constitution 
xiitHtioit of a sanitary system; a weak or irrita- 
ble cfinxtitiitioii. 
He defended himself with . . . less passion than was ex- 
pected from his constitution. Lord Clarendon. 
The Chaos, and the Creation ; Heaven, Earth, and Hell ; 
enter into the Corutttvtion of his Poem. 
Addiiou, Spectator, No. 315. 
What is that constitution or law of our nature without 
which government would not exist, and with which its 
existence is necessary? Calhmm, Works, I. 1. 
birth as will not easily 'admit disease, or will easily over- 
come it by its own native soundness. 
Maim, Early Law and Custom, p. 228. 
1216 
constitutive 
nine of the States. The amendments, according to one of 
tion or of constitutional government: constitu 
nine 01 me nuii/eH. JUG miicnuiiicnto, tn*nvi>B " .,..*. ... ' . 
themethodsprovided.wereproposedbyCongressandrati- tional rule or authority ; constitutional pnnci- 
lled by the States. The first twelve were submitted under 
acts passed in 1789 - 90, 1793, and 1803 ; the last three, after 
the civil war, under acts of 1865, 1868, and 1870. The most 
important of them are the twelfth, which changed the 
method of election of President and Vice-president ; the 
of 
Lonis Philippe became nearly absolute under the forms 
thirteenth, which abolished slavery ; the fourteenth, which 
disqualifies any one who has been engaged in rebellion 
' ll ^l?M 
rebellion ; and the fifteenth, which prohibits the denial to 
, , 
ions condition of servitude.- Constitutions of Claren. 
icaf 
By the Constitutions of Clarendon, lie [Henry II.] did 
his best to limit the powers of the ecclesiastical lawyers 
in criminal matters and in all points touching secular in- 
terests. Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 303. 
Decree of constitution, in Scots laic, any decree by 
which the extent of a debt or an obligation is ascertained : 
3 A svstem of fundamental principles, max- any one of the right to vote because of race, color, or pre 
ims, laws, or rules embodied in written docu- -- ...^H.-.H. _n m .t. (t ,,t.,nnnf m.r Bn . 
ments or established by prescriptive usage, for ^ ^ lc __,,. r _. _ 
the government of a nation, state, society, cor- c ounc n O f clarendon, near Salisbury, held by Henry II.. 
poration, or association: as, the Constitution of A. i>. 1164. 
the United States; the British Constitution; the - 
Constitution of the State of New York ; the con- 
stitution of a social club, etc. In American legal 
usage a constitution is the organic law of a State or of the 
nation, the adoption of which by the people constitutes the 
political organization, as distinguished from the statutes 
made by the political organization acting under the order 
of things thus constituted. 
Without a constitution something to counteract the 
strong tendency of government to disorder and abuse, and :rr"VV , .. .-/ i 
to give stability to political institutions there can be lit- constitutional (kon-stl-tu shon-al), a. ana w. 
tie progress or permanent improvement. 
Calhmm, Works, I. 11. 
A federal constitution is of the nature of a treaty. It is 
an agreement by which certain political communities, in 
themselves independent and sovereign, agree to surrender 
certain of the attributes of independence and sovereignty 
to a central authority, while others of these attributes 
they keep in their own hands. 
E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 190. 
4. A particular law, ordinance, or regulation, 
are requisite to found a title in the person of the creditor 
in the event of the death of either the debtor or the origi- 
nal creditor. 
W. R. Greg, Misc. Essays, 2d ser., p. 94. 
The house of Guelph had no more natural love for con- 
stitutionalism than any other reigning house. 
The Centunj, XXVII. 69. 
2. Adherence to the principles of constitu- 
tional government. 
constitutionalist (kon-sti-tu'shon-al-ist), n. 
[= F. constitulioiinaliste; as constitutional + 
-int.] 1. A supporter of the existing constitu- 
tion of government. 2. An advocate of con- 
stitutionalism, as opposed to other forms of 
government. 
The alliance between the Holy See and the Italian Con- 
stiliitinnaluti was inconsistent with the principles of ab- 
solutist rule to which Austria stood pledged. 
E. Dicey, Victor Emmanuel, p. 70. 
Specifically 3. (a) A framer or an advocate 
of the French Constitution of 1791. 
The revolutionists and constitutionalists of France. 
Burke, To a Noble Lord. 
ing to 
sou 01 _, ~ ~ 
constitution or composition: as, a constitutional 
infirmity; constitutional ardor or apathy. 
Contrast the trial of constitution which child-bearing 
brings on the civilized woman with the small constitu 
form of government. 
Meantime the Anti-Federalists of New York and Vir- 
ginia were pressing the Pennsylvania Constitutionalists 
to rally once more, in the hope of reversing the favorable 
action of that State. 
J. Scliouler, Hist. United States, I. 61. 
made by the authority of any superior, civil or tional disturbance it causes to the savage woman () j. , A assv , me d by the more mod- 
ecclesiastical ; specifically, in Rom, law, what U. Spencer Pnn. of Soc.ol., 8 28. W |J tioB of the r)emoc 4 tic . Kepublican 
an emperor enacted, either by decree, edict, 3. Beneficial to, or designed to benefit, the t in p eimgv i van i a during a few years after 
or letter, and without the interposition of any physical constitution : as, a constitutional -walk. ^304. opposed to the "Friends of the People" 
constitutional assembly : as, the constitutions of 3. Forming a part of, authorized by, or con- of u Conventionalists." 
sistent with the constitution or fundamental cons titutionality (kon-sti-tu-shon-al'i-ti), n. 
Justinian. 
Constitutions (constitutiones), properly speaking, are 
those Apostolic letters which ordain, in a permanent man- 
ner, something for the entire church or part of it. 
//. IS. Smith, Elem. Eccles. Law (5th ed.), I. 26. 
Of the canons and constitutions made in these [English 
ecclesiastical] assemblies, many have come down to our 
own times. These form a kind of national canon law. . . . 
They are principally taken up in such matters as peculiarly 
belonged to the . . . consideration of a national assembly 
of the clergy. 
Reeves, Hist. Eng. Law (Finlason, 1880), II. 340. 
5. Any system of fundamental principles of 
action: as, the New Testament is the moral 
constitution of modern society. Apostolic Con- 
stitutions. See anustolie. British Constitution, a col- 
lective name for the principles of public policy on which 
the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland is based. It is not formulated in any par- 
ticular document or set of documents, but is the gradual 
people, as embodied in concessions forced from unwilling 
sovereigns, in the results of various revolutions, in nu- 
merous fundamental enactments of Parliament, and in 
the established principles of the common law. The char- 
acter of the government has become increasingly demo- 
cratic, and the power of the sovereign, great in the 
time of the Tudors, Stuarts, and earlier, is now much 
abridged. The controlling force in the movement has been 
the gradually acquired supremacy of Parliament (now re- 
siding almost entirely hi the House of Commons) over 
the executive powers of government, so that the principal 
tion, and an act in contravention of that is void. 
To improve establishments ... by constitutional means. 
of a constitutional government. 
constitutionalize (kon-sti-tu'shon-al-Iz), 0. i. ; 
Bp. Hurd, Sermon before the House of Lords, pret. and pp. constitutionalized, ppr. constitu- 
4;>i<u7* ,>'.' If ttnmoiiiMim'nrtl -^ ^tyf> I I V 
Aa we cannot, without the risk of evils from which the 
imagination recoils, employ physical force as a check on 
misgovernment, it is evidently our wisdom to keep all the 
constitutional checks on misgovernment in the highest 
state of efficiency. Macaulay. 
lionalizing. [< constitutional, n., + -4ze.] To 
take a walk for health and exercise, in the Eng- 
lish universities, where this term originated, the usual time 
for constitutionalizing is between 2 and 4 o'clock P. M. 
The most usual mode of exercise is walking comtitu- 
tionalizing is the Cantab for it. 
C. A. Bristed, English University (2d ed.), p. 19. 
The lord's petty monarchy over the manor, whatever it 
may have been formerly, is now a strictly constitutional 
one. F. Pollock; Land Laws, p. 43. cons titutionally (kon-sti-tu ' shon-al-i), adv. 
1. In accordance with, by virtue of, or with 
respect to the natural frame or constitution of 
mind or body ; naturally. 
4. Having the power of, or existing by virtue 
of and subject to, a constitution or funda- 
mental organic law: as, a constitutional gov- 
ernment. 
It requires the united action of both [rulers and the 
ruled] to prevent the abuse of power and oppression, and 
to constitute, really and truly, a constitutional govern- 
ment. Calhoun, Works, I. 381. 
A constitutional sovereign, Dom Pedro II., rules in Bra- 
zil and the thriving state of the country is owing to its 
free institutions. Westminster Jlev., CXXV. 68. 
The English were constitutionalhj humane. Hallam. 
On the whole, the facts now given show that, though 
habit does something towards acclimatisation, yet that the 
l in t j \t nil M i; IKJWCJ a ui KUVCI iiiiicuii, BU uui me ui IHWIMU __ _ . . 3 . j, . . 
function of the sovereign is now that of simple conflrma- 5. Relating to, concerned with, or arising from 
tion. The chief muniments of the British Constitution, a constitution. 
as a growth of liberal representative government, are the 
Magna Charta and its successive extensions, the Habeas 
Corpus Act, and the Bill of Rights, the principles of which 
have been incorporated in all the written constitutions of 
the English-speaking race. (See these terms.) Consti- 
tution coin, a German coin struck according to the Leip- 
sic rate of coinage, 8 rix-dollars weighing a Cologne mark 
of silver, 14 loths 4 grains fine, and 13 florins weighing 
one mark, 12 loths flue. This rate, adopted by some states 
in 1690, was established throughout the empire from 1738 
to 1763. Constitution of the United States, or Fed- 
eral Constitution, the fundamental or organic law of 
the United States. It was framed by the Constitutional 
Convention which met in Philadelphia May 25th, 1787, and 
adjourned September 17th, 1787, and it went into effect 
March 4th, 1789 (although Washington, the first presi- 
dent under it, was not inaugurated till April 30th), hav- 
ing been ratified by eleven of the thirteen States, the 
others, North Carolina and Rhode Island, ratifying it No- 
vember 21st, 1789, and May 29th, 1790, respectively. It 
is a document comprised in seven original articles and 
fifteen amendatory articles, or amendments. Of the ori- 
ginal articles, the first deals with the legislative body, pre- 
scribing the method of election to the House of Represen- 
tatives and the Senate, the qualifications of members, the 
methods in which bills shall be passed, and those subjects 
on which Congress shall be qualified to act ; the second 
relates to the executive department, prescribing the 
method of election and the qualifications and duties of 
the President ; the third relates to the judicial department, 
providing for the supreme court and such inferior courts 
as Congress may think necessary ; the fourth deals with 
the relations between the general government and the 
separate States, and provides for the admission of new 
The ancient constitutional traditions of the state. 
Macaulay. 
The history of the three Lancastrian reigns has a double 
interest; it contains not only the foundation, consolida- 
tion, and destruction of a fabric of dynastic power, but, 
parallel with it, the trial and failure of a great constitu- 
tional experiment. Stubbs, Const. Hist., 300. 
Medieval London still waits for its constitutional histo- 
rian. Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 64. 
Constitutional convention, in the United States : () 
The body of delegates from the several States which framed 
the federal Constitution, sitting in Philadelphia from 1 ' 
25th to September 17th, 1787. (6) A body of deleg; 
meeting under authority of Congress to frame a constitu 
tion of government for a new State ; or such a body con- 
IlalllL UUC M 111 II 'I I I I II , BWWWUH WUUMVWVH| J V II VI 
appearance of constitutionally different individuals is a 
far more effective agent. 
Damrin, Var. of Animals and Plants, p. 305. 
2. With a view to the benefit of one's physical 
constitution. 
Every morning the regular water-drinkers, Mr. Pick- 
wick among the number, met each other in the pump- 
room, took their quarter of a pint, and walked constitu- 
timwilb/. Dickens, Pickwick, xxxvi. 
3. In accordance with the constitution or frame 
of government ; according to the political con- 
stitution. 
Even in France, the States-General alone could constitu- 
tionallii impose taxes. Macaulay, Hallam's Const. Hist. 
constitutionary (kou-sti-tu'shon-a-ri), a. [= 
F. consKtMtiuniiain; < LL. constitutionarius, 
May prop. adj. (as a noun, one who has to do with 
sates the copying of the imperial constitutions), < L. 
fit " constitutio(n-), constitution: see constitution.] 
Constitutional. 
vened by a State legislature, in the prescribed manner, ' I-'-L-/ i, t \ rf 
to revise the existing constitution of the State.-Consti- COnstltutlOniSt (kon-stl-tu shon-ist), . [< COII- 
atitntion + -int.'] One who adheres to or upholds 
the constitution of the country ; a constitution- 
tu tional monarchy. See monarchy. Constitutional 
Union party, in U. S. hist., a party-name assumed in 
the electoral contest of 1860 by the southern Whigs, who, 
unwilling to join either the Republican or the Democratic 
party, ignored the slavery question in their public declara- 
tions and professed no other political principles than at- 
,.. constitutive (kon'sti-tu-tiv), (i. [= F. _eonsH- 
alist. 
(inistiiiitiiiiii'sts and anti-constitutionists. 
Lord ISiilinnliruh', Parties, xix. 
nn rminrt fV>r rnuetitiitinunl u-nll- nr erer COnSllTOllve (*** 
. it', i oiiort lor coHtitiiuitoHtit itinh or cJivt - , , . /. , , - -TL 4~ +, -n^n / T no if */>*-!> 
<n T rt T TI n a ii. tut if Si>. PIT. It. constttutwo. \ J^. as it con- 
Benefit of ne^tl ^ 7 *' 53& %****, pp. : see constitute.^ I. 
enent 01 neaiin. rwatitntincr fnnninp'. or comriosins: constitu- 
wse, 
benefit 
Even the mild walks which are dignified with the name 
of exercise there, how unlike the Cantab's constitutional 
of eight miles in less than two hours. 
C. A. Bristol, English University (2d ed.), p. 45. 
Constituting, forming, or composing; constitu- 
ent; elemental; essential. 
An intelligent and cnnxtitntirr part <.f even virtue. 
Barrow. 
