CHAPTER III.

Constitutions, Rights and Citizenship.

32. CONSTITUTIONS

By constitution we mean a fundamental law or principle of government for a nation or state. At the time of the organization of a constitutional state or nation, and at times subsequent thereto, the ruler, the people or the representatives of the people establish certain fundamental or basal rules of conduct for the management of affairs. Governed by these rules, and acting within the limits therein prescribed, the king, emperor, president and other officers perform the duties of their offices, and only such, and the people on their part, acting within the rules laid down for them, take such part in the government as is permitted or prescribed and refrain from taking part in those things which are prohibited to them. These rules are the constitution of the nation. Whatever acts are done not in accord with the terms of this constitution are illegal.

33. KINDS

Constitutions are of two kinds, Written and Unwritten. By Unwritten constitutions we mean such constitutions as may be partly written and partly unwritten; that is, they consist of laws and precedents, the latter meaning those things that the people, the law making body, the king (or ruler) may or may not do. Unwritten constitutions may be changed by new

laws which are written or by the establishing of new precedents, which are, of course, not written.

Written constitutions are such as are entirely written, and set forth in detail all the powers granted or prohibited to the goverment and to the people respectively. Written constitutions are amended by changing the language of the written document and also, to a very limited degree, by court decisions, which will be fully explained in another place.

34. CONSTITUTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

As indicated in the last chapter, many of the early governments of the world

were absolute monarchies. In these the ruler had acquired, in some manner,absolute authority over his subjects. He had authority over their property, their lives, and in fact, he could control every detail of their existence. As education became more general there was unrest and dissatisfaction with existing conditions and from time to time the ruler was forced or induced to grant certain rights to the people. The fact that the ruler gave up part of his authority and so limited that authority by a law which he must obey changed the form of his government. It was no longer an absolute monarchy but was now a limited monarchy, or, as we sometimes properly call it, a constitutional monarchy. It had a fundamental law; a law which even the ruler must respect. This law was its constitution. It mattered not whether this was written or was oral, it was a fundamental law--it was a constitution. The student must understand clearly the full meaning of

the word "constitution" or he will fail to understand the real meaning of our government. Dr. Woodrow Wilson says, "Constitutions are in their proper nature bodies of law, by which government is constituted, by which, that is, a government is given its organization and functions."

It happened among the early limited monarchies that the fundamental laws, that is to say, the agreements arrived at between the people and the rulers, or what we will hereafter call their constitution was changed by the granting of new rights, sometimes by a clear and definite statement, sometimes by the continued failure of the ruler to exercise a claimed right and sometimes by legislative action. So constitutional governments grew, and men acquired rights--rights of life, of liberty, of the possession of property and of participation in the affairs of government. As time passed the constitution was changed by new agreements, new precedents, new acts of the legislative body, new rulings of the courts, or by edict of the ruler granting more liberties to the people. Such, in brief, is the outline of the developement of the English constitution. It is unwritten in this respect at least, that nowhere could one find collected into a single document the fundamental law for England, that is to say,that part of the English law which we call its constitution. Nevertheless, the Kingdom has a well defined and well established constitution. It is amended, or changed, from time to time, not by changing the wording of any written document, but by new decisions of courts modifying the rights of

the people or of the government; by new acts (laws) of parliament, which acts create new principles of government, and serve as precedents for the future direction of the people; by the voluntary giving up of some right held by the rulers or by the people; or by the wresting of rights from one department of government, and giving such rights to another.

35. RESTATEMENT

In a sovereign government, all power is vested. It, as a government, may undertake any task. When all of the powers in a government are controlled by one man that government is known as an absolute monarchy. As soon as those powers are divided between the sovereign and the people, each party through established laws or precedent having the exclusive right, without dictation from the other party, to exercise those powers, then by virtue of this divided exercise of power, constitutional government begins. Any change in the status of affairs between the parties is a new adjustment of rights and is called amending, or changing, the constitution. Our national government was originally formed from thirteen separate and independent sovereign governments. The people of these states, through their representatives, sought to make a new government, having jurisdiction over all of the thirteen, and at the same time they desired to have it so limited in power that each state might retain its own complete sovereignty. In the very nature of the case this was impossible, but in making the attempt they formed for the new nation a

written document, a written constitution, which granted to the new government full sovereign powers, limited, however, in this way, that certain powers were expressly prohibited to the new nation. A change in our constitution, therefore, may concern not only the individuals of the nation and the nation itself, but it may concern the state as well.

36. CHANGES OF

CONSTITUTIONS

Changes of written constitutions are primarily made by changing the wording of the document. The processes of such changes will be discussed in the proper place.

We should understand, however, that in addition to the direct method of changing the constitution by changing the actual wording of the document itself, there is an indirect change which comes about by the constitutional interpretation devolving upon our Supreme Court. From the time of the entering of the Supreme Court Justices upon the duties enjoined upon them by the Constitution, it has been the custom of the court to say, in its decisions, what is the meaning of the constitution as a whole and what is to be understood by each paragraph, sentence and phrase. This is to say, that the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, or says what is the meaning of the whole Constitution or some part of it. If the court holds the interpretation of some part of the Constitution to be a certain thing at one time and at some future time reverse itself, or decides that it is a different thing, the changing of its rul