lic domain of the United States will in itself be a check against extravagant concessions of land in that manner, and an intelligent public opinion has been created to prevent wastefulness hereafter.

The advancing wealth of the nation resulting in a growing importance of governmental functions in different departments of the United States Government, which are respectively under the direction of one of the Cabinet officers, and the desirability that these departments should be subjected to the constant criticism of the Legislative branch of the Government, have caused an earnest agitation in favor of giving to Cabinet officers seats in the House of Representatives, with a power to debate without voting on the result; so that in the United States, as in England, interpellations may be made respecting the conduct of any one of the important departments of Government, and an answer elicited on the spot. At the beginning of the American Government these Cabinet officers were personal advisers of the President, were appointed by him, and were responsible to him alone. The fact is now, however, recognized (more especially with reference to the Treasury) that the annual reports or budgets give insufficient information, and that during the course of the year too much opportunity is afforded for sinister influ

ences to accomplish ends having relation to stockjobbing and the obtaining of private information of intentions on the part of the Treasury as to policy, sale of bonds, etc., a remedy for this would be found if the Secretary of the Treasury were personally responsible to Congress. The further advantage expected to be derived from having the Cabinet or Ministry connected with the popular branch of the legislative body is that in that way some more direct responsibility will attach for the legislation of the Congressional session to the Government in power. One of the serious defects of all American legislation is the almost entire absence of responsibility connected with legislation. The party having a majority has no organized Ministry charged with the duty of forwarding and formulating the public legislation of the session, and however faulty and slipshod, and even mischievous, the Congressional or State legislative law-making may prove during the course of the year, the party having a numerical majority in the legislative body is not responsible because there is no Ministry as part of the law-making power which proposes and promotes legislation. Laws are proposed by individual members upon their own responsibility, and are passed in a hap-hazard and slipshod sort of way. A further argument

in favor of the reform is that to compel, on the floor of the House, an explanation of the conduct of the department, does certainly apply the corrective of publicity to all jobbery and peculation. The objection, that the selection of persons to fill executive departments should be made with reference to executive and not oratorical abilities, and that such a change might compel appointments with the view to capacity readily to explain conduct, instead of fitness for administrative work, has but little validity, as a very short experience teaches the average American to talk clearly and glibly on the subject he has in hand.

The evil of including improper items in a bill making appropriations for the indispensable objects of government, thus morally obstructing a veto, caused, in several of the States, a constitutional amendment to be adopted enabling the Governors to veto special items of the supply or appropriation bills, and to approve the remainder. The clearly extravagant character of the River and Harbor Bill of 1882 has awakened public attention to this subject, and will, doubtless, at an early day, cause an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to be adopted, which will clothe the President with a like power.

CHAPTER VII.

THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS; THE CHANGES THEREIN, AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT.

THE Federal power being one of delegated powers, the States are, in all matters not so delegated, the sole sovereignties. The State Constitutions map out the organization of the State Governments, limit their powers, and are in many respects more important conservators of the liberty of the citizen than the Federal Constitution itself; for the reason that the powers not surrendered to the Government of the United States are much more extensive and much more immediately related to the rights of the individual, and therefore affect him more closely than the powers delegated to the Federal Government. In all their functions and domestic relations, their amenability to deprivation of life or liberty by the criminal law, in the assertion or denial of rights through the civil administration of justice, the State, with but few exceptions, has absolute control over the life, liberty, and happiness of its citizens. This book, therefore, would 250

be incomplete if it did not give some account of the changes which have taken place in recent years in most of the State Constitutions, showing by means of these organic laws the course of governmental development.

During the Revolutionary War most of the original thirteen States adopted State Constitutions, many of which were redrafted shortly after the war; and before the formation of the Constitution of the United states, all the original States had written Constitutions. Every State, on its admission to the Union, submits its Constitution to Congress, so as to give assurance thereby that it has, as required by the United States Constitution, adopted a republican form of government. These Constitutions all contain elaborate declarations of the rights of citizens which are not to be subjected to legislative or judicial interference, and are thereby reserved from the interposition of Government. These declarations of rights also contain carefully worded provisions securing the right to the writ of habeas corpus, of jury trial, and of exemption of private property from seizure for public purposes except on due compensation being made. They set forth how such compensation shall be ascertained; insist upon guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press; secure the right of petition and the right