novation in civil affairs. The cardinal doctrine of the time was that of the equality of men; a doctrine which is profoundly ethical, but not profoundly intellectual. The democracy which evolved from that germ has applied political idealism to the state. For this reason American democracy is measurable not by its forms and varied functions only, but by its social efficiency. For this reason the national is paramount to the commonwealth idea. If the Americans possess political genius in any degree it is for adapting old institutions to new wants. They do not tear down the political edifice, but rather make such additions and repairs as seem necessary from time to time. Yet behind the mere mechanics of democracy a true organic development is recognizable. American democracy, like Greek poetry, is the presentation of the whole estate of man. A history of the evolution of democracy in America must be limited to particular phases, such as the literary, the ethical, the industrial, or the constitutional. These elements, and others that might be mentioned, are co-ordinate and comprise the grand theme. The historian shrinks from attempting to trace the record of democracy in all its phases. He must be satisfied, and indeed thrice happy, if he is able to trace, even imperfectly, the record of a single phase.

It is my purpose to record some constitutional phases of the development of American democracy. This record, fortunately, is accessible in forms of indisputable value and worthy of our

Sequence of Political Aspirations

faith. Among these are the organic laws-that is, the body of American constitutions of government, which begin with the charters in the earlier years of the seventeenth century and continue in the written constitutions of our own time. Yet these do not contain the whole story. There are other laws, the work of Legislatures, and also treaties and agreements between America and other nations. Running through all these acts is an unbroken course of political thought, a commentary, as it were, on principles upon which the integrity of our institutions depends. These principles appear in different aspects at different times. Thus, at the close of the eighteenth century they are conspicuous in bills of rights and the first written constitutions of the country. Later they appear in the effort to administer the government of the United States and of the commonwealths, and especially in the discussions in State Legislatures, in political conventions, in Congress, in the courts, and in conventions which have given us the later constitutions of government. The history of American democracy, therefore, is a history of political thought rather than of individuals. If it lacks feudal interest, it possesses the charm of civil equity. It is a history of the development of equal social opportunities. It is, indeed, an industrial history in a political form. Looking backward now, we see how the crises in American affairs have terminated in a new enlightenment of public opinion and in a more perfect understanding of the powers, the privileges, and the duties.

of men. Democracy must be distinguished from ochlocracy. Popular government does not signify the passions of a mob. If four centuries of civilization in America have any meaning, it is that popular government is conscious of its solemn responsibilities. This consciousness is suggested in many ways, and perhaps in none more persuasively than in the sensitiveness of American democracy to suffering and wrong, as the numerous benevolent institutions of the land testify. Few, if any, of these existed before the Declaration of Independence. They were founded in great numbers after 1850. At some time during this three-quarters of a century the transition was made, in this country, from ancient egoism to modern altruism. Under the old regime the only ties held sacred were the ties of blood; under the new, the ties of humanity are equally sacred. In the normal development of our institutions, these ties will be venerated in equal degree. Already the military type has almost disappeared from our institutions, and with the ascendency of the civil power the whole people have been enfranchised. No evidence of this enfranchisement is of profounder significance than the extinction of slavery, which, delayed for centuries, but swift at last, was an altruistic process, and one inevitable in a democracy like our own. Ancient legislation knew little of the individual except as he was a member of the most favored class. Modern legislation emancipates individuals with impartiality. The record of this benevolence is clearly marked in the evo

Development of National Government

lution of American democracy. And it is to be found in places in which many might not at first search for it. Our national government has long attracted and concentrated the attention of our own people, and, to some extent, of the people of other lands; but our national government is only a part of our democracy. The commonwealths are in many respects closer to us than the nation, and do not so widely differ one from another as to preclude tracing the principles on which the institutions of each are founded. The colonial era, the beginning of government in America, may be said to cease with the treaty of Paris of 1763, when the North American continent came practically under the control of the Anglo-Saxon race. From the treaty of Paris to the Declaration of Independence was a brief interval of continentalism, during which public opinion was for the first time formulated under a dominant idea. With the Declaration there also went out to the world the first constitutions of the States in which the best of colonialism survived, and the transition to a more perfect form of commonwealth organization was effected. These, being imperfect, soon made way for a second group, and with this came the national Constitution, itself a composite, and the survival of earlier ideas of union. For nearly one hundred and fifty years before the making of the national Constitution, the people of America had been tending towards industrial and political union. Although no perfect union was effected, many attempts were made, beginning with the union of the four New

England colonies in 1643, and concluding with the Articles of Confederation of 1781. These attempts record the evolution of the national idea, and are the parent of the Constitution of 1787. Parallel with this growth of national ideas was the development of the more perfect commonwealth, beginning with the charters and concluding with the first State constitutions in 1776. Dual political ideas thus grew up in the land, and their duality became a characteristic of democracy, plainly recognized after the treaty of Paris, and duly functioned in the organic laws of the States in the concluding years of the eighteenth century. This was a century of political theories and definitions set forth in bills of rights which remain almost unchanged to our own day, and probably will continue to be recognized on this continent as the accepted statement of political and civil rights. Their chief quality is their recognition of the rights of the individual. They made the free man the centre of the civil system. Every bill of rights of the eighteenth century emphasized him as the chief element in society to be conserved. If we look for some formula for the conservation of the state, we shall not find it in the eighteenth century. A century later, a constitution commonly sets forth some rights of society, of the community, of the state. Another characteristic of eighteenthcentury political thought was its emphasis of political theories. This was inevitable. Theory precedes practice, especially in affairs of state, and colonial practice in government had been efficient