ple material for forming a correct judgment. But, unfortunately for the general public, they are too voluminous or too expensive for the attainment of a wide circulation among the people. The Constitutional Centennial Commission, therefore, thought it wise to add to their work commemorating the great anniversary a condensed history of that instrument, which even the busy American people may find time to read.

They especially appeal to the youth and to the young manhood of the country, now preparing in the schools and universities for the higher duties and functions of citizenship, to abandon the study of the superficial theories of modern party politics for the nobler study and profounder thoughts of our constitutional Fathers, the creators of our free and powerful government and the founders of a republic which in a single century has advanced to the foremost rank of nations.

The present union of the States, for which the Fathers so long struggled against reciprocal fears and jealousies, and amidst clashing interests, will be perfected in proportion as we agree in our appreciation of the Constitution which created and preserves it.

All vigorous and harmonious national life demands some object of common reverence and devotion. In monarchical countries this

object is the Crown, or the person on whose head it rests. In our republic no living President, accepted or rejected as he is by a varying majority and at frequent intervals, can ever become the object of general and concentrated respect and affection. It is the great Charter bequeathed to us by our Fathers, and that alone, which can give to our whole country its central object of obedience and reverence,an object which shall rise above all the changing purposes and alliances of the passing hour. It stands supreme, above us all, ruling our rulers and receiving their oath-bound allegiance. It is surrounded by many guards against the assaults of transient human passion and the aggression of man's selfish ambitions. It rises imperially above the Congress, the Courts, and the President. It was living before we came, it will live after we depart. There it stands, and is ordained to remain, immovable, unchangeable, save in accordance with the laws of its own life, grand in its simplicity, majestic in its power. To this only Sovereign of our jurisdiction and Lord Protector of our rights and liberties our allegiance and our devotion are worthily consecrated. May the youth of our time, when they shall be seated in the places of trust and authority, show themselves the enlightened and willing servants of this immortal Sovereign.

II

THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE CONFEDERACY

THE Act which was signed at Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, was not so much a sudden creation, an inspired fact of that memorable year, as it was a logical growth out of many years of thoughtful and painful experience.

The principles of that nationalized union which the Constitution accomplished had already been stirring in the breasts of the wise and the patriotic for three generations. As far back as 1643, four weak colonies in New England combined in a union for their defence against all common dangers, and provided for its continuance by a common parliament. In 1697, William Penn proposed an annual "congress," consisting of two delegates from each colony. They were to have power to provide ways and means for supporting their union, maintaining their common safety, and regulating their commerce. In 1754, Franklin prepared a plan for the union of the colonies, with a triennial legislature, and a governor-general to be appointed by the English government. Each colony was to retain the control of its exclusively domestic affairs. A

decade later, James Otis, in the Massachusetts Assembly, pronounced for an American congress in such emphatic tones that delegates from nine of the colonies were induced to assemble in New York in 1765, to consider their common interests and to protest against imperial taxation.

The activity of British parliamentary aggression increased. In like proportion the spirit of American union became more active; and in 1774 the delegates from the inhabitants of twelve colonies met, as a Continental Congress, for the protection of their common rights. The conception of a continental, or American, union and legislature was becoming more and more familiar to the people. In 1775, Joseph Hawley proposed an annual parliament with two Houses.

In January, 1776, there appeared a pamphlet from the hand of Thomas Paine, in which he advocated with all the vigor and terseness of his unsurpassed rhetoric a more resolute advance. "Let a continental conference be held," said he, "to frame a continental charter, drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between members of Congress and members of Assembly, always remembering that our strength and happiness are continental, not provincial. . . . We have every opportunity and every encouragement to form

the noblest, purest CONSTITUTION on the face of the earth." The convention which he proposed for this end was to consist of two members for each corporate colony, chosen by its legislature, like senators in the present Congress; two more to be chosen by the Colonial Congress out of each colonial delegation; and a larger number to be chosen directly by the people, like the present House of Representatives.

Six months later the Colonial Congress, in which now all the thirteen colonies were represented, denounced the dominion of England, and declared their own complete and final independence.

In discussing the nature of our union of States, whether perpetual or dissoluble at the will of its members, the disputants have not attached sufficient significance to this great act of the 4th of July, 1776.

It was not a declaration of independence by each separate colony as a distinct civil corporation. It was a joint and national act, the act of "ONE PEOPLE, to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them." The colonies, separately, did not proclaim their independence nor claim among the powers of