§ 29. Judicial Decisions as to the Nature of the Constitution § 30. Justification for Belief in Legality of Secession § 31. Early Assertions of the Right of Secession § 32. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions § 37. Constitutional History of the Southern Confederacy § 39. Seat of Sovereignty in the United States § 42. The three Departments of the Government of the United States § 43. History of the Classification of Governmental Powers § 44. Reasons for the Separation of the Three Powers . § 45. Equilibrium of the Three Departments in the United States § 48. Proceedings in Convention as to the Composition of Congress NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS FOR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES. § 60. Constitutional Provisions concerning Qualifications of Members of APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES AND DIRECT TAXES. § 63. Constitutional Provisions concerning Apportionment of Representa- COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, HISTORICAL AND JURIDICAL. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. § 1. Paper Constitutions. PAPER constitutions have been the target for the ridicule of most writers during the present century who have thought themselves political philosophers. Unstable as water, they cannot excel, has been the judgment upon them by historians.1 "Have you a copy of the French Constitution?" was asked of a bookseller during the second French Republic. "We do not deal in periodical literature," was the reply.2 In the United States, and only in the United States, has a written constitution survived a hundred years, while during the same time the forms of the governments of all other nations have changed more often and more radically than have their respective boundaries. What are the means, will only render it more outrageous. The idea of binding legislators by oaths is puerile. Having sworn to exercise the powers granted, according to their true intent and meaning, they will, when they feel a desire to go farther, avoid the shame, if not the guilt, of perjury, by swearing the true intent and meaning to be, according to their comprehension, that which suits their purpose." 2 In the preceding century a similar question was answered by the offer of the Almanach Royal. 1 reasons for this phenomenon? How many of them are to be found in preceding history? How many in geographical position? How has the Constitution been affected by the origin of the colonists? How much by the subsequent immigration from all parts of the Old World? To what extent has the Constitution been altered, besides the acknowledged changes contained in the fifteen amendments? What are the advantages of this form of government? What benefits has it secured? What abuses has it perpetuated? What evils has it prevented? How far is it suitable to other countries? Why have its imitations failed in South and Central America? The answers to these questions should be of use to our own countrymen in order to show them what rules must be observed to preserve the stability of our institutions. In the constant remaking of the constitutions of Europe, South America, and even Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands, they should teach statesmen the pitfalls to avoid and the paths to seek for the permanent security of both liberty and property. These can be found only by an exhaustive study of the precedents which are landmarks of the progress in the development of the Constitution of the United States before as well as since its adoption. They lead from the forests of Germany in the time of Tacitus, over the island of Runnymede and the rock at Plymouth, beyond the apple-tree at Appomatox into the old Senate Chamber at Washington, where Chief Justice Fuller sits with his associates. They were the result of conflicts with the sword, the pen, and the tongue, in the field, the press, the senate, and the court. Amongst their builders are enrolled the names of Simon de Montfort, Coke, Eliot, Hampden, Lilburne, Milton, Shaftesbury, Locke, Wilkes, Jefferson, Hamilton, Marshall, Webster, and Lincoln. They present the spectacle of the struggles of a people to obtain civil and religious liberty for themselves, to extend them to those of another and despised race, and now to combine them with the rights to ungoverned labor and complete security for private property. Dry as the account must be in a summary which omits a description of the battles, and does not contain the periods of eloquence and passion used by the combatants on either side of the disputes thus decided, the facts cannot fail to be of interest to all who take the pleasure of the antiquary in tracing the origin of present |