The United States of America: a study in international organization

Front matter

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Preface

The United States of America constitute a union of States, " a more perfect Union," to use the language of the preamble to the Constitution, than that under the Articles of Confederation which the Constitution was devised to supplant. On July 4, 1776, the thirteen British colonies lying between the Gulf of Mexico and Canada, to the east of the Mississippi, abjured allegiance to the British Crown and solemnly published and declared themselves to be " Free and Independent States " possessing, as the Declaration of Independence stated, " 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." Availing themselves of their right to contract alliances, they entered into " a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves 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 pretence whatever." " Stiling " this confederation " The United States of America," and declaring in explicit terms that " 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," the Articles of Confederation creating this union of the States were approved by their delegates in Congress November 15, 1777, and ratified by the last of the thirteen States on March 1, 1781.

The firm league of friendship failing of the purposes for which it was created by the delegates of the States in Congress assembled and ratified by the States themselves, the Congress on February 21, 1787, resolved it to be expedient that " on the second Monday in May next, a Convention of Delegates, who shall have been appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures, such alterations and provisions therein, as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the federal Constittition adequate to the exigencies of Government, and the preservation of the Union." In pursuance of this resolution the delegates of twelve of the States met in convention in the month of May and adjourned on September 17, 1787, having drafted a constitution for a more perfect Union of the United States which, ratified by the thirteen original States in the course of the ensuing three years, today controls the conduct of forty-eight States and which in practice as well as in theory has proved adequate to the " exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union."

In the belief that the experience of the American States proclaimed to be free and independent in their Declaration of Independence, each retaining " its sovereignty, freedom and independence " under the Articles of Confederation, would be of value in any attempt to strengthen that larger union of States which we call the Society of Nations, the undersigned has ventured to treat within the compass of a volume some of the international problems met and solved by the framers of a more perfect Union under the caption of " The United States of America: A Study in International Organization."

James Brown Scott.

Washington, D. C, November ii, ipi8.

PosTSCRiPTUM, May ii, 1920. — Absence from the country and difficulties in printing have delayed the appearance of the present volume. The text, however, speaks from Armistice Day, 19 18.

Two additions of a later date have been made in the extracts prefixed to chapters: the first is the text of the settlement of the controversy between Virginia and West Virginia (Chapter XIII) ; the second is Mr. Root's definition of a justiciable question (Chapter XX). The text of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as printed in the Appendix has also been added.

I have left untouched the dedication to my beloved friend, Robert Bacon, whose noble Hfe ended on May 29, 1919.— J. B. S.

CHAPTER I Rise of the Idea of Union PAGE

The Mayflower Compact 3

Early plans of union 6

New England Confederation 6

William Penn's " Scheam " 9

Benjamin Franklin's plan 11

The two views — imperial and colonial 15

Foresight IS

Dr. Franklin's second plan 16

CHAPTER II The fundamental right 22

Colonial view 22

Imperial view 22

A Continental Congress 23

Declaration and resolves 24

An association 26

Another declaration and a petition 27

The notion of independence 29

The final step 29

The Declaration signed and proclaimed 30

Its political philosophy 31

Monroe's conception of the results 33

A new body politic 34

Our first and only ally 34

Origin of the doctrines 35

Chapter III

Mr. Dickinson's plan 40

A United States Congress 40

Large and small States 41

The two forms of the Articles 41

Nature of the Union 42

Powers renounced 42

Powers of Congress 43

Peace and war 43

Congress with appellate jurisdiction 44

Suggestion of a judiciary 45

Defects 45 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Excellences - 46

International significance 47

James Madison's summary of the weakness 47

Personal interests 52

Sovereignty 52

Mr. Madison's view of public ofi&cers 53

Dissatisfaction 53

Four proposals that failed 53

Economic troubles . 54

Coercion of States 55

Private initiative 55

Convention at Annapolis 56

Another convention proposed 56

Congressional approval 57

Union of sovereign States 58

CHAPTER IV Early Backgrounds of the American Constitution: The Trading Companies

Colonial charters 64

Genesis of authority of Supreme Court in questions of constitutionality 65

Two kinds of charters 66

Corporations 66

By-laws 67

Development of trading companies 68

Spread to America 70

A second charter 71

A third charter 72

Court and assembly 72

Great and general courts 73

A representative assembly 74

A forecast of American liberty 74

Ratification required 75

Two houses 76

Distinction between North and South 11

The Plymouth Company 78

Growth of representative institutions 82

Virginia and Massachusetts Colonies compared 83

New instruments of government reverted to charters 84

CHAPTER V "Once an Englishman always an Englishman" 90

Relation of English law to Colonies 90

Rights of conquest v. rights of discovery 91

Blackstone's interpretation 91

Rights of discovery the true basis 92

Blankard v. Galdy 92

Common law of England followed colonists 93

Colonial statutes 97

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Conflict of interests : 99

Prerogatives of the Crown 99

Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations 99

Committee for Hearing Appeals 100

Three kinds of appeals from Colonial courts 100

Precedent for the power of the Supreme Court over Legislatures 101

Suit of a citizen v. a State 102

Holden and Green petition 102

Further judicial precedents 108

Boundary dispute between New York and New Jersey 109

From negotiation to judicial procedure 109

Debt to litigious Rhode Island 118

Justice to the small State 118

Legal controversies over Colonial laws 119

Another precedent for granting power of Supreme Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional 121

Penn v. Lord Baltimore 123

A political dispute may become justiciable 125

CHAPTER VI Impending revolution 129

Desire to prevent anarchy 129

Recommendation of Congress 130

American political background in 1787 131

Influence of charters 131

The three branches of government 132

Sovereignty vested in the people 133

A social and a political compact 134

Compact a fundamental law 135

Revenue bills 136

Governor's signature 136

Legislative powers 137

Executive powers 138

Judicial powers 138

Source of law 139

CHAPTER VII The Federal Convention : An In'teknational Conference

Demands of commerce and navigation 145

Large and small States 148

Organization of the Federal Convention 148

An international conference 149

Instructions to delegates 150

Committee on rules and orders 153

International aspects of the Convention 155

Opening of the Convention 156

Mr. Randolph's fifteen resolutions 158

The four groups 159

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Change of purpose 160

A union of free States 161

The word " national " 162

Other "plans" 163

National v. federal government 164

Coercion of States 165

Enumeration of general powers 165

International law in the Constitution 167

Government of laws and not of men 168

Seat of government 168

Government of limited powers 168

CHAPTER VIII The spirit of compromise 172

The two branches of the legislature 172

Questions of representation 173

Large and small States . . . 174

Equality of States 175

The New Jersey plan 177

The Connecticut proposal ... 179

Diversity of views 181

Victory of the smaller States 185

The first great compromise 187

The second compromise 187

Grant of legislative power 190

CHAPTER IX A single executive 195

Term of office 195

Electoral system 196

President's oath of office 197

His great powers 197

Treaties 197

A check upon the legislature 200

Executive and judicial vetoes 202

Laws operate on individuals 202

The use of force against a State 203

CHAPTER X Voluntary self-denials, including disarmament 210

Diplomatic and military settlements 210

Another kind of settlement 211

Courts of the Confederated States 211

International questions 212

International imphcations of the Confederate judiciary 212

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Lessons of the State courts 213

Trial of piracies and felonies 214

The first federal tribunal 215

First case of appeal 218

Congressional Committee on Appeals 218

The case of The Active 220

Congressional resolutions — the relation of States 221

CHAPTER XI Nature of the commissions 229

Influence of Privy Council 230

Pennsylvania v. Connecticut 231

Two other cases 234

Significance of the temporary tribunals 238

Other appeals to Congress 238

Dispute involving the existence of a State 238

Pennsylvania v. Virginia 241

Congress refuses to appoint a court 242

CHAPTER XII Creation of the Supreme Court Necessity for a common judiciary 247

Problem of sovereignty 248

Differences of opinion 249

The two plans 249

The Virginian plan 250

The New Jersey plan 256

Question of appointment of judges 257

Committee of Detail 260

Draft proposals 261

CHAPTER XIII Questions arising under treaties 268

How political questions become judicial 270

Arbitration considered 270

Original and appellate jurisdiction 272

Impeachment 272

Powers of the Court 274

The supreme law of the land 276

The question of sanction 279

Coercion of law v. coercion of force 279

CHAPTER XIV The Admission of New States The Northwest Ordinance 286

Compact between people of States and Northwestern Territory 288

Attitude of large States 291

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Virginia relinquishes claim 293

New States on equality with old 294

Government of the territories 295

CHAPTER XV Amendments and Ratification

Provisions for amendment 299

Representation of small States not subject to amendment 300

Methods of amendment 300

A system of double constitutions 302

The power to amend 304

Ratification 305

Discussion of the mode of ratification 305

Sovereign people 308

The spirit of the ratifications 309

Difficulties of ratification 312

Contest in New York 314

The Federalist 315

CHAPTER XVI Per interim 321

The new Government begun 322

Amendments moved 323

Demand for a Bill of Rights 324

Relation of States to the Union 325

Amendments before the Senate 326

Powers not delegated are reserved to the States 328

Value of the amendments 330

State con%-entions 331

The first ten amendments 331

Difficulties overcome 332

The sovereignty of the States . 333

The division of sovereign powers 334

CHAPTER XVII The influence of Montesquieu 341

Limitation of powers 342

Congress defines extent but not nature of the Court's power 342

Judicial power defined by Court itself 343

Influence of English common law 343

English cases on the judicial power 344

An American case 349

Court can pass on constitutionality of a legislative act 349

Extra-judicial duties 350

Powers of Court strictly judicial 353

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Further distinction between judicial and other powers 354

Appellate jurisdiction 357

Original jurisdiction 358

The Court may compel individuals but not States to appear 359

Sovereignty of States protected 359

Separation of powers 360

Finality of the Court's decree 360

Court's relation to the Government and to the States 369

CHAPTER XVIII Determination of constitutionality 374

Powers purely judicial 375

Political contrasted with judicial powers 376

Judicial power as to treaties 378

President's rights under international law 382

CHAPTER XIX The question of extent 398

Court defined 400

The word " supreme " 400

Finality 400

Jurisdiction 400

Determination of jurisdiction 401

"Judiciary Act" 402

" Nature and extent " determined 405

The liability of States 410

How cases may arise in law and equity 412

Is judicial power concurrent or exclusive? 413

Confusion over political v. judicial questions 418

How political questions become judicial 420

Application to Society of Nations 424

CHAPTER XX Supreme Court functions in cases only 427

"Case" defined 427

"Suit" defined 428

Cases and controversies 429

International "case" 431

Chapter XXI

Judicial Powers and Their Relation to Law and Equity, to Admiralty, Maritime AND International Law

Definition of " law " and " equity " 438

Influence of English terminology 438

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Blackstone and Vattel 439

International law the common law of nations 439

Law and equity 440

Common law limited to civil cases 441

Common law applicable in cases covered by special legislative act 442

Interpretation of terms 442

Admiralty and maritime jurisdiction included 447

An International Court of Prize 447

CHAPTER XXII Immunity of States and Nations itrom Suit

Suits against States 453

Coercion of States 453

Judicial power over States 453

Consent to be sued 454

Sovereignty not always an exemption 456

Suit without consent inconsistent with sovereignty 457

Waiving of sovereignty 457

A plaintiff sovereign relinquishes a degree of sovereignty 462

The sovereign becomes subordinate to law 464

Further renunciation of immunity from suit by a sovereign power 464

A State may sue a State 465

CHAPTER XXIII A More Perfect Society of Nations

The great problem 467

A possible solution 468

APPENDIX A. Plans of Union for the Colonies and the States of North America

I. The New England Confederation of 1643 471

II. William Penn's plan for a union of the Colonies, February 8, 1698 476

III. Benjamin Franklin's plan for a union of the several Colonies adopted at Albany,

IV. Benjamin Franklin's Sketch of Articles of Confederation read before Congress,

V. The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 492

VI. Articles of Confederation adopted by Congress, November 15, 1777, ratified by

the last of the thirteen States, March 1, 1781 494

VII. The Constitution of the United States adopted September 17, 1787, in effect from

and after March 4, 1789 502

B. An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United

States Northwest of the River Ohio 514

C. Documents from Which the Constitution was Evolved

I. Text of Mr. Randolph's Resolutions, presented to the Convention May 29, 1787 . 520 II. Outline of the Pinckney Plan presented to the Convention May 29, 1787 . . .522

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III. Report of the Committee of the Whole on Mr. Randolph's propositions, June 13,

1787 524

IV. Text of the New Jersey Plan, moved by Mr. Patterson June 15, 1787 . . . .525 V. Alexander Hamilton's sketch of a Government for the United States, presented

VI. Mr. Randolph's Resolutions as revised and enlarged by the Convention and referred July 26, 1787, to the Committee of Detail 529

VII. Report of the Committee of Detail, August 6, 1787 532

VIII. Proceedings of Convention referred to the Committee of Style and Arrangement 541

IX. The Constitution as reported by the Committee on Style, September 12, 1787,

and as signed, September 17, 1787 552

X. Letter transmitting the Constitution to Congress, September 17, 1787 .... 570 XL Resolution of the Convention, September 17, 1787, that Congress transmit the

Constitution to the States for ratification 571

D. Amendments to the Constitution

I. The first ten amendments to the Constitution in lieu of a Bill of Rights . . . 572 II. Subsequent amendments to the Constitution 573

Index 577

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A STUDY IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

I. RISE OF THE IDEA OF UNION

The appreciation of a great and vital want will account for the origin of the idea of a common union. A study of its embodiment reveals the feature of growth. It is so original and peculiar, that it may be termed American. (Richard Frothingham, The Rise of The Republic of the United States, 1872, p. 28.)

Often, too, an institution may appear to be the result of direct imitation, when in fact it may be the product of a common race instinct, as in the case of the representative system reproducing itself in all the branches of the Teutonic race. . . . The law of historical continuity, or political inheritance, is not inconsistent with the law of historical variation, or political originality. In fact, the greater the accumulations of past experiences, the greater will be the capacity to solve by original methods the problems presented by new experiences. {William C. Morey, The First State Constitutions, 1893, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV. part I, p. 203.)

Mr. Gladstone recently pronounced it the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.

John Stuart Mill said, in his essay on De Tocqueville's " Democracy in America," that "the whole edifice was constructed, within the memory of man, upon abstract principles."

If we are to understand these expressions as meaning that the Constitution sprang into being, like Athene from the brain of Zeus, or that it was the work of doctrinaires endeavoring to found an ideal republic, it would be easy to show their falsity. The Constitution " has its roots deep in the soil of the past." No one generation, whatever its experience, could have invented such a system. It is a development, under a new environment, of old forms of government. Everything in it that was new was a " conservative innovation." {W. T. Brantly, Of the Influence of European Speculation in the Formation of the Federal Constitution, 18S0, in Southern Law Review, New Series, Vol. VI, p. 351.)

Yet it is a characteristic of the race both in England and America that it has never really broken with the past. Whatever of novelty may appear from time to time, there is ever under all the great and steady force of historic continuity. (C. Ellis Stevens, Sources of the Constitution of the United States, 1894, 2nd edition, p. xvii.)

In fact, the distribution of political powers between co-ordinate governments — a system which sprang up in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Rhode Island — had no existing counterpart in the countries of the civilized world. It can be historically explained only as the instinctive reproduction of primitive institutions under the influence of a primitive environment. {I'Villiam C. Morey, The Sources of American Federalism, 1893, The American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. VI, p. 211.)

The new political system was a modification neither of the Confederation of 1781, nor of the Albany Union of 1754, nor of the New England Confederacy of 1643. These superficial alliances served, it is true, to bring the colonies and States into more amicable relations, by which they could aid each other against their common foes. But none of them contained the essential and distinctive features of that composite state-system which was established by the Constitution of 1787. We must search deeper into American political life, and perhaps into the common political life of our Teutonic, and even our Aryan ancestors to ; find the true historical sources of American federalism. {William C. Morey, The Sources of\ American Federalism, 1895, The American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol, I VI, p. 204.)

In the old system assemblies were not formally instituted, but grew up of themselves, because it was the nature of Englishmen to assemble. {Sir John Robert Seeley, The Expansion of England, 1883, American edition, p. 67.)

A proposition for a Union was suggested at a meeting of Connecticut magistrates and ministers in Boston, in 1637. {Richard Frothingham, The Rise of The Republic of the^ United States. 1872, p. 39.)

The New-England Confederacy recognized the equality of the colonies that were parties to it, and the inviolability of their local governments ; but the provision's designed to promote the common welfare were a crude embodiment of the unipn element. {Richard Frothingham, The Rise of The Republic of the United States, 1872, p. 72.)

But it is beginning to be realized that the Constitution of the United States, though possessing elements of novelty, is not, after all, the new creation that this idea would imply. It is not, properly speaking, the original composition of one body of men, nor the outcome of one definite epoch, — it is more and better than that. It does not stand in historical isolation, free of antecedents. It rests upon very old principles, — principles laboriously worked out by long ages of constitutional struggle. It looks back to the annals of the colonies and of the mother-land for its sources and its explanation. And it was rendered possible, and made what it is, by the political development of many generations of men. {C. Ellis Stevens, Sources of the Constitution of the United States, 1894, 2nd edition, pp. viii-ix.)

The best reason for American pride in the Constitution lies, not in the creative genius of its framers, nor in the beauty and symmetry of their work, but in the fact that it was and is a perfect expression of the institutional methods of its people. It is for that reason that it meets their needs as well to-day as in 1787-89. So long as they shall continue in the ways of their fathers ; so long as they shall regard with pronounced disfavor the political quacks who constantly beg them to hazard a trial of never-tested remedies : so long may they continue to take a just pride in their Constitution, under all its possible coming changes, as one which has been " adequately discussed," and the results of the discussion of which have been fully "tested by experiment." {Alexander Johnston, The First Century of the Constitution, The New Princeton Review, Vol. IV, No. 2, 1887, p. 190.)

. CHAPTER I

On the 11th day of November, according to the old, but on the 21st day of November, 1620, according to the new order of things, some forty-one passengers of the Mayflower, whom a grateful posterity calls the Pilgrims, bringing to the New World a new type of men and a new spirit which we may with just pride call the American spirit, entered into a compact for their government when they should leave the little vessel which had carried them across a stormy ocean out of their course to the Hudson, for which region they had a patent, to the inhospitable shores of New England, for which they had no patent. The passage across the Atlantic had been stormy in more ways than one. for, in the absence of a patent from the New England Company, the Pilgrims were without title to the soil upon which they were soon to set foot. In the absence of a charter from the Crown, they were without authority to govern themselves as a body politic. Because of these things and also because of the frailties to which even some of their number were subject, the better part of them, believing that government as instituted among men derives its just powers from the consent of the governed and that this consent was in itself a compact on their part, entered into that agreement which we today call the Mayflower Compact, which they thus happily expressed :

In y° name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall cSmJalt^""*' subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y" grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y^ faith, &c., haveing undertaken, for y" glorie of God, and advancemente of y® Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant y" first colonic in y® Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in y* presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y" ends aforesaid ; and by verlue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & eqiiall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^ generall good of y® Colonic, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.^

Just as the separatists, whom we call the Pilgrim fathers, traversed a waste of waters from the Old World to the New, so separatists in the political sense

1 William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856, 4th Series, Vol. iii, pp. 89-90.

of the word traversed a waste of wilderness and left three of the then eight towns of Massachusetts Bay in 1635, pushing to the west — with the permission, be it said, of that commonwealth, or rather, acting under a commission of its General Court for a twelvemonth. Establishing three towns on the western bank of the Connecticut River, they laid the foundation of the State of that name; furnishing in its constitution of 1639, known as the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, what has been called the first written constitution in the modern sense of the term as a permanent lirnitation on governmental powers known in history, and suggesting, it has been claimed, by the confederation of its towns, which, however, retained the power not delegated to the State, the idea of that more perfect Union composed of the American States. The spirit which pervaded these newer Pilgrims, and which today pervades the western world, was stated by Thomas Hooker, one of the chief settlers, from his pulpit in Hartford some seven months before the Fundamental Orders were drafted and went into effect. He chose for his text the 13th verse of the first chapter of Deuteronomy : " ' Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.' Captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds — over fifties — over tens, &c." In the course of his sermon he is reported to have said, under the caption of Doctrine, in the brief extract of it made by one of the congregation:

I. That the choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people, by God's own allowance.

II. The privilege of election, which belongs to the people, therefore, must not be exercised according to their humours, but according to the blessed will and law of God.

III. They who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them.

And the American Hooker is reported as giving for his American polity the following Reasons:

1. Because the foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people.

2. Because, by a free choice, the hearts of the people will be more inclined to the love of the persons [chosen] and more ready to yield [obedience].

3. Because, of that duty and engagement of the people.^

In the preamble to the Fundamental Orders, the American theory of government is thus stated, omitting provisions concerning churches, in which membership, however, was not essential to the exercise of civil rights:

1 Abstracts of Two Sermons by Rev. Thomas Hooker, from the short-hand notes of Mr. Henry Wolcott, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, 1860, Vol. i, p. 20.

RISE OF THE IDEA OF UNION P

Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition of his diuyne p''uidence so to Order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelHng in and vppon the River of Conectecotte and the Lands thereunto adioyneing; And well knowing where a people are gathered togather the word of God requires that to mayntayne the peace and vnion of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Gouernment established according to God, to order and dispose of the affayres of the people at all seasons as occation shall require ; doe therefore assotiate and conioyne our selues to be as one Publike State or Corhonwelth ; and doe, for our selues and our Successors and such as shall be adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation togather, to mayntayne and p''searue the liberty and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus w'^'^ we now p''fesse ... ; As also in o"" Ciuell Affaires to be guided and gouerned according to such Lawes, Rules, Orders and decrees as shall be made, ordered & decreed . . }

As in the case of Plymouth, so in the settlements in the Connecticut valley, there was apparently no grant of title to land and there was no charter from the Crown. In the Mayflower Compact, the signers profess loyalty and obedience to their " dread soveraigne Lord," but find in themselves authority " to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time," which they themselves shall consider to be in the general interest and good of the colony. In the Fundamental Orders there is no reference to their " dread soveraigne Lord," and the confederating towns, recognizing that in their case government derives its just consent from their inhabitants and residents, proceed without further ado to provide for the election of a governor, magistrates and deputies to the general assemblies or courts " for makeing of lawes, and any other publike occation, w'^'' conserns the good of the Comonwelth." -

The views of the Pilgrim fathers and of the Connecticut settlers in the matter of compact and the action of the Connecticut settlers in framing a system of government for their self-created body politic have been selected, not for the purpose of establishing priority in behalf of one or the other but as showing how, freed from the environment of the Old, the settlers of the New World stated and put into practice the doctrines held by them as individuals when unrestrained by the provisions of a charter or instructions from the Crown, and as indicating the conceptions of government likely to take visible form and effect in this western world when the inhabitants of the colonies were free to devise constitutions for their States and a union of those States.

1 F. N. Thorpe, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the United States of America, 1909, Vol. I, p. 519; B. P. Poore, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the United States. 1877, p. 249.