1787.

The Federal Constitution.

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These two sets of opinions continued to exist and conflict for three-quarters of a century, till that which assigned an undue dominion to what were called State Rights perished in the overthrow of the government of the Confederate States.

Slowly and through endless debate the convention worked out its plan of a government. The scheme was submitted to Congress, and thence sent down to the several States. Months of fiery discussion ensued. Somewhat reluctantly, by narrow majorities, in the face of vehement protests, the Constitution was at length adopted under which the thirteen States were to become so great.

Great Britain has no written Constitution. She has her laws; and it is expected that all future laws shall be in tolerable harmony with the principles on which her past legislation has been founded. But if Parliament were to enact, and the sovereign to sanction, any law at variance with these principles, there is no help for it. Queen, Lords, and Commons are supreme authority, from whose decisions there lies no appeal. In America it is different; with us the supreme authority is a written Constitution. Congress may unanimously enact, and the President may cordially sanction, a new law. The Judges of the Supreme Court, sitting in the same building where Congress meets, may compare that law with the Constitution. If it is found at variance with the Constitution, it is unceremoniously declared to be no law, and entitled to no man's obedience. With a few amendments, the original Constitution remains in full force now, receiving, as it increases in age, the growing reverence of the people. The men who framed it must have been very wise. The people for whom it was framed must possess in high degree the precious Anglo-Saxon veneration for law. Otherwise the American paper Constitution must long ago have shared the fate of the numerous documents of this

class under which the French vainly sought rest during their first Revolution.

The Federal Constitution was adopted on the 17th of September, 1787. Under it General George Washington was elected the first President. John Adams was elected VicePresident. The first President was inaugurated on April 30, 1789.

The question of the public debt was the first issue that the new Congress had to meet.

Washington, with a sigh, asked a friend, "What is to be done about this heavy debt?" "There is but one man in America can tell you," said his friend, "and that is Alexander Hamilton." Washington made Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury. The success of his financial measures was immediate and complete. "He smote the rock of the national resources," said Daniel Webster, "and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprang upon its feet.” All the war debts of the States were assumed by the general government. Efficient provision was made for the regular payment of interest, and for a sinking fund to liquidate the principal. Duties were imposed on shipping, on goods imported from abroad, and on spirits manufactured at home. The vigor of the government inspired public confidence. Commerce began to revive. In a few years the American flag was seen on every sea. The simple manufactures of the country resumed their long-interrupted activity. A national bank was established. Courts were set up, and judges were appointed. The salaries of the President and the great functionaries were settled. A home was chosen for the general government on the banks of the Potomac, where the capital of the Union was to supplant the little wooden village, remote from the agitations which arise in the great centres of population. In

1797.

Washington at Mount Vernon.

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numerable details connected with the establishment of a new government were discussed and fixed. Novel as the circumstances were, little of the work then done has required to be undone. Succeeding generations of Americans have approved the wisdom of their early legislators,

and continue unaltered the arrangements which were framed at the outset of the national existence.

Washington was President during the first eight years of the Constitution. He survived his withdrawal from public life only three years, dying, after a few hours' illness, in

the sixty-eighth year of his age. His countrymen mourned him with a sorrow sincere and deep. Their reverence for him has not diminished with the progress of the years. Each new generation of Americans catches up the veneration calm, intelligent, but profound with which its fathers regarded the blameless chief. To this day there is an affectionate watchfulness for opportunities to express the honor in which his name is held. To this day the steamers which ply upon the Potomac strike mournful notes upon the bell as they sweep past Mount Vernon, where Washington spent the happiest days of his life, and where he died.