Constitution of 1787. sadors; of entering into treaties and alliances; of establishing rules for deciding in all cases what captures on land or water should be legal; and of appointing Courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas. The Congress was thus charged with executive functions on behalf of all the United States in International matters, and upon the recognition of the Independence of the Confederation by Foreign Powers, the Congress took its place as a National Authority, and was acknowledged to be the representative of the United States of North America in their intercourse with other Nations. $43. The Confederation of 1777 gave place to the more perfect Union of 1787", of which the distinguishing feature was the consolidation of the Executive Power in the hands of a President, who was to be chosen by electors appointed by each State. The Constitutional Act, agreed to in Congress on 28th Sept. 1787, and subsequently ratified by State-Conventions held in each of the thirteen States of the Union, declared that the object of the people of the United States is "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 themselves and their posterity." The Congress of the United States was henceforth to consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives, and it has power to provide, amongst other things, for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; to regulate commerce with Foreign Nations; to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the Law of Nations; to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules con 17 Martens, Recueil, T. iv. p. 288. The American's Own Book, p. 9. cerning captures on land and water; to raise and support armies; 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; to suppress insurrections and repel invasions. The President, on the other hand, is the organ of the Union in its intercourse with Foreign Powers. He has authority to make treaties and to appoint Ambassadors and Consuls; and although he is bound on such occasions to take the advice and obtain the consent of the Senate, this is a regulation of domestic policy with which Foreign Nations are not concerned, as they can only communicate with the President. No State of the Union can enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation, nor can any State without the consent of the 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 of the Union or with a Foreign Power, or engage in war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. Confedera § 44. It had been provided, by the Second of the Articles of Articles of Confederation of 1778, that each State tion of was to retain its Sovereignty, Freedom, and Inde- '778. pendence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right which was not expressly delegated to the United States. in Congress assembled. With regard to the Sovereignty of each State, it is not within the scope of a treatise on the Law of Nations to examine in what respects and to what extent that Sovereignty has been controlled or modified by the subsequent Constitution of 1787; but with regard to the Independence of the several States it may be observed, that the exercise of all those functions which characterise an Independent State, has been delegated by the respective States to the Federal Government, and the National character Louisiana Floridas. of each State is so far merged in the National character of the Union. Hence the Federal Government alone maintains international relations with Foreign Powers, and the Federal Union alone can acquire territory either by occupation or by cession, there being an express provision in the Constitution of the Union that new States may be admitted by Congress into the Union. The Federal Government has power to form and erect into a New State any territory which Cession of the Federal Union may acquire. Thus Louisiana was and of the ceded by France to the United States under the Treaty of 1803, and the Floridas were similarly ceded by Spain in 1809; and the ceded territory in each case was formed into a new State, and admitted in that character into the Union. On the other hand, where an Independent State has joined the Union, a treaty has not been required as a condition precedent to its admission into the Union. Thus Texas had been recognised as an Independent State by the United States, as well as by other Foreign Powers, antecedently to 1844. In that year a Treaty, previously negotiated between Texas and the United States for the admission of Texas into the Union, did not receive the ratification of the American Senate, and it accordingly remained inoperative". The Congress, however, resolved that the territory of Texas might be erected into a State with a Republican Form of Government, and thereupon be admitted as a new State into the Union, in accordance with the Third Section of the Fourth Article of the Constitution 18. The Confederate States of 1861. $45. On the 24 Dec. 1860, the State of South Carolina withdrew from the Federal Union on the 17 Wheaton's Elements, Sixth Edition, p. 78. 18 Under this article the Congress has power only limited by its discretion to admit as many New States into the Union as it may think proper, in whatever manner the territory comprising those New States may have been acquired. ground that fourteen of the States of the Union had deliberately refused for many years past to fulfil their constitutional obligations under the Fourth Article 19 of the Constitution of the United States (anno 1787). The people of South Carolina thereupon by their Delegates in Convention assembled, issued a Declaration that the State of South Carolina "had resumed its position among the Nations of the world as a separate and Independent State, with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do." Five other States followed almost immediately the example of South Carolina, and on the 8th February, 1861, a Convention of Delegates from the Seceding States assembled at Montgomery in the State of Alabama; and adopted a Federal Constitution, under the title of "the Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America." The Preamble is to this effect: "We the Deputies of the Sovereign Independent States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, hereby, in behalf of the States, ordain and establish this Constitution for the Provisional Government of the same, to continue one year from the inauguration of the President, and until a permanent Constitution or Confederation be put into operation. Mr. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was on the same day elected President, and Mr. A. H. Stephens of Georgia Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy. The President was inaugurated on the 18th Feb. 1861. The State of Texas had meanwhile elected Delegates to join the 19 No person held to service or labour in one State under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis charged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be duc. Article IV. S. II. $3. The Argentine Confederation. 58 Southern Congress; Congress; so that on the 4th March, 1861, when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated at Washington in succession to Mr. Buchanan as President of the United States, a Southern Confederacy of Seven States, organized for international purposes almost after the model of the Federal Union, from which they had seceded, was assembled in Congress at Montgomery in the State of Alabama. A Constitution of the Confederate States has been since adopted, under which the Confederacy is empowered to acquire territory. § 46. The Spanish Provinces on the banks of the Rio de la Plata, in South America, had previously to their separation from the Mother Country been under the Government of a Colonial Viceroy. Upon the successful issue of the Insurrection against Spain and the Proclamation of the Sovereignty of the Argentine People, the revolted Provinces constituted themselves a Republic, under the title of the Argentine Confederation. Discord and civil war subsequently broke out between Buenos Ayres and the other Provinces, and, after a contest of fourteen years' duration, a Federal Constitution was drawn up in May, 1853, to which thirteen of the Provinces adhered, whilst Buenos Ayres preferred to stand aloof, and to frame for herself a Constitution, as a separate State". The existing Argentine Confederation therefore dates from the year 1853, when the Representatives of the People of the Confederation assembled in General Congress, decreed and established a Constitution, as recited in the Preamble, with a view to constitute a National Union amongst themselves, to consolidate internal peace, to provide for the common defence, 20 By a Treaty signed Nov. 10, 1859, Buenos Ayres has declared herself to be once more an integral part of the Argentine Con federation. Provision had been |