CHAPTER VIII.. The Federal Union.

THE FEDERAL UNION.

Section 1. Origin of the Federal Union.

Having now sketched the origin and nature of written constitutions, we are prepared to understand how by means of such a document the government of our Federal Union was called into existence. We have already described so much of the civil government in operation in the United States that this account can be made much more concise than if we had started at the top instead of the bottom and begun to portray our national government before saying a word about states and counties and towns. Bit by bit the general theory of American self-government has already been set before the reader. We have now to observe, in conclusion, what a magnificent piece of constructive work has been performed in accordance with that general theory. We have to observe the building up of a vast empire out of strictly self-governing elements.

All spoke the English language, all had English institutions. Except the development of the written constitution, every bit of civil government described in the preceding pages came to America directly from England, and not a bit of it from any other country, unless by being first filtered through England. Our institutions were as English as our speech. It was therefore comparatively easy for people in one colony to understand people in another, not only as to their words but as to their political ideas. Moreover, during the first half of the eighteenth century, the common danger from the aggressive French enemy on the north and west went far toward awakening in the thirteen colonies a common interest. And after the French enemy had been removed, the assertion by parliament of its alleged right to tax the Americans threatened all the thirteen legislatures at once, and thus in fact drove the colonies into a kind of federal union.

Meanwhile the Revolutionary War had advanced into its last stages, having been carried on from the outset under the general direction of the Continental Congress. When reading about this period of our history, the student must be careful not to be misled by the name "congress" into reasoning as if there were any resemblance whatever between that body and the congress which was created by our Federal Constitution. The Continental Congress was not the parent of our Federal Congress; the former died without offspring, and the latter had a very different origin, as we shall soon see. The former simply bequeathed to the latter a name, that was all.

Men were most unwillingly brought to this conclusion, because they were used to their state assemblies and not afraid of them, but they were afraid of increasing the powers of any government superior to the states, lest they should thus create an unmanageable tyranny. They believed that even anarchy, though a dreadful evil, is not so dreadful as despotism, and for this view there is much to be said. After no end of trouble a convention was at length got together at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and after four months of work with closed doors, it was able to offer to the country the new Federal Constitution. Both in its character and in the work which It did, this Federal Convention, over which Washington presided, and of which Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton were members, was one of the most remarkable deliberative bodies known to history.

We have seen that the fundamental weakness of the Continental Congress lay in the fact that it could not tax the people. Hence although it could for a time exert other high functions of sovereignty, it could only do so while money was supplied to it from other sources than taxation; from contributions made by the states in answer to its "requisitions," from foreign loans, and from a paper currency. But such resources could not last long. It was like a man's trying to live upon his own promissory notes and upon gifts and unsecured loans from his friends. When the supply of money was exhausted, the Congress soon found that it could no longer comport itself as a sovereign power; it could not preserve order at home, and the situation abroad may be illustrated by the fact that George III. kept garrisons in several of our northwestern frontier towns and would not send a minister to the United States. This example shows that, among the sovereign powers of a government, the power of taxation is the fundamental one upon which all the others depend. Nothing can go on without money.

But the people of the several states would never consent to grant the power of taxation, to such a body as the Continental Congress, in which they were not represented. The Congress was not a legislature, but a diplomatic body; it did not represent the people, but the state governments; and a large state like Pennsylvania had no more weight in it than a little state like Delaware. If there was to be any central assembly for the whole union, endowed with the power of taxation, it must be an assembly representing the American people just as the assembly of a single state represented the people of the state.

As soon as this point became clear, it was seen to be necessary to throw the Articles of Confederation overboard, and construct a new national government. As was said above, our Federal Congress is not descended from the Continental Congress. Its parentage is to be sought in the state legislatures. Our federal government was constructed after the general model of the state governments, with some points copied from British usages, and some points that were original and new.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. What are the reasons for reserving the Constitution of the United States for the concluding chapter?

2. Circumstances that favoured union of the colonies:--

a. The origin of their inhabitants. b. All the details of their civil government. c. The ease with which they understood one another. d. Their common dangers, two in particular.

3. Earlier unions among the colonies:--

a. The New England Confederacy,--its time, purpose, and duration. b. The French danger, and plans to meet it. c. The Albany Congress,--its nature and immediate purpose. d. The Stamp Act Congress.

4. Committees of correspondence:--

a. The circular letter of Massachusetts in 1768. b. Town committees of correspondence in Massachusetts in 1772. c. Colonial committees of correspondence in 1773. d. The habit established through these committees.

5. The Continental Congress:--

a. The immediate causes that led to it. b. How it might have been temporary. c. How it became permanent. d. Its date, place of meeting, and duration. e. Why "continental" as distinguished from "provincial?" f. The nature and extent of its authority. g. The states represented in it never fully sovereign.

6. Give an account of the "Articles of Confederation."

7. Distinguish between the Continental Congress and the Federal.

8. The powers of the Continental Congress:-- a. Its homelessness and wandering. b. Its delegates and their voting power. c. Its presiding officer. d. Its management of executive matters. e. The finance committee and its problems. f. The raising of money. g. The compelling of obedience.

9. The Continental Congress not a sovereign body:--

a. The nature of real government. b. Some functions of sovereignty exercised by the Congress. c. The situation illogical.

10. Explain the "implied war powers" of the Congress.

11. When was the Congress at the height of its reputation, and why?

12. Explain the decline in its reputation from 1778 to 1783.

13. The alarming weakness of the union after 1783:--

a. The effect of peace upon the union. b. Local prejudices. c. State antagonisms. d. The gloomy outlook in 1786.

14. The Federal Convention in 1787:--

a. The reluctance to make the change that was felt to be needed. b. Some facts about the Convention. c. The character of its delegates. d. The fundamental weakness of the Continental Congress. e. The fundamental power of a strong government. f. The objection to granting the power of taxation to the Continental Congress. g. The sort of assembly demanded for exercising the taxing power. h. The model on which the federal government was built.