no 



STATES' Rid I ITS. 



depending for the effectiveness of its action u|><m 

 ratification by a numerous body of indc|>cndent 

 States from whom its authority was derived, renders 

 necessary a statement of the successive sU-jw of this 

 great controversy. 



The war with Great Britain to maintain the decla- 

 ration of indeiH'udence mode by the colonies exhib- 

 ited the necessity of concerted action on their ]>art 

 and led to their confederation and representation 

 in the Continental Congress. In this body each 

 State, through its delegates, hod an equal voice with 

 each other in the adoption of public measures ; but 

 such measures lacked effectiveness through the 

 frequent failure* of the States to comply with the 

 demands made upon them, and the inability of Con- 

 grew to coerce compliance therewith. A profound 

 conviction of the necessity of enlarging the powers 

 of Congress arose throughout all parts of the coun- 

 try, that continued to gain strength after the con- 

 clusion of the war, and finally led to the calling of 

 the convention of 1787, in which the present Con- 

 stitution, apart from the amendments subsequently 

 made, was passed for submission to the people of 

 the United States. 



The earliest plan submitted to the convention was 

 that of Mr. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia. This 

 plan proposed a national government, both in name 

 and in substance. The essential feature was that 

 it was to be derived directly from the people and 

 was to act upon the people through laws judicially 

 expounded and enforced by the national govern- 

 ment. The powers of the government were re- 

 spectively described .as the national executive, the 

 national legislature, and the national judiciary. 

 The jurisdiction of the national government was to 

 be confined to certain subjects, but in the exercise 

 of its powers over those subjects it was to act as a 

 sovereign government, superior to the governments 

 of the States. The powers that were withheld from 

 the general government were to be retained by the 

 States, to be exercised by them as sovereign govern- 

 ing communities. According to this plan the polit- 

 ical governments of the United States and of the 

 respective States wore to act independently of each 

 other, but the national government, being supreme, 

 its laws, properly enacted, would operate directly 

 upon the people in such manner as to deny validity 

 to any law of a State that infringed upon the na- 

 tional powers. 



The Virginia plan was supported by the larger 

 States, of which Virginia, Mus-achusetts, and Penn- 

 sylvania were the largest, both as to territory and 

 population. The advantage of this pHn to the largo 

 States was that, as the system was li.r-rd upon popu- 

 lar majorities, they would liave the greatc-4 advan- 

 tage from it, as a consequence of their being the 

 most populous. 



The smaller States, especially New Jersey, Dela- 

 ware, and Maryland, WITH opposed to the Virginia 

 plan, as giving a preponderating influence to the 

 large States in the proposed government. They pre- 

 ferred the plan of the then existing confederacy, in 

 which each State hod on equal voice with eVery 

 other in public affairs. 



Mr. Patterson, of New Jersey, submitted a plan 

 that received the support of 'the smaller States. 

 This plan was b.ised on the federal idea, according 

 to which a federal government was to lie institut.il 

 undr the authority of the governments of the re- 

 spective States, in which each State should have an 

 equal voice with every other. According to this 

 plan the. federal government could only carry out its 

 purposes through the aid of the Stale governments, 

 having no efficient means of its own for the purpose. 

 As the federal government could only act through 

 the States, it was necessary to its existence that it 

 should possess the mean* of coercing a State that 



should foil to discharge its proper duties, and such 

 a provision was contained in the plan. 



A third plan was ottered by Alexander Hamil- 

 ton, of New Yoik, which proposed a national gov- 

 empient of unlimited powers, but which w.. 

 brought into discussion bv the convention. South 

 Carolina, throughout the discussions of the conven- 

 tion, adhered to the views of the larger States, and 

 upheld the plan of a national government with lim- 

 ited jxjwers. 



Although a conflict of interests was recognized in 

 the course of the discussion as existing between tho 

 ! Northern and Southern States, arising from the di- 

 versification of their respective institutions and in- 

 dustries, especially in view of the assumed necessity 

 of pei|>etuating the institution of slavery in the last- 

 named States, yet that consideration led only to 

 modifications of details, and had no apparent i-tl'i ct 

 upon the fundamental principle of the proposed 

 government, the controlling influence in that respect 

 arising from the political interests connected wi:h 

 the unequal distribution of population among the 

 States. 



These differences between the larger and tho 

 smaller States were adjusted, principally, in tho 

 constitution of the national legislature. Tho llni-o 

 of Representatives was to be chosen directly by tin) 

 people of the States, who were to be represented in 

 the ratio of population, so that a majority of tho 

 House would represent a majority of tho people of 

 the United States, without regaid to State lines. 

 By this disposition tho people of tho United States 

 were unified as a whole for the purpose of making 

 laws that should operate upon themselves, collec- 

 tively and individually. Such governmental author- 

 ity, so derived, where responsible to no higher au- 

 thority, was necessarily sovereign, and where tho 

 objects for which it is created aro national, as involv- 

 l ing interests common to an entire independent com- 

 munity, such sovereignty is necessarily of the sov- 

 'u type. 



The smaller States, while yielding thus far to this 

 national scheme, insisted that the Slates in their 

 political capacities should have a negative upon tho 

 popular action of the House of Represcntatr 

 giving to each State, independent of tho extent of 

 territory or population, an equal voice in the Senate, 

 or what was then called the second branch of tho 

 national legislature. The larger States at length 

 yielded to this demand, and it was concluded that 

 each State should be represented by two senators, 

 chosen by the legislatures of the respective States, 

 constituting a senate which should have a in 

 upon all action of tho popular branch, as well as 

 upon certain functions of the executive that con- 

 cerned treaties and appointments to office. 



\Vhat was intended by the arrangement of tho 

 national legislature was that in all matters the action 

 of the government of the United States should con- 

 form, on the one hand, to the will of the majority of 

 pie of the United States as a whole, and, on 

 the other hand, to the desires of a majority of tho 

 States as separate political bodies. Both of the 

 schemes of government thus embodied in the Con- 

 stitution contemplated u controlling influence of tho 

 general government over the States in all matters of 

 national concern, the one that embodied the federal 



idea propounding direct < rcion f-r that pin-pose, 



while the national plan secured the same end with- 

 applied to the political government of 

 tin' Slates by having direct authority over the people 

 of the States by which they might be compelled to 

 conform to the laws of the United States, nnd bo 

 prevented from conforming to the laws of the States 

 that were infractions of the national right. 



In the final framing of the Constitution the terms 

 " national " and " federal " were both dropped without 



