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UNIVERSITY

OF

CALIFORNIA

THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

I

INTRODUCTORY

THE political debates of the present generation leave a painful impression of the neglect of constitutional study. A failure to apprehend the reasons upon which constitutional provisions were founded has too frequently led astray the public judgment. In this neglect numerous theories of construction have found their source, which in turn have led to additional debate, until the public records of discussion on constitutional questions have become a massive collection, which obscures, far more than it enlightens, the popular mind. In politics, as in religion, the commentaries have superseded the authority, as they have darkened the simplicity, of the original text. It has become a duty of patriotism to awaken the spirit of constitutional inquiry, emancipated from the prejudices of party.

The existing histories of the Constitution, and the legal commentaries upon it, afford am

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