heretofore been; and that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, - so help me God.

District of

the said

(6.)

CERTIFICATE OF CLERK TO THE OATH.

(Blanks to be filled in accordance with the facts.)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

to wit:

Ar a special District Court of the United States, holden at said Boston, on the day of in the year of our Lord 187 having produced the evidence required by law, took the aforesaid oath, and was admitted to become a citizen of the United States of America; and the court ordered that record thereof be made accordingly.

Attest:

Clerk.

(7.)

CERTIFICATE OF CLERK FOR RECORD.

(Blanks to be filled in accordance with the facts.)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

District, ss.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That at a District Court of

day of

and seventy

at

an

in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
Personally appeared before the clerk of said
in said district,
and by his declaration in
on or about
in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred
and is now about
years of age; that he
in the

court

of

alien and a free white person,
writing, on oath set forth, That he was born in

the

day of

and

arrived at

district of

day of

in the

that it then

United States of America, on or about the in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and was, and still is, his bona fide intention to become a citizen of the United States of America, and to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, state, potentate, and sovereignty whatsoever, more especially to whose subject he has heretofore been. He therefore prayed, that his said declaration and intention might become a record of said court, agreeably to the laws in such case made and provided.

Whereupon the declaration of the said become a record of said court accordingly.

was admitted to

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the

(8.)

CERTIFICATE OF THE CLERK TO BE GIVEN TO THE APPLICANT. (Blanks to be filled in accordance with the facts.)

ING.

District, ss.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

--

TO ALL PEOPLE TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETKnow ye, That at the

court of

within and for the district of

on the

day of

in the year of our Lord

and seventy

of

born in

holden at

one thousand eight hundred in said district,

having produced the evidence, and taken and subscribed the oath, required by law, was admitted to become a citizen of the United States, according to the acts of Congress, in such case made and provided.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the

seal of said court at

A.D. 187

aforesaid, this and in the ninetyIndependence of the United States of America.

FORMS ANNEXED TO THIS SECTION.

1. Preliminary declaration of intention.
2. Certificate of the clerk to the declaration.
3. Application for admission as a citizen.
4. Deposition and oath of witnesses.

5. Oath of petitioner.

6. Certificate of clerk to the oath.

7. Certificate of clerk for record.

8. Certificate of the clerk to be given to applicants.

SECTION XVII.

ADMISSION OF NEW STATES.

The framers of the constitution contemplated the possibility, perhaps the probability, of new States desiring and receiving admission into the Union. But we may look into the debates and discussions of those days, and nowhere, even among the most sanguine anticipations, shall we find even a hope expressed of the vast increase of the Union by the admission of new States. To the original thirteen, twenty-four have been added, making the whole number now thirty-seven; and we have also nine territories organized,

which are awaiting a sufficient growth in population to ask for admission as States, and some of whom will receive it soon.

In giving to Congress this power of admitting new States, precautions were adopted to prevent injury to States already in the Union; no new State can be formed within an old State, as by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislature of the States concerned, as well as of Congress.

It must be remembered that by this formation of new States the balance of power between the States may be much affected, by reason of the construction of the Senate. Thus Texas was admitted as a State in 1845. But in the act admitting that State (which covers a vast extent of country), it was provided that four new States might be formed from that single State. If that provision were carried into effect, what is now Texas would have five times the strength in the Senate which it now has.

SECTION XVIII.

A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT GUARANTEED.

The constitution provides that the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government.

The true construction of this clause is, not that the United States shall guarantee to each State that it shall have a republican government, but that the United States shall guarantee to every State that every other State shall have a republican form of government. For, let it be supposed that a State desired admission under a government which was not republican in form. Thus we may suppose by way of illustration, what is hardly possible, that one of the provinces of the Dominion of Canada desired to enter into the Union, but that it retained so much fondness for monarchical government that it wished to have a permanent executive, with an hereditary body invested with hereditary rule or power. If the word "guarantee" is to be construed technically, it is only a promise to a party to make good to that party some benefit or advantage which that party requires or desires. Therefore, that party may waive the guaranty, and may say it was intended only to secure to us that we should have a republican form of government if we chose, and we do not choose it. Surely the answer would be, All the other States are interested in this question. All would be injured if there were one among them which was not republican, and the constitution promises all that all should be republican.

The importance of this question springs from the possibility that some one or more of the States might desire changes in her form of government not compatible with republicanism. For example, it might disfranchise certain classes, giving the elective franchise only where a large pecuniary qualification existed, or making eligible to office only the members of a narrow class, always retaining the name of a republic. It is plain that every State might complain of this, and say to Congress, The constitution gives this guarantee of republicanism not to that State only, which may waive it if it will, but to all of us, and to every one of us; and we do not waive it.

If there is ever an attempted violation of the rule implied under this guaranty, it will undoubtedly be concealed and disguised by false pretences. That is to say, the State will claim still to be a republic, as Holland did when it became virtually a monarchy; and as Venice did, when its government became a close and despotic oligarchy. The difficulty will be in the exact definition of a republic. If the time ever comes when this difficulty shall present itself, well may we or our children or our children's children remember that Lincoln has left for us, under circumstances which made it immortal, the definition we have already spoken of. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is a republic, and cannot fail to be a republic. And a government which does not come within this definition, whatever it may call itself, is not a republic.

SECTION XIX.

OF AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

Some persons in our own country, and many more in the old countries of Europe, have regarded the respect which the people of this country pay to their constitution as excessive. They represent the constitution as a fetter upon us; as more than a fetter, as an iron framework with which we have chosen to invest ourselves, and which, however we outgrow it, we cannot improve. This reproof would be just, were it not that the constitution provides for its own growth, development, and improvement.

It is the supreme law of the land, and expresses the will of the people. But every law is made by the servants of the people, and expresses their will. Why should not the constitution be as easily changed and made to conform as promptly to any change in the will of the people as the law itself? Look, however, at the law, and see how that can be changed, and, on the other hand, how it cannot be

changed. A mass meeting of the citizens of Ohio, for example, even were that physically possible, could not change the law. And why? Because the people have seen fit to guard themselves against hasty and unwise legislation, by surrounding it with a certain measure of difficulty and delay. First, the servants of the people must be formally chosen by the people, to do for them this very work of legislation. Then they assemble in two bodies, each of which is a check upon the other, and the executive is entrusted with a limited veto upon the two Houses. Then every bill proposed, before it can become a law, must in each House pass through several appointed steps, at any one of which it may be arrested, and all of which taken together tend to secure to every proposed measure a sufficient consideration.

The question may now be repeated, Why are not these checks sufficient in the case of the constitution? The answer is easy. The constitution contains what the people believe to be essential and fundamental principles of all law, together with a machinery of government carefully devised to secure wise legislation and faith. ful execution of the laws; and to this machinery it is desirable to give a large measure of permanence and stability. Therefore the constitution may be changed at any time and to any effect which the will of the people requires; but only by a method well devised to make it certain that this change is desired not by the passionate, impulsive, and temporary will of the people, but by its careful, instructed, and deliberate will.

AMENDMENTS, HOW MADE.

Congress may propose amendments, or may call a convention to propose amendments, if the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States ask for it; and amendments made by Congress or by that convention are valid as parts of the constitution, when they are ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as either mode may be proposed by Congress.

Experience thus far has justified the framers of the constitution in believing this method would render it sufficiently easy for the people to change the constitution whenever they did certainly and unmistakably desire it, and sufficiently guarded to protect the constitution from any change which was not so desired.

in

By the Congress which met in New York, in 1789, the first ten articles of amendment were proposed and ratified in that year, 1790, and 1791. They were all founded upon wishes or recommendations presented by different States, when adopting the constitution.