II. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA…

II. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

1. Civilization, or the history of it, at least, commenced in the Eastern continent. The Western was, until a comparatively recent period, quite unknown to those who recorded the progress of mankind, and the events by which it was marked. The science of the most learned men and nations of ancient times did not extend to a comprehension of geography beyond the limits of their own countries, and of the countries conquered by their rulers, or those which, bordering on these, held some relations with them.

2. The world appeared to be a flat surface, and no one thought of questioning that it was so only in appearance. It was reserved for a daring Genoese sea captain, about four hundred years ago, to conceive the happy idea that this appearance was deceptive; that it was really round; and that, by sailing westward, the distant East, or India, might be readily reached. Columbus, having become fully satisfied that this theory was correct, and not being rich enough to fit out an expedition himself, endeavored to convince others, who had the means, of the truth of his views, and to induce them to aid him to put them to the test.

3. The Genoese, living by commerce, and, at that time wealthy and powerful, gave him no encouragement. They even regarded him as a madman. He applied to the Governments of Portugal, England, and Spain, but gained little attention for many years. At length Queen Isabella, of Spain, became interested in his theories, and, with much effort, assisted him to put them to proof. He set sail August 3, 1492, with three small vessels, on an unknown sea. His crew were filled with fear to find themselves so far from land, and sailing toward unknown dangers. He had great difficulty in calming their terrors, and was in great danger of perishing in the mutiny they contemplated. He was saved by the opportune appearance of land on the 11th of October. He had reached the group of islands lying between North and South America. The one first discovered was called, by the natives whom he found inhabiting it, Guanahani. He named it, in remembrance of his peril, San Salvador—St. Savior. Supposing he had reached the Indies lying to the eastward of Asia, and not dreaming of a new continent, he called the inhabitants Indians. Cuba and Hayti, larger islands lying further south, were soon after discovered, and he hastened to carry back the wonderful tidings of his discovery to Spain. He reached home seven months and eleven days after his departure.

4. He and his discoveries immediately became famous. The world had never been struck with a surprise so great, and all Europe was in a ferment at the news. He soon returned as Viceroy of the newly discovered lands, to establish a colony and extend his researches. Five years later, in 1498, he discovered the main land near the river Orinoco, in the northern part of South America. He died in 1506, unaware of the magnitude of his discoveries, still believing he had only reached India from the west, and treated with much ingratitude by the government he had so much benefited by his bold genius. The first published account of the new continent was by a Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who visited the main land in 1499, claimed the merit of the discovery, and gave it his name, America. His claim has long been disallowed, and Columbus duly honored as the real discoverer, though the name was never changed.

5. It is believed that North America was known to the mariners of the North of Europe as early as the tenth century; and that settlements, that afterwards perished, were made from Iceland and Greenland as far south as the shores of New England. This, however, is only a dim tradition, there being no detailed and authentic history of these events left on record so far as is yet known.

6. An English mariner, by descent a Venitian, disputes with Columbus the first sight of the main continent in 1498. He first touched the coast of Labrador, and sailed as far south as Florida in the next year. It was near a hundred years later before a permanent settlement was made within the territory that is now the United States, by the English, though the city of St. Augustine was founded in Florida by the Spaniards in 1565.

In 1607 a settlement was made at Jamestown, on the Potomac river, in Virginia, and in 1620 the Puritans of England, persecuted there for their religious views, sought liberty of worship in the new world, establishing a colony at Plymouth, in the eastern part of New England. Others followed in succession until many distinct colonies had been planted on the eastern coast of the United States; all of which—except Florida, belonging to the Spaniards, on the south, and Canada, settled by the French, on the north—were under the control of, and received their laws from, England.

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Chapter III

CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ANGLO AMERICAN COLONIZATION FROM 1492 TO 1763.

1493—October 12, Christopher Columbus discovered land belonging the Western Hemisphere—one of the Bahama Islands. He touches at Cuba and Hayti before his return.

1497—John Cabot, master of an English vessel, and his son Sebastian, touched at Newfoundland in June, and soon after explored the coast of Labrador.

1498—Columbus, on his third voyage, discovers the American Continent, near the mouth of the Orinoco river, in South America.

—Sebastian Cabot, in a second voyage, first of Europeans, explores our Atlantic coast as far south as Maryland.

1499—Amerigo Vespucci, or Americus Vespucius, a Florentine merchant, conducts a vessel to the coast of South America. Returning to Europe he publishes a book, claiming to have first discovered the continent, and it receives his name, America.

1500—Columbus is sent to Spain in chains by a Spanish officer whom the jealousy of Ferdinand, the Spanish King, placed over him. Treated with injustice and neglect, he died at Valladolid, Spain, in 1506.

1512—Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard in search of the “Fountain of Youth,” discovers Florida, near St. Augustine.

1524—John Verrazani, a Florentine, commanding a French vessel, touches the coast near Wilmington, North Carolina, and explores it north to Nova Scotia. He wrote a narrative describing the country and the Indians.

1535—James Cartier, a French navigator, discovers the St. Lawrence.

1541—He builds a Fort at Quebec, but soon abandons it.

—De Soto, a Spaniard, discovers the Mississippi. He traveled, with six hundred men, through Georgia and Alabama, and fought a bloody battle with the Indians near Mobile. These Indians had a walled town of several thousand inhabitants. Thence he traveled west to the Mississippi and Red Rivers. He died at the mouth of the Red river, May 21, 1542.

1553—Persecution of the English Puritans commences.

1562—French Huguenots attempt a settlement in Florida. They gave the name Carolina to the coast on the north. The first colony is discouraged, and returns. In the year 1564 another Huguenot colony is founded on the River May.

1565—Melendez, a Spaniard, founds St. Augustine, September 8th, with five hundred colonists. It was the first permanent settlement in the United States.

—Melendez destroys the French colony.

1567—The Chevalier Gouges (French) attacks St. Augustine, and puts to death two hundred Spaniards in retaliation.

1578—The first English settlement contemplated. Queen Elizabeth grants a patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert “to such remote, heathen, and barbarous lands as he should find in North America.” He makes two attempts to plant a colony—in 1579 and in 1583—fails in each, and perishes with his vessel, September 23, 1583.

1584—Sir Walter Raleigh receives a similar patent, and sends two vessels to the shores of Pamlico Sound. Queen Elizabeth names the country Virginia.

1585—Raleigh sends a colony to Roanoke Island, but it is unfortunate, and returns home.

1587—He sends another colony, but the Spanish Armada threatening England, he could not send it supplies for some time, and when visited, later, no trace of it could be found. Discouraged, he gives up his patent to a London company of merchants, who content themselves to trade with the Indians.

1602—Bartholomew Gosnold visits New England.

1603—Henry IV., King of France, grants Acadia (Nova Scotia) to Sieur de Monts, who founds a colony on the Bay of Fundy, at Port Royal in 1605.

1606—James I., King of England, establishes the London and Plymouth companies for settling North America.

1607—The Plymouth company land a colony at the mouth of the Kennebec river. It is unfortunate, and returns to England.

—The London company send out an expedition, which, accidentally discovering Chesapeake Bay, enter, and found a colony on James River, at Jamestown. The romantic Captain John Smith was one of the colonists. This was the first permanent English settlement in North America.

1608—Smith seeking, by orders from the London company, a passage to the Pacific ocean, up the Chickahominy, is taken prisoner by the Indians, condemned to death, and saved by Pocahontas.

—Quebec founded by the French under Champlain.

—The English Puritans, persecuted in England, take refuge in Holland.

1609—Lord Delaware is appointed Governor of Virginia, which receives a new charter, and a considerable accession of numbers.

—Part of the expedition, however, was shipwrecked, and the colony, embracing a large unruly and indolent element, is near perishing. Pocahontas repeatedly saves them from the Indians. Hudson river and Lake Champlain discovered.

1610—Lord Delaware, having been delayed, arrives (after the discouraged colonists had embarked to return to England) with supplies, and saves the settlement.

1613—Pocahontas marries John Rolfe, an Englishman.

—The Dutch erect a fort at New York.

1615—They build Fort Orange, near Albany.

1619—The first General Assembly elected by the people is called in Virginia, by Governor Yeardley. Eleven boroughs, or towns, were each represented by two Burgesses, or citizens. It was the dawn of civil liberty in Virginia, and a germ of the future republic.

1620—Convicts are sent to Virginia, and negro slaves introduced.

—September 6th, the Puritans, discontented in Holland, set sail in the Mayflower, from Plymouth, England, for America, under the auspices of the “Plymouth Company.”

—December 21st they land on Plymouth Rock, and, amid great hardships, found a religious colony.

—James I. grants a charter to the Grand Council of Plymouth for governing New England.

1621—A district called Mariana granted to John Mason.

—Plymouth colony makes a treaty with Massasoit.

—Cotton first planted in Virginia.

1622—Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason obtain a charter of Maine and New Hampshire. They plant a colony on the Piscataqua river.

—An Indian conspiracy nearly proves fatal to the Virginia colony. March 22d, at noon, an attack is made on all the settlements, and in an hour nearly a fourth part of the colony is massacred. The colonists, in a bloody war, thoroughly chastise the Indians.

1624—Virginia becomes a royal province, but stoutly maintains its legislative authority.

1625—Death of Robinson, the distinguished Puritan divine, in Holland.

1629—Massachusetts colony patented, and settlement made at Salem, by John Endicott.

—Charlestown, Mass., founded.

—The Dutch colonize the west side of Delaware river.

1630—Patent of Carolina made to Sir Robert Heath.

1631—Massachusetts General Court confines the privilege of voting to church members.

—Clayborne plants a colony on Kent Island.

—The Dutch erect a trading fort at Hartford.

1632—Maryland granted to Lord Baltimore.

1633—Connecticut colony founded.

1636—Roger Williams founds Providence.

1637—Pequod war in Connecticut.

1638—Rhode Island settled by followers of Anne Hutchinson.

—Harvard college founded.

—Swedes and Finns settle Delaware.

—Colony of New Haven founded. Persecution in Massachusetts.

1640—Montreal, Canada, founded.

1641—New Hampshire united to Massachusetts.

1643—The germ of the American Union is planted by a confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven. It was for mutual protection and support, and was kept alive about forty years.

1645—Clayborne causes an insurrection in Maryland.

—The Mohawks mediate between the Dutch and Algonquins.

—Witchcraft superstition commences.

1646—John Elliott becomes a missionary to the Indians.

1649—The Mohawk war on the French settlements and Jesuits.

1650—Common School laws passed in Connecticut.

1651—English “Navigation Act” forbids colonists to trade with any country but England, and restricts trade among the colonies. Thus the English make all the profits. English merchants set the price of purchases and sales.

1651—Persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts.

—Proprietary government subverted in Maryland.

1657—Elliott translates the Bible into the Indian language.

1662—Winthrop obtains a liberal charter for Hartford and New Haven.

1663—Carolina granted to a company of Noblemen.

1664—The Dutch conquer the Swedes on the Delaware.

New York granted to the Duke of York, who sends a force to dispossess the Dutch. It is done without fighting.

New Jersey granted to Berkely and Carteret.

1665—Lake Superior discovered by Father Allouez.

1668—St. Mary’s, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the first French settlement within the boundaries of the United States, founded.

1670—Mr. Locke’s philosophical constitution introduced in Carolina. It soon proved an absurd failure.

1673—The Upper Mississippi discovered by Marquette.

1675—King Philip’s war in New England. He was a warrior of great ability and activity. Fourteen towns were destroyed by the Indians, and six hundred inhabitants killed. Philip is killed August 12, 1676, and the Indian tribes very nearly destroyed.

1676—Three of the Regicides (Judges of Charles I., King of England) came to New England.

—New Jersey divided into East and West Jersey, at the suggestion of Wm. Penn.

Bacon’s rebellion in favor of popular rights, in Virginia.

1677—Virginia obtains a new charter.

Massachusetts purchases Maine.

1678—Sir Edmund Andross, royal governor of New York, usurps the government of the Jerseys.

1679—New Hampshire becomes a royal province, but the people make a successful stand for their legislative privileges.

—Massachusetts having disregarded the Navigation Act, Edward Randolph was sent as Inspector of Customs. He failed to enforce the act, and in 1682 the charter of Massachusetts was annulled.

1680—Charleston, South Carolina, founded.

1681—Wm. Penn receives a grant of Pennsylvania from Charles II.

—Penn restores the proprietary government in the Jerseys.

—He founds Philadelphia; makes a treaty with the Indians; and governs East Jersey.

1682—La Salle visits and names Louisiana.

1686—Sir Edmund Andross being made Governor-General over New England, proceeds in a very tyrannical manner. He endeavored to get possession of the charter of Connecticut, but failed, though he took possession of the government.

1688—New York and New Jersey came under the jurisdiction of Andross; but James II., the tyrannical King of England, being deposed, Massachusetts imprisoned Andross. Rhode Island and Connecticut resumed their charter governments; but Massachusetts, having given offense by resistance to the Navigation Act, never recovered her original charter.

—France having espoused the cause of the dethroned king, a war broke out between France and England, known as “King William’s” war.

1689—The government of New York is seized by Jacob Leisler for King William.

1690—May 1st, a Congress of colonial delegates meets at New York to concert measures for the common defense.

February 18th, destruction of Schenectady, N. Y., and massacre of the inhabitants by the Indians, sent by the French, from Canada.

—March 18th, Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, on the Piscataqua river, is destroyed by the French and Indians. Casco, Maine, is also destroyed.

—Sir William Phipps, Governor of Massachusetts, invades Canada, unsuccessfully.

—French Protestants settle in Virginia and Carolina.

1691—Slaughter becomes Governor of New York. He executes Leisler.

1692—Massachusetts receives a new charter. Her limits are enlarged, but her privileges restricted.

—Texas settled by the Spaniards, at Bexar.

1695—Rice brought to Carolina, from Africa.

1697—The Peace of Ryswick terminates King William’s war.

1698—Piracies of Captain Kidd. He was tried and executed in England, in 1701.

1699—Pensacola is settled by the Spaniards.

1701—William Penn grants a new charter to Pennsylvania.

1702—The Jerseys united and joined to New York.

“Queen Anne’s war” breaks out. New England suffered much from the ravages of the Indians.

—Governor Moore, of South Carolina, attacks St. Augustine, but without success.

—Mobile founded by d’Iberville, with a colony of Canadian French.

—The Massachusetts Assembly contend with the royal governor for their former liberties. Their charter is still further restricted.

1703—Delaware (called The Territories) is separated from Pennsylvania.

1706—The French and Spaniards invade Carolina. They are repulsed with loss.

1707—Detroit, Michigan, settled by the French.

1710—Many thousand Germans, from the Palatinate, settle in the colonies, from New York to the Carolinas.

1712—A war with the Tuscaroras, in North Carolina, results in their complete defeat. They unite with the Iroquois.

1713—Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, and Niagara, are fortified by the French.

The Peace of Utrecht closes Queen Anne’s war.

1715—In a war with the Yamassees, South Carolina loses four hundred inhabitants, but expels the Indians.

1716—Natchez founded by the French.

1717—Father Rasles, a Jesuit Missionary at Norridgwock, Maine, excites the Indians to drive out the English from Maine. He is the last of the Jesuit missionaries, and is slain in the capture of Norridgwock, in August, 1724, by New England troops.

1718—New Orleans founded by the French.

1720—A royal government supersedes the proprietary, in Carolina.

1723—First settlement made in Vermont.

1729—North and South Carolina erected into separate governments.

1732—A company in England prepare to settle Georgia.

1733—General Oglethorpe, with a colony, arrives in Georgia.

1736—Many Scotch Highlanders and Germans settle in Georgia.

1738—Insurrection of the slaves in South Carolina.

1740—General Oglethorpe invades Florida. He is repulsed. The Moravians settle in Pennsylvania.

1742—The Spanish invade Georgia, but retire with loss.

1744—“The Old French War” begins.

1745—The New England colonies raise a force and capture Louisburg, the “Gibraltar of America,” from the French.

1748—The treaty of peace of Aix la Chapelle, restores Louisburg to France, to the great disgust of the colonies.

1750—The French and English both claim the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. Lawrence Washington, and others form the Ohio Company. Parliament grants it six hundred thousand acres of land on, or near, the Ohio river. The French dispute the possession, and threaten summary ejectment.

1753—George Washington is sent by Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, as an envoy to the French and Indians in Ohio.

1754—The French build Fort Du Quesne (now Pittsburgh). Washington defeats a French party headed by De Jumonville. The French are reinforced by fifteen hundred men, and Washington with four hundred men, after defending himself one day, capitulates.

—The British government, in expectation of a speedy war with France, recommend the colonies to form a Union for defense. Delegates from seven colonies meet at Albany, June 14, 1754. A plan of Union was drawn up by Benjamin Franklin. Connecticut rejected it as giving too much power to the English government. Parliament rejected it as giving too much to the colonies.

1755—Braddock’s defeat in Pennsylvania.

—War with the Cherokees, in Tennessee.

—The French, under Dieskau, are defeated at Lake George.

1756—War was formally declared, two years after it actually begun.

1757—Fort William Henry, being attacked by an overwhelming force of French and Indians, surrenders, and the garrison are massacred by the Indians.

1758—July 6, Louisburg captured by the English under General Amherst.

—General Abercrombie is repulsed in an attack on Fort Ticonderoga, and Lord Howe, much liked in the colonies, is killed.

—August 27, Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, Canada, taken by Col. Bradstreet.

—November 25, Fort Du Quesne taken by the English, under General Forbes.

1759—General Wolfe, commander of the English, and General Montcalm, of the French army, meet in battle on the Heights of Abraham, near Quebec. Wolfe’s army conquered, but both commanders lost their lives. Quebec capitulated.

George III. ascends the throne of England.

1760—September 8th, Canada surrendered to the English.

Massachusetts vigorously opposes “Writs of Assistance” (search warrants for goods that had not paid the duty).

1761—The Cherokees reduced to peace by Colonel Grant.

In October, Mr. Pitt, the English Prime Minister, always a friend of the colonies, resigns.

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Chapter IV

CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIES, FROM 1763 TO JULY 4, 1776.

In February, 1763, The Peace of Paris, concluded between the governments of England and France, closed the war in America that had been so painful to the colonies from the part which the French persuaded the Indians to take in it. But, while the colonies bore a large part of the burden, (they had raised $16,000,000 of its expenses, and had lost, in battle or in hospital, 30,000 men,) of a war that drove the French out of all their possessions in Canada and east of the Mississippi river; they were, at the same time, trained to act in concert, which paved the way for a future confederation, and hardened them to war. Being called into battle under celebrated English commanders, and to fight side by side with European veterans, they had opportunity to learn the art of war, as well as to compare themselves with the soldiers of the mother country and of France. This comparison was favorable to them, and inspired them with confidence in their own ability.

The fatal blunders of Gen. Braddock, and the skill and bravery of Washington and his provincial troops which, alone, saved the British army from entire annihilation in the Pennsylvania wilderness, was never forgotten. They felt themselves, even as raw militia, equal to the best European soldiers, when on their own ground.

It was a great mistake of the Home Government to put on an arrogant tone with them just when they had learned their strength. In the year 1764 that government, plunged in debt by its long wars with the continental powers, (it amounted to $700,000,000,) and on the plea that the colonies who had been protected, should bear a fair share of the pecuniary burden, determined to impose taxes on them. Previously they had restricted their commerce to English ports, had laid duties on various imports, and assumed authority to change the governments of the colonies without their consent. This had produced much dissatisfaction, but had no further immediate effect than to lead them to remonstrance, evasion, or legal resistance. The proposal to lay internal taxes was quite another affair. Submission to this they thought would be fatal to their liberties. They resisted with general moderation, respectfully, but with determined resolution.

The British ministry were provoked by this resistance, holding it to be rebellion; and determined to put it down, by force, if need be. The struggle continued for ten years with growing obstinacy on either side. The home government was exceedingly obtuse or it would have either proceeded to extremes at once or yielded the whole case, as it finally determined to do in 1776, when it was too late. In this period of lively discussion, and of organization to secure the strength of union in resistance, the separate colonies were gradually moulded into a nation, imbued with common sympathies and ideas, and moved by common interests. They had not thought of independence during all this preliminary struggle. The war had lasted a year before that idea became prominent. That was not, even then, regarded as an end, so much as an indispensable means to secure their liberties. Thus we see that no taint of conspiracy attached to the revolutionary struggle. The colonies were thoroughly loyal, until loyalty came to mean loss of liberty, and the rights enjoyed by Englishmen in England. The exercise of arbitrary power they felt it right to resist; but they exhausted all other modes and means of resistance before they resorted to arms.

They did not even make a first attack. They waited till armies were sent to subjugate them, and until those armies commenced the attack; then the whole country rose in the stern resolve to right their wrongs.

1763.

The Peace of Paris was signed in February of this year. July 7th began “Pontiac’s War,” with the simultaneous attack on all the forts in the peninsula of Michigan, and the whole frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Pontiac was an Ottawa chief, of great ability, and had drawn many Indian tribes into the war. It was virtually ended in September of the same year.

1764.

April 5.—“The Sugar Act” was passed in the English Parliament. This levied duties on coffee, pimento, French and East India goods, and forbade iron and lumber to be exported except to England. It was for the avowed purpose of raising a revenue, and raised instead a storm of indignation. The Massachusetts House of Representatives said: “If we are taxed and not represented, we are slaves.”

1765.

Feb. 27—Was passed the obnoxious Stamp Act. Also the military law was made to authorize the ministry to send any number of troops to the colonies, for whom the colonists were to find “quarters, fire-wood, bedding, drink, soap, and candles.”

May 29—Patrick Henry introduced five “Resolutions” into the Virginia House of Burgesses, claiming for Virginians the rights of British subjects; that only their own representatives could lawfully tax them; declaring the attempt to vest that power in any other hands subversive of both British and American liberty.

Sept. 1—The Pennsylvania Assembly passed similar resolutions.

Oct. 7—A congress of delegates, or committees, from nine colonies, met in New York. It was the first Continental Congress. Its spirit harmonized with that of Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and its “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” was cordially approved by all the colonial assemblies.

1766.

Mar. 29—The Stamp Act could not be enforced in America, and it was repealed by Parliament; but the repeal was followed by another act asserting the power and right of Parliament “to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.” Thus yielding the thing and asserting the principle, they both strengthened the colonies by a sense of their power, and exasperated them by a total denial of their Declaration of Rights.

May—Yet their triumph filled the colonies with joy, and gratitude toward the King and their English friends. Virginia voted the King a statue.

1767.

June—But their exultation was short-lived. In this year taxes were levied on tea, paints, paper, glass, and lead. This led to the determination, on the part of the colonies, to pay no more taxes or duties at all.

Oct. 28—The Governor of Massachusetts having refused to call the General Court (or legislative body of the colony) together, a public meeting was held and resolutions passed to encourage “economy, industry, and manufactures,” and a committee appointed to get subscribers to an agreement to discontinue the importation of British goods not absolute necessaries. This was imitated in other colonies.

1768.

Feb. 11—Massachusetts General Court issues a general circular to other colonial assemblies, inviting coöperation for the defense of colonial rights. Those bodies mostly gave cordial replies. This General Court having

July—been dissolved, the new one being called on to rescind this circular, refused by a vote of ninety-two to seventeen. These seventeen became the butt of public scorn.

Sept. 12—Four regiments of British troops ordered to Boston.

” 22—The governor had been desired, by a Boston “town meeting,” to call a General Court. He refused, and the “meeting” issued a call for delegates from the towns to a colonial convention. More than a hundred towns were represented in the convention meeting this day. Their main effort was to vindicate the

” 28—colony from the charge of a rebellious spirit. The day after this meeting adjourned two regiments of British troops arrived in Boston.

1769.

Jan’y—Parliament severely censures all the colonial acts, and directs that persons arrested in the colonies for treason be sent to England, to be tried.

May—The Virginia Assembly take strong ground against this, and agree with the Massachusetts Convention.

” 31—The Massachusetts General Court assembles, but refuses to transact business in the midst of an armed force. After long contest with them the Governor adjourned them to Cambridge.

June 13—Required to support the troops, they respectfully and temperately, but firmly, refuse, and decline to vote any supplies for government till their grievances are redressed.

July 15—All the colonies manifest the same spirit.

1770.

Mar. 5—The indignation of Boston at the presence of troops breaks out into an affray. The troops fire on the citizens. Three are killed and five wounded. It was called the “Boston Massacre.”

April—British Parliament repeals the last tax on all articles but tea. The non-importation agreements had exerted a great influence in promoting economy, encouraging manufactures, and bringing “home-made” into fashion. The graduating class in Harvard College took their degrees in “home-spun” this year.

1771.

Throughout this year the same disputes were maintained between the governors and colonial legislatures as formerly; but as the home government did not push the struggle to an issue, there was comparative quiet, but no yielding.

1772.

June 10—The Gaspe, a British revenue schooner, burned by a party from Providence, Rhode Island. Parliament offers six hundred pounds sterling and a pardon to any accomplice who will confess and give up the offenders. They were well known by colonists, but no legal evidence could ever be obtained.

Oct. 28—A committee appointed in Boston to state the rights of the colonists and correspond with other sections on this subject. They publish an address, which is extensively circulated. Franklin, agent for the colonies in England, republishes it there.

1773.

March—This address led to the first measures for a political union of the colonies.

July—The British ministry attempt to import tea into the colonies.

Oct. 2—The people of Philadelphia declare that any one who shall “aid or abet in unloading, receiving, or vending the tea is an enemy to his country.”

Nov. 3—The Boston consignees required by the people to resign. They refuse.

” 5-19—A legal town meeting takes them in hand, and at length they resign.

Dec’r—Three ships loaded with tea having arrived, the people labor for near a month to have them sent back. Not succeeding, the cargoes are all emptied into the sea.

1774.

Mar. 25—Parliament retaliated by the “Boston Port Bill,” closing it to commerce.

May 13-20—Meetings held in the principal cities to consider the state of affairs, recommended the assembly of a Continental Congress. This body was appointed in all the provinces but Georgia. There were fifty-three delegates.

Sept. 4—These assemble at Philadelphia, and Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, is chosen President. They publish a “Declaration of Colonial Rights.” They agree on fourteen articles as the basis of an “American Association” to support these rights. This body was henceforth the real government, all their directions being obeyed by the people. They completed the organization of the Union and took preliminary measures for defense in case of attack.

1775.

Feb. 1—Lord Chatham introduced a bill in Parliament which might have accommodated all differences, but it was treated with great discourtesy. Parliament determines to humble and subdue the colonies.

April 19—Battle of Lexington. General Gage sends eight hundred British troops to destroy some colonial military stores at Concord, twenty miles from Boston. The “minute men” assembled at Lexington, are fired on and dispersed. The troops march to Concord, destroy the stores, and hastily retreat before the gathering minute men, who assail them on all sides. They would have been completely destroyed but for a timely reinforcement at Lexington of nine hundred men and two cannon. The loss of British killed and wounded was nearly three hundred; of the provincials eighty-five. Boston is immediately beleagured by some twenty thousand minute men.

” 22—Massachusetts Legislature assembles. It sends depositions, proving that the soldiers fired first, to England, with an address to the English people, declaring that they will “die or be free.” This body voted a levy of thirteen thousand men for the protection of the colony.

May 10—The second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia.

Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold surprise the fortress of Ticonderoga, on Lake George, New York. Its small force of three officers and forty-four privates cannot defend it, and they surrender without fighting. Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, is occupied without resistance.

Peyton Randolph again chosen President of Congress.

” 24—Peyton Randolph being called home, John Hancock, of Massachusetts, is chosen President of Congress.

” 25—Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, with large British reinforcements, arrived at Boston.

June 15—George Washington unanimously chosen commander-in-chief of the Continental forces.

” 17—The battle of Bunker Hill (or Breed’s Hill), near Boston. The British were twice repulsed, with great loss, when the ammunition of the Americans failing, they retreated in safety. British loss over one thousand; American, four hundred and fifty. British forces engaged, three thousand; American, less than fifteen hundred. The British commander burned Charlestown during the battle. General Warren, American, was killed.

” 23—Congress issue bills of credit for $2,000,000.

” 30—Articles of War are agreed to in Congress.

July 8—A last petition to the King is sent by Richard Penn, grandson of William Penn.

” 17—Another million dollars in bills of credit is issued. The liability for these was distributed among the Colonies.

” 26—Benjamin Franklin appointed first Postmaster General.

Aug. 30—General Schuyler embarks on Lake Champlain, for an expedition against Canada. He leaves the command with General Montgomery. Early in September General Arnold starts with eleven hundred men to Canada by Maine.

Sept. 24—Ethan Allen is taken prisoner, near Montreal.

Oct. 18—Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) burned by the British.

” 22—Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, died. He was the first President of Congress.

Nov. 3—Montgomery captures St. Johns, Canada.

” 13—Montreal surrendered to the Americans under Montgomery.

” 20—$3,000,000 more in bills of credit issued by Congress, payable in eight years.

Dec. 7—Lord Dunmore, British Governor of Virginia, defeated near Norfolk, Virginia.

” 13—A navy of thirteen vessels created by Congress. Letters of marque and reprisal granted.

” 21—The British Parliament pass a bill declaring all American vessels and goods, and those of all persons trading with them, a lawful prize, and authorizing the impressment of American sailors into the royal navy, where they might be required to fight against their own cause and friends.

” 31—General Montgomery and Colonel Arnold make an unsuccessful attack on Quebec. Montgomery is killed, Arnold wounded, and four hundred men killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. Arnold withdrew, but kept Quebec blockaded through the winter.

1776.

Jan. 1—Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, ravages the coast and burns Norfolk, but is obliged to fly to Bermuda.

” 20—Georgia prepares to join the other twelve colonies.

Feb. 4—McIntosh, with an American force, destroys several vessels loading for England, near Savannah, Georgia.

” 17—Four millions more of paper money issued by Congress.

March 4—Washington fortifies Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston, which renders it untenable by the British.

” 10—The inhabitants and merchants of Boston plundered of their lighter property by the British army.

” 17—The British embark for Halifax, and Washington occupies the town.

” 18—Sir Archibald Campbell sails into Boston, and his whole force of seventeen hundred men are taken prisoners.

” 23—Congress declares all British vessels a lawful prize.

April 26—Washington removes his army to New York.

May 3—Sir Peter Parker, with ten ships of war and seven regiments, joins the force from Boston under General Clinton, at Cape Fear.

” 15—Congress declared that all authority under the British crown ought to be totally suppressed and government conducted by colonial representatives alone. This was only an expression of their sense of the danger to their interests and liberties of allowing British agents to act.

June 7—Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved the Declaration of Independence.

” 8—American army in Canada, under General Sullivan, make an unsuccessful attack on the enemy. They are pressed by superior numbers, and retreat in good order, though with a loss of one thousand men prisoners, out of Canada, losing all their conquests.

” 11—Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert R. Livingston a committee to prepare the Declaration of Independence.

” 28—British fleet attack Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, but were defeated with loss of two hundred men, one vessel, and death of Lord Campbell, the ex-royal Governor.

July 4—Declaration of Independence by the Congress at Philadelphia.

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V. FORMATION OF THE ORIGINAL UNION

“The Boston Tea Party” provoked the English Parliament into passing “The Boston Port Bill,” closing that city to commerce. This act led to immediate measures for assembling delegates, representing twelve colonies in North America (Georgia, only, was not represented), for the purpose of consultation on the measures required for the protection of colonial rights. This body, called “The Continental Congress,” assembled in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774. It drew up a “Declaration of Colonial Rights;” and, for the purpose of enforcing them, agreed to accept as a basis of common action fourteen articles, known as “The American Association.”

This was the origin of the American Union. Though it did not assume organic political power, and its ordinances were only advisory in form, it was better obeyed than most governments. Arrangements were made for another Congress in May following. Its day of meeting was hastened by the battle of Lexington, and it immediately proceeded to assume the powers of a General Government, at the request of some of the provincial Legislatures, and with the tacit consent of all. It received its authority from its representative character; from the imperious necessity of a head to organize and direct; and from the voluntary obedience rendered to its mandates. It performed all the functions of a government until all prospect of reconciliation with Great Britain was lost, when, June 11, 1776, a committee was appointed to prepare “A Declaration of Independence.” This was adopted and signed July 4, 1776.

On the 12th of July, a committee of one from each State reported on the terms of confederation, and the powers of Congress; but differences of opinion, and the pressure of military affairs prevented action on it. On the 9th of September, 1776, the name “United Colonies of America” was discarded for that of “United States of America.” Georgia had appointed delegates on the 4th of July, so that there were “Thirteen United States.”

On Saturday, November 15, 1777, “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union of the United States of America” were agreed to in Congress, and sent to the States for approval. Eight of the State Legislatures had ratified these articles on the 9th of July, 1778; one ratified July 21st; one July 24th; one November 26th, of this year; one February 22d, 1779; and the last, March 1, 1781.

This document was little more than a digest of the powers before assumed by Congress, and tacitly acknowledged by the States from the commencement of the war. This, now legal, bond had existed before as a free, though unspoken, submission to the dictates of prudence and patriotism.

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VI. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

This immortal state paper—“the general effusion of the soul of the country” at the imperiled state of liberty, and of the rights of Englishmen—was given to the world on the 4th of July, 1776. The war of the Revolution had been raging more than a year, and many of the leading minds of the country had been actuated by the hope that their wrongs would be redressed, and the mother country and her colonies reconciled. The course of events had convinced them, however, that there would be no redress, and that no reconciliation was possible other than that based on a slavish surrender of rights and privileges dear to free men.

And hence a more decided course was approved by the people, and finally adopted by their delegates in Congress, on the 2d day of July, 1776. This resolution changed the old thirteen British colonies into free and independent States. And now it remained to set forth the reason for this act, together with the principles that should govern this new people. By this declaration the new Republic, as it took its place among the powers of the world, proclaimed its faith in the truth, reality, and unchangeableness of freedom and virtue. And the astonished nations, as they read that all men are created equal, started out of their lethargy, like those who have been exiled from childhood when they suddenly hear the dimly remembered accents of their mother tongue.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

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 assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of 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 inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted 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 a 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 experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right them 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 despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off 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 government. 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 absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome 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 accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

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 dissolution, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the danger of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions 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 payment of their salaries.

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 legislature.

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 jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment 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 pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary 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 powers of our government:

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 work of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. 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 made by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and 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, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the 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 British crown, and that all political connection between 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, and in a firm reliance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed by the following members:

JOHN HANCOCK.

New Hampshire.

JOSIAH BARTLETT, WILLIAM WHIPPLE, MATTHEW THORNTON.

Rhode Island.

STEPHEN HOPKINS, WILLIAM ELLERY.

Connecticut.

ROGER SHERMAN, SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, WILLIAM WILLIAMS, OLIVER WOLCOTT.

New York.

WILLIAM FLOYD, PHILIP LIVINGSTON, FRANCIS LEWIS, LEWIS MORRIS.

New Jersey.

RICHARD STOCKTON, JOHN WITHERSPOON, FRANCIS HOPKINSON, JOHN HART, ABRAHAM CLARK.

Pennsylvania.

ROBERT MORRIS, BENJAMIN RUSH, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, JOHN MORTON, GEORGE CLYMER, JAMES SMITH, GEORGE TAYLOR, JAMES WILSON, GEORGE ROSS.

Massachusetts Bay.

SAMUEL ADAMS, JOHN ADAMS, ROBERT TREAT PAINE, ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Delaware.

CÆSAR RODNEY, GEORGE REED, THOMAS M’KEAN.

Maryland.

SAMUEL CHASE, WILLIAM PACA, THOMAS STONE, CHARLES CARROLL, of Carrollton.

Virginia.

GEORGE WYTHE, RICHARD HENRY LEE, THOMAS JEFFERSON, BENJAMIN HARRISON, THOMAS NELSON, JUN., FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE, CARTER BRAXTON.

North Carolina.

WILLIAM HOOPER, JOSEPH HEWES, JOHN PENN.

South Carolina.

EDWARD RUTLEDGE, THOMAS HEYWOOD, JUN., THOMAS LYNCH, JUN., ARTHUR MIDDLETON.

Georgia.

BUTTON GWINNETT, LYMAN HALL, GEORGE WALTON.

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Chapter VII

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND PERPETUAL UNION BETWEEN THE STATES.

To all 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 15th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1777, and in the Second Year of the Independence of America, agree to certain Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, 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 between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

ARTICLE 1. The style of this Confederacy shall be “The United States of America.”

ART. 2. 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. 3. 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 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 pretense whatever.

ART. 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants 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 egress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restriction 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, 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 jurisdiction of his offense.

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States, to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.

ART. 5. For the more convenient management of the general interest of the United States, Delegates shall be annually appointed, in such manner as the legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State, to recall its Delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, 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 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.

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 imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.

ART. 6. No State, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send an embassy to, or receive an 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, emolument, 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.

No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, 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 interfere with any stipulation 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 vessels 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 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 necessary 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 have constantly ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage.

No State shall engage in any war without the consent 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 such a 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 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 otherwise.

ART. 7. 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 legislature of each State respectively, by whom such forces 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. 8. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the United States 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 improvements 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 legislatures of the several States, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled.

ART. 9. The United States in Congress assembled 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 respective States shall be restrained from imposing such 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 or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided 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 differences 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, stating 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 appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question; but if they cannot 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 be 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 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 Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court to be appointed, in the manner above 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 judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive, 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 in question, according to the best of his judgment, without 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 adjusted, the said grants, or either of them, being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to 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.

The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole exclusive right and power of regulating 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 violated; establishing or regulating post offices from 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, except regimental officers; appointing all the officers 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.

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 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 person 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 service 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, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the 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 legislatures of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm and equip them in a soldierlike manner, at the expense of the United 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 Congress assembled shall, on consideration of circumstances, judge proper that any State should not raise 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, armed and equipped shall march to the place appointed, 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 reprisal 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 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 shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning 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 relating 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 transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several States.

ART. 10. 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 expedient to vest them with; provided that no power, be delegated 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. 11. 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.

ART. 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, 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 solemnly pledged.

ART. 13. Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled on all questions which, by this confederation, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation 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 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 Confederation and perpetual union: Know ye that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and 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 respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled on all questions which, by the said confederation, are 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 the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord 1778, and in the third year of the Independence of America.

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VIII. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR FROM 1776 TO 1783

July 4—The British troops had been driven from Boston about the middle of March. From that time to the last of June no British soldiers had a foothold anywhere in the thirteen colonies. England had been preparing, however. The aid of German troops had been secured, and an expedition made ready. It was a fortunate respite, after a great success, and finding the mother country inexorable in her determination, in which to carefully consider the situation. That consideration had produced that noble protest of freemen against tyranny—The Declaration of Independence. It now remained to make it good by force of arms against a rich and powerful European empire, which was summoning its energies to the work of subjugation. On the 28th of June General Howe landed the late garrison of Boston, and other troops, on Staten Island.

July 12—Lord Howe arrived from England; Gen. Clinton returned from his repulse at Fort Moultrie, several Hessian regiments soon after arrived, and the British force amounted to 24,000; Gen. Carleton was near Lake Champlain with 13,000 men. The forces under Washington did not amount to half as many, but the British had a salutary respect for American prowess, and were laboring to win the American leaders back by promises of pardon.

Aug. 27—The battle of Long Island. The Americans, 9,000 strong, are attacked by the British, 15,000 strong. The Americans are worsted, but hold their intrenched camp. Washington silently and safely retreats during the night. The Americans lost 1,600 in killed, wounded and prisoners. British killed and wounded, 400.

Sept. 1—General Howe sends General Sullivan (American, taken prisoner in the late battle), to Congress to discuss a compromise of the dispute between England and the Colonies. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, are appointed to meet English commissioners. They meet on Staten Island, but can make no arrangements.

Sept. 15—British army takes possession of New York. General Washington’s army being largely made up of militia, which come and go, he adopts “The Fabian Policy” of avoiding general engagements, keeping the enemy harrassed and in constant movement. This saved the American cause.

Sept. 26—Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee appointed commissioners to France.

Nov. 1—Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, chosen President of Congress.

Nov. 16—Fort Washington, at the north end of Manhattan Island, assaulted by the British, in force. The fort was taken with 2,000 prisoners. The British loss was 1,200 in killed and wounded.

Nov. 18—Americans evacuate Fort Lee, on the Hudson, above New York.

Nov. 28—Washington retreats across the Delaware into Pennsylvania.

Dec. 7—Gen. Lee disobeys the instructions of Washington and is taken prisoner by the British.

Dec. 8—A British naval force takes possession of Newport, Rhode Island.

Dec. 12—The British army being stationed along the Delaware, in New Jersey, Congress adjourns from Philadelphia to Baltimore.

Dec. 26-27—Washington suddenly crosses the Delaware and surprises Trenton. He captures 1,000 Hessians and six cannon, with a loss of four killed. In this year about 350 British merchant vessels had been taken by Americans.

1777.

Jan. 2—Washington having re-occupied Trenton, Lord Cornwallis marches a strong force to attack him.

Jan. 3—The American army silently retreat in the night and capture Princeton, with 300 prisoners. British loss in killed and wounded, 100. American loss about the same. General Mercer killed.

Feb. 6—Letters of Marque and Reprisal granted by the English against American commerce.

March 4—Congress returns to Philadelphia.

” 23—American stores destroyed at Peekskill, New York.

April 26—Danbury, Connecticut, burned by the British.

May 24—This outrage is retaliated by Colonel Meigs, of Connecticut, who lands on Long Island with 200 men, destroys twelve vessels, large quantities of provision and forage, takes ninety prisoners, and retreats without the loss of a man.

May 27—Button Gwinnett, of Georgia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, is killed in a duel.

June 22—Gen. Howe evacuates New Brunswick, New Jersey, and retires in order to draw Washington into a battle. Washington advances till he penetrates the design of the enemy, when he retreats to a strong position and foils the British.

June 30—General Howe embarks 16,000 troops at Staten Island for Philadelphia. About this time the French Marquis De Lafayette, a youth of nineteen, arrived in America, with twelve other foreign officers, to aid the American cause.

July 1—British Gen. Burgoyne appears before Fort Ticonderoga.

” 5—Americans evacuate Ticonderoga.

” 7—Americans retreating from Ticonderoga, are defeated at Hubbardton.

” 7—United States frigate Hancock captured by three English vessels.

” 29—Burgoyne’s army, constantly victorious, reaches the Hudson.

Aug. 3—British Gen. St. Leger invests Fort Stanwix (Utica, New York).

” 6—American Gen. Herkimer defeated near Fort Stanwix. American loss 400. Gen. Herkimer killed.

” 16—Battle of Bennington, Vermont. A victory for the “Green Mountain Boys.” British lost 200 killed, 600 prisoners, 1,000 stand of arms, 1,000 swords, and four cannon. American loss fourteen killed and forty-two wounded. This turned the tide against Burgoyne.

” 22—Gen. Arnold raises the siege of Fort Stanwix. St. Leger loses his artillery, tents, and stores.

” 11—Washington’s army defeated by the British at the battle of the Brandywine, near Wilmington, Delaware. Washington retreats in good order.

” 18—Congress adjourns from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

” 19—Battle of Stillwater between Gates, American, and Gen. Burgoyne. Burgoyne held the field, but lost 500 men; Gates 300.

Sept. 16—Washington advances across the Schuylkill to attack the British, when a violent storm stops the conflict. The arms of the Americans are rendered unserviceable by the rain.

” 20—Gen. Wayne, surprised at Paoli, retreats with loss of 300 men.

” 26—The British enter Philadelphia.

Oct. 4—Battle of Germantown. Washington, with an inferior army, is again defeated. British loss 600. American loss over 1,000.

” 7—Battle of Saratoga. Burgoyne is defeated, and part of his camp with stores and ammunition, much needed by the Americans, captured. British loss 400. They retreated in the night.

” 15—Kingston, New York, burned by the British. They had taken forts Clinton and Montgomery, defending the river below, October 6th. This was an effort to aid Burgoyne, but it failed, being too late, and they retreated down the river.

” 17—Gen. Burgoyne surrenders his whole army to Gen. Gates. The prisoners amounted to 5,647. Burgoyne had lost about 4,000 since his capture of Ticonderoga. Thirty-five brass field-pieces and 5,000 stand of arms fell into the hands of the Americans. Washington, as commander-in-chief, had diminished his own army till it was much inferior to the British he was facing, to secure the success of the northern army against Burgoyne. This was the turning point of the war. Its immediate result was a treaty of alliance with France.

” 22—Count Donop, with 1,200 Hessians, attacks the American fort at Red Bank, below Philadelphia, and is repulsed by Colonel Green with 400 men. Donop is killed, and the British retire with a loss of 500 men and two vessels of war.

Nov. 15—“The Articles of Confederation” adopted by Congress.

” 16-18—Americans abandon Mud Island, and Fort Mercer, below Philadelphia.

Dec. 11—Washington establishes his army in winter quarters at Valley Forge. During this year American prisoners were treated with great cruelty at New York. General Gates, who had really succeeded in capturing Burgoyne only by the aid of Generals Schuyler and Arnold, intrigues against Washington. When this became known the general indignation killed the scheme.

1778.

The American cause was really gained by the war of the previous year. The Americans were so far unanimous, and so spirited, that the British had not been able to get a permanent hold on any part of the country, save what was occupied by their armies in force.

Jan. 30—A treaty of alliance is made with France.

Mar. 4—The American frigate Alfred, of twenty guns, captured by two English vessels of war.

” 20—The American Minister presented at the French Court.

Apr. 18—Count d’Estaing leaves Toulon, France, with a fleet to aid the Americans in the war.

Jun. 12—Philip Livingston, of New York, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, died.

” 17—The British Parliament having appointed three Commissioners, the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Auckland, and Governor Johnstone, to treat for peace with the colonies, on the basis of granting everything they had asked, except independence, Congress replies, refusing all intercourse unless the independence of the States were first recognized, and the English army withdrawn. Two years before, this would have been eagerly accepted. England had lost, at the beginning of this year, twenty thousand men, and 550 vessels, taken by American cruisers, worth twelve million dollars, and had spent one hundred million dollars on military armaments in America.

” 18—The English, afraid of being blockaded in the Delaware river, by the French fleet, evacuate Philadelphia.

Jun. 28—Battle of Morristown; Washington wins. The British retreat in the night. Lord Cornwallis commanded.

July 4-5—“The massacre of Wyoming” by the Indians, under Tory influence. About 400 troops, and most of the inhabitants killed.

Aug. 15—General Sullivan besieges the English in Newport.

” 28-29—Count d’Estaing, who was to have supported General Sullivan by a naval attack on Newport, Rhode Island, having suffered severe loss in an engagement with the English fleet, and withdrawn to Boston to refit, Sullivan retires, but is attacked by the British. He repulses them, and retreats from Rhode Island.

Dec. 29—Savannah, Geo., taken by the British.

1779.

The British direct their main efforts, this year, to the Southern States, and overrun Georgia and part of South Carolina.

Mar. 3—American force under Ashe surprised by Brigadier-General Prevost; loss 1,600.

May 2—Verplank’s Point, on the Hudson river, surrenders to British forces.

” 10—Norfolk and Portsmouth taken and partially burned by the British. Stony Point, on the Hudson, evacuated by the Americans and occupied by the British.

” 12—Prevost makes an attempt on Charleston, South Carolina, but fails.

June 6—Patrick Henry, a distinguished patriot, died, aged 63.

” 20—Gen. Lincoln, American, attacks Prevost, at Stone River. He is repulsed, and Prevost retires to Georgia.

July 4—Governor Tryon makes a descent, in Connecticut, destroys the shipping at New Haven, and burns Fairfield, Norwalk, and Greenwich. He is called off

July 16—from this barbarous work by the alarm of Gen. Clinton at the attack of Gen. Wayne on Stony Point. It was a complete surprise. Sixty of the British were killed and 550 made prisoners. American loss, 100.

” 19—Major Lee (“Light Horse Harry”) captured the garrison at Paulus’ Hook (Jersey City). The British lost 30 killed, and 159 prisoners.

Aug. 29—Gen. Sullivan is sent with an army to punish the Indians for the massacre of Wyoming and Cherry Valley. He defeats them in a fight near Elmira, New York, and lays waste their country. He burned more than forty of their towns, and destroyed their provisions and crops.

Sept. 24—Paul Jones, in a desperate naval engagement with seven English vessels, on the coast of Scotland, captures two of the enemy’s vessels.

Oct. 9—The combined French and American forces make an attack on Savannah, Geo. They are repulsed with a loss of 1,000 men. Count Pulaski was killed.

Joseph Hewes, of N. C., Thomas Lynch, of S. C., and George Ross, of Pa., signers of the Declaration of Independence, died during this year.

1780.

Jan.—The British send a large force to capture Charleston, S. C., and overrun that State.

Feb. 11—British troops are landed on St. Johns Island, and the fleet blockades Charleston.

May 6—Fort Moultrie, being invested by sea and land, surrenders to the British.

” 12—Charleston surrendered by Gen. Lincoln.

” 29—Col. Tarleton surprises Buford, American, at Waxhaws. Buford is totally defeated. South Carolina is now treated as a royal province, all opposition being overcome, for the present.

June 23—A sharp action between the British Generals Kniphausen and Clinton, with 6,000 troops, and Gen. Greene, with 1,500. The town of Springfield was burned, but Greene, taking a strong position, stopped the advance of the enemy, and he retired to Staten Island.

July 10—The Count de Rochambeau, with a fleet and 6,000 French troops, arrives at Newport, R. I. They are blockaded by the British.

Aug. 6—Col. Sumter gains a brilliant victory at Hanging Rock, S. C.

” 16—Battle of Camden, between Lord Cornwallis and Gen. Gates. The American army was superior in numbers (5,600; Cornwallis not much more than 2,000). Gates’ army was largely composed of militia, which caught a panic at the first attack. The Americans lost 1,800 killed, wounded, and prisoners. British loss, 325.

” 18—Tarleton surprises and totally defeats Sumter.

Sept. 21—Major André, of the British army, arranges with Arnold for the surrender of the fortress of West Point, on the Hudson, to the British. The plot miscarries, Arnold escapes, and André is captured.

Oct. 2—Major André is hung as a spy.

” 7—The British commander, Ferguson, is defeated and killed by a body of American back-woodsmen, at Kings Mountain, South Carolina. 300 British killed and wounded, and 800 made prisoners.

John Hart, of New Jersey, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, died this year.

1781.

Jan.—An insurrection broke out among the Pennsylvania and other troops of the American army in this month, on account of the failure of Congress to pay them. It threatened serious consequences, but was subdued by the moderation and influence of Washington.

” 4—Arnold, the traitor, landed in Virginia, and laid waste the country.

” 17—Battle of the “Cowpens,” South Carolina. Colonel Morgan, American, totally defeated Colonel Tarleton, who lost six hundred men, with his baggage and artillery. Morgan lost eighty men.

Feb. 23—George Taylor, of Pennsylvania, signer of the Declaration of Independence, died.

” 28—Richard Stockton, of New Jersey signer of the Declaration of Independence, died.

” 15—Battle of Guildford Court House North Carolina. Gen. Greene, American commander, and Lord Cornwallis, after long skirmishing, came to a battle. Greene’s army was mostly raw militia, which broke and fled. Greene was worsted, but retreated in quiet. His loss was 400; Cornwallis’, 500. So heavy a loss was as bad as a defeat to Cornwallis.

Apr. 25—Battle of Hobkirks Hill. General Greene attacked by Lord Rawdon. The Americans driven from the field. Loss on each side, 250.

May 10—Lord Rawdon evacuates Camden, South Carolina.

” 21—Several British forts in South Carolina captured by Marion and Sumter, the British losing in them 800 troops.

” 28—The American frigate Alliance captures two British sloops of war.

June 5—General Pickens, with militia, captures Augusta, Georgia. Lafayette had been maneuvering with the British forces in Virginia since April, with great ability. Though much inferior, he constantly held them in check, and avoided a battle.

July 6—Cornwallis, after a sharp skirmish with Lafayette, at Jamestown, retires to Portsmouth, Virginia. The British troops had, in three months, destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property in Virginia.

Aug. 1—Cornwallis takes post at Yorktown, Virginia, and fortifies it. His force consists of 8,000 men.

” 17—It is arranged that the combined French and American forces shall attack Cornwallis, in Virginia.

” 25—Supplies and money for the American armies landed at Boston, from France.

Sept. 5—Forts Trumbull and Griswold, in Connecticut, taken by the British, under Arnold, with circumstances of great atrocity, and New London burned.

” 8—Battle of Eutaw Springs. Both sides claim the victory. The loss was about equal—seven hundred on each side. The advantage, in the end, was in favor of the Americans, though they were repulsed. The British soon retired.

” 10—The French fleet enter the Chesapeake Bay with heavy artillery for the siege of Yorktown, while De Grasse, the French Admiral, with a large squadron, guards the entrance against the British.

Oct. 6—The allied army, 16,000 strong, commence the siege of Yorktown.

” 19—Cornwallis surrenders Yorktown, and 7,000 troops, prisoners of war.

” 25—Colonel Willett repulses 600 tories, at Johnstown, New York, with loss.

Dec. 31—Henry Laurens, United States Minister to France, sometime a prisoner in London, England, was exchanged for Gen. Burgoyne.

1782.

The war was now practically concluded. The finances of the United States, the sad condition of which had so much interfered with the collection and support of strong and well-disciplined armies, had been lately supported by loans from France and Holland. The Americans were stronger than ever, the British could not hold possession even of the Southern States, where there were more royalist inhabitants than further north; and the aid of France on the sea really made the Americans invincible. England could no longer raise the money or the troops to continue the struggle.

The year 1782 was mostly spent in negotiations. The difficulties of arranging the terms were great; and the boundaries of the new Government were a subject of much dispute.

Mar. 4—Resolutions were passed in the English Parliament, in favor of peace.

Apr. 19—Holland acknowledges American independence.

July 11—Savannah, Georgia, evacuated by the British, and occupied by General Wayne. The British carried off 5,000 negroes. Great discontent arose in the army in regard to pay, and only the great influence of Washington, and the wise moderation of American statesmen in Congress, prevented serious outbreaks.

Franklin, Adams, Jay, and Laurens, were the American Commissioners who arranged terms of peace.

Various Indian wars raged on the frontiers during this year.

1783.

Jan. 20—The preliminary treaty, providing for the cessation of hostilities between England and the United States, was signed.

Feb. 5—The Independence of the United States acknowledged by Sweden.

Mar. 24—The Independence of the United States acknowledged by Denmark. The Independence of the United States acknowledged by Spain.

Apr. 19—Cessation of hostilities officially proclaimed in the United States—just eight years from the beginning of the war. Estimated loss of men during the war, seventy thousand.

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IX. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787

The successful termination of the Revolutionary War of seven years made the United Colonies which had commenced it, in fact, as well as in their Declaration, Free and Independent States. Toward the close of the war they had adopted Articles of Confederation. These were soon found to be inadequate to secure the general welfare, and without sufficient authority to carry their measures into effect. No sufficient means were supplied by them to maintain the public credit, and all the interests of the country languished.

They formed the Bond of Union for six years or more, and served an excellent purpose in calling the attention of statesmen and the people to the points most important in the constitution of a vigorous government. It was the trial essay, and the intelligence of the leading men of that period turned it to great profit.

In 1786 the legislature of Virginia proposed a convention of commissioners to improve the condition of trade and commerce. These commissioners met and recommended Congress to call a General Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. This convention assembled in May, 1787, in Philadelphia; all the States except Rhode Island being represented. George Washington was chosen president. The members of this convention were the representatives of a people who had proved their firmness and attachment to liberty during a long war and against great difficulties. The delegates were men of tried patriotism, and the event has proved their wise and discriminating foresight. The system of government they planned is their most eloquent eulogy. The severe tests to which the expansion of the nation and the conflicts of sections and interests have subjected it, have served only the more fully to reveal how perfectly they comprehended the principles of a republican government, and their singular skill in arrangement. They combined the utmost vigor with the greatest security of rights. It is a glorious monument to their political insight. They, themselves, were not aware how profound was the wisdom, how complete the adaptation of its provisions. They signed it with many misgivings, on the 17th of September, 1787, after four months of diligent labor. It was then presented to the people for their ratification. They were cautious and prudent in those times, and could not appreciate as we do now, the extreme value of the work that had been accomplished. Time was required to bring out its excellences, and show how few and comparatively unimportant were its defects. It was examined with careful attention, and finally adopted as follows:

By Convention of Delaware 7th December, 1787 ” ” Pennsylvania 12th December, 1787 ” ” New Jersey 18th December, 1787 ” ” Georgia 2d January, 1788 ” ” Connecticut 9th January, 1788 ” ” Massachusetts 6th February, 1788 ” ” Maryland 28th April, 1788 ” ” South Carolina 3rd May, 1788 ” ” New Hampshire 21st June, 1788 ” ” Virginia 26th June, 1788 ” ” New York 26th July, 1788 ” ” North Carolina 21st November, 1789 ” ” Rhode Island 29th May, 1790

As shown above, two years passed before it was finally ratified by all the States. Both the delay and the final unanimity in its acceptance, giving testimony to the prudence and thoughtfulness of the people.

Electors of President and Vice-President were chosen in the winter of 1788-1789. March 4th had been appointed as the time for the government to go into operation, but a delay in assembling the members of Congress deferred the inauguration of Washington, as first President, until April 30th. Congress immediately organized the new government, and, in conjunction with the President, appointed the necessary officers. Some minor provisions were added or changed by the first Congress in the manner provided by the Constitution itself, that is, by a two-thirds vote in both Houses, and ratification by three-fourths of the States.

Ten amendments were made at this time. The eleventh amendment was added in 1794. The twelfth in 1803. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments have been added since 1863.

A resolution to amend is passed by the requisite majorities in both Houses, sent to the legislatures of the States, and, when three-fourths of them have approved it, the Secretary of State causes the resolution and amendment to be published in all the States and Territories, and it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Containing the wisest provisions of English law, it rejects all that is not in harmony with our circumstances, and our fundamental doctrine that all men have equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This it keeps continually in view, and, by the sense of dignity and worth which it tends to promote in the humblest man, gradually educates him up to the standard necessary for a free citizen, and, by its respect for the rights of all, tends to induce in each the same disposition.

The wisest men of the Republic, by infusing into this document their own self-respect, and respect for others, gave tone and direction to all the future. Their own characters were so far imparted to their work as to exert a salutary influence on the destiny of the people whose fundamental law they compiled.

This document is the law of the land, obliging the highest to obedience, to justice, and right, and raising the lowest to an equal share in its political privileges, and to its vigorous protection. Consequently a steady improvement in these respects has marked the growth of the country, and the benign influence of this respect for man and his rights has gone forth from the American Republic as a Regenerator among the nations of the earth.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND ITS AMENDMENTS.

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.

SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

SEC. 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 qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the 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 apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service 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 Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the representation from 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.

SEC. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence 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 expiration 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 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 President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 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 disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.

SEC. 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 Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, 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.

SEC. 5. Each house shall be the judge of the election, 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 proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, 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 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.

SEC. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by 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 respective 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 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 continuance in office.

SEC. 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills.

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes 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 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 objection, 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 all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined 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 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 adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), 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 House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

SEC. 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 welfare 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 among the several States, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of 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 sciences 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 Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, 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;

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;

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 Congress.

To exercise legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceeding ten miles 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 proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

SEC. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to 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 invasion 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, 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 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 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.

SEC. 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 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 the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection 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; 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 on 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 in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.

ARTICLE II.

SECTION 1. 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 legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; 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 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 the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President 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 shall be the President, 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 Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the vote 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 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.][1]

[1] This clause within brackets has been superseded and annulled by the 12th amendment.

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.

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 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 devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, 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 increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully 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.”

SEC. 2. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the Executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardon 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 of 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 Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

SEC. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend 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.

SEC. 4. 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.

ARTICLE III.

SECTION 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and 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 diminished during their continuance in office.

SEC. 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 consuls;—to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;—to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;—to controversies between two or more States;—between a State and citizens of another State;—between citizens of different States;—between 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.

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 original jurisdiction.

In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held 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.

SEC. 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 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.

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.

SEC. 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all 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 Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

SEC. 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 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.

SEC. 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 domestic violence.

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 by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress. Provided that no amendment 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, 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 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 oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification 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 Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.

DONE in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the twelfth. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, We have hereunto subscribed our names.

GEO. WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia.

New Hampshire.

JOHN LANGDON, NICHOLAS GILMAN.

Massachusetts.

NATHANIEL GORHAM, RUFUS KING.

Connecticut.

WM. SAM’L JOHNSON, ROGER SHERMAN.

New York.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

New Jersey.

WIL. LIVINGSTON, WM. PATERSON, DAVID BREARLEY, JONA. DAYTON.

Pennsylvania.

B. FRANKLIN, ROBT. MORRIS, THOS. FITZSIMONS, JAMES WILSON, THOMAS MIFFLIN, GEO. CLYMER, JARED INGERSOLL, GOUV. MORRIS.

Delaware.

GEO. READ, JOHN DICKINSON, JACO. BROOM, GUNNING BEDFORD, JUN’R, RICHARD BASSETT.

Maryland.

JAMES M’HENRY, DANL. CARROLL, DAN. OF ST. THOS. JENIFER.

Virginia.

JOHN BLAIR, JAMES MADISON, JR.

North Carolina.

WM. BLOUNT, HU. WILLIAMSON, RICH’D DOBBS SPAIGHT.

South Carolina.

J. RUTLEDGE, CHARLES PINCKNEY, CHAS. COTESWORTH PINCKNEY, PIERCE BUTLER.

Georgia.

WILLIAM FEW, ABR. BALDWIN.

WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary.

ARTICLES IN ADDITION TO, AND AMENDATORY 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.

ARTICLE I.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 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 assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

ARTICLE II.

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 persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

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, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

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 confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

ARTICLE VII.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy 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 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 people.

ARTICLE XI.

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced 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 to be voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, 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 list 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 President of the Senate shall, in 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, 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 having the highest number not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives 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 Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the 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 President. 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 the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person Constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

ARTICLE XIII.

SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 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.

SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

ARTICLE XIV.

SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the 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 immunities 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.

SEC. 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several States according to their respective 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 electors 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 inhabitants 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 crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

SEC. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative 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 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.

SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts 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 the aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any loss or emancipation of any slave, but such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this act.

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.

SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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Chapter X

PRESIDENTS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, AND THE VARIOUS SEATS OF GOVERNMENT FROM 1774 TO 1789.

Peyton Randolph, Virginia 5th Sept., 1774 Henry Middleton, South Carolina 22d Oct., 1774 Peyton Randolph, Virginia 10th May, 1775 John Hancock, Massachusetts 24th May, 1775 Henry Laurens, South Carolina 1st Nov., 1777 John Jay, New York 10th Dec., 1778 Samuel Huntingdon, Connecticut 28th Sept., 1779 Thomas McKean, Delaware 10th July, 1781 John Hanson, Maryland 5th Nov., 1781 Elias Boudinot, New Jersey 4th ” 1782 Thomas Mifflin, Pennsylvania 3d ” 1783 Richard Henry Lee, Virginia 30th ” 1784 Nathaniel Gorham, Massachusetts 6th Jan., 1786 Arthur St. Clair, Pennsylvania 2d Feb., 1787 Cyrus Griffin, Virginia 22d Jan., 1788

The seat of government was established as follows: At Philadelphia, Pa., commencing September 5th, 1774, and May 10th, 1775; at Baltimore, Md., December 20th, 1776; at Philadelphia, Pa., March 4th, 1777; at Lancaster, Pa., September 27th, 1777; at York, Pa., September 30th, 1777; at Philadelphia, Pa., July 2d, 1778; at Princeton, N. J., June 30th, 1783; at Annapolis, Md., November 26th, 1783; at Trenton, N. J., November 1st, 1784; and at New York City, N. Y., January 11th, 1785.

On the 4th of March, 1789, the present Constitution, which had been adopted by a convention and ratified by the requisite number of States, went into operation.

PART SECOND.

THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

The plan of this part of our work requires us to give a complete view of the government of the United States, and in such detail as to be adequate to all the purposes of the citizen and the student who wish to understand its structure and modes of working. It will be found, we think, a clear, concise, and complete account of what it is indispensable to the American to know.

There are three branches, each independent, having its sphere of general action entirely distinct, and clearly defined by the Constitution; yet working in harmony with the others, and locking in, so to speak, with them at special points, like the cogs of a system of wheels. The adjustment was more perfect than the authors of the Constitution themselves believed; probably because the spirit of the whole was in harmony with the people whose interests it was designed to guard.

These three branches are the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial. All the institutions or general subdivisions of each are given in connection, with such explanations and data as they seem to require. We commence with the Executive, as being most immediately in contact with the people at large, having a wider field, and a larger number of distinct organizations and agents. This branch exhausted, we present the Legislative, and finally the Judicial, closing with such matters as belong to the government as a whole.

No human government is perfect, neither can exact and equal justice be done in every case by human laws. But the scope and design of our legislation and jurisprudence is to dispense justice to all, to place all on an equality before the laws, and to give the same rights to the rich and to the poor. No privileged class is known to our laws, and the lowest may aspire to the highest places of distinction and honor; many have done so, and have reached the most exalted positions. The fullest religious liberty is granted to all; every man may worship as he pleases, when and where he pleases, without molestation or fear. He is not, as in many other countries, taxed to support a church established by law. He may pay for religious purposes as much or as little as he pleases, and to any church he prefers, or he may pay nothing, and no one can call him to account or use any compulsion whatever in this matter.

Every citizen has a vote for the choice of his rulers, and through his representatives a voice in making the laws by which he is governed.

As to his business or calling, he may do that which best suits his interests or his tastes. He may go when or where he desires, he may stay in the country or leave it without restraint or hindrance; in short, he may do whatsoever seemeth good to him, provided he does not infringe on the rights of others.

To this liberty, to these equal rights, privileges, and advantages do we attribute our rapid growth and power. The advantages and benefits of so wise, so liberal, and so beneficent a government are not unknown to the people of other countries where they do not enjoy so much freedom; and this accounts for the wonderful immigration to the United States from nearly every country in Europe. This flow has continued for more than three-quarters of a century, and is still unabated. It has added many millions to the natural increase of our population, while very few of our own people ever leave their own country with the hope of bettering their condition, or of finding a government under which they can enjoy more liberty or better protection. To gain a clearer conception of the intimate connection between a good government and the prosperity of the country, let us, for example, place Mexico in contrast with the United States. Mexico was settled long before the United States, and in climate and mineral wealth has the advantage of us; yet the ever unsettled condition of its government, together with intolerance of any but the Catholic religion, has prevented any increase of population or any advancement in anything which gives a nation respectability, greatness, or power.

Let us draw another contrast by considering Ireland. An oppressive government has diminished the population, prevented any advancement, and impoverished the country. We might draw many such contrasts between the United States and other countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, which would convince any one who has the power to trace causes to effects, and effects to causes, that a just and liberal government is an essential condition upon which the prosperity of any country depends.

THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.

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I. THE PRESIDENT

1. Congress legislates, or enacts laws; the officers of the Supreme Court decide whether those laws are in conformity with the Constitution; but the real ruler, the actual possessor of power, is the President. In the language of the first section of the second article of the Constitution, “The executive powers of the government shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” The other branches of the government decide what is to be done, and what is constitutionally legal, and the President is the agent. He executes, or puts in actual operation, the measures determined on by them. Should he attempt to do anything not so prescribed, or to do anything in an improper manner, contrary to or different from the manner prescribed by the law, he may be impeached and removed, and all the subordinate officers and agents of the government released from the obligation to obey him.

2. The other branches are composed of many persons. He has no associate. The execution of the law requires vigor and decision, such as can be found only in a single mind and will. All history shows that there is constant danger of power being misused, whether one, two, or any number of men are the depositaries of it; but one man is much better than two or more, when vigor and promptness are required. All the securities and checks that could be applied without embarrassing his necessary freedom of action have been provided. They can not, indeed, supply the want of judgment and uprightness, and so no absolute security against mismanagement can exist; but the danger may be in large part avoided by carefulness in the selection of the man who is to wield the whole power of a great nation.

It is an office of great dignity, responsibility, and power, and requires a man of great ability and probity to properly fill it.

3. The President is elected for four years, and may be reëlected if the people see fit. Several times in our history the President has been once reëlected, and so held the office for eight years; but none have been twice reëlected, though there is no law against it. The term commences and terminates on the fourth day of March. He is elected by the people, every voter having an equal influence in the choice; but it is not done by voting for him directly, but by voting first for men called electors, who cast their votes according to the wish of the people. This system we shall hereafter examine.

4. A Vice-President is elected at the same time and in the same way, who, in case of the President’s death, removal, resignation, or inability to discharge the duties of his office, becomes acting President during the remainder of his term, or while the disability continues. The first Congress passed a law giving the President a salary of $25,000 per annum, with the use of a furnished house, and it remained the same until 1873, when it was raised to $50,000 per year. He is forbidden by the Constitution to receive any other public income during his term of office, nor is he at liberty to accept presents from any foreign power.

Before entering on the duties of his office he is required to take an oath “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” to the best of his ability.

5. It is required that he shall be a native-born citizen of the United States, that he shall have been fourteen years a resident in the United States, and that he shall not be less than thirty-five years of age; which are designed to insure his attachment to American interests, his thorough acquaintance with American affairs, and the full maturity of his mind and character.

6. It is his duty to appoint such officers in every department of the public service as are not otherwise provided for. He usually sends the nomination to the Senate for their approval or consent, and when that is given appoints them by commission, signed with his name, to the office. In this manner he nominates the Justices of the Supreme Court, ambassadors, resident ministers, chargé-d’affaires, consuls, and other representatives of the government abroad, all the Heads of Executive Departments, and the more important subordinate officers of each department. When the Senate is not in session he may appoint all these directly, to serve until it meets again. The clerks and minor officers are usually appointed by Heads of Departments. In all other cases the advice and consent of the Senate are required before the appointment and commission can be legal.

7. It is his duty to make treaties with Foreign Powers, but these require confirmation by two-thirds of the Senate to be valid. He receives the Representatives of Foreign Powers, and superintends all diplomatic intercourse with them and with our own Representatives abroad.

He is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and must sign the commissions of all the officers in each. He may grant reprieves and pardons at his discretion, except in cases of impeachment, and he is required to approve and sign the laws passed by Congress before they can take effect. If he does not approve a law he “vetoes” it by returning it to Congress, with his reasons for not signing it. If that body reconsiders it and reënacts it by a two-thirds vote of each house, it may become a law without his signature.

8. He may call extra sessions of Congress for special reasons, and may adjourn it in case of disagreement between the two houses as to the time of adjournment. It is his duty to give information to Congress, at the commencement of each session, of the state of the country, and to recommend to it such legislative enactments as he may judge are required. This is called “The President’s Message,” and is looked for with much interest in this and in foreign countries, since his position makes him intimately acquainted with every subject relating to the public welfare. When he considers that the occasion demands it, or when he is requested by Congress to give information on a special point, he communicates with them by similar documents, called messages.

He may be impeached for treason, bribery, or other high crimes, by the House of Representatives, and tried by the Senate, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding over that body during the trial, and in case of conviction is removed from office.

9. It will be seen that he possesses great power, and that he is almost overwhelmed by responsibilities. The members of his cabinet are his constitutional advisers, and share more or less of this responsibility, although his will may override them all if he so chooses.

There are many provisions for preventing an abuse of power in the Constitution and in the laws of Congress, but all history proves that nothing but watchfulness and wisdom on the part of the people can preserve to them their rights and liberties. Power, wherever lodged, is naturally aggressive. Fortunately the people themselves in this country are the source of power, and may legally restrain its exercise in their representatives and executive officers, when it threatens to become excessive.

The following are the names of all the Presidents, from Washington, the first, down to the present incumbent:

George Washington, Va., 30th April, 1789, to 4th March, 1797—seven years ten months and four days.

John Adams, Mass., 4th March, 1797, to 4th March, 1801—four years.

Thomas Jefferson, Va., 4th March, 1801, to 4th March, 1809—eight years.

James Madison, Va., 4th March, 1809, to 4th March, 1817—eight years.

James Monroe, Va., 4th March, 1817, to 4th March, 1825—eight years.

John Quincy Adams, Mass., 4th March, 1825, to 4th March, 1829—four years.

Andrew Jackson, Tenn., 4th March, 1829, to 4th March, 1837—eight years.

Martin Van Buren, N. Y., 4th March, 1837, to 4th March, 1841—four years.

William H. Harrison, O., 4th March, 1841, to 4th April, 1841—one month.

John Tyler, Va., 4th April, 1841, to 4th March, 1845—three years and eleven months.

James K. Polk, Tenn., 4th March, 1845, to 4th March, 1849—four years.

Zachary Taylor, La., 4th March, 1849, to 9th July, 1850—one year four months and five days.

Millard Fillmore, N. Y., 9th July, 1850, to 4th March, 1853—two years seven months and twenty-six days.

Franklin Pierce, N. H., 4th March, 1853, to 4th March, 1857—four years.

James Buchanan, Pa., 4th March, 1857, to 4th March, 1861—four years.

Abraham Lincoln, Ill., 4th March, 1861, to 15th April, 1865—four years one month and ten days.

Andrew Johnson, Tenn., 15th April, 1865, to 4th March, 1869—three years ten months and twenty days.

Ulysses S. Grant, Ill., 4th March, 1869, to 4th March, 1877—eight years.

Of these William H. Harrison died 4th April, 1841, just one month after his inauguration. On the death of Harrison, Tyler, the Vice-President, became acting President. Taylor died 9th July, 1850, and Fillmore, Vice-President, became acting President. Lincoln was assassinated on the 14th April, 1865, one month and ten days after he was inaugurated upon his second term, and Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President, became acting President—this being the third time that such an event has occurred since the government went into operation.

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II. THE VICE-PRESIDENT

This officer is elected by the people at the same time, and in the same manner, as the President, and for the same term. He must be a native citizen of the United States, and thirty-five years of age.

His high-sounding title would lead one who is but little acquainted with our government to think that he stands next to the President himself in dignity and power; that on his shoulders rests a large amount of the duties and responsibilities of the administration. Such, however, is not the case. He is, in fact, nearer a cipher than any of the high officers of State. He is merely the presiding officer of the Senate, with not even the power to vote, except in case of a tie vote in that body, when he may give the casting vote. It is only in case of the death, resignation, impeachment, or disability of the President to discharge his duties, that the Vice-President becomes an officer of much power or dignity.

The following is a list of all the Vice-Presidents:

John Adams, Mass., April 30th, 1789, to March 4th, 1797—seven years, ten months and four days.

Thomas Jefferson, Va., March 4th, 1797, to March 4th, 1801—four years.

Aaron Burr, N. Y., March 4th, 1801, to March 4th, 1805—four years.

George Clinton, N. Y., March 4th, 1805, to April 30th, 1812—seven years, one month, and sixteen days.

Elbridge Gerry, Mass., March 4th, 1813, to November 23d, 1814—one year, seven months, and nineteen days.

Daniel D. Tompkins, N. Y., March 4th, 1817, to March 4th, 1825—eight years.

John C. Calhoun, S. C., March 4th, 1825 to March 4th, 1833—eight years.

Martin Van Buren, N. Y., March 4th, 1833, to March 4th, 1837—four years.

Richard M. Johnson, Ky., March 4th, 1837, to March 4th, 1841—four years.

John Tyler, Va., March 4th, 1841, to April 4th, 1841—one month.

George M. Dallas, Pa., March 4th, 1845, to March 4th, 1849—four years.

Millard Fillmore, N. Y., March 4th, 1849, to July 9th, 1850—one year and four months.

William R. King, Ala.

John C. Breckenridge, Ky., March 4th, 1857, to March 4th, 1861—four years.

Hannibal Hamlin, Me., March 4th, 1861, to March 4th, 1865—four years.

Andrew Johnson, Tenn., March 4th, 1865, to April 15th, 1865—one month and eleven days.

Schuyler Colfax, Ind., March 4th, 1869, to March 4th, 1873—four years.

Henry Wilson, Mass., March 4th, 1873, to March 4th, 1877—four years.

Of these, Clinton died April 20th, 1812; from which time till March 4th, 1813, the Vice-Presidency was vacant.

Gerry died November 23d, 1814; from which time till March 4th, 1817, the Vice-Presidency was vacant.

Tyler became acting President upon the death of President Harrison; and until March 4th, 1845, the Vice-Presidency was vacant.

Fillmore became acting President upon the death of President Taylor, July 9th, 1850; and until March 4th, 1853, the Vice-Presidency was vacant.

King was elected with President Pierce, in 1852, but died April 18th, 1853. He never took his seat, and the Vice-Presidency was vacant till March 4th, 1857.

Johnson became acting President upon the death of President Lincoln, April 15th, 1865, and the Vice-Presidency again became vacant, and remained so until March 4th, 1869.

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III. THE CABINET

1. The members of the President’s Cabinet are seven in number, viz.: Five Secretaries, at the head of their respective departments, of State, Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior; and the Postmaster General, and Attorney General. It is through these departments and their various bureaus, officers, agents, and clerks, that the President performs most of the duties of his position, viz.: that of executing, or putting in force, the laws of Congress. He must, therefore, necessarily take them into his counsels, and arrange, by their assistance, the conduct of public affairs. Each one has the affairs of his department so thoroughly systematized that he can tell, with a little examination, the means at his disposal for carrying into effect any special measure; and precise records of the whole state of the public service may, at all times, be found in their offices.

2. They are also selected for their several positions from among those regarded as the most eminent statesmen of the country, and each is supposed to be specially adapted, by his experience, acquirements, and capacity, for his special position, as well as in harmony with the general policy adopted by the President. They are, therefore, properly, and ex officio (by virtue of their office), his advisers. No one else can tell as well as they the condition of public affairs at any particular time, nor, in consequence, give as good advice on any special measure requiring such knowledge. Without their aid the President would have few means of judging what was best, or possible, to be done at any particular crisis. They furnish the material for his decisions, and the instruments to execute them. They are heads of the Executive Departments, and, together with the President, who is the head of them all, bringing them all into harmony, and under the control of a single purpose and will, they are called the administration. They administer, or carry on, the government.

3. In other countries these administrative heads are usually called Ministers, probably because they serve the ruler—servant being the original meaning of the term minister—and are commonly chosen among the members of the legislative bodies—perhaps because that brings the government into closer sympathy with the legislators, and promotes harmony of action; but with us, no member of the Cabinet can have a seat in, or take any part in the proceedings of, Congress. Great care was taken to keep the different branches of the government distinct and independent of each other. Each branch, and each subdivision, is kept separate, and confined to its own range of duties, being united to the others only by its head, so that confusion and conflict might be impossible.

4. Each sub-department reports at stated intervals to its head, and he to the President, and through him to Congress; and at the same time they present such suggestions and arguments for legislation in regard to their several departments as their knowledge, experience, and reflections may have convinced them to be desirable. They are supposed to give their whole time and thought to the care and improvement of their several branches of the public service, and to be in condition to know what further improvement should be provided for by law, better than any one else.

5. Under Washington’s administration the departments and members of Cabinet were but three—of State, of the Treasury, and of War. In 1798, during the administration of John Adams, the Department of the Navy was added, and its Secretary took his seat in the Cabinet. It then had only four members down to Jackson’s administration (1829 to 1837), when the Postmaster General was made a Cabinet officer, which increased the number to five. During Mr. Tyler’s administration (1841-1845) the Attorney General was made a member, and the number was then six. At the close of Mr. Polk’s term as President, in 1849, the Department of the Interior was created, and its chief given the seventh seat in the Cabinet; since which time there has been no increase. Congress may, at their discretion, as the country grows, and the public service with it, create other great or independent departments requiring its representative to have a seat in the Cabinet, that the state of the entire service may be readily known from the officer most familiar with each branch.

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IV. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

1. As the Chief Executive of a government cannot, for want of time, attend to all the details of the business belonging to his office, he, according to the usage of all times, appoints various officers to attend to the different branches of public business. In most countries these officers, who are next in importance to the chief of the government, are called Ministers. In accordance with the practice of using plain and simple terms which was adopted in this country at the beginning, they are called Secretaries. They are subordinates of the President and supposed to act in his name and under his direction.

2. They are not specially named in the Constitution, but are several times referred to as Heads of Departments, and thus it was assumed that there would be such offices and officers, and their appointment was provided for. The first Congress under the Constitution organized these Executive Departments, the President nominating and the Senate confirming the appointment of the more responsible officers.

3. The first of these in rank is called the Department of State, and its head is named the Secretary of State. He is, by a law passed in 1853, aided by an Assistant Secretary, appointed in the same manner as himself. The numerous under officers required by the extensive business falling to this department are appointed by the Secretary at its head.

4. This Department has charge of such business as may arise between this government and the governments of other countries. In most countries it is called the Department, or Ministry, of Foreign Affairs, but the term Department of State was preferred here. The great Seal of the United States is in his keeping, and it is his duty to affix it to all civil commissions given to officers of the United States who are appointed by the President and Senate, or by the President alone. It is his duty, under the supervision and control of the President, to conduct the correspondence with, and give instructions to, the Foreign Ministers, Consuls, and Agents of the government abroad, to take charge of the official business and intercourse of the government with the representatives of foreign governments sent to us, and to attend to such other business arising from our Foreign Relations as shall be committed to him by the President.

5. It is his duty to keep in his office the original copies of all acts, resolutions, and orders of Congress. He must deliver to each Senator and Representative in Congress, and to the Governor of each State, a printed copy of the same; and during the session of each Congress he must publish the acts and resolutions passed by it in one newspaper in the District of Columbia, and in not more than two in each State and Territory of the United States. He must also publish in like manner all amendments of the Constitution, and all public treaties made and ratified between the United States and any foreign State, Prince, or Power, or with any of the Indian tribes.

6. And at the close of each session of Congress he must cause to be published 11,000 copies in book form of all the laws, etc., as before stated; and to distribute the same as directed by law to the President and Vice-President, and to every ex-President; to all the members of the Senate and House of Representatives; to all the heads of the various departments and bureaus; to all the Judges of the United States Courts, their Clerks and Marshals; to all our Foreign Ministers, Consuls, and Public Agents; in short, to all the important officers of the government at home and abroad; in order that all who are in government employ may know what the laws are, and what changes have been made in acts formerly existing. The remaining copies are distributed to the States and Territories according to the number of Representatives in Congress from each of them.

7. It is also made the duty of the Secretary of State to give passports to our own citizens who wish to travel in foreign countries; to cause passports to be issued by such Diplomatic or Consular officers of the United States as the President shall direct; to give such information to our people through the newspapers as he may from time to time receive from our Diplomatic and Consular agents abroad, as he may deem important to the nation, respecting our commercial interests in foreign countries, and to prepare a form of passport for the ships and vessels of the United States.

8. In the execution of extradition treaties between us and foreign governments, it is lawful for the Secretary of State, under his hand and seal of office, to issue an order for the rendition of any person who has been found guilty of crime in a foreign country, to any properly authorized person; that such criminal may be taken out of the United States to the country where the crime was committed.

9. It will be seen that, in addition to the duties connected with our Foreign Relations, he is a kind of General Secretary of the Legislative branch of the government, which probably led to his being called Secretary of State rather than Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The highest officer, in most other governments, under the Executive, is commonly called Prime Minister; but he usually has care of the general interests of the government, internal as well as external, and the term would not be fitting to the Secretary of State.

Our Foreign Relations require to be managed with great wisdom and skill, since they often involve peace and war, and the general prosperity of the country. It therefore requires a man of great ability, and of extensive knowledge. He is a member of the Cabinet, and one of the advisers or counselors of the President. His appointment is for four years, or during a Presidential term; but he may be removed by the President at any time, if he deems it advisable.

10. As a matter of historical reference, we append the names of all the statesmen who have filled this high office, commencing with the first, placing them in the order of the dates of their appointments, together with the States from which they came:

SECRETARIES OF STATE.

Thomas Jefferson, Va., Sept. 26th, 1789. Edmund Randolph, Va., Jan. 2d, 1794. Timothy Pickering, Mass., Dec. 10th, 1795. John Marshall, Va., May 13th, 1800. James Madison, Va., March 5th, 1801. Robert Smith, Md., March 6th, 1809. James Monroe, Va., April 2d, 1811. John Quincy Adams, Mass., March 4th, 1817. Henry Clay, Ky., March 7th, 1825. Martin Van Buren, N. Y., March 6th, 1829. Edward Livingston, La., May 24th, 1831. Louis McLane, Del., May 29th, 1833. John Forsyth, Ga., June 27th, 1834. Daniel Webster, Mass., March 5th, 1841. H. S. Legaré, S. C., May 9th, 1843. A. P. Upshur, Va., June 24th, 1843. John Nelson, Md., Feb. 29th, 1844. John C. Calhoun, S. C., March 6th, 1844. James Buchanan, Pa., March 5th, 1845. John M. Clayton, Del., March 7th, 1849. Daniel Webster, Mass., July 20th, 1850. Edward Everett, Mass., Dec. 9th, 1851. William L. Marcy, N. Y., March 5th, 1853. Lewis Cass, Mich., March 6th, 1857. Jeremiah S. Black, Pa., Dec. 14th, 1860. William H. Seward, N. Y., March 5th, 1861. Elihu B. Washburne, Ill., March 5th, 1869. Hamilton Fish, N. Y., March 11th, 1869. Hamilton Fish, N. Y., reappointed March 4th, 1873.

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V. OUR REPRESENTATIVES IN FOREIGN LANDS

1. Nations have business with each other, as individuals have; and their governments employ agents to represent them and transact business in their name. By these means their political and commercial relations and intercourse are regulated, treaties are made, and any disputes that may arise between them settled. Officers of this character have been employed from very early times, and by all nations. They are considered to be clothed with the authority and dignity of the government they represent, and therefore the office has ever been held in great honor, and men most familiar with the affairs of their own nation, of most extensive knowledge, prudence, and wisdom, are supposed to be selected for so eminent a service.

2. By the law (or general consent) of nations ambassadors are exempt from arrest, imprisonment, or prosecution. Any interference with them in this way might hinder the execution of the duties assigned them, and be a great damage to the public welfare, and an offense of that kind committed against them is considered as a dishonor to the government whose agents they are. On the other hand they require much judgment and tact that their conduct may not bring discredit on their government. Their inviolable character is carried so far as to exempt their servants from arrest, and their property from seizure for debt. The law of Congress protecting the Representatives of foreign governments to this country is but a re-enactment, or acceptance, of what has been known as the Law of Nations for many centuries all over the civilized world. A violation of this established usage among nations, without due atonement and satisfaction, would be recognized as a sufficient cause for war against the nation so offending.

3. Our own foreign ministers of all grades are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. They are not, however, the representatives of the President, but of the government of the United States. We said of all grades, for there are grades of these officials, different in dignity and power. They are distinguished also by different names which indicate their rank, viz.: Ambassadors, Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary, Ministers Resident, and Chargé d’Affaires.

AMBASSADORS.

4. This title in our country has no very specific meaning. It designates, however, a minister of the highest grade; but does not distinguish between one who goes to reside in the country whither he is sent, and one who is sent for some special purpose; such as that of negotiating a treaty of peace, or some other particular matter with which he is charged, and when that is accomplished returns home. In the latter case he is frequently styled a commissioner, because he was duly authorized, and commissioned by his government to act for it; but in both cases the officer is an ambassador, for that word means a person authorized and sent to transact business for his government.

ENVOYS EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTERS PLENIPOTENTIARY.

5. These titles designate ministers of the highest class; but generally refer to such as go to reside in the country where sent, and with full power to act for their government, in all matters and things of a diplomatic character.

Where negotiations become necessary between the two nations, permanent ministers of this grade are only sent to great powers—governments of the higher class.

MINISTERS RESIDENT.

6. These are not considered so high in rank as those termed envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary. Yet they are clothed with nearly the same powers, but are sent to countries of less importance, and receive less salaries.

COMMISSIONERS.

7. There are a still lower grade of ministers (if we may call them so), or government agents, who reside abroad. They are sent to look after the interests of our government and its citizens in places of not much importance, and where there is but little to do. They also receive but small pay.

CHARGE D’AFFAIRES.

8. These officials rank as the lowest grade of ministers or diplomatic officers, and are not clothed with much authority or power, excepting when authorized to act in the room of a minister of higher rank, whose place is for the time being vacant. In this case consuls have been authorized to act in place of ministers; but not unless authorized to do so by the President of the United States.

SECRETARIES OF LEGATION.

9. Secretaries of Legation may with propriety be noticed under the general head of ministers, although they are not ministers of any grade, but are appointed by the same powers that appoint ministers, and accompany them merely as their secretaries. In the absence of a chargé d’affaires, they are sometimes authorized to act in his place. The position is not one of great dignity, nor is the compensation large.

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