that human ingenuity and compromise could devise. For more than a century it has lived. Happily the war between the States made no structural changes. The principles of the best of the framers, supplemented by the Bill of Rights, still vitalize it.

This parchment has been a model for Mexican, Central American, and South American States, some of whom are named for these United States, the last being Brazil, the Latins thereof giving us a new lesson on progressive statesmanship, for they overturned the throne of the immemorial Braganzas, abolished slavery, separated church and State, established freedom of conscience and of speech, and on the ruins of an empire erected a confederation of States by a peaceful and bloodless revolution.

Free institutions are recreative. Apart from the parchment compact between the States of our Union, there is something in our varied soil and climate which transforms the alien settlers, and which beautifies and ennobles the faces and forms of their offspring. Thus by a process natural and political, the free sovereign and independent citizen is both the result of soil and climate, and of the benign institutions founded by the men of the Revolution.

The hand that pens these concluding words

has written the axiomatic legend that patriotism is reverence for the old and the tried, not for the new and untried. The indisposition of the more thoughtful people of the States to give the United States more power by amending the Constitution is a guarantee, at least in our generation, that paternalism which is empire shall not be tolerated.

The cohesion of force is temporary. Integration is soon followed by disintegration. Fewer laws and more principles will weld together the States and the people in a common bond of consent. In that single word consent lies the vital perpetuity of our States-Union.

Repudiate the amendments to the Constitution which ignorant, ambitious, or designing men in Congress draft every session in the interest of nationalism. Let the Supreme Court of the United States understand that there is no "national government" on this continent, but confederated sovereignties, and bid the judges cease their encroachment on the reserved rights of the States. Demand of Congress a rigid adherence to the Constitution in every act of legislation.

The grand Christ precept, “As ye sow so shall ye reap," is the universal law of moral and political being. Heaven help us to sow well for ourselves and for that posterity to whose hands will

be committed the custody of the lives of the several States and of the United States.

Thus may be postponed for an indefinite age the terrible fate of the Roman Empire when the sceptre fell from the nerveless grasp of Theodosius the Great. The historian tells us that the empire was too large and heavy, and too laden with vices, to be upborne and swayed by one ruler, and, “breaking into two parts, rolled on either side of his coffin," forming the Latin and the Greek empires, which in turn disintegrated and disappeared forever.

APPENDIX.

That the reader may consult the text free from all interpretation and historical remarks of the author, the entire Constitution of the United States is appended. The prime object of this catechism is not to deal with every article of the instrument seriatim, but to outline such fundamental constitutional principles as underlie the latest and best experiment in democratic-republican government.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED

STATES OF AMERICA.

PREAMBLE.

WE, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 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.

THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

SECTION I.-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.

SECTION II.-1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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; South Carolina, five; and Georgia, three.

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

SECTION III.-I. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legis lature thereof for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they be equally divided.

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi