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Amendment-Mongers.-A name applied to the

Anti-Federalists.

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Amendments to the Constitution.-Article 5 of the Constitution prescribes the means to be employed in amending that instrument. By the same article the Constitution was made unamendable prior to 1808 on certain points, as follows: So as to prohibit immigration as existing in 1787, or so as to permit the levying of capitation or other direct taxes by Congress except in proportion to the census. The only point remaining to-day which is incapable of amendment is that "no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.' In the manner prescribed in Article 5, fifteen amendments in all have been adopted from time to time. The first Congress, on September 25, 1789, passed twelve amendments, two of which were not ratified. The remaining ten, having been ratified by all the States except Massachusetts, Connecticut and Georgia, were proclaimed in force December 15, 1791. The first six of these comprise what is sometimes known as our Bill of Rights. The eleventh amendment was passed by Congress March 5, 1794, was duly ratified, and was proclaimed in force January 8, 1798. It provided that the federal courts should not entertain suits brought against a State by individuals. The presidential election of 1800 which was thrown into the House (see Disputed Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections), disclosed some defects in the electoral system as established by Article 2, section 1, clause 3 of the Constitution. To remedy these defects the twelfth amendment was passed by Congress December 12, 1803, and declared in force September 25, 1804. It had failed to pass in one Congress and was only carried finally in the House by the Speaker's vote. The vote of the States also was only just sufficient, thirteen ratifying and four-New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Delaware --rejecting it. For sixty years the Constitution remained unaltered, but the condition of things brought about by the Civil War rendered three more amendments necessary. The thirteenth amendment was pro

posed for the purpose of making emancipation universal in the nation and prohibiting slavery for the future. It passed the Senate in April, 1864, by a vote of thirtyeight to six, but failed to pass the House. The House reconsidered its vote at the next session and passed the amendment by a vote of one hundred and nineteen to fifty-six; it was proposed to the legislatures of the States February 1, 1865. It was declared in force December 18, 1865, having been ratified by twenty-seven States out of thirty-six; it was subsequently ratified by four more. Only two states, Delaware and Kentucky, absolutely rejected it. Texas took no action in regard to it and Alabama and Mississippi ratified it conditionally. The fourteenth amendment was intended to aid the work of Reconstruction. It passed Congress in June, 1866, by a vote of thirty-three to eleven in the Senate and one hundred and thirty-eight to thirty-six in the House. It was ratified by thirty out of the thirty-seven States and was proclaimed in force July 28, 1868. Three others subsequently ratified it. Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky rejected it and California failed to act. All the once Confederate States, except Tennessee, rejected it but afterward ratified it in consequence of an act of Congress providing as one condition of their re-admission as States that they should do so. New Jersey and Ohio rescinded their first ratifications, but Congress declared that this did not affect their previous action, and in the end there were enough ratifications without these. The fifteenth amendment was designed to supplement the previous one in relation to the suffrage of negro citizens and make their right to vote unquestionable. It passed Congress February 26, 1869, by a vote of thirty-nine to thirteen in the Senate and one hundred and forty-four to forty-four in the House. It was ratified by twenty-nine of the thirty-seven States and proclaimed in force March 30, 1870; Georgia at first rejected, but afterward ratified it. New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, California and Oregon rejected it, and Tennessee took no action. Ohio, which had at first rejected it, afterward ratified it, and New

York rescinded her ratification. Among proposed amendments to the Constitution which have never been adopted may be mentioned a few of the most important. Jefferson suggested an amendment to assure the constitutionality of the Louisiana purchase, but his bargain was universally accepted as valid without such amend ment. The same President, and after him Madison, Monroe, Jackson and Polk, urged an amendment authorizing Congress to vote money for internal improvements, the power to do which, not being mentioned in the Constitution, they considered open to question. This right, however, has come to be admitted without an amendment. Just previous to the war various amendments dealing with the question of slavery were proposed. (See Crittenden Compromise.) Amendments have also been urged, some extending the right of suffrage to females and one inserting in the preamble to the Constitution the following words: "Acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler among the nations, and His will, revealed in the Holy Scriptures, as of supreme authority, in order to constitute a Christian government." For the text of the amendments that have been adopted see Constitution of the United States.

America for Americans.-One of the cries of the American party.

American Cato.-Samuel Adams was so called from supposed resemblance of his character to that of the Roman. Adams was born in Boston 1722 and died in 1802. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

American Fabius.-A name applied to Washington because his generalship during the Revolution resembled that of Fabius, a commander of ancient Rome, who, having troops inferior to the enemy in discipline and equipment, pursued a policy of avoiding pitched battles, of wearying the enemy by long marches and of harassing him at every opportunity.

American Knights.-An organization known as

the Knights of the Golden Circle had existed at the South before the Civil War. It was composed of men opposed to the North and anxious for separation. About 1862 this organization took root in the West, its principal object being to hinder the draft of soldiers. It was variously known as Mutual Protection Society, as Circle of Honor, as the Circle, and as Knights of the Mighty Host. The exposure of some of its signs and secrets led the Confederate General Sterling Price to organize in Missouri a new society known as the Corps de Belgique, in honor of the Belgian consul at St. Louis, Charles L. Hunt, who was Price's principal assistant. This organization finally became part of the Order of American Knights, organized by C. L. Vallandingham, of Ohio, and P. C. Wright, of New York. The object of this society was to resist the draft and to encourage desertion among Union soldiers, to aid the Confederates by giving them information and by recruiting for their ranks, and to establish a Northwestern Confederacy. Some of the secrets of the order having been learned by the Federal authorities, it was reorganized in 1864; its new name was Order of the Sons of Liberty, or Knights of the Order of the Sons of Liberty. Its organization was of a military nature; in 1864 the number of its members was estimated at from 350,000 to 800,000, among whom, it is said, was Jefferson Davis; among its Supreme Commanders were Wright and Vallandingham. H. H. Dodd, one of its highest officers, was arrested for conspiracy against the government, but he ultimately escaped punishment. Locally the order was known by different names; in Illinois branches were known as Illini, Peace Organization, Democratic Invincible Club; in Kentucky, as Star Organization, Democratic Reading-room, in Missouri, as American Organization; in New York, as McClellan Minute Men. With the war, of course, its reason for being came to an end.

American Organization. (See American Knights.) American Party.-I. From the beginning of the government, movements against aliens have been common. In New York City, a center of foreign population,

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this subject had, from time to time, been agitated, and after a period of success in 1844, it had again sunk out of view. About 1852, when the Whig party was breaking asunder, a secret, oath-bound organization, said to have been called "The Sons of "76," or "The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner," was formed. Those of its members that had not been admitted to the higher degrees were kept in ignorance of the aims and name of the organization, and their constant answer of “I don't know" to questions regarding the society gave them the title of "Know-Nothings." All meetings of the party were secret. It carefully avoided the subject of slavery, and attempted to draw the voters that were tired of agitation on that subject, by confining itself to vigorous opposition to Catholics and aliens. Its principle was Americans must rule America." The first national convention of the party met in February, 1856. The day previous a secret convention of the order had adopted sixteen resolutions abolishing much of the secrecy, demanding the lengthening of the residence necessary to naturalization and condemning Pierce's administration for "reopening sectional agitation by the repeal of the Missouri compromise." The refusal to consider a resolution regarding the restriction of slavery led to the withdrawal of about fifty "Anti-Nebraska " or "North" American delegates. Millard Fillmore, of New York, was then nominated for President and Andrew Jackson Donelson for Vice-President. These nominations were endorsed by a Whig convention in September. Fillmore carried but one State, Maryland, while his total popular vote was about 850,000. In 1860 Presidential candidates were again nominated, but under another party name. (See Constitutional Union Party.) After Fillmore's defeat, the party in 1857 carried the State elections in Rhode Island and Maryland, and in 1859 it was still represented by a few members in Congress. The party never had any foothold in the West, its strength lying in the Middle and Southern States. (See Anti-Masonic Parties.)

II. The second party of this name was founded on

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