proclaimed on the 18th of December, 1865; of the fourteenth was proposed June 16, 1866, and proclaimed on the 28th of July, 1868; of the fifteenth was proposed February 27, 1869, and proclaimed on the 30th of March, 1870.

The foregoing fifteen articles of amendment are the only modifications of the work finished on the 17th of September, 1787, of the propriety of which, time, events, and argument have convinced the American people. The first ten articles were not so much amendments of constitutional provisions as they were a declaration of ungranted rights which the national government did not claim. The eleventh settled in favor of the States a question of their suability in court which had been debatable. The tide of constitutional opinion had thus far flowed towards the rights of the States, and they were satisfied.

In later years, some of the States began to assert rights of separate and final judgment against the supremacy of acts of Congress and of the national courts, which were inconsistent with the intention of the Constitution and of its founders. The tide of public opinion turned with the exposure of the new dangers threatening national institutions, and flowed strongly towards the further protection of that Union which, as Madison had advised New York, was indissoluble. Under this impulse the last three

articles were adopted, in order to put new powers into the hands of the common government, and to place the most important rights of personal liberty and of American citizenship under the protection of the national shield. This was a work impossible to the fathers by reason of slavery; and was only accomplished by their descendants at the cost of vast treasure and richer blood.

The passing generation of men may therefore proudly claim to have added something to the rich legacy which our ancestors bequeathed a hundred years ago. Let us hope that as century shall follow century into the unmeasured flood of time, the uncounted millions who shall inherit this Western World will maintain their allegiance to the Constitution and Union with equal zeal, and with all the support of heart and tongue and sword.

"Thy sun is risen, and shall not set

Upon thy day divine!

Ages of unborn ages yet,

America, are thine!"

APPENDIX

CONGRESSIONAL CALLS ON THE PRESIDENT FOR PAPERS AND INFORMATION

THE right of either House of Congress, or of both Houses concurrently, to call on the President for papers or other specific official information, is not provided for by the Constitution. It does not appear to have been discussed in the Convention. The only constitutional provision even remotely relating to the subject simply declares that the President "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union."

Nevertheless, each House has at different times made such demands upon the Executive, and the constitutional duty of the President in respect to such calls has been the subject of discussion. In most cases of the exercise of this claim for information the Executive has yielded, because it was for legitimate objects and in the ordinary course of legislative proceeding. But at other times it has proceeded from mere political hostility, and had for its object to provide means for party assaults upon the Administration or its policy, irrespective of the public interests involved. In cases of the latter kind, and even in other cases where the Executive has complied with the demand, he has been careful to assert his constitutional right of independent decision, and to refuse compliance in his official discretion.

The question first arose during the presidency of Washington. In March, 1796, the House of Representatives called on the President for instructions given to the United States Minister preliminary to Jay's Treaty, which had been already ratified, "except such as any existing negotiation may render improper to be disclosed." Madison