
 certificates to such claimants, upon satisfactory proof 
 being made, with authority to take and remove such 
 fugitives from service or labor, under the restrictions 
 herein contained, to the State or Territory from which 
 such persons may have escaped or fled. 
 
 Sec 5, And be it further enacted, That it shall be 
 the duty of all °marshals and deputy marshals to obey 
 and execute all warrants and precepts issued under the 
 provisions of this act, when to them directed ; and 
 should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive 20 
 such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to 
 use all proper means diligently to execute the same, 
 he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of 
 one thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on 
 
140 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 the motion of such claimant, by the Circuit or District 
 Court for the district of such marshal ; and after 
 arrest of such fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, 
 or whilst at any time in his custody under the provi- 
 sions of this act, should such fugitive °escape, whether 
 with or without the assent of such marshal or his 
 deputy; such marshal shall be liable, on his official 
 bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such claimant, 
 for the full value of the service or labor of said fugi- 
 
 io tive in the State, Territory, or District whence he 
 escaped: and the better to enable the said commis- 
 sioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties 
 faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with the re- 
 quirements of the Constitution of the United States 
 and of this act, they are hereby authorized and 
 empowered, within their countries respectively, to 
 appoint in writing under their hands, any one or more 
 suitable persons, from time to time, to execute all such 
 warrants and other process as may be issued by them 
 
 20 in the lawful performance of their respective duties ; 
 with authority to such commissioners, or the persons to 
 be appointed by them, to execute process as aforesaid, 
 to summon and call to their aid the bystanders, or 
 °posse comitatus of the proper county, when necessary 
 to ensure a faithful observance of the clause of the 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1S50 141 
 
 Constitution referred to, in conformity with the pro- 
 visions of this act ; and all good citizens are hereby 
 commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and effi- 
 cient execution of this law, whenever their services 
 may be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose ; and 
 said warrants shall run, and be executed by said 
 officers, any where in the State within which they are 
 issued. 
 
 Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That when a 
 person held to service or labor in any State or Territory 10 
 of the United States has heretofore or shall hereafter 
 escape into another State or Territory of the United 
 States the person or persons to whom such service or 
 labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or attor- 
 ney, duly authorized by power of attorney, in writing, 
 acknowledged and certified under the seal of some 
 officer or court of the State or Territory in which the 
 same may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such 
 fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from 
 some one of the courts, judges, or commissioners afore- 20 
 said, of the proper circuit, district, or county, for the 
 apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, 
 or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, when the 
 same can be done without process, and by taking, or 
 causing such person to be taken, forthwith before such 
 
142 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 court, judge, or commissioner, whose duty it shall be 
 to hear and determine the case of such claimant in 
 a summary manner ; and upon satisfactory proof be- 
 ing made, by deposition or affidavit, in writing, to be 
 taken and certified by such court, judge, or commis- 
 sioner, or by other satisfactory testimony, duly taken 
 and certified by some court, magistrate, justice of the 
 peace, or other legal officer authorized to administer 
 an oath and take deposition under the laws of* the State 
 
 io or Territory from which such person owing service or 
 labor may have escaped, with a certificate of such mag- 
 istracy or other authority, as aforesaid, with the seal 
 of the proper court or officer thereto attached, which 
 seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of 
 the proof y and with proof, also by affidavit, of the iden- 
 tity of the person whose service or labor is claimed 
 to be due as aforesaid, that the person so arrested does 
 in fact owe service or labor to the person or persons 
 claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from 
 
 20 which such fugitive may have escaped as aforesaid, 
 and that said person escaped, to make out and deliver 
 to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a cer- 
 tificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the ser- 
 vice or labor due from such fugitive to the claimant, 
 and of his or her escape from the State or Territory 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 143 
 
 in which such service or labor was due, to the State 
 or Territory, in which he or she was arrested, with 
 authority to such claimant, or his or her agent or 
 attorney, to use such reasonable force and restraint as 
 may be necessary, under the circumstances of the case, 
 to take and remove such fugitive person back to the 
 State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped 
 as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act 
 shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be ad- 
 mitted in evidence, and the certificates in this and jo 
 the first (fourth) section mentioned, shall be conclusive 
 of the right of the person or persons in whose favor 
 granted, to remove such fugitive to the State or Ter- 
 ritory from which he escaped, and shall prevent all 
 molestation of such person or persons, by °any process 
 issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or other person 
 whomsoever. 
 
 Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That any person 
 who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, 
 or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or 20 
 any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or 
 them, from arresting such a fugitive from service 
 or labor, either with or without process as aforesaid, 
 or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive 
 from service or labor, from the custody of such claim- 
 
144 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 ant, his or her agent or attorney, or other person or 
 persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when so 
 arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given and 
 declared; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so 
 owing service or labor as aforesaid, directly or in- 
 directly, to escape from such claimant, his agent 
 or attorney, or other person or persons legally author- 
 ized as aforesaid; or shall harbor or conceal such 
 fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest 
 
 10 of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact 
 that such person was a fugitive from service or labor 
 as aforesaid, shall, for either of said offenses, be sub- 
 ject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and 
 imprisonment not exceeding six months, by indict- 
 ment and conviction before the District Court of the 
 United States for the district in which such offense 
 may have been committed, or before the proper court 
 of criminal jurisdiction, if committed within any one 
 of the organized Territories of the United States ; and 
 
 20 shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages 
 to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of 
 one thousand dollars, for each fugitive so lost as afore- 
 said, to be recovered by action of debt, in any of the 
 District or Territorial Courts aforesaid, within whose 
 jurisdiction the said offense may have been committed. 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 145 
 
 Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That upon affi- 
 davit, made by the claimant of such fugitive, his 
 agent or attorney, after such certificate has been 
 issued, that he has reason to apprehend that such 
 fugitive will be rescued by force from his or their 
 possession before he can be taken beyond the limits 
 of the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be 
 the duty of the officer making the arrest to retain 
 such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the 
 State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to such io 
 claimant, his agent, or attorney. And to this end, the 
 officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to 
 employ so many persons as he may deem necessary to 
 overcome such force, and to retain them in his service 
 so long as circumstances may require. The said offi- 
 cer and his assistants, while so employed, to receive 
 the same compensation, and to be allowed the same 
 expenses, as are now allowed by law for transporta- 
 tion of criminals, to be certified by the judge of the 
 district within which the arrest is made, and paid out 20 
 of the treasury of the United States. 
 
 Sec 10. And be it further enacted, That when any 
 person held to service or labor in any State or Terri- 
 tory, or in the District of Columbia, shall escape there- 
 
146 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 from, the party to whom such service or labor shall 
 be due, his, her, or their agent or attorney, may apply 
 to any court of record therein, or judge thereof in 
 vacation, and make satisfactory proof to such court, 
 or judge in vacation, of the escape aforesaid, and that 
 the person escaping owed service or labor to such 
 party. Whereupon the court shall cause a record to 
 be made of the matters so proved, and also a general 
 description of the person so escaping, with such con- 
 
 io venient certainty as may be ; and a transcript of such 
 record, authenticated by the attestation of the clerk 
 and of the seal of the said court, being produced in 
 any other State, Territory or district in which the 
 person so escaping may be found, and being exhibited 
 to any judge, commissioner, or other officer author- 
 ized by the law of the United States to cause persons 
 escaping from service or labor to be delivered up, 
 shall be held and taken to be full and conclusive 
 evidence of the fact of escape, and that the service or 
 
 20 labor of the person escaping is due to the party in 
 such record mentioned. And upon the production by 
 the said party of other and further evidence if neces- 
 sary, either oral or by affidavit, in addition to what is 
 contained in the said record of the identity of the 
 person escaping, °he or she shall be delivered up to 
 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 147 
 
 the claimant. And the said court, commissioner, 
 judge, or other person authorized by this act to grant 
 certificates to claimants of fugitives, shall, upon the 
 production of the record and other evidences afore- 
 said, grant to such claimant a certificate of his right 
 to take any such person identified and proved to be 
 owing service or labor as aforesaid, which certificate 
 shall authorize such claimant to seize or arrest and 
 transport such person to the State or Territory from 
 which he escaped: Provided, That nothing herein 10 
 contained shall be construed as requiring the pro- 
 duction of a transcript of such record as evidence as 
 aforesaid. But in its absence the claim shall be 
 heard and determined upon other satisfactory proofs, 
 competent in law. 
 
 Approved, Sept. 18, 1850. 
 
 Chap. LXIII. An Act to suppress the Slave Trade in 
 the District of Columbia. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States of America in Congress 20 
 assembled, That from and after the first day of Janu- 
 ary, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, it shall not be 
 lawful to bring into the District of Columbia any 
 
148 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 slave whatever, for the purpose of being °sold, or for 
 the purpose of being placed in depot, to be subse- 
 quently transferred to any other State or place to be 
 sold as merchandise. And if any slave shall be 
 brought into the said District by its owner, or by the 
 authority or consent of its owner, contrary to the pro- 
 visions of this act, such slave shall thereupon become 
 liberated and free. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall and 
 may be lawful for each of the corporations of the cities 
 of Washington and Georgetown, from time to time, 
 and as often as may be necessary, to abate, break up, 
 and abolish any depot or place of confinement of slaves 
 brought into the said District as merchandise, contrary 
 to the provisions of this act, by such appropriate 
 means as may appear to either of the said corporations 
 expedient and proper. And the same power is hereby 
 vested in the Levy Court of Washington County, if 
 any attempt shall be made, within its jurisdictional 
 limits, to establish a depot or place of confinement for 
 slaves brought into the said District as merchandise 
 for sale contrary to this act. 
 
 Approved, September 20, 1850. 
 
THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT 
 
 Historical Note. — In the presidential campaign of 1852 
 both the Democratic and the Whig parties adopted, as the chief 
 plank of their party platforms, what was known as the finality- 
 clause. That is, they both agreed to abide by, and honestly 
 live up to, the Compromise of 1850, as the final and equitable 
 settlement of the great subjects of sectional dispute. 
 
 In less than two years the struggle broke out again with in- 
 creased bitterness over the organization of the Nebraska Terri- 
 tory. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was the leader of the north- 
 ern wing of the Democratic party. As chairman of the Senate 
 Committee on Territories he reported a bill which reopened the 
 whole question of slavery extension, was the cause of the forma- 
 tion of the Republican party, and led directly to the War of the 
 Rebellion. The Missouri Compromise had been regarded for 
 thirty-four years as a solemn and binding contract between the 
 North and South. Douglas proposed a measure that violated this 
 agreement, under the plea that it was opposed to the principle of 
 popular sovereignty. He declared that the inhabitants of a ter- 
 ritory were as well qualified and had as good a right to choose 
 their own institutions as the citizens of a State. He said that 
 the Compromise of 1850 had adopted this principle in allowing 
 New Mexico and Utah to decide for themselves whether they 
 would adopt slavery or not, and he maintained that he was 
 simply extending this sound principle to the other territories. 
 
 149 
 
150 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 While nothing can be more certain than that the Acts of 1850 
 had not been intended to nullify or repeal the Missouri Com- 
 promise, the idea of popular or squatter sovereignty appealed 
 to the democratic instincts of the people of the Northwest, and 
 gained a sufficient number of votes from their representatives 
 in Congress, added to the southern slave votes, to carry the 
 measure. 
 
 By this act two new territories were organized, Kansas and 
 Nebraska. The inhabitants of each could choose for themselves 
 whether slavery should exist or not, the general impression 
 being that Kansas would finally adopt slavery, while Nebraska 
 would ultimately become a free State, and thus the balance in 
 the Senate would be maintained. But the Kansas-Nebraska 
 Act contained a fatal defect. No provision was made as to the 
 time when the settlers should decide upon their system of labor 
 or as to the right of a majority to change the system formerly 
 adopted by their opponents. Hence each side rushed settlers 
 into Kansas in the endeavor to obtain immediate control of the 
 government, or to wrest that control from those in temporary 
 possession. Popular sovereignty thus applied soon ended in 
 actual civil war, and the struggle which ensued arrayed North 
 against South in almost complete estrangement. Had Douglas 
 deliberately planned to plunge the nation into a fratricidal war, 
 he could not have adopted a measure better fitted to accomplish 
 that purpose than the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA 
 ACT 
 
 Chap. LIX. An Act to Organize the Territories of 
 Nebraska and Kansas. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 
 bled, That all that part of the territory of the United 
 States included within the following limits, except 
 such portions thereof as are hereinafter expressly 
 exempted from the operations of this act, to wit: 10 
 beginning at a point in the Missouri River where the 
 fortieth parallel of north latitude crosses the same; 
 thence west on said parallel to the east boundary of 
 the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky 
 Mountains ; thence on said summit northward to the 
 forty-ninth parallel of north latitude ; thence east on 
 said parallel to the western boundary of the territory 
 of Minnesota ; thence southward on said boundary to 
 the Missouri River ; thence down the main channel of 
 said river to the place of beginning, be, and the same 20 
 is hereby, created into a temporary government by the 
 name of the Territory of Nebraska ; and when admitted 
 as a State or States, the said territory, or any portion 
 
 151 
 
152 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 of the same, shall be received into the Union with or 
 without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at 
 the time of their admission : Provided, That nothing 
 in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the 
 government of the United States from dividing said 
 Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner 
 and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient 
 and proper, or from attaching any portion of said 
 Territory to any other State or Territory of the United 
 
 io States: Provided further, That nothing in this act con- 
 tained shall be construed to impair the rights of per- 
 son or property now pertaining to the Indians in said 
 Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unex- 
 tinguished by treaty between the United States and 
 such Indians, or to include any territory which, by 
 treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the con- 
 sent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial 
 limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but 
 all such territory shall be excepted out of the boun- 
 
 20 daries and constitute no part of the Territory of Ne- 
 braska, until said tribe shall signify their assent to 
 the President of the United States to be included 
 within the said Territory of Nebraska, or to affect the 
 authority of the government of the United States to 
 make any regulations respecting such Indians, their 
 
EXTRACTS FROM THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT 153 
 
 lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or 
 otherwise, which it would have been competent to the 
 government to make if this act had never passed. 
 
 Section 10. And be it further enacted, That the 
 provisions of the act entitled " An act respecting fugi- 
 tives from justice, and persons escaping from the ser- 
 vice of their masters," approved February twelfth, 
 seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the provisions 
 of the act entitled " °An act to amend, and supplement- 
 ary to, the aforesaid act," approved September eigh- 10 
 teenth, eighteen hundred and fifty, be, and the same 
 are hereby, declared to extend to and be in full force 
 within the limits of the said Territory of Nebraska. 
 
 Section 14. And, be it further enacted, . . . That 
 the Constitution, and all laws of the United States 
 which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the 
 same force and effect within the said Territory of 
 Nebraska as elsewhere within the United States, 
 except the eighth section of the °act preparatory to 
 the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved 20 
 March sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which, 
 being inconsistent with the principle of non-interven- 
 tion by Congress with slavery in the States and 
 Territories, as recognized by the legislation of eighteen 
 hundred and fifty, commonly called the Compromise 
 
154 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 Measures, is hereby °declared inoperative and void; 
 it being the true intent and meaning of this act not 
 to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
 exclude it therefrom, ° but to leave the people thereof 
 perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
 institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
 Constitution of the United States : Provided, That 
 nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive 
 or put in force any °law or regulation which may have 
 existed prior to the act of sixth of March, eighteen 
 hundred and twenty, either protecting, establishing, 
 prohibiting, or abolishing slavery. 
 
 Approved, May 30, 1854. 
 
 Note. — The provisions relating to slavery in Kansas are 
 contained in sections 19, 28, and 32, and, substituting the word 
 Kansas for Nebraska, are identical with the sections printed 
 above. 
 
 
THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 
 
 Historical Note. — The political departments of the federal 
 government had endeavored to solve the great problem of slav- 
 ery in the territories by successive laws which, instead of end- 
 ing, had increased the sectional strife. The judicial department 
 finally essayed an attempt at settlement. 
 
 Dred Scott, a negro, had been taken as a slave into the free 
 State of Illinois and later to the Louisiana territory north of 
 36° 30', where, by the Missouri Compromise, slavery was for- 
 bidden. After his return to Missouri he brought suit in the 
 State courts to obtain his freedom, on the ground that he had 
 become free by virtue of residence on free soil, and that once a 
 free man his return to a slave state would not reduce him to 
 bondage again. He lost his case on appeal to the highest 
 Missouri court, and then brought another case before a circuit 
 court of the United States. The circuit court allowed Scott to 
 appear as a party to the suit, but decided that he had not gained 
 his freedom by residence on free soil. An appeal was then taken 
 to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the point 
 involved in the appeal was decided against Dred Scott. This 
 point was : had the circuit court any right to judge the case, 
 since its jurisdiction was limited by the Constitution to the 
 classes of persons mentioned in that document. The Supreme 
 Court decided that a negro descended from a former slave could 
 not be a citizen of a State, and hence was not entitled to appear 
 before a federal court as a party to a suit. This was strictly all 
 
 155 
 
156 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 that was before the court for decision, but the majority of the 
 judges, doubtless hoping that their action would settle once for 
 all the great political question of slavery in the territories, and 
 by so doing would remove the cause of a strife that threatened 
 to disrupt the Union, concluded to add an opinion upon a point 
 of law connected with, but not necessary to, the settlement of 
 the case before them. Such an opinion was contrary to the 
 well-established practice of the Supreme Court. Many able 
 jurists have claimed that it was not an authoritative decision 
 of the court. 
 
 Chief Justice Taney, in this portion of his opinion, declared 
 that the Missouri Compromise was opposed to the constitutional 
 right of the slaveholder as the owner of property, recognized 
 as such by the Constitution, to carry his kind of property, that 
 is, his slaves, into any portion of the federal territory, and hence 
 was null and void. By this decision the entire territory of the 
 United States was opened to slavery, and not until a territory be- 
 came a State could the right to hold slaves therein be denied to 
 citizens of the slave States. The doctrine of popular sovereignty 
 was destroyed, as well as the congressional power of control. 
 
 A great moral question is never settled until it is settled 
 right. As the people of the North very generally refused to 
 recognize the decision as finally disposing of the question, the 
 "irrepressible conflict" continued, until laws and judicial 
 decisions alike were silenced in the clash of armed hosts. 
 
THE DRED SCOTT DECISION 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE OPINION OF CHIEF JUSTICE 
 TANEY 
 
 °The Act of Congress, upon which the plaintiff 
 relies, declares that slavery and involuntary servitude, 
 except as a punishment for crime, shall be forever 
 prohibited in all that part of the territory ceded by 
 France, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north 
 of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, and 
 not included within the limits of Missouri. And the 10 
 difficulty which meets us at the threshold of this part 
 of the inquiry is, whether °Congress was authorized to 
 pass this law under any of the powers granted to it 
 by the Constitution; for if the authority is not given 
 by that instrument, it is the duty of this Court to 
 declare it void and inoperative, and incapable of con- 
 ferring freedom upon any one who is held as a slave 
 under the laws of any one of the States. 
 
 The counsel for the plaintiff has laid much stress 
 upon that °article in the Constitution which confers 20 
 on Congress the power " to dispose of and make all 
 needful rules and regulations respecting the territory 
 or other property belonging to the United States ; " 
 but in the judgment of the Court, that provision has 
 
 157 
 
158 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 no bearing on the present controversy, and the power 
 there given, whatever it may be, is confined, and was 
 intended to be confined, to the territory which at that 
 time belonged to, or was claimed by, the United States, 
 and was within their boundaries as settled by the 
 treaty with Great Britain, and can have no influence 
 upon a territory afterwards acquired from a foreign 
 government. It was a special provision for a known 
 and particular territory, and to meet a present emer- 
 
 io gency, and nothing more. . . . 
 
 It was intended for a specific purpose, to provide 
 for the things we have mentioned. It was to transfer 
 to the new government the property then held in 
 common by the States, and to give to that government 
 power to apply it to the objects for which it had been 
 destined by mutual agreement among the States before 
 their league was dissolved. It applied only to the 
 property which the States held in common at that time, 
 and has no reference whatever to any territory or 
 
 20 other property which the new sovereignty might after- 
 wards itself acquire. . . . 
 
 At the time when the territory in question was 
 obtained by cession from France, it contained no 
 population fit to be associated together and admitted 
 as a State ; and it therefore was absolutely necessary 
 
THE DEED SCOTT DECISION 159 
 
 to hold possession of it, as a territory belonging to the 
 United States, until it was settled and inhabited by a 
 civilized community capable of self-government, and in 
 a condition to be admitted on equal terms with the 
 other States as a member of the Union. But, as we 
 have before said, it was acquired by the general gov- 
 ernment, as the representative and trustee of the 
 people of the United States, and it must therefore be 
 held in that character for their common and equal 
 benefit; for it was the people of the several States, 10 
 acting through their agent and representative, the 
 Federal Government, who in fact acquired the terri- 
 tory in question, and the government holds it for their 
 common use until it shall be associated with the other 
 states as a member of the Union. 
 
 But until that time arrives, it is undoubtedly neces- 
 sary that some government should be established, in 
 order to organize society, and to protect the inhabit- 
 ants in their persons and property; and as people of 
 the United States could act in this matter only through 20 
 the government which represented them, and through 
 which they spoke and acted when the territory was ob- 
 tained, it was not only within the scope of its powers, 
 but it was its duty to pass such laws and establish such 
 a government as would enable those by whose authority 
 
160 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 they acted to reap the advantages anticipated from its 
 acquisition, and to gather there a population which 
 would enable it to assume the position to which it was 
 destined among the States of the Union. . . . 
 
 But the power of Congress over the person or prop- 
 erty of a citizen can never be a mere discretionary 
 power under our constitution and form of government. 
 The powers of the government and the rights and 
 privileges of the citizen are regulated and plainly 
 
 io defined by the constitution itself. . . . Thus the rights 
 of property are united with the rights of person, 
 and placed on the same ground by the fifth amend- 
 ment to the constitution, which provides, that no 
 person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property 
 without due process of law. And an act of Congress 
 which deprives a citizen of the United States of his 
 liberty or property, merely because he came himself or 
 brought his property into a particular territory of the 
 United States, and who had committed no offense 
 
 20 against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the 
 name of due process of law. . . . 
 
 The powers of the government, and the rights of the 
 citizen under it, are positive and practical regulations 
 plainly written down. The people of the United 
 States have delegated to it certain enumerated 
 
THE DRED SCOTT DECISION 161 
 
 powers, and °forbidden it to exercise others. It has 
 no power over the person or property of a citizen 
 but what the citizens of the United States have 
 granted. And no laws or usages of other nations, or 
 reasoning of statesmen or jurists upon the relation 
 of master and slave, can enlarge the powers of the 
 government, or take from the citizens the rights they 
 have reserved. And if the constitution recognizes 
 the right of property of the master in the slave, 
 and makes no distinction between that description of 10 
 property and other property owned by a citizen, no 
 tribunal, acting under the authority of the United 
 States, whether it be legislative, executive, or judicial, 
 has a right to draw such a distinction, or deny to it 
 the benefit of the provisions and guarantees which 
 have been provided for the protection of private 
 property against the encroachments of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Now, as we have already said in an earlier part of 
 this opinion, upon a different point, the right of prop- 20 
 erty in a slave is distinctly Expressed and affirmed 
 in the Constitution. The right to °traffic in it, like 
 an ordinary article of merchandise and property, was 
 guaranteed to the citizens of the United States, in 
 every State that might desire it, for twenty years. 
 
162 
 
 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 And the government in express terms is pledged to 
 protect it in all future time, if the slave °escape 
 from his owner. This is done in plain words — too 
 plain to be misunderstood. And no word can be 
 found in the Constitution which gives Congress a 
 greater power over slave property, or which entitles 
 property of that kind to °less protection than property 
 of any other description. The only power conferred 
 is the power coupled with the duty of guarding and 
 
 io protecting the owner in his rights. 
 
 Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of the 
 Court that the Act of Congress which prohibited a 
 citizen from holding and owning property of this 
 kind in the territory of the United States north of 
 the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the 
 Constitution, and is therefore void ; and that neither 
 Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made 
 free by being carried into this territory : even if they 
 had been carried there by the owner, with the inten- 
 
 20 tion of becoming a permanent resident. . . . 
 
THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION 
 
 Historical Note. — The Republican party, although it had 
 been elected on the issue of opposition to further extension of 
 slavery, was nevertheless not an abolition party, and Lincoln 
 unquestionably expressed his own honest opinion and that of 
 his party when he stated that the war was being waged to pre- 
 serve the Union, and not to change the institutions of any sec- 
 tion. Policy doubtless confirmed this conviction in Lincoln's 
 mind, as he wished to do nothing to estrange the border slave- 
 holding States, on whose loyalty to the Union cause depended 
 the issue of the war. But as the war progressed many became 
 convinced that slavery as well as Union was the issue of the 
 conflict. 
 
 The Confiscation Act of August 6, 1861, is the first of a 
 series of governmental measures which reflected this changed 
 attitude of the North, and led logically to the Proclamation of 
 Emancipation. By this law slaves, bearing arms against the 
 United States, or assisting by their labor in the construction of 
 works of a military character, were to be considered as no 
 longer the property of their former masters. On the 6th of 
 March, 1862, President Lincoln, in a message to Congress, rec- 
 ommended that an agreement be entered into with the loyal 
 slave States whereby those States should emancipate their 
 slaves and the United States should compensate the slave 
 owners. The border States were unwilling to accede to this 
 
 163 
 
164 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 agreement. In April, 1802, slavery was abolished in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. In June of the same year Congress passed 
 a law prohibiting slavery in the territories of the United States. 
 In the middle of July a second Confiscation Act was passed, 
 freeing the slaves of rebels and traitors found or coming within 
 the Union lines, and on the 21st of July, 1862, Lincoln read to 
 his cabinet the first draft of the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
 The fear that, in the face of military reverses, the Proclamation 
 might seem to the country at large a measure of desperation, 
 induced Lincoln to delay its promulgation until a Union victory 
 should be won. The battle of Antietam, of September 17th, 
 served Lincoln's purpose, and on the 22d of September, 1802, 
 he issued the preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation which 
 was to be enforced on and after January 1, 1803, as to all 
 States or portions of States then in rebellion. 
 
 On January 1, 1803, the famous document was promulgated 
 by Lincoln, by virtue of the war power vested in him as com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army and navy. Under its provision 
 all slaves were emancipated in States or sections of States then 
 in rebellion against the United States. Practically, the Procla- 
 mation could be enforced only where the federal troops were in 
 actual occupation of southern territory. Slavery still remained 
 legal in the loyal border States, and was not finally abolished 
 everywhere in the United States until the passage of the 
 thirteenth amendment to the Constitution. 
 
THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION 
 
 Whereas, on the twenty -second day of September, in 
 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-two. a proclamation was issued by the President 
 of the United States, containing, among other things, 
 the following, to wit : 
 
 " That on the first clay of January, in the year of 
 our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 
 all persons held as slaves within any state or desig- 
 nated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be 10 
 in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 
 thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive 
 government of the United States, including the mili- 
 tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
 maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do 
 no act or acts to repress such persons or any of 
 them, in any efforts they may make for their actual 
 freedom. 
 
 " That the Executive will, on the first day of Janu- 
 ary aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states 20 
 and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof 
 respectively shall then be in rebellion against the 
 United States; and the fact that any state, or the 
 people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith 
 
 165 
 
166 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 
 represented in the Congress of the United States, by 
 members chosen thereto at elections wherein a major- 
 ity of the qualified voters of such state shall have 
 participated, shall, in the absence of strong counter- 
 vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that 
 such state, and the people thereof, are not then in 
 rebellion against the United States." 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 
 the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested 
 
 io as °Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the 
 United States in time of actual armed rebellion against 
 the authority and government of the United States, 
 and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing 
 said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the 
 year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
 sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to 
 do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hun- 
 dred days from the day first above mentioned, order 
 and designate, as the states and parts of states wherein 
 
 20 the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion 
 against the United States, the following, to wit : 
 
 Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana °(except the parishes of 
 St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. 
 Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre 
 Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, 
 
THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION 167 
 
 including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Ala- 
 bama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Caro- 
 lina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties 
 designated as West Virginia, and also the counties 
 of Berkely, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, 
 York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities 
 of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts 
 are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation 
 were not issued. 
 
 And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose 10 
 aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held 
 as slaves °within said designated states and parts of 
 states are and henceforward shall be free ; and that 
 the executive government of the United States, in- 
 cluding the military and naval authorities thereof, will 
 recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. 
 
 And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to 
 be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in neces- 
 sary self-defense ; and I recommend to them that in 
 all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for 20 
 reasonable wages. 
 
 °And I further declare and make known that such 
 persons of suitable condition will be received into the 
 armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, 
 positions, stations, and other places, and to man 
 vessels of all sorts in said service. 
 
168 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act 
 of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon mili- 
 tary necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
 mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, 
 and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
 
 Done at the city of Washington, this first day of 
 January, in the year of our Lord one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of 
 [o [l.s.] the Independence of the United States 
 the eighty-seventh. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 By the President : 
 William H. Seward, Secretary of State. 
 
THE GETTYSBURG SPEECH 
 
 Historical Note. — The battle of Gettysburg, fought on the 
 1st, 2d, and 3d of July, 1863, was one of the greatest and 
 most decisive conflicts of the Civil War. Lee's invasion of the 
 North was stopped, and the southern armies were compelled to 
 fight thereafter on the defensive. The victory of Gettysburg 
 marked the turning-point of the Rebellion. It made the ulti- 
 mate victory of the Union cause almost a certainty, and al- 
 though the South struggled bravely on for nearly two years 
 longer, the death knell of the Confederacy was struck. 
 
 The governors of the several States whose volunteers had 
 fought in the battle of Gettysburg had, under the leadership 
 of Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, secured a portion of the 
 battlefield as a place of permanent interment for those who had 
 fallen in the battle. These governors united in inviting Presi- 
 dent Lincoln to dedicate the burial place as a national cemetery 
 on the 19th of November, 1863. 
 
 Edward Everett of Massachusetts was the orator of the dedi- 
 catory services. His speech of two hours' duration was a dig- 
 nified, chaste, and eloquent effort, worthy in every way of the 
 occasion and secure of a permanent place as a classic of English 
 oratory. Lincoln dedicated the cemetery in an address of two 
 hundred and sixty-six words, which will remain, as long as the 
 English language endures, one of its most remarkable examples 
 
 169 
 
170 EPOCH-MAKING PAPERS 
 
 of purity of diction, eloquence of expression, and elevation of 
 thought. To the loyal Americans, engaged in that mighty 
 national struggle, it was more than a specimen of oratory of un- 
 surpassed merit. It was the expression of the deepest feelings 
 of a great nation endeavoring, at an unparalleled expenditure 
 of blood and treasure, to accomplish the ends Lincoln so clearly 
 and forcefully stated. 
 
 ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION 
 OF THE CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought 
 forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in 
 liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that °all men 
 are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great 
 civil war, °testing whether that nation, or any nation 
 so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We 
 are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have 
 io come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final 
 resting-place for those who here gave their lives that 
 that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 
 proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, 
 we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we can- 
 not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and 
 dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far 
 above our power to add or detract. The world will 
 
THE GETTYSBURG SPEECH 111 
 
 little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but 
 it can never forget what they did here. It is for us 
 the living, rather, to be dedicated here, to the unfin- 
 ished work which they who fought here have thus far 
 so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
 dedicated to the great task remaining before us, — 
 that from these honored dead we take increased devo- 
 tion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
 measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve 
 that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this 10 
 nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom 
 — and that government of the people, by the people, 
 and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 November 19, 1863. 
 
NOTES 
 
 Page 3, line 6. Inalienable rights. The doctrine of in- 
 herent or inalienable rights was developed historically npon 
 American soil. It has been customary to ascribe its adoption 
 in the revolutionary constitutions to the influence of Rousseau. 
 But the Separatists in England and Roger Williams in America 
 first made practical application of the theory, and during the 
 later colonial period it was often invoked to protect the colonists 
 against arbitrary acts of the British government. 
 
 Line 12. The right of revolution. The so-called right of 
 revolution has been acted on several times in English history, 
 notably in the Revolution of 1G88. It has been generally ac- 
 cepted by American statesmen and jurists. See Webster's 
 " Reply to Hayne." 
 
 Page 4, line 10. Veto. The king had the right to veto the 
 acts of colonial legislatures in all the colonies except Rhode 
 Island and Connecticut. 
 
 Line 12. Reservation for the king's pleasure. Instructions 
 to the royal governors in certain colonies had commanded that 
 legislative acts should be reserved for the king's assent, and that 
 they should not become laws until signed by him. 
 
 173 
 
174 NOTES 
 
 Page 5, line 1. Representative houses dissolved. E.g. in 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Page 5, line 6. Legislation by the people. The principle is 
 here enunciated that the colony had an inalienable right to 
 make laws for its own government. A legislature was simply a 
 convenient means of accomplishing that end. If the legislature 
 were abolished, the right to legislate remained unimpaired in 
 the people, the creators of the legislature. 
 
 Line 18. Judges dependent on the crown. The early 
 colonial practice had been for judges to hold office during good 
 behavior, which was virtually life tenure. A royal order mak- 
 ing all colonial judgeships revocable at the king's pleasure had 
 brought about a struggle which lasted from the middle of the 
 eighteenth century to the Revolution. A number of colonial laws, 
 fixing tenure for good behavior, were disallowed by the crown, 
 and in 1762 Governor Hardy of New Jersey was removed from 
 office because he had appointed a judge during good behavior 
 instead of at the king's pleasure. The British government in a 
 recent order had directed that colonial judges should be paid out 
 of the imperial treasury, thus freeing them entirely from colonial 
 control. 
 
 Line 21. Erection of new offices. There is little evidence 
 that the creation of new offices was in excess of the needs of 
 administration. 
 
 Line 24. Quartering of soldiers. Soldiers were quartered 
 in Boston under the so-called Quartering Act of the British 
 Parliament. 
 
NOTES 175 
 
 Page 6, line 3. Parliamentary control. This clause reflects 
 the views of a strong party in the colonies which claimed that 
 the government of the colonies was vested in the crown and the 
 colonial legislatures, denying to Parliament the right to pass 
 laws except for imperial interests. 
 
 Page 6, line 5. Assent to legislation. The Declaration as- 
 sumed that the king still possessed the power to veto acts of the 
 British Parliament. As a matter of fact, he was responsible for 
 the laws enumerated, not because he had assented to them, he 
 had no power to do otherwise after the acts had passed, but be- 
 cause he had used the parliamentary party, which he had built 
 up, to pass them. The veto was last used by the British 
 crown in 1707. 
 
 Line 0. Military trials. Soldiers are by the military laws 
 of most nations subject to trial in military, not in civil courts. 
 
 Line 12. Restriction of trade. The " Navigation Acts " had 
 applied the policy of the closed door to the colonies. England's 
 policy was to control colonial trade for the benefit of the English 
 merchant, and the economic interests of the colonists were sac- 
 rificed if they conflicted with the supposed interests of England. 
 The Boston Port Act of 1774 had closed that port to the trade of 
 the world. 
 
 Line 13. Taxation without consent. E.g. the Stamp and 
 Tea Acts. 
 
 Line 14. Denial of jury trial. Trial in vice-admiralty courts 
 had been substituted for jury trial in certain cases. 
 
 Line 16. Trial in England. The burning of the Gaspee led 
 the British government to issue instructions, dated September 
 
176 NOTES 
 
 ate 
 
 4, 1772, to a commission of inquiry appointed to investigate 
 the affair, to arrest and send the offenders to England for trial, 
 thus violating one of the most prized rights of Englishmen. 
 
 Line 18. The Quebec Act. This act was intended by -the 
 British government to grant such liberal privileges to tbe French 
 Catholics of Quebec that they would remain loyal to England. 
 It was a constitution for the Province of Quebec, which granted 
 to the French inhabitants their French civil law and the free 
 exercise of their religion. It, moreover, added to the Provinces 
 of Quebec the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers 
 and the Great Lakes. * 
 
 Line 23. Charters revoked. As in Massachusetts by the Act 
 of 1774. 
 
 Page 7, line 1. Legislatures dissolved. As in Massachusetts, 
 New York, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. 
 
 Page 7, line 9. Foreign mercenaries. Not all the mercena- 
 ries were Hessians, but all were so called by the colonists. 
 Several German princelings sold their subjects at a fixed sum 
 per head to the king of Great Britain for use as soldiers in 
 America. The use of Hessians exasperated the Americans as 
 almost nothing else did. It decided many who had been waver- 
 ers to support the cause of independence. 
 
 Line 23. Petitions for redress. E.g. the petitions of the 
 Stamp Act Congress and of the First Continental Congress of 
 October 25, 1774, and the Olive Branch Petition of July, 1775. 
 
 Page 8, line 5. Warnings to British people. E.g. the Decla- 
 ration of Rights of 1774 by the First Continental Congress. 
 
NOTES 177 
 
 Line 18. Independence declared. The concluding paragraph 
 is, strictly speaking, the declaration of independence ; the pre- 
 ceding portions of the document give the reasons for the mo- 
 mentous step. 
 
 Page 13, line 6. Adoption by States. It is important to 
 remember that the Articles of Confederation were adopted by 
 the several States, and not by the people of the United States. 
 Compare the enacting clause of the Constitution. 
 
 Line 11. Confederacy. A confederacy or confederation is a 
 union of States in which the central government is given less 
 power than in a federation. It is a union of sovereign States 
 rather than a single sovereign State formed by the union of a 
 number of component self-governing divisions, each of which by 
 the act of union loses its real independence. A confederation 
 exercises its jurisdiction only over the States, not over the indi- 
 viduals inhabiting the States. 
 
 Page 14, line 3. Citizens entitled to privileges and immuni- 
 ties of the several States. This provision is repeated in nearly 
 the same words in the Constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 2, § 1. 
 
 Line 19. Extradition. The Constitution follows closely the 
 language of this clause for the extradition of criminals. See 
 Constitution, Art, IV, Sec. 2, § 2. 
 
 Page 15, line 1, Mutual recognition of legal acts of the 
 several States. See Constitution, Art IV, Sec. 1. 
 
 Line 4. Congress. As constituted by this article, Congress 
 partook more of the nature of a diet of ambassadors from 
 sovereign States than of a national legislative body. Before 
 
 N 
 
178 NOTES 
 
 the American Union the word "congress" was not used as a 
 name for a legislature. It was commonly employed to designate 
 a meeting of diplomats in an international conference, as the 
 Congress of Vienna, and in this sense it was used in the First and 
 Second Continental Congresses. The Second Continental Con- 
 gress found itself the only body capable of carrying on the Revo- 
 lution, and by its assumption of legislative powers the word 
 came to be used in this country for a national legislature. 
 
 Line 16. Congressmen not to hold office. See Art. I, Sec. 6, 
 § 2, of the Constitution, where the provision is repeated. 
 
 Page 16, line 1. Privileges of Congressmen. Freedom of 
 debate and immunity from arrests, with the exceptions stated 
 in the text, had been won in English and colonial legislatures, 
 and were recognized as absolutely essential to the proper trans- 
 action of legislative business. See Art. I, Sec. 6, § 1, of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 Line 8. State treaty-making power. The control of foreign 
 affairs is the department most often given to the central govern- 
 ment, even in very loose confederations. See Constitution, Art. 
 I, Sec. 10, § 1. 
 
 Line 12. Foreign influence guarded against. There was a 
 great and not unfounded fear of foreign influence in American 
 affairs down to the close of the War of 1812. See Constitution, 
 Art. I, Sec. 9, § 8. 
 
 Line 10. Titles of nobility. See Constitution, Art. I. Sec. 
 9, § 8, and Art. I, Sec. 10, § 1. 
 
 Line 19. Alliances between States. See Constitution, Art. 
 I, Sec. 10, § 3. 
 
NOTES 179 
 
 Page 17, line 6. State troops and navies. See Constitu- 
 tion, Art. I, Sec. 10, § 3, and Art. II of Amendments. 
 
 Page 18, line 16. Officers for State contingents in the army. 
 See Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 8, § 16. While Congress, under 
 the Constitution, has the power to vest the appointment of offi- 
 cers of a rank lower than colonel in the President when State 
 troops are called into the national service as volunteers, the 
 general practice has been in conformity with this rule of the 
 Articles of Confederation. 
 
 Line 23. No Confederate power of taxation. No power of 
 taxation, direct or indirect, was given to Congress. By this 
 article the national government was made entirely dependent 
 upon the State for its revenue. This was the most fatal defect 
 of the Articles of Confederation. There was no power given 
 to Congress to enforce payment of the requisitions, and a num- 
 ber of States failed to pay the amounts assessed upon them by 
 Congress. 
 
 Page 10, line 13. General powers of Congress. The powers 
 granted Congress were in general those which had been exer- 
 cised by the British government in the later colonial period. 
 
 Page 20, line 3. Letters of marque and reprisal. Letters of 
 marque and reprisal are commissions issued to privateers allow- 
 ing them to capture vessels on the high seas. They are no longer 
 issued in time of peace, and privateering has been virtually abol- 
 ished by the practice of nations. 
 
 Line 4. Admiralty courts. Admiralty courts were the only 
 regular courts established by the Articles of Confederation. 
 
180 NOTES 
 
 Cases arising on the high seas had been, during the colonial 
 period, tried in British or imperial courts, and, as there were no 
 State courts for this purpose, Congress was allowed to create 
 them. The lack of a national judiciary was one of the chief 
 defects of the Articles of Confederation. 
 
 Line 10. Disputes between States. Compare this very re- 
 stricted grant of power to settle disputes with that given to the 
 judiciary under the Constitution. See Constitution, Art. Ill, 
 Sec. 2, §§ 1, 2. 
 
 Page 22, line 15. Private land claims. The kings of Eng- 
 land, in their grants of land in America, had been very careless 
 in regranting territory already bestowed in previous charters, 
 thus giving rise to many controversies in the colonial period and 
 making titles to land, in the disputed district, uncertain and 
 insecure in the period after America became an independent 
 nation. The meaning of this clause is, that Congress, upon 
 request, shall decide controversies concerning private ownership 
 of land in a district which had been definitely decided to belong 
 to a certain State, but which, before such decision, was claimed 
 by two or more States, where the claim or claims to the land in 
 question arose out of a grant or grants made before the final 
 adjustment of jurisdiction. 
 
 Page 23, line 1. Special grants of power to Congress. Com- 
 pare carefully the powers vested in this and the succeeding 
 paragraph with those given to Congress under the Constitution. 
 See Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 8. 
 
 Line 25. Civil officers. Note that the civil officers appointed 
 by Congress under the Articles are simply clerks of Congress. 
 They do not constitute an executive department. 
 
NOTES 181 
 
 Page 24, line 4. President of Congress. Not president of 
 the United States. 
 
 Page 25, line 25. Majority of nine States. The require- 
 ment that a majority of nine out of the thirteen States was 
 necessary for the really important business, was a most unwise 
 provision, as it frequently prevented the passage of measures 
 essential to the well-being of the country, which were favored 
 by a majority of the States. As it often happened that the rep- 
 resentatives of several of the States were absent from Congress, 
 it was possible for one or two States to block measures desired 
 by all the others. The provision was one of the chief causes of 
 the inefficiency of the Congress as a legislative body. 
 
 Page 28, line 20. Committee of the States. The limited 
 power granted by the Articles and by Congress to this Commit- 
 tee of the States, prevented it from ever becoming an important 
 factor in the government. 
 
 Page 27, line 5. Admission of Canada. One of the delu- 
 sions of the revolutionary statesmen was that the French of 
 Canada, so recently conquered by Great Britain, would welcome 
 the opportunity to free themselves from the rule of England. 
 
 Page 28, line 3. Amendment of the Articles. The require- 
 ment of unanimous consent for amendment makes it practically 
 impossible to change a constitution by legal means. This clause 
 was the immediate cause of the destruction of the Confedera- 
 tion. 
 
 Page 34, line 11. Inheritance of property. This careful pro- 
 vision against hereditary entailed estates was inserted to pre- 
 
182 NOTES 
 
 vent the growth of a landed aristocracy. It secured the surest 
 foundation for a social as well as a political democracy, by in- 
 suring the ownership of land in numerous hands. 
 
 Page 36, line 1. Three departments of government. The 
 Ordinance provided for the division of the powers of govern- 
 ment into three departments ; executive, legislative, and judicial. 
 It was closely modelled after the governments of the colonies, 
 and proved successful largely because its main provisions had 
 been tested by colonial experience, and had been found adapted 
 to the free government of a new country. The territories were 
 in reality colonies. The use of the word "territory," rather 
 than " colony," has caused many to lose sight of the fact that the 
 United States has been the most successful colonizing power in 
 history. 
 
 Line 6. Property qualifications. Property qualifications for 
 voting and office holding had been the rule during the later colo- 
 nial period. 
 
 Line 21. Common law jurisdiction. Common law jurisdic- 
 tion was such jurisdiction as the law courts of the original 
 States possessed in both civil and criminal matters. It was based 
 upon the English common law, which was adopted as the legal 
 system of the colonies, and which is to-day the legal system of 
 every State in the Union except Louisiana, where French law 
 still obtains. 
 
 Page 37, line 17. Local government. The Ordinance very 
 wisely allowed the territorial legislatures to finally determine 
 the permanent form of local government in town and county, 
 which should be best suited to the needs and habits of the peo- 
 
NOTES 183 
 
 pie : an act of wisdom, which has contributed not a little to the 
 success of our system of territorial government. 
 
 Page 39, line 19. Legislative council. The appointive legis- 
 lative council was one of the few unsuccessful features of the 
 Ordinance. The opposition to it led to a permanent change in 
 our territorial legislatures, whereby the upper house became an 
 elective body. 
 
 Page 42, line 13. Bill of Rights. A comprehensive bill 
 of rights. With the exception of the provision concerning pro- 
 portionate representation in the legislature, the second article 
 deals with civil rights, and may be said to sum up the results of 
 over a thousand years of struggle on the part of the English 
 race for security of life and property against arbitrary and 
 despotic government. It is an epitome of the great charters of 
 English liberty. Compare carefully with the first eight amend- 
 ments to the Constitution. 
 
 Line 15. Habeas Corpus. The writ of habeas corpus is one 
 of the most important securities of personal liberty. By means 
 of this writ iirbitrary imprisonment is rendered impossible and 
 an immediate hearing is insured to any person under arrest. 
 
 Page 43, line 3. Obligations of contracts. The constitution 
 still further secures the inviolability of contracts by forbidding 
 any State to pass a law impairing the obligation of contracts. 
 See Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 10, § 1. 
 
 Line 11. Public education. A recognition that the education 
 of the citizen is a duty of the State. In carrying out this, the 
 States, into which the Northwest Territory was divided, have 
 
184 NOTES 
 
 not only cared zealously for primary and secondary education, 
 but have established great universities wholly maintained by 
 the States. 
 
 Page 45, line 6. States formed from the Northwest Territory. 
 The five States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis- 
 consin were admitted to the Union from the Northwest Terri- 
 tory, from which was also taken a portion of the State of Min- 
 nesota. 
 
 Page 4G, line 7. States to be formed from the Northwest 
 Territory. There was a grave constitutional question whether 
 Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, had any authority 
 to bind the States to this compact, and especially to admit new 
 States to the Union on a perfect equality with the old. Under 
 the Articles, Congress could only exercise the powers expressly 
 conferred upon it, and no such power had been granted. To 
 avoid this difficulty, Congress, under the Constitution, at its 
 first session, reenacted the Ordinance of 1787. 
 
 Line 21. Slavery prohibited. The article prohibiting slavery 
 was the most remarkable one of this great document. A simi- 
 lar provision in the Ordinance of 1784 had been rejected by 
 Congress. The clause was not added until almost the last mo- 
 ment, as up to that time the friends of the measure had seen no 
 hope of its passage. By securing this imperial domain for free 
 labor, the ultimate extinction of slavery on the continent of 
 North America was assured. 
 
 Line 25. Fugitive slave clause. Compare the Constitu- 
 
NOTES 185 
 
 Page 51, line 1. Title of the Constitution. The title does 
 not appear in the original manuscript. 
 
 Line 3. Preamble. The preamble to the Constitution de- 
 termines the great question as to where sovereignty lies in the 
 United States. In any State the person or body of persons that 
 can enact fundamental law is the sovereign, " We, the people 
 of the United States, ... do ordain and establish this con- 
 stitution.' ' Hence the people are sovereign in the United 
 States. Neither the States nor the federal government are sov- 
 ereign ; they are the agents of the sovereign people for the work 
 of government. 
 
 Page 51, line 12. Legislative, executive, and judicial de- 
 partments. See also Art. II, Sec. 1, § 1, and Art. Ill, Sec. 1. 
 These three clauses taken together determine the division of 
 government into three coordinate departments, and that each 
 shall be supreme and independent within the limits of the au- 
 thority granted it by the Constitution. No one of the depart- 
 ments can rightfully encroach upon the sphere of governmental 
 action allotted to the others. 
 
 Line 18. State control of the elective franchise. Modi- 
 fied by the Fourteenth Amendment. See Art. XIV, Sec. 2, of 
 amendments. 
 
 Line 19. Qualification for voting. The Constitution leaves 
 to the States the sole power to determine the qualifications for 
 voting. The Fourteenth Amendment forbids discrimination on 
 account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, but 
 with that limitation, the State can extend or narrow the elective 
 franchise as much as it judges proper. Some States allow 
 
186 NOTES 
 
 women to vote, some permit aliens to vote, while some require 
 a property or educational qualification. 
 
 Page 52, line 5. Basis of representation. Changed by the 
 Fourteenth Amendment, Sec. 2. 
 
 Line 18. Apportionment of representatives. A census was 
 taken in 1790, upon the basis of which the temporary apportion- 
 ment, as provided in this clause, was superseded by one based 
 upon the enumeration of that year. 
 
 Page 53, line 3. Choose. The spelling of this word in the 
 original was chuse. 
 
 Page 54, line 12. Impeachment. When trying impeach- 
 ments the Senate is not a legislative but a judicial body, a court 
 which must decide cases upon the evidence submitted and by 
 the law involved. Questions of policy and of politics which 
 may determine the action of the senator as a legislator have, of 
 right, no influence when the senator acts as a judge. 
 
 Page 55, line 4. Time for holding elections. By federal law 
 elections are held on the Tuesday following the first Monday of 
 November in even years. 
 
 Line 7. Sessions of Congress. Each Congress has two ses- 
 sions. The long session lasts from the first Monday of Decem- 
 ber, of the year following the election, to June, July, or August. 
 The short session begins the first Monday of the succeeding 
 December and ends on the 4th of March. 
 
 Page 57, line 2. Initiation of money bills. The House of 
 Representatives has successfully asserted its right to originate 
 appropriation as well as revenue-raising bills, following the 
 practice of English parliamentary bodies. 
 
NOTES 187 
 
 Page 58, line 15. General welfare clause. The so-called 
 "general welfare-' clause is one of the most frequently mis- 
 understood clauses of the Constitution. It does not give 
 Congress power to provide for the general welfare ; on the 
 contrary, it is a limitation of the power of taxation. Its true 
 meaning is that taxation cannot be imposed for private or sec- 
 tional ends, hut only for the general welfare of the whole United 
 States. 
 
 Page 60, line 17. Implied powers. The doctrine of implied 
 pow T ers derives its chief sanction from this clause. This doc- 
 trine means, the right of Congress to exercise a certain power 
 having been ascertained, that Congress may use any methods, 
 means, or agency for giving effect to such power which it, in its 
 discretion, deems wise and needful, provided such use be not 
 forbidden by the Constitution itself. 
 
 Line 24. Importation of slaves. A temporary provision 
 which, by its own terms, lapsed after 1807. 
 
 Page 61, line 5. Habeas Corpus. See note on the writ of 
 habeas corpus, page 42, line 15. 
 
 Line 8. Bill of attainder. A bill of attainder is a legisla- 
 tive measure, making an accusation of crime, and upon its pas- 
 sage carrying the penalty of death and forfeiture of property. 
 No legal trial of the accused is permitted, and the legislature 
 acts as a political body, not as a court. The bill passes like any 
 other legislative enactment. Its use was denied both to Con- 
 gress and to the State legislatures in order that the individual 
 might be protected against the malice of a party or the tyranny 
 of a majority. 
 
188 NOTES 
 
 Line 8. Ex post facto laws. An ex post facto law, which 
 both State and nation were forbidden to pass, is, in general, 
 any retroactive law. Under the Constitution it applies only to 
 criminal law. It is a law which punishes, as a crime, an act 
 that was not a crime at the time of its commission, or which 
 imposes a heavier penalty than the penalty that was legal at the 
 time of commission of the crime. 
 
 Line 10. Capitation tax. A capitation tax is a poll tax. 
 
 Page 62, line 21. Control. The spelling of this word in the 
 original manuscript was controul. 
 
 Page 63, line 5. Grant of executive power. Note the differ- 
 ence between the grants of executive and legislative power : 
 " The executive power shall be vested in a President." "All 
 legislative powers, herein granted, shall be vested in a Con- 
 gress." While Congress can exercise only those powers granted, 
 the President has discretionary power to perform any executive 
 act not forbidden by the Constitution. He cannot delegate this 
 power to any other department of government or permit any 
 other department to assume executive functions. 
 
 Line 17. Election of President. This clause has been 
 amended by the twelfth article of the amendments. 
 
 Page 65, line 14. Succession to the office of President. For- 
 merly the President pro tempore of the Senate succeeded to the 
 powers and duties of President of the United States upon the 
 death or disability of both the President and Vice-President. 
 By the Act of 1886 Congress assigned the succession to mem- 
 bers of the cabinet in the order of the creation of the execu- 
 
NOTES 189 
 
 tive departments over which they preside, viz., Secretary of 
 State, Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, Secretary 
 of War, etc. 
 
 Line 18. Increased. The spelling of this word in the original 
 manuscript was encreased. 
 
 Page 66, line 16. Treaty-making power of the Senate. The 
 
 power of the Senate in treaty-making is not limited to the 
 acceptance or rejection of treaties submitted by the President. 
 It can make suggestions and advise the President during the 
 progress of negotiations as well as freely amend a proposed 
 treaty after its submission to the Senate by the executive. 
 
 Page 68, line 7. Tenure of office for judges. Tenure during 
 good behavior is virtually tenure for life. A federal judge can 
 be dismissed only by the process of impeachment. 
 
 Page 69, line 7. Jurisdiction of federal courts assigned by 
 Congress. All federal courts, except the Supreme Court, are 
 created by Congress and can be abolished by the same authority. 
 Congress also assigns to each court the kind of judicial work it 
 shall do, except that original jurisdiction, in the cases mentioned 
 in this paragraph, is given to the Supreme Court by the Consti- 
 tution, and cannot be taken from it by Congress. 
 
 Page 70, line 18. The fugitive slave clause. Abrogated by 
 the Thirteenth Amendment. 
 
 Page 71, line 17. Republican form of government. A re- 
 publican form of government is a government by representa- 
 tives chosen by the people. 
 
190 NOTES 
 
 Page 72, line 12. Amendment prior to 1808. A temporary- 
 provision which by its own terms lapsed after 1807. 
 
 Line 16. The State indestructible. As it is not conceivable 
 that any State would ever consent to its own exclusion from the 
 Senate, this clause is virtually the one non-amendable feature of 
 the Constitution. It guarantees the permanence of the federal 
 form of government. Without this provision securing the 
 integrity and equality of the several States the Constitution 
 could never have been adopted. This provision makes the 
 United States "An indestructible Union of indestructible 
 States." 
 
 Page 76, line 1. Title to the first ten amendments. In the 
 joint resolution of Congress, submitting the first ten amend- 
 ments to the people, the following explanatory heading is 
 found ; it is not a part of the Constitution, although generally 
 printed with it: "Articles in addition to and amendment of 
 the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by 
 Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, 
 pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution." 
 
 Line 2. Amendments not numbered. In the original manu- 
 scripts the first twelve amendments were not numbered. 
 
 Line 3. A federal bill of rights. The first ten amendments 
 constitute a federal bill of rights. It is important to remem- 
 ber that they impose restrictions on the federal government 
 alone and not on the States. Their purpose was to secure 
 the individual against any infringement of his rights by the fed- 
 eral government. For example : Congress cannot establish any 
 national church, but as far as the federal Constitution is con- 
 
 
NOTES 191 
 
 cerned a State may make a particular church the State church. 
 Several States retained established churches for many years after 
 the adoption of the Constitution. 
 
 Page 78, line 16. Date of first ten amendments. The amend- 
 ments were in force from November 3, 1791. 
 
 Line 21. Date of Eleventh Amendment. The Eleventh 
 Amendment was proclaimed January 8, 1798. 
 
 Page 79, line 4. Date of Twelfth Amendment. The Twelfth 
 Amendment was declared in force September 25, 1804. 
 
 Line 5. Necessity for the Twelfth Amendment. The 
 
 Twelfth Amendment was made necessary to avoid a recurrence 
 of the deadlock which occurred in the presidential election of 
 1800, when Jefferson and Burr each received the same number 
 of electoral votes, although Burr was in reality the candidate 
 for Vice-President. 
 
 Line 19. Defect of the Twelfth Amendment. The amend- 
 ment was defective in that it did not expressly state by whom 
 the electoral vote should be counted. This defect led to the 
 Hayes-Tilden contested election of 1876, which was only settled 
 by an extra-constitutional electoral commission. 
 
 Page 81, line 1. Date of and necessity for the Thirteenth 
 Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment was declared in force 
 December 18, 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation was a 
 war measure, and applied only to States and districts that were 
 in rebellion. The amendment was necessary to abolish slavery 
 in States and districts which were not in rebellion. 
 
192 NOTES 
 
 ««4- 
 
 Line 9. Date and purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment. 
 The Fourteenth Amendment was declared in force July 28, 
 1808. Its chief political purpose was to confer citizenship upon 
 the recently emancipated negroes, and to protect them against 
 unfair State legislation. 
 
 Page 82, line 22. Political disabilities. The "General 
 Amnesty Act" of May 22, 1872, removed these political disa- 
 bilities for all except those who had served in the Confeder- 
 acy after having held certain federal offices. 
 
 Page 83, line 12. Date and purpose of the Fifteenth Amend- 
 ment. The Fifteenth Amendment was declared in force March 
 30, 1870. Its purpose was to secure to the freedmen equal rights 
 with the whites in voting. 
 
 Page 87, line 15. Organization of government during Wash- 
 ington's Administration. The Constitution was a mere frame- 
 work of government. It was the great work of Washington's 
 administration to add flesh and blood to this skeleton and 
 make it a living organism. This was done by creating exec- 
 utive departments, by organizing a complete system of federal 
 courts, by providing revenue ample for the needs of government, 
 by chartering the United States Bank, by funding the national 
 debt, and by determining the mutual relations of the three 
 great departments on principles that secured both their effi- 
 ciency and independence. 
 
 Page 90, line 7. Danger of disunion. The emphasis laid 
 upon, and the space given in the Farewell Address to the neces- 
 sity for union in order to counteract the forces of sectionalism, 
 show that Washington clearly foresaw that the tendency to dis- 
 
NOTES 193 
 
 union would prove to be the greatest danger to the life of the 
 nation, Compare this portion of Washington's Address with 
 the famous peroration of Webster's " Reply to Hayne." 
 
 Line 25. Palladium. The Palladium was a statue of the 
 goddess Pallas, on the preservation of which depended the 
 safety of ancient Troy ; hence it has come to mean something 
 that affords complete protection and safety. 
 
 Page 92. line 3. Economic advantages of union. Wash- 
 ington's statesmanship was of the eminently practical kincf. He 
 fully appreciated the fact that the economic advantages of 
 union would, in the end, weigh more in the minds of the peo- 
 ple than, any sentimental or theoretical attachment to the idea 
 of union. 
 
 Page 95, line 13. Spanish Treaty of 1795. The Treaty of 
 1795 with Spain secured to our citizens the right of free navi- 
 gation of the Mississippi, the denial of which, in an earlier pro- 
 posed treaty with Spain, had led the inhabitants of the western 
 country to threaten separation from the original States and the 
 formation of an independent nation. 
 
 Line 20. The Jay Treaty. The Jay Treaty of 1795, among 
 other provisions, contained one of especial value to the West, 
 viz., the evacuation of the "Western Ports," which had been 
 retained by Great Britain, notwithstanding the Treaty of 1783. 
 
 Page 97, line 8. Political associations. Washington meant 
 such associations as the Democratic clubs which had been 
 formed, many of them by the French minister, Genet, in imita- 
 tion of the Jacobin Club of France. He had declared against 
 
194 NOTES 
 
 such organizations in his message to Congress of November 19, 
 1794, and he feared that they might prove as dangerous to law 
 and good government in this country as their prototypes had in 
 France. 
 
 Page 99, line 16. Party government. Washington had 
 hoped to rule as a man above parties, choosing the best men of 
 each party as his heads of departments, and availing himself of 
 the best skill and wisdom to be obtained. Even he was obliged 
 to reby more and more upon those who believed, in the main, 
 as he did, and his successors have all frankly accepted party 
 government as a necessity. Many of the evils which Washing- 
 ton warned against have, however, constantly manifested them- 
 selves in our party system. 
 
 Page 101, line 24. Threefold division of the powers of gov- 
 ernment. It was a fundamental principle of the statesman of 
 the revolutionary period that government should be divided into 
 three departments, and that despotism could only be avoided by 
 preventing any one department from absorbing the powers of 
 either or both of the other departments. 
 
 Page 104, line 22. Unpopular taxation. This reference to 
 " inconvenient and unpleasant " taxation was doubtless inspired 
 by the " Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794. 
 
 Page 105, line 12. Foreign policy based on justice. Compare 
 the recent statement of the present Secretary of State, Mr. Hay, 
 that the two permanent rules of American foreign policy are the 
 Golden Rule and the Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 Page 108, line 3. Fear of foreign influence. Washington had 
 good reason to fear foreign influence. America had not as yet 
 
 
NOTES 195 
 
 shaken off its colonial attitude of mind. Throughout his ad- 
 ministration nearly all men ranged themselves on one side or the 
 other, as either British or French partisans. 
 
 Page 112, line 11. Proclamation of neutrality. Washing- 
 ton's Neutrality Proclamation of April 22, 1793, was one of the 
 most important papers ever issued by a President of the United 
 States. The Treaty of 1778 with France had bound the United 
 States to defend the colonies of France when that country should 
 be engaged in a defensive war. On the outbreak of war be- 
 tween Great Britain and France, Washington decided that we 
 were not bound to engage in it as an ally of France, as he did 
 not believe the war to be, on the part of France, a defensive 
 one, and so issued the Proclamation of Neutrality, the main idea 
 of which, non-entanglement in European affairs, has been the 
 keynote of our foreign policy. 
 
 Page 117, line 10. Territorial limits of Missouri. The terri- 
 tory of Missouri included all that portion of the Louisiana Pur- 
 chase which lay to the north of the northern boundary of 
 Arkansas. Slavery was, in the year 1819, legal throughout 
 this whole area. 
 
 Line 10. Boundaries of State of Missouri. The boundaries 
 designated are those of the present State of Missouri. 
 
 Line 15. Admission of a State with conditions. The right 
 of Congress to admit Missoitri with powers less than those pos- 
 sessed by the older States was the chief constitutional point at 
 issue in the struggle over the Compromise. The South held and 
 successfully maintained the position that this is a union of equal 
 
196 NOTES 
 
 States, and that Congress cannot admit a State into the Union 
 with powers different from those prescribed by the Constitution. 
 If Congress could so admit, the Union would be a union of un- 
 equal States andhence not the Union created by the Constitution. 
 The Constitution left to each State the power to permit or to 
 forbid slavery ; hence if Missouri, after her admission to the 
 Union, could not exercise this power, she would be inferior to 
 the older States. 
 
 Page 118, line 16. The Missouri convention. The conven- 
 tion which was elected under the sanction of this act met in 
 June, 1820, and itself framed a State constitution for Missouri. 
 
 Page 119, line 9. Republican in form. Por definition of 
 Republican, see note, page 71, line 17. 
 
 Line 12. Federal land policy. It was the settled policy of 
 the United States to retain the ownership of the soil and to con- 
 trol its sale and settlement even when surrendering political 
 control to the newly created States. Similar provisions are 
 found in all acts for the admission of new States. 
 
 Page 120, line 6. Power to prohibit slavery. The power of 
 Congress to prohibit slavery in the territories was not at the 
 time questioned, although it was later, in the Dred Scott deci- 
 sion, declared unconstitutional. 
 
 Page 121, line 2. Immigration of negroes into Missouri. 
 The Constitution framed by the Missouri convention contained 
 a provision directing the legislature of the State to pass laws 
 prohibiting the immigration of mulattoes and free negroes and 
 their settlement within the State. When the Missouri constitu- 
 
 : 
 
NOTES 197 
 
 tion was presented to Congress, this provision at once aroused 
 the anti-slavery men, and the struggle over slavery broke out 
 again with increased fury. The clause in question was claimed 
 to be unconstitutional, and the second Missouri Compromise, 
 largely the work of Henry Clay, was with great difficulty finally 
 agreed upon. 
 
 Page 121, line 8. Citizens entitled to privileges and immu- 
 nities in the several States. See Constitution, Art. X, Sec. 2, 
 §1. 
 
 Page 125, line 18. Jurisdiction on the Alaskan coast. The 
 Czar of Russia in 1821 issued a decree claiming the territory on 
 the northwestern coast of North America as far south as 51° 
 north latitude and exclusive jurisdiction over the seas for one 
 hundred miles from the coast. The United States and Great 
 Britain at once protested, and, as related in the text, treaties 
 for the settlement of the controversy were under negotiation. 
 Final settlement of the dispute was made in a treaty with Rus- 
 sia in 1821, and by one between Russia and Great Britain the 
 following year. 
 
 Page 126, line 13. Acquisition of territory by colonization 
 forbidden. The plain implication was that any attempt by a 
 FAiropean power to acquire title to American territory under 
 the plea of colonization would be opposed by the United States. 
 Monroe simply stated that, as a matter of fact, every foot of soil 
 on the American continents was already under the sovereignty 
 of recognized powers, and hence the earlier method of acquiring 
 sovereignty over uninhabited territory by colonization was no 
 longer possible. 
 
198 NOTES 
 
 Page 127, line 12. Political system of allied powers. The 
 political system of the allied powers was, with the exception of 
 France, that of absolute monarchy, while the American system 
 was republican. 
 
 Line 24. Allied powers prevented from assisting Spain. 
 The immediate purpose of this portion of the message was to 
 prevent the allied powers from assisting Spain in regaining her 
 sovereignty over the former Spanish colonies. This purpose the 
 message accomplished. Any projects that may have been formed 
 for the subjugation of Spanish-America were effectually stopped. 
 
 Page 128, line 5. Independence recognized. The indepen- 
 dence of the Spanish-American states was recognized by the 
 United States on May 4, 1822. 
 
 Line 7. Permanent provision of Monroe Doctrine. The 
 alliance of the European powers in the interests of despotism 
 was, as it proved, a temporary one. President Monroe thought 
 it advisable to proclaim a general rule that could apply to future 
 as well as to present conditions, and to warn all European pow- 
 ers that the United States would resent any attempt to oppress or 
 to acquire sovereignty over the independent states of America. 
 
 Line 23. French occupation of Spain. French armies, act- 
 ing for the allied powers, restored the despicable despot, Ferdi- 
 nand VII, to the throne from which the people of Spain had 
 driven him. 
 
 Page 129, line 4. Foreign policy toward Europe. See note, 
 page 112, line 11, on Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality. 
 
 
 
NOTES 199 
 
 Page 129, line 9. De facto government. A de facto govern- 
 ment is the one which is actually in power, whether its legal 
 claim to power is just or not. 
 
 Page 133, line 20. Texas and the Mexican cessions. A map 
 is necessary to follow intelligently the boundary lines described 
 in the text. 
 
 Page 134, line 7. The Rio Bravo del Norte. Commonly known 
 as the Rio Grande. 
 
 Line 11. Claims ceded by Texas. Claims to portions of 
 what are now Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico 
 were relinquished by Texas. This was a concession to the 
 anti-slavery men. As Texas was a slave State, it was for the 
 interests of the opponents of slavery to detach as much territory 
 from her as possible, especially as a considerable portion of the 
 land was north of 36° 30' north latitude. It was believed that 
 the Missouri Compromise might be extended to cover such 
 territory. 
 
 Page 135, line 4. Limits of New Mexico. The Territory of 
 New Mexico, as here constituted, comprised the present Terri- 
 tories of New Mexico and Arizona, exclusive of the Gadsden 
 Purchase, together with small portions of Colorado and Nevada. 
 
 Page 136, line 8. Slavery optional in New Mexico. Douglas, 
 four years later, claimed that this agreement allowing the people 
 of New Mexico, on acquiring statehood, to adopt or reject negro 
 slavery, overthrew the Missouri Compromise and established the 
 principle of popular (squatter) sovereignty. It is certain, how- 
 ever, that there was no understanding in 1850 that the Missouri 
 
200 NOTES 
 
 Compromise, which was generally taken to refer only to the 
 Louisiana Purchase, was being overthrown. 
 
 Line 23. California forbids slavery. The constitution sub- 
 mitted to Congress by the California convention had a clause 
 forbidding slavery. 
 
 Page 137, line 9. Limits of Utah. The Territory of Utah, here 
 constituted, comprised the present State of Utah, nearly all of 
 Nevada, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming. 
 
 Page 138, line 5. Fugitive Slave Law. This act is commonly 
 known as the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
 Page 139, line 4. Federal commissioners. The Supreme 
 Court of the United States had decided that Congress could not 
 impose upon State judges or officials the duty of assisting in the 
 enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, thus making it neces- 
 sary, if the law was not to be a dead letter, to provide for its 
 execution by federal officials. 
 
 Line 17. Marshal. A marshal is the executive officer of a 
 federal court. He corresponds to the sheriff in the State. 
 
 Page 140, line 5. Responsibility for safe-keeping of fugitive 
 slave. This clause was designed to make sure of the security of 
 the fugitive, even in the hands of an anti-slavery marshal or in 
 an abolition district. 
 
 Line 14. Fugitive slave clause. See Constitution, Art. IV, 
 Sec. 2, § 3. 
 
 Line 24. Posse comitatus. A posse comitatus is literally the 
 power of the county, or the good citizens of the community 
 
NOTES 201 
 
 who have been called upon by a law officer to assist in overcom- 
 ing resistance to his legal authority. 
 
 Page 143, line 15. Denial of habeas corpus. This clause 
 denied to the negro, claimed to be an escaped slave, the privi- 
 lege of the writ of habeas corpus. It was believed by the anti- 
 slavery men to have been a direct violation of Art. I, Sec. 9, 
 § 2, of the Constitution. 
 
 Page 146, line 25. Denial of jury trial. The fugitive claimed 
 as a slave was thus delivered to the claimant upon his oath 
 that the negro was the one certified to in the record. Trial 
 by jury was not allowed him. See Constitution, Art. VI, of 
 amendments. 
 
 Page 148, line 1. Slave trade abolished in the District of 
 Columbia. The traffic in human beings in the national capital 
 was particularly hateful to the anti-slavery advocate. It seemed 
 to him a national disgrace. The compromise, in all probability, 
 could not have passed had it not provided for the abolition of 
 the slave auction block in Washington. 
 
 Page 153, line 9. Fugitive Slave Law. See "The Fugitive 
 Slave Law " in the Compromise of 1850. 
 
 Line 19. Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise 
 declared slavery abolished in the Louisiana Purchase north of 
 36° 30' north latitude, except in the State of Missouri. 
 
 Page 154, line 1. The repeal of the Compromise. See note, 
 page 136, line 8, on the Compromise of 1850. 
 
202 NOTES 
 
 ■ase 
 
 Line 4. Popular sovereignty. Douglas invented the phrase 
 popular sovereignty ; the opponents of the principle called it 
 squatter sovereignty in derision. 
 
 Line 9. Slavery legal in Louisiana Purchase. Before the 
 passage of the Missouri Compromise slavery was by French 
 law, which had been affirmed by Congress, legal through the 
 whole region. 
 
 Page 157, line 4. Act of Congress. The Missouri Compro- 
 mise of 1820. 
 
 Line 12. Unconstitutional act of Congress is void. It is a 
 
 fundamental principle of interpretation of the Constitution that 
 Congress can exercise only the powers vested in it by the Con- 
 stitution. If it exceeds this expressly conferred authority, its 
 acts are not law. They are null and void, and it is the duty of 
 the Supreme Court to so declare them when a case involving 
 such acts comes before it. 
 
 Line 20. Congressional control of territories. See Consti- 
 tution, Art. IV, Sec. 3, § 2. 
 
 Page 161, line 1. Reserved powers. See Art. X of the 
 amendments. 
 
 Line 21. Slavery recognized by the Constitution. See Art. 
 I, Sec. 2, §3. The use of the word "slave" is avoided, but 
 the existence of slavery is recognized in the apportionment of 
 representatives. 
 
 Line 22. Importation of slaves. See Constitution, Art. I, 
 Sec. 9, § 1. 
 
NOTES 203 
 
 Page 162, line 2. Fugitive Slave Law. See Constitution, 
 Art. IV, Sec. 2, § 3. 
 
 Line 7. Slavery a local institution. Justice McLean, in his 
 dissenting opinion, asserted that the slave was property only by 
 virtue of local law, and hence that there was no deprivation of 
 property if a slave owner chose to take a slave to a place where 
 by the local law slavery was not legal. 
 
 Page 166, line 10. Power as commander-in-chief. The rules 
 of war gave to President Lincoln, as commander-in chief, in 
 time of war, the power to confiscate the property of the enemy 
 under the plea of military necessity. Slaves were enemy's 
 property and hence, like other property, might be confiscated. 
 
 Line 22. Sections of the South excepted in the Proclama- 
 tion. The portions of the States of Louisiana and Virginia, 
 excepted in the Proclamation, had submitted to the federal gov- 
 ernment, and the forty-eight counties of Western Virginia were 
 soon to be formed into the new loyal State of West Virginia. 
 
 Page 167, line 12. Slaves in designated States. Lincoln had 
 no power to declare negroes in the loyal border States free, and 
 they remained slaves notwithstanding the Proclamation of 
 Emancipation, until finally emancipated by the act of their 
 own State or by the Thirteenth Amendment. 
 
 Line 22. The Negro in the Union Armies. Negroes taking 
 refuge in Union lines were by the authority of the Confis- 
 cation Act of 1862 to be used as laborers on military works. 
 Secretary Welles, in April, 1862, authorized the enlistment of 
 escaped slaves in the navy. In August, 1862, permission was 
 
204 NOTES 
 
 yat 
 
 given to arm five thousand negro volunteers for garrison duty 
 Port Royal. In January, 1863, Massachusetts was permitted to 
 organize a colored regiment, and shortly after a second black 
 regiment was sent to the front from Massachusetts. No other 
 States enlisted negro regiments ; nevertheless the national gov- 
 ernment made increasing use of the negro as a soldier, enlisting 
 in all, after the Proclamation of Emancipation, 186,017 blacks 
 in the armies of the United States. 
 
 Page 170, line 5. All men created equal. See the Declara- 
 ation of Independence, page 3, line 2. This great proposition 
 did not become legally a fact in the United States until slavery 
 had been abolished as a result of the Civil War. 
 
 Line 7. Preservation of the Union. It should not be lost 
 sight of that the main issue of the war was not the aboli- 
 tion of slavery, but the preservation of the United States as a 
 nation. 
 
INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 Act of Congress, 202 ; void, 202. 
 
 Admiralty courts, 179. 
 
 Alaska, jurisdiction in, 197. 
 
 All men created equal, 204. 
 
 Allied powers and Spain, 198. 
 
 Amendments, date of 1st ten, 
 191; date of 11th, 191; date of 
 12th, 191; date and necessity 
 for the 13th, 191; date and 
 purpose of the 14th, 192 ; date 
 and purpose of the loth, 192; 
 defect of the 12th, 191; neces- 
 sity for the 12th, 191; not 
 numbered, 190; prior to 1808, 
 190; title of 1st ten, 190; to 
 Articles of Confederation, 181. 
 
 Assent to legislation, 175. 
 
 Eill of Attainder, 187. 
 Bill of Rights, 183, 190. 
 British people warned, 176. 
 
 Canada, provision for admission, 
 
 181. 
 Capitation tax, 188. 
 Charters revoked, 176. 
 Choose, spelling changed, 186. 
 
 Citizen, entitled to privileges, 
 etc., 197; privileges and im- 
 munities, 177. 
 
 Civil officers, 180. 
 
 Commander-in-chief, 203. 
 
 Commissioners, federal, 200. 
 
 Committee of the States, 181. 
 
 Common law jurisdiction, 182. 
 
 Confederacy, 177. 
 
 Congress, control of territories, 
 202; general powers, 179; na- 
 ture, 177; president of, 181; 
 sessions, 186 ; special grants to, 
 180. 
 
 Congressmen and office holding, 
 178. 
 
 Congressmen, privileges of, 178. 
 
 Constitution, preamble, 185 ; 
 title, 185. 
 
 Control, spelling changed, 188. 
 
 Courts, jurisdiction assigned by 
 Congress, 189. 
 
 De facto government, 199. 
 Departments of government 
 under the Constitution, 185. 
 Disunion, danger of, 192. 
 
 205 
 
206 
 
 INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 Education, public, 183. 
 Elections, time, 186. 
 Executive power, 188. 
 Ex post facto laws, 188. 
 Extradition, 177. 
 
 Foreign influence, fear of, 194; 
 guarded against, 178. 
 
 Foreign policy, basis, 194 ; toward 
 Europe, 198. 
 
 Fugitive slave clause, in the Con- 
 stitution, 189, 200; in the Ordi- 
 nance of 1787, 184. 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law, 200, 201, 203. 
 
 Fugitive slaves, responsibility 
 for, 200. 
 
 General welfare clause, 187. 
 
 Government, local, 182; organi- 
 zation under Washington, 192; 
 party, 194; three departments 
 of, 182, 194. 
 
 Habeas corpus, 
 of, 201. 
 
 183, 187; denial 
 
 Inalienable rights, 173. 
 Increased, spelling changed, 189 
 Impeachment, 186. 
 Independence, declared, 177 ; of 
 
 Spanish America recognized, 
 
 198. 
 Implied powers, 187. 
 
 Judges, dependent on crown, 
 
 174; tenure of office, 189. 
 Jury trial denied, 175, 201. 
 
 iw 
 
 Land claims, private, 180 
 Land policy, federal, 196. 
 Legal acts of States mutually 
 
 recognized, 177. 
 Legislation by the people, 174. 
 Legislative council, 183. 
 Legislatures dissolved, 176. 
 
 Marque and reprisal, 179. 
 
 Marshal, 200. 
 
 Mercenaries, foreign, 176. 
 
 Military trials, 175. 
 
 Missouri, boundaries of State, 
 195 ; of Territory, 195 ; conven- 
 tion, 196. 
 
 Missouri Compromise, 201. 
 
 Money bills, initiation, 186. 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, permanent pro- 
 vision, 198. 
 
 Negroes, immigration into Mis- 
 souri, 196 ; in the Union armies, 
 203. 
 
 Neutrality Proclamation, 195. 
 
 New Mexico, boundaries, 199. 
 
 New offices erected, 174. 
 
 Northwest Territory , States 
 formed from, 184; States to be 
 formed from, 184. 
 
 Obligation of contracts, 183. 
 
 Palladium, 193. 
 Parliamentary control, 175. 
 Petitions for redress, 176. 
 Political associations, 193. 
 Political disabilities, 192. 
 
INDEX TO NOTES 
 
 207 
 
 Political system of allied powers, 
 198. 
 
 Popular sovereignty, 202. 
 
 Posse comiiatus, 200. 
 
 President, election, 188; succes- 
 sion, 188. 
 
 Proclamation of Emancipation, 
 districts excepted, 203. 
 
 Property, law of inheritance, 181 ; 
 qualification, 182. 
 
 Quartering of soldiers, 174. 
 Quebec Act, 176. 
 
 Repeal of Compromise, 201. 
 Representation, apportionment, 
 
 186 ; basis of, in Congress, 186. 
 Representative Houses dissolved, 
 
 174. 
 Republican form of government, 
 
 189, 196. 
 Reservation for king's pleasure, 
 
 173. 
 Reserved powers, 202. 
 Right of revolution, 173. 
 Rio Bravo del Norte, 199. 
 
 Senate, treaty making power of, 
 189. 
 
 Slavery, a local institution, 203; 
 forbidden in California, 200 ; in 
 Louisiana Purchase, 202; op- 
 tional in New Mexico, 199; 
 power to prohibit, 196 ; prohib- 
 ited in Northwest Territory, 
 184; recognized by Constitu- 
 tion. 202. 
 
 Slaves, importation, 187, 202; in 
 designated States, 203. 
 
 Slave trade in District of Colum- 
 bia, 201. 
 
 Spain occupied by French, 198. 
 
 State, admission with conditions, 
 195; indestructibility of, 190; 
 troops, 179; officers of State 
 troops, 179. 
 
 States, adoption of Articles of 
 Confederation by, 177; alli- 
 ances between, 178; disputes 
 between, 180 ; majority of nine, 
 181. 
 
 Taxation, no power of, under 
 Confederation, 179; unpopular, 
 194; without consent, 175. 
 
 Territorial colonization, 197. 
 
 Texan and Mexican cessions, 199. 
 
 Texas claims ceded, 199. 
 
 Titles of nobility, 178. 
 
 Trade restriction, 175. 
 
 Treaty, Jay, 193 ; Spanish Treaty 
 of 1795, 193. 
 
 Treaty making power of States, 
 178. 
 
 Trial in England, 175. 
 
 Union, economic advantages, 
 
 193; preservation, 204. 
 Utah, boundaries, 200. 
 
 Veto, 173. 
 
 Voting, qualifications, 185; State 
 control, 185. 
 
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 112 « 
 

 
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