district a certain time, to possess a certain amount of property, principally in land; to profess a certain religious creed, and to be native-born, or a citizen at the time when the constitution was adopted. Only white men were eligible to office. As the qualifications were carefully detailed in the constitution, they must be interpreted as expressing public opinion. In few instances were they left to the discretion of the Legislature. They show what were considered the guarantees of public safety. Men possessing them were accounted as having "a permanent, common interest with the community." The following Tablę specifies the qualifications required from candidates in some of the States, according to their constitutions: THE QUALIFICATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVES PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1776-1800. STATE CONST. AGE RESIDENCE N.H. 1776 (21) 1784 (21) For two yrs. Estate of Protestant. Annual election. inhabitant £100, one In New Hampshire a Representative was a freeholder. See Acts and Laws, New Hampshire, Portsmouth, 1771, p. 3. In Rhode Island he was an elector (see Table of Qualifications). The oath of an Assemblyman in Connecticut was: "You, A. B., do swear by the name of the ever-living God that you will be true and faithful to the State of Connecticut, as a free and independent State, and in all things do your duty as a good and faithful subject of the said State, in supporting the rights and privileges of the same. (Assembly, second Thursday of October, 1777.) The Representative was qualified as an elector. For the oath required in 1776, see Acts of 1776, p. 451. New York was districted, March 4, 1796, into four "great districts "-Southern, Middle, Eastern, and Western, following the grand division of that for Presidential Electors, April 12, 1792 (repealed November 19, 1792). See Constitution, 1777. In New Jersey, Assemblymen, members of Legislative Council, sheriffs, and coroners What the Candidates Should Possess THE QUALIFICATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVES PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1776–1800.—Continued. were nominated by nomination tickets, made by the electors, sent to the town clerks. From this list, published by the clerks, the electors chose on the second Tuesday of October. Act of February 22, 1797. Pennsylvania was districted (apportionment of Representatives) September 4, 1779. In Virginia, by one of the ordinances, passed July, 1775, the Senator was included among the officers of the State to be qualified as a freeholder. In South Carolina, by act of Assembly, April 7, 1759, a member was required to be a Protestant, to have resided one year in the province, to possess five hundred acres of land and twenty slaves, or £1000 clear in realty. In States whose constitutions did not specify the age of the Representative, custom or law fixed it at twenty-one years. In the table these are distinguished by placing the number in parentheses, thus (21). Legislative Procedure Borrowed from England THE QUALIFICATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVES PRESCRIBED BY THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1776–1800.-Concluded. STATE CONST. AGE RESIDENCE PROPERTY RELIGION TERM, LIMITATIONS 12 mos. in 250 acres of Protestant. Annual election. State, 3 land or 1798 21 The same 250 acres, or Chosen on the federal basis"three-fifths " clause. Centuries of practice in legislation had worked out a procedure in the British Parliament, and the substance of it was embodied in these constitutions. The provisions regulated the quorum, the election of members, their official conduct, their privileges, and the power of the House or Senate over them. This portion of our supreme law well illustrates the origin of constitutional provisions. From the State constitutions the federal convention made up the analogous part of the national Constitution. They were construed as checks and balances in legislation. If the test of sovereignty, at this time, be the oath of allegiance, the States were sovereign, as Representatives and other State officials did not swear allegiance to the United States, but to their own commonwealth. The requirement intimates how slight men considered their obligation to the national government. The national idea which now prevails was then unheard of. Speeches without number have been made, and books without number written, to prove that the national government, paramount and sovereign, began on the 4th of March, 1789. Since the civil war, almost unconsciously, national sovereignty, as now understood, has been freely imputed to the United States in the eighteenth century. Two things must be remembered. The Constitution was ratified with the understanding that a residuary sovereignty was left in the States; the present idea of national sovereignty was evolved by more than a century of administration. In other words, we have learned by experience that it is impossible to administer a general government that is not sovereign. Necessity made the Constitution originally, and necessity has worked out the idea of national sovereignty. Too often ideas are imputed to "the fathers" which it was impossible for them to hold. If the federal government had been commonly recognized in the |