to frame, could not have been secured. It was natural that most of the leading actors in the War of the Revolution should be advocates of a strong government, from an experience of the limited powers and imbecility of the old. The notable exceptions were Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams. Jefferson, its great future enemy, was, fortunately, out of the country at the time. The same good fortune that placed Washington in command of the armies of the Revolution committed the new government to the guidance of his matchless wisdom and prudence, till it had in a measure become consolidated; till sufficient time had elapsed to illustrate its advantages, and to secure to it the confidence and affection of the people, before it passed into the hands of others less firm, patriotic and sagacious. The strength it acquired under his administration enabled it to meet and overcome the shocks to which it was exposed, till the maturing and widening of the wholly irreconcilable tendencies existing at the time, and which were the great obstacles to its formation, left no other solution but the final arbitrament of the sword.

The government formed, Mr. Hamilton was placed in charge of the Department of the Treasury, the one upon which, of all others, was imposed the burden of restoring the financial and material condition of the country, reduced to its lowest ebb by the late war, and the disturbances and distrust which followed. Whether or not he had a consciousness of his great mission, he could not have been actuated by broader views, or have taken measures better adapted to lay firm the foundations of a great empire, - the greatest, should it continue another hundred years, that the world has yet seen. that the world has yet seen. He saw what all such men see, that, to use the words of Washington, "influence is not government," and that no nation can become truly great that is not possessed of powers capable of subordinating all conflicting and refractory elements to the authority of a common rule. Political unity is a product of conditions either natural or enforced. When enforced, its achievement is the crowning work of the statesman.

The first step to be taken was a recognition and payment, as far as possible, by the new government, of the debts contracted in the late war. Hamilton would have the new State signalize its beginning by an act of justice, which should not

only stand as a guarantee and promise of the future, but secure for it, at the very outset, an honorable place among the nations. He well understood that private, cannot long survive the neglect or decay of public morals; and he determined to re-enforce the former by a scrupulous observance of the latter. The debt adjusted upon an equitable basis, the next step was provision for the payment of its annual charge, as well as the current expenses of the government. These were provided for by imposts upon foreign merchandise, as the most efficient, and the least oppressive and expensive mode; and as affording at the same time encouragement and protection to domestic industries. His third great measure was the provision, by means of a Bank, of a symbolic currency alike adapted to the wants of the government and of the people.1

All these measures excited great opposition. That which was the chief object of attack was the Bank. For its creation the Constitution contained no provision in terms. The authority to charter it was derived from that clause which gave Congress "the power to pass all laws necessary and proper to carry into execution the preceding powers." It was assumed that the Bank was "necessary and proper" for the execution of the power to levy and collect taxes, and pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare." Mr. Hamilton, in his argument in support of its constitutionality, maintained that "every power vested in a government is in its nature SOVEREIGN; and includes, by force of the term, a right to employ all the means requisite and fairly applicable to the attainment of the ends of such power, and which are

1 The debt of the old government, assumed by the new, equalled $72,775,895, as follows:

:

The foreign debt was paid in fuil; so was the domestic debt, for which an equivalent was received, or was assumed to have been received. The claims of the States for advances made on account of the war, were adjusted upon what was assumed to be an equitable basis. The Continental money was "cut off with a shilling." No person desired its recognition. To show, however, that it was not forgotten, it was allowed to be funded at the rate of 100 to 1. Of the whole amount, it appears that the holders of $168,280,219 took advantage of the provision for funding it, receiving therefor $1,682,802.

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not precluded by restrictions and exceptions specified in the Constitution, or not immoral, or not contrary to the essential ends of political society;" and that the Bank was one of the means that might be properly employed to such ends. Mr. Jefferson, in opposition, maintained that "the Constitution allows only the means which are necessary,' not those which are merely convenient for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase, the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated powers,' as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one; for there is no one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some way or other to some one of the long list of enumerated powers: it would swallow up all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before observed. Therefore it was that the Constitution restrained Congress to the necessary means; that is to say, to those means without which the grant of the power would be nugatory."

Such were the opposing constructions as to the nature and effect of its organic law upon which have turned, through its whole career, the legislation and history of the nation. Their authors stood as types of American ideas and life. Whatever followed, and a library would hardly suffice to hold all that has been written on one side or the other of this question, has been but an elaboration and application of their respective arguments or positions, which are sufficiently stated in the preceding brief paragraph. Their different constructions grew out of differences radical in kind. There is no record of the division in the Senate upon the passage of the bill creating the Bank; but in the House only one member from the North voted against the bill, and only six from the South in its favor. The members of the Cabinet, as well as Congress, were divided geographically: Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Mr. Randolph, Attorney-General, both from Virginia, giving opinions adverse to the constitutionality of the proposed measure; and Mr. Hamilton of New York, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Knox of Massachusetts, Secretary of War, giving opinions in its favor. General Washington, after having given the subject the most careful consideration, signed the bill.

RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 471

The formation of the Constitution was nothing less, in fact, than an unsuccessful attempt to fuse into one two distinct nations. The result has demonstrated the utter impossibility of such an attempt, without some more potent force than commercial considerations, or legal enactments or ties. All sagacious men at the time recognized the magnitude of the refractory element, - Slavery; but all, at the North at least, confidently looked for its disappearance through the operation of moral and industrial causes. The result showed how greatly they were mistaken. They forgot that slavery was not permeable or subject to the influences upon which they counted so much. The North, addicted to commerce and manufactures, welcomed all the helps that government could bestow. They saw in a Bank a useful instrument in facilitating its operations, in alleviating its burdens, and at the same time one that would greatly promote individual welfare. To such a people, Hamilton's construction appeared wholly reasonable. They were willing to make convenience law, and to commit themselves to the guidance of ideas, no matter the conclusions to which they might lead. The South could take nothing on trust. Every thing must be determined and settled at the start. To commit themselves to the guidance of ideas might be to court the overthrow of the very institutions upon which their welfare was assumed to rest. Slavery was forbidden by public as well as by moral law. A convenient or liberal construction might question its propriety, restrain it within its original limits, or, without any aggressive act, render its continuance impossible. Hence the necessity of a "strict construction," not only where slavery was directly concerned, but upon every subject touching the material welfare of the nation. The South could derive no advantage from the adoption of measures "tending to promote the general welfare." Such measures were those designed for the encouragement of domestic industries and trade. Their policy was to blindfold labor, as a means of keeping it contented, or in ignorance of its lot. With them, the encouragement of the industries of the nation meant an increase of the preponderance of their rivals; which, as soon as it gained sufficient strength, might turn upon and crush them. The necessities of the South made them good seers of the final catastrophe of 1860, of the possibility of which they never lost sight.

The preceding remarks have been submitted, for the reason that without an accurate knowledge of the grounds upon which the country divided as to the nature of its Constitution, the controversies in reference to Banks and money which have so convulsed it throughout its history would seem to be mere riddles, contests having no more sense or meaning than those which make up the experience of barbarous life. The question involved was not a financial or monetary, but a political one. No one distinguished person among all the actors in the grand drama ever denied the importance of Banks. They were created in all the States as a matter of common necessity. The only question was as to the competency of the United States to create them. The consequences were infinitely wider and more disastrous than if the contest had turned upon the principles involved in the nature of metallic or paper money. Had this been the question, no more heat might have been generated than that belonging to the consideration of any question in science or philosophy. As it was presented, its solution might involve, on one side at least, the destruction of the institutions of a whole people. It was, therefore, the question of all others most fitted to excite to the highest pitch of frenzy some of the strongest passions of the race. It was the signal for the division of the country into two great political parties; the theme which has convulsed it from the formation of the government, and which could be put to rest only by the triumph by arms of one or the other of the opposing parties.

The Act establishing the Bank was finally passed on the 25th of February, 1791. The amount of its capital was fixed at $10,000,000, divided into shares of $400 each. Of this sum, $2,000,000 was to be subscribed on behalf of the United States, to be paid in ten equal annual instalments. The balance of the share capital, $8,000,000, to be taken by private parties, was to be paid in six equal annual instalments: one-fourth part of which was to be in gold and silver coin; the remaining three-fourths, in evidences of the public debt. The Board of Directors was to consist of twenty-five members, all of themi citizens of the United States, who were to choose one of their number President. The Bank was not to owe, over and above its deposits, a larger sum than its capital. It was allowed to