Maryland passed a law in 1821, requiring all importers of goods, and other persons selling the same by wholesale, to take out a license costing fifty dollars. This was regarded as an indirect method of laying State duties, and was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to be unconstitutional.

ART. XII.-— EXECUTIVE VACANCY.

1. May by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability both of President and Vice-President. 2. May by law declare what officer shall then act as President, until,

1st. Such disability be removed; or,

2d. A President shall be elected. 57.

§ 1. There was a strong feeling in the Constitutional Convention, during its earlier labors, against the proposition to have a Vice-President of the United States. Until this proposition found favor among the members, the plan was that the President of the Senate should succeed the President of the United States in case of the death, resignation, or inability of the latter to perform the duties of his office. But the Vice-Presidency was finally accepted as a feature of the plan.

§ 2. Congress, in the exercise of its power to provide for the vacancy of the executive chair by the death, removal, or inability of both the President and Vice-President, has enacted that the President pro tempore of the Senate, and, in case there shall be no President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall act as President until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

ART. XIII.- APPOINTMENTS.

May by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they shall think proper,

1. In the President alone;

2. In the courts of law; or,

3. In the heads of departments. 61.

§ 1. This power of vesting appointments, it will be observed, is restricted to inferior officers. But what are inferior offices or offiThe Constitution does not discriminate. Such as Congress

cers?

sees fit to style inferior officers need not the sanction of the Executive or the Senate to render their appointments valid. The heads of departments, it is generally conceded, are not of this class. They have the power over the appointments of the clerks in their respective offices. But there is great danger that a corrupt favoritism be the result of the abuse of this power. It has long been used to punish and reward political opinion. To obtain an office, a man's political views must coincide with the appointing power. This is a flagrant abuse of official authority.

may

§ 2. The Postmaster-General wields a patronage, the estimate of which is most fearful if dispensed as a political bribe throughout the country. The question is too seldom asked, whether the applicant for a village post-office is honest, capable, and faithful to the Constitution; but, on the contrary, his fitness for office, in thousands of instances, is tested by his fidelity to party. So extensive has been the practice of distributing official favors to political partisans during the last thirty years, that, with rare exceptions, a man's political sentiments could be inferred by the office he held. Public offices ought not to be distributed as rewards for political opinions.

ART. XIV.-CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.

1. Shall propose amendments to the Constitution whenever two-thirds of both houses of Congress shall deem it necessary; or,

2. On application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, Congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments.

3. May prescribe either of two modes of ratifying the proposed amendments.

1st. By State conventions; or,

2d. By the State legislatures. 78.

§ 1. Congress has no power to alter or amend the Constitution; but they can take the initiatory steps. They can submit propositions to the States for this purpose, whenever, in the estimation of two-thirds of the members of both houses, amendments become necessary.

§ 2. No human government can be perfect; and the Constitution

of the United States was but an experiment, which, in its original form, might not prove successful. It was wise, therefore, to make provisions in the instrument itself for its amendment. A Constitution suited to the necessities of this generation may not be adapted to the wants of the next. But it was well to guard against the hasty adoption of amendments, without allowing sufficient experience under the original instrument to test the utility of its provisions. The powers of Congress over this subject are quite limited. The proposition for amendments may originate with Congress, or with the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States. When it originates with the States, instead of amendments being proposed by Congress, that body calls a convention to propose them.

§ 3. Congress has the power of directing whether the proposed amendments (whatever way they originate) shall be ratified by State conventions or by State legislatures. Thus far, there have been adopted fourteen Articles of Amendments. These have all originated with Congress, and have been ratified by State legislatures. There is one clause of the Constitution unamendable except by the consent of the State interested, which reads thus: No State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." This is for the protection of the smaller States in the national

councils.

66

As Congress takes no part in the ratification of proposed amend ments, that subject belongs in another place. (See Chap. IX., Art. I., Part II.)

ART. XV..
.-SLAVERY.

1. Shall have power to enforce the abolition of slavery by ap propriate legislation. 98.

2. While the foreign slave-trade was lawful (until 1808), Congress had the power to impose a tax or duty, not exceeding ten dollars, on each slave imported. 44.

1. ITS ABOLITION.

§ 1. The Constitution as it came from the hands of its authors in 1787, and as it was ratified by the people of the several States, recognized slavery as a State institution. True, the word "slave," or

"slavery," is not in the instrument. These words were carefully and intentionally omitted. In the thirteenth Article of Amendments, the word "slavery" appears for the first time in the Constitution; and that article abolishes the institution throughout the United States and their territories.

§ 2. Section second of the thirteenth Article of Amendments gives Congress legislative authority over the subject. As four or five millions of men, women, and children, were suddenly transferred from slavery to freedom, it was presumed that national legislation would become necessary to protect them in their new condition. Congress has already exercised this power in the passage of several statutes on the subject. This matter will receive further attention in considering State prohibitions.

2.- FOREIGN SLAVE-TRADE.

§ 3. The provision of the Constitution relating to this subject reads as follows::

"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."

At the time of the formation of the Constitution, all the States held slaves, except one; and the foreign slave-trade was lawful among all nations of the world.

§ 4. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the general opinion prevailed that slavery would gradually diminish until it would become extinct in all the States. This opinion was based on the supposition that free labor would ultimately be found to be more profitable than slave labor, and that slaves would soon become valueless. At that time, it must be remembered, cotton was not the leading article of commerce which it has become during the present century.

§ 5. At that time, the processes of separating the seed from the cotton, spinning the cotton into yarn, and weaving the yarn into cloth, were so slow and clumsy compared with the methods of doing

the same things at the present day, that this article did not promise to become a leading fabric with which to clothe the world. But little cotton was worn, and that little was expensive. A vast expenditure of labor was required to convert it from the raw material into cloth.

§ 6. But, near the close of the last century, three inventions, each contributing to the same end, produced a wonderful revolution in the mechanical processes of converting cotton into cloth. The cotton-gin by Eli Whitney of Connecticut, the spinning-jenny by Sir Richard Arkwright, and the power-loom by Edmund Cartwright, both of England, have accomplished this great change. By means of these inventions, the products of human industry in the manufacture of cotton goods have been multiplied more than a hundred-fold.

§ 7. The facilities for the manufacture of cotton goods being thus multiplied, the goods were greatly reduced in price, the call for them in the markets of the world was proportionally extended, and, of course, the demand for the raw material was correspondingly increased. This demand increased the call for slave-labor, this call enhanced the price of slaves, and all combined advanced the slaveholding interests of the South. Of course, all these changes were unforeseen by the authors of the Constitution.

§ 8. Congress passed a law prohibiting the foreign slave-trade after the first day of January, 1808; imposing mild penalties of fine and imprisonment for its breach. But the slave-trade had become profitable, and the law was frequently disobeyed. In 1820, Congress passed a law making the foreign slave-trade piracy, punishable by death. In 1865, slavery was abolished by a Constitutional

amendment, as has been stated.

ART. XVI.-GENERAL LAW-MAKING.

Shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution,

1. In the government of the United States; or,

2. In any department thereof; or,

3. In any officer thereof. 43.