120 Stoux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
The history of the next few years, however, seemed 
to support the judgment of those who hoped for change. 
The first ten amendments were passed easily, and within 
a short time after the constitution went into effect. The 
eleventh came soon after. The twelfth was adopted after 
only a very few years. It seemed to those who regarded 
amendability as a good thing that the constitution was 
working most admirably in this respect. As a matter of 
fact, however, the adoption of the first twelve amend- 
ments could have been obtained about as well had the 
old rule of unanimous consent been in force. The first 
eleven were in the nature of a Bill of Rights,—a thing 
which many regarded as a prime necessity, and to which 
no one seriously objected. The twelfth was adopted to 
cure a flaw in the original scheme, and all admitted it to 
be necessary as soon as the defect appeared in the 
actual working of the government. The real test of 
amendability had not yet been made. That could come 
only when some question arose which could not be rele- 
gated to the states, and which stirred the passions of men 
by affecting their consciences and their material inter- 
ests. 
The slavery agitation brought this test. Here was 
a vested right in property, which grew upon the con- 
sciences of men as thought revealed its true character as 
a vested wrong against human rights. In such cases 
the wrong stands behind the law and resists to the death. 
Institutions become the forts and barricades behind 
which ancient evil finds refuge from the assaults of the 
spirit of liberty. So it was in the slavery agitation. The 
slave states stood upon their bond, demanding the human 
flesh which was theirs by its terms. If you refuse it, said 
they, fie upon your law! 
To the north the question was a nightmare which 
pressed down upon the public heart and would not let 
the public conscience rest. It became terrible in its 
poignancy. Moreover, it seemed an unsolvable question. 
Constitutionally regarded, it was none of the business of 
the north whether the south were slave or free. The law 
could not reach the question. But as a matter of fearful 
fact, the pain that racked the nation showed that the 
