A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - James D. Richardson
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Article I declares that the style of the Confederacy shall be "The
United States of America."
Article II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and
independence, and every power and right which is not expressly delegated
to the United States.
Article III. The States severally enter into a firm league of friendship
with each other for their common defense, the security of their
liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves
to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon
them on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, etc.
Article IV. The free inhabitants of each State, paupers, vagabonds, and
fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all the privileges
and immunities of free citizens in the several States, etc. Fugitives
from justice into any of the States shall be delivered up on the demand
of the executive of the State from which they fled. Full faith and
credit shall be given in each State to the records and acts of every
other State.
Article V. Delegates shall be annually appointed by the legislature of
each State to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, with a
power to recall, etc. No State shall appoint less than two nor more than
seven, nor shall any delegate hold his office for more than three in six
years. Each State shall maintain its own delegates. Each State shall
have one vote. Freedom of speech shall not be impeached, and the members
shall be protected from arrests, except for treason, etc.
Article VI. No State shall send or receive an embassy or enter into a
treaty with a foreign power. Nor shall any person holding any office of
profit or trust under the United States or any State accept any present,
emolument, office, or title from a foreign power. Nor shall the United
States or any State grant any title of nobility. No two States shall
enter into any treaty without the consent of Congress. No State shall
lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any treaties entered
into by the United States. No State shall engage in war unless it be
invaded or menaced with invasion by some Indian tribe, nor grant letters
of marque or reprisal unless it be against pirates, nor keep up vessels
of war nor any body of troops in time of peace without the consent of
Congress; but every State shall keep up a well regulated militia, etc.
Article VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the common
defense, all officers of and under the rank of colonel shall be
appointed by the legislature of each State.
Article VIII. All charges of war and all other expenses which shall be
incurred for the common defense or general welfare shall be defrayed
out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several
States in proportion to the value of all the land in each State
granted to individuals. The taxes for paying each proportion shall
be levied by the several States.
Article IX. Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power
of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in
the sixth article; of sending and receiving ambassadors; entering
into alliances, except, etc.; of establishing rules for deciding what
captures on land and water shall be legal; of granting letters of marque
and reprisal in time of peace; appointing courts for the trial of
piracies and felonies on the high seas; for deciding controversies
between the States and between individuals claiming lands under two or
more States whose jurisdiction has been adjusted; of regulating the
alloy and value of coin struck by their authority and of foreign coin;
fixing the standard of weights and measures; regulating the trade with
the Indians; establishing and regulating post offices from one State to
another and throughout all the States, and exacting such postage as may
be requisite to defray the expenses of the office; of appointing all
officers of the land forces except the regimental; appointing all the
officers of the naval forces; to ascertain the necessary sums of money
to be raised for the service of the United States and appropriate the
same; to borrow money and emit bills of credit; to build and equip a
Navy; to agree on the number of land forces and to make requisitions
on each State for its quota; that the assent of nine States shall be
requisite to these great acts.
Article X regulates the powers of the committee of the States to sit in
the recess of Congress.
Article XI provides for the admission of Canada into the Confederation.
Article XII pledges the faith of the United States for the payment of
all bills of credit issued and money borrowed on their account.
Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determination of the United
States on all questions submitted to them by the Confederation, the
Articles of the Confederation to be perpetual and not to be altered
without the consent of every State.
This bond of union was soon found to be utterly incompetent to the
purposes intended by it. It was defective in its powers; it was
defective also in the means of executing the powers actually granted by
it. Being a league of sovereign and independent States, its acts, like
those of all other leagues, required the interposition of the States
composing it to give them effect within their respective jurisdictions.
The acts of Congress without the aid of State laws to enforce them were
altogether nugatory. The refusal or omission of one State to pass such
laws was urged as a reason to justify like conduct in others, and thus
the Government was soon at a stand.
The experience of a few years demonstrated that the Confederation could
not be relied on for the security of the blessings which had been
derived from the Revolution. The interests of the nation required
a more efficient Government, which the good sense and virtue of the
people provided by the adoption of the present Constitution.
The Constitution of the United States was formed by a convention of
delegates from the several States, who met in Philadelphia, duly
authorized for the purpose, and it was ratified by a convention in each
State which was especially called to consider and decide on the same.
In this progress the State governments were never suspended in their
functions. On the contrary, they took the lead in it. Conscious of their
incompetency to secure to the Union the blessings of the Revolution,
they promoted the diminution of their own powers and the enlargement of
those of the General Government in the way in which they might be most
adequate and efficient. It is believed that no other example can be
found of a Government exerting its influence to lessen its own powers,
of a policy so enlightened, of a patriotism so pure and disinterested.
The credit, however, is more especially due to the people of each State,
in obedience to whose will and under whose control the State governments
acted.
The Constitution of the United States, being ratified by the people of
the several States, became of necessity to the extent of its powers the
paramount authority of the Union. On sound principles it can be viewed
in no other light. The people, the highest authority known to our
system, from whom all our institutions spring and on whom they depend,
formed it. Had the people of the several States thought proper to
incorporate themselves into one community, under one government, they
might have done it. They had the power, and there was nothing then nor
is there anything now, should they be so disposed, to prevent it. They
wisely stopped, however, at a certain point, extending the incorporation
to that point, making the National Government thus far a consolidated
Government, and preserving the State governments without that limit
perfectly sovereign and independent of the National Government. Had the
people of the several States incorporated themselves into one community,
they must have remained such, their Constitution becoming then, like the
constitution of the several States, incapable of change until altered
by the will of the majority. In the institution of a State government
by the citizens of a State a compact is formed to which all and every
citizen are equal parties. They are also the sole parties and may amend
it at pleasure. In the institution of the Government of the United
States by the citizens of every State a compact was formed between the
whole American people which has the same force and partakes of all the
qualities to the extent of its powers as a compact between the citizens
of a State in the formation of their own constitution. It can not be
altered except by those who formed it or in the mode prescribed by the
parties to the compact itself.
This Constitution was adopted for the purpose of remedying all
defects of the Confederation, and in this it has succeeded beyond
any calculation that could have been formed of any human institution.
By binding the States together the Constitution performs the great
office of the Confederation; but it is in that sense only that it has
any of the properties of that compact, and in that it is more effectual
to the purpose, as it holds them together by a much stronger bond; and
in all other respects in which the Confederation failed the Constitution
has been blessed with complete success. The Confederation was a compact
between separate and independent States, the execution of whose
articles in the powers which operated internally depended on the State
governments. But the great office of the Constitution, by incorporating
the people of the several States to the extent of its powers into one
community and enabling it to act directly on the people, was to annul
the powers of the State governments to that extent, except in cases
where they were concurrent, and to preclude their agency in giving
effect to those of the General Government. The Government of the United
States relies on its own means for the execution of its powers, as the
State governments do for the execution of theirs, both governments
having a common origin or sovereign, the people--the State governments
the people of each State, the National Government the people of every
State--and being amenable to the power which created it. It is by
executing its functions as a Government thus originating and thus acting
that the Constitution of the United States holds the States together and
performs the office of a league. It is owing to the nature of its powers
and the high source from whence they are derived--the people--that it
performs that office better than the Confederation or any league which
ever existed, being a compact which the State governments did not form,
to which they are not parties, and which executes its own powers
independently of them.
There were two separate and independent governments established over
our Union, one for local purposes over each State by the people of
the State, the other for national purposes over all the States by
the people of the United States. The whole power of the people, on the
representative principle, is divided between them. The State governments
are independent of each other, and to the extent of their powers are
complete sovereignties. The National Government begins where the State
governments terminate, except in some instances where there is a
concurrent jurisdiction between them. This Government is also, according
to the extent of its powers, a complete sovereignty. I speak here, as
repeatedly mentioned before, altogether of representative sovereignties,
for the real sovereignty is in the people alone.
The history of the world affords no such example of two separate and
independent governments established over the same people, nor can it
exist except in governments founded on the sovereignty of the people.
In monarchies and other governments not representative there can be no
such division of power. The government is inherent in the possessor;
it is his, and can not be taken from him without a revolution. In such
governments alliances and leagues alone are practicable. But with us
individuals count for nothing in the offices which they hold; that
is, they have no right to them. They hold them as representatives, by
appointment from the people, in whom the sovereignty is exclusively
vested. It is impossible to speak too highly of this system taken
in its twofold character and in all its great principles of two
governments, completely distinct from and independent of each other,
each constitutional, founded by and acting directly on the people, each
competent to all its purposes, administering all the blessings for which
it was instituted, without even the most remote danger of exercising
any of its powers in a way to oppress the people. A system capable
of expansion over a vast territory not only without weakening either
government, but enjoying the peculiar advantage of adding thereby new
strength and vigor to the faculties of both; possessing also this
additional advantage, that while the several States enjoy all the rights
reserved to them of separate and independent governments, and each is
secured by the nature of the Federal Government, which acts directly on
the people, against the failure of the others to bear their equal share
of the public burdens, and thereby enjoys in a more perfect degree all
the advantages of a league, it holds them together by a bond altogether
different and much stronger than the late Confederation or any league
that was ever known before--a bond beyond their control, and which can
not even be amended except in the mode prescribed by it. So great an
effort in favor of human happiness was never made before; but it became
those who made it. Established in the new hemisphere, descended from the
same ancestors, speaking the same language, having the same religion and
universal toleration, born equal and educated in the same principles of
free government, made independent by a common struggle and menaced by
the same dangers, ties existed between them which never applied before
to separate communities. They had every motive to bind them together
which could operate on the interests and affections of a generous,
enlightened, and virtuous people, and it affords inexpressible
consolation to find that these motives had their merited influence.
In thus tracing our institutions to their origin and pursuing them
in their progress and modifications down to the adoption of this
Constitution two important facts have been disclosed, on which it may
not be improper in this stage to make a few observations. The first is
that in wresting the power, or what is called the sovereignty, from
the Crown it passed directly to the people. The second, that it passed
directly to the people of each colony and not to the people of all the
colonies in the aggregate; to thirteen distinct communities and not
to one. To these two facts, each contributing its equal proportion,
I am inclined to think that we are in an eminent degree indebted for
the success of our Revolution. By passing to the people it vested in
a community every individual of which had equal rights and a common
interest. There was no family dethroned among us, no banished pretender
in a foreign country looking back to his connections and adherents here
in the hope of a recall; no order of nobility whose hereditary rights in
the Government had been violated; no hierarchy which had been degraded
and oppressed. There was but one order, that of the people, by whom
everything was gained by the change. I mention it also as a circumstance
of peculiar felicity that the great body of the people had been born
and educated under these equal and original institutions. Their habits,
their principles, and their prejudices were therefore all on the side
of the Revolution and of free republican government.
Had distinct orders existed, our fortune might and probably would have
been different. It would scarcely have been possible to have united so
completely the whole force of the country against a common enemy. A
contest would probably have arisen in the outset between the orders for
the control. Had the aristocracy prevailed, the people would have been
heartless. Had the people prevailed, the nobility would probably have
left the country, or, remaining behind, internal divisions would have
taken place in every State and a civil war broken out more destructive
even than the foreign, which might have defeated the whole movement.
Ancient and modern history is replete with examples proceeding from
conflicts between distinct orders, of revolutions attempted which proved
abortive, of republics which have terminated in despotism. It is owing
to the simplicity of the elements of which our system is composed that
the attraction of all the parts has been to a common center, that every
change has tended to cement the union, and, in short, that we have been
blessed with such glorious and happy success.
And that the power wrested from the British Crown passed to the people
of each colony the whole history of our political movement from the
emigration of our ancestors to the present day clearly demonstrates.
What produced the Revolution? The violation of our rights. What rights?
Our chartered rights. To whom were the charters granted, to the people
of each colony or to the people of all the colonies as a single
community? We know that no such community as the aggregate existed,
and of course that no such rights could be violated. It may be added
that the nature of the powers which were given to the delegates by
each colony and the manner in which they were executed show that the
sovereignty was in the people of each and not in the aggregate. They
respectively presented credentials such as are usual between ministers
of separate powers, which were examined and approved before they entered
on the discharge of the important duties committed to them. They voted
also by colonies and not individually, all the members from one colony
being entitled to one vote only. This fact alone, the first of our
political association and at the period of our greatest peril, fixes
beyond all controversy the source from whence the power which has
directed and secured success to all our measures has proceeded.
Had the sovereignty passed to the aggregate, consequences might have
ensued, admitting the success of our Revolution, which might even yet
seriously affect our system. By passing to the people of each colony
the opposition to Great Britain, the prosecution of the war, the
Declaration of Independence, the adoption of the Confederation and
of this Constitution are all imputable to them. Had it passed to the
aggregate, every measure would be traced to that source; even the State
governments might be said to have emanated from it, and amendments of
their constitutions on that principle be proposed by the same authority.
In short it is not easy to perceive all the consequences into which such
a doctrine might lead. It is obvious that the people in mass would have
had much less agency in all the great measures of the Revolution and in
those which followed than they actually had, and proportionably less
credit for their patriotism and services than they are now entitled to
and enjoy. By passing to the people of each colony the whole body in
each were kept in constant and active deliberation on subjects of the
highest national importance and in the supervision of the conduct of all
the public servants in the discharge of their respective duties. Thus
the most effectual guards were provided against abuses and dangers of
every kind which human ingenuity could devise, and the whole people
rendered more competent to the self-government which by an heroic
exertion they had acquired.
I will now proceed to examine the powers of the General Government,
which, like the governments of the several States, is divided into three
branches--a legislative, executive, and judiciary--each having its
appropriate share. Of these the legislative, from the nature of its
powers, all laws proceeding from it, and the manner of its appointment,
its members being elected immediately by the people, is by far the most
important. The whole system of the National Government may be said to
rest essentially on the powers granted to this branch. They mark the
limit within which, with few exceptions, all the branches must move
in the discharge of their respective functions. It will be proper,
therefore, to take a full and correct view of the powers granted to it.
By the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution it is
declared that Congress shall have power--
First. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay
the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
United States;
Second. To borrow money;
Third. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes;
Fourth. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws
respecting bankruptcies;
Fifth. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin,
and fix the standard of weights and measures;
Sixth. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities
and current coin of the United States;
Seventh. To establish post offices and post-roads;
Eighth. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing
for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries;
Ninth. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to define
and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and
offenses against the laws of nations;
Tenth. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make
rules concerning captures on land and water;
Eleventh. To raise and support armies;
Twelfth. To provide and maintain a navy;
Thirteenth. To make rules for the government of the land and naval
forces;
Fourteenth. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws
of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;
Fifteenth. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be in the service
of the United States, reserving to the States the appointment of the
officers and the authority of training the militia according to the
discipline prescribed by Congress;
Sixteenth. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatever over
such district (not exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by the cession of
particular States and the acceptance of by Congress, become the seat of
Government of the United States; and to exercise like authority over all
places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the State in
which the same may be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dockyards, and other needful buildings;
Seventeenth. And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers
vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States or
in any department or officer thereof.
To the other branches of the Government the powers properly belonging to
each are granted. The President, in whom the executive power is vested,
is made commander in chief of the Army and Navy, and militia when called
into the service of the United States. He is authorized, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, two-thirds of the members present concurring,
to form treaties, to nominate and, with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls,
judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers whose appointments
are not otherwise provided for by law. He has power to grant reprieves
and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases
of impeachment. It is made his duty to give to Congress from time to
time information of the state of the Union, to recommend to their
consideration such measures as he may judge necessary and expedient, to
convene both Houses on extraordinary occasions, to receive ambassadors,
and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
The judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior
courts as Congress may establish; and it is made to extend to all cases
in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the
United States, and treaties made under their authority. Cases affecting
ambassadors and other public characters, cases of admiralty and maritime
jurisdiction, causes in which the United States are a party, between two
or more States, between citizens of different States, between citizens
of the same State claiming grants of land under different States,
between a State or the citizens thereof and foreign States, are
specially assigned to these tribunals.
Other powers have been granted in other parts of the Constitution which,
although they relate to specific objects, unconnected with the ordinary
administration, yet, as they form important features in the Government
and may shed useful light on the construction which ought to be given
to the powers above enumerated, it is proper to bring into view.