of the text, as, for example, the nature and character of civil government and of sovereignty, and the evidences from history and contemporary expression as to the purposes in the making of the Constitution. By liberal or broad construction, the Constitution has been greatly developed and the limits of power have been more and more closely and clearly defined. It is upon Construction that the great political and constitutional differences in our history have arisen. Interpretation has been chiefly a matter of law; Construction has been largely a matter of politics. By this it is meant that the political departments of the Government have also construed the Constitution. Construction has had to do with a field that has offered a fundamental issue between political parties in America, the issue between national powers and States' rights. But the permanent and effectual construction which has been more or less accepted by all parties as determining the scope of constitutional powers and the character of the Government is the construction of the Supreme Court. This construction has come as from a judicial and impartial arbiter, but it has had very important political bearing.

Marshall's principles of Construction as to the extent of national powers may be accepted as final. His two canons of construction are:

Marshall's Principles of Construction.

Every power claimed by the National Government must be affirmatively shown to have been granted. There is no presumption in favor of such power. The burden of proof rests with those who assert its existence. Something in the Constitution must be pointed out that expressly or impliedly confers this power.

2. When once the grant of power is established the powers will be construed broadly. When it is shown that the end is legitimate, that the proposed power is constitutional, any reasonable means may be allowed.

The Court will be strict in determining the existence of a power, but liberal in applying the power if found to exist. When the people have conferred a power they have conferred a wide discretion as to its use.

During the Civil War, President Lincoln's construction

Lincoln's
Construction
of His War
Powers.

of his powers rested upon a higher law than the mere words of the Constitution. He held that his oath to preserve the Constitution imposed upon him the duty of preserving the nation of which the Constitution was but the organic law. It was not possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution. "So a measure, otherwise unconstitutional, may become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation." Any government, in order to preserve its own life, will construe its powers in such a way as to justify its overstepping its ordinary limitations in periods of extraordinary danger.

"The creation of a system of United Courts, extending throughout the States, and empowered to define the boundaries. of Federal authority, and to enforce its decisions by Federal power supplied the element needed to bring order out of chaos. Without it the Constitution might easily have proved a more disheartening and complete failure than the Articles of Confederation."

Probably no institution in our history has done more to strengthen and sustain American nationality than has the Supreme Court. It has obtained the respect of all nations, and usually it has possessed the confidence of all parties. Its dignity, ability, and impartial fairness have commended it to the people.

'Johnston's History of American Politics, cited by Hinsdale, Civil Government.

REFERENCES

1. BRYCE, American Commonwealth.

2. WILLOUGHBY, The Supreme Court.

3. COOLEY, Constitutional Law and Constitutional Limitations. 4. HINSDALE, Civil Government.

5. BALDWIN, S. E., The American Judiciary.

6. JENKS, J. W., The Principles of Politics, chap. viii.

7. JOHNSTON-WOODBURN's American Political History, vol. i.

8. History of the United States, MCMASTER, VON HOLST, SCHOULER, RHODES. Note the references cited on page 332.

9. YOUNG, J. T., The New American Government, chap. xv.

IN

CHAPTER VII

THE STATES AND THEIR GOVERNMENT

[N the American system of government the State is as important as the Nation. So far as the citizen's personal interests are concerned, in all the affairs that directly touch his civic life, the State is even more imRelative Important than the Nation. While the State does not excite so much interest, nor occupy

portance of the State in the Life of

the Citizen.

so large a share of the people's attention as does the Nation; while the affairs of the States, their constitutions, their officers, and the functions of these officers are not so well known, yet in the great multitude of affairs in which civil and criminal laws are of concern to the citizen, the State may touch the citizen a hundred times where the Nation touches him once. It is the State that deals with all the ordinary relations of citizens to one another. Mr. Bryce says:

State
Functions.
Bryce.

"An American may, through a long life, never be reminded of the Federal Government, except when he votes at presidential and congressional elections, buys a package of tobacco bearing the Government stamp, lodges a complaint against the post office, and opens his trunk for a custom house officer on a pier at New York when he returns from a tour in Europe. His direct taxes are paid to officials acting under State laws. The State, or a local authority constituted by State statutes, registers his birth, appoints his guardian, pays for his schooling, gives him a share in the estate of his father deceased, licenses him when he

enters a trade, marries him, divorces him, entertains civil actions against him, declares him a bankrupt, and hangs him for murder. The police that guard his house, the local boards that look after the poor, control highways, impose water rates, manage schools,—all these derive their legal powers from the State alone. In comparison with such a number of functions the Federal Government is but a department for foreign affairs.''

Thus it is seen that in dividing the governmental functions between State and Nation while the Nation gets the highest the State gets the most; so the balance is pretty well preserved. Each State has a constitution of its own. This constitution in every case provides for an Executive, or Governor, a Legislature of two Houses, a Judiciary with a system of civil and criminal procedure. Each provides a system of local self-government in counties, cities, townships, and school districts, with a system of State and local taxation.

State Constitutions Came from Colonial

Charters.

The constitutions of the States were mainly derived from the same source. The constitutions of Massachusetts and Virginia furnished models for many of the Western States. The original States derived their constitutions either from old English statutes and principles of law, or from the original charters to the Colonies. The colonial charter was nothing more nor less than a constitution. It was "an instrument of government established by a superior authority creating subordinate law-making and administrative bodies that could not transcend the powers laid down in the instrument creating them." When the Colony became an independent State, the supreme power that had abided in King and Parliament competent to create a colonial constitution and impose limits on governmental agencies passed to the people of the independent State. The legislature, executive, and courts 1 American Commonwealth, i., 425, 426.