GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONIES.

treated as an extension of the original domain, and the colonists should be considered as possessing the privileges of natural born subjects. Neither principle was adopted in its extent; but one different from either, and calculated to promote exclusively the interests of the parent state, was substituted; to wit, that the home subjects should make the most of their foreign possessions at the expense of their emigrating brethren. Hence colonists, while their fellow subjects at home might trade with all the world, were debarred from any commercial intercourse with foreign nations, were restrained in their purchases and consumption to the productions of the parent state, and to their markets in the sale of the fruits of their industry. This single regulation deprived the colonist of the avails of one half of his labor, in the enhanced price of foreign articles, for his consumption, and in a depression of the market for his own productions, and all for the benefit of the commerce and manufactures of the pa

rent state.

GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONIES. Another principle in the colonial system was, that they were to be governed by officers appointed at home, with permanent salaries raised from the resources of the colonies. In practice, these officers were so many petty tyrants, whose object was to accumulate a fortune to be spent at home. In the Spanish, French and Portuguese possessions, nothing in the shape of a colonial legislation existed. They were governed by laws made, and officers appointed at the suggestion of councils having charge of their colonial affairs, but ignorant of the condition and wants of the countries which they undertook to govern.

The principles of English colonization were somewhat more liberal, though terminating in nearly the same result. Three kinds of colonial government were adopted by that nation. First, the chartered government, where the king by charter conferred on the colonists, the right of choosing their governors, judges, and legislative assemblies, with power of enacting laws for the regulation of their internal affairs. Secondly, proprietary government, where the jurisdiction as well as the right of soil was conferred on a single proprietor, or a select and small number, who exercised the powers of government with the aid of a chief magistrate appointed by themselves, and a legislative assembly chosen by the settlers. And, thirdly, royal government, where the superior officers were appointed by the crown; these also exercised the powers of government with the aid of Legislatures chosen by the people. Though these systems apparently conferred on the colonists in a greater or less degree, a semblance of political privileges, they all ended in a subjection to the mother country. Commercial restrictions were rigidly enforced; manufactures for their own consumption, where they interfered with those of the parent state, were prohibited; coloni

EMANCIPATION OF THE COLONIES.

al laws were abrogated at pleasure, and parliament claimed the right of taxing the colonies, and of making laws binding them in all cases whatever. Such a state of things between people deriving their origin from a common stock, could not be supposed to exist beyond the period when the oppressed could resist with any prospect of success. Previous to the year 1776, the whole American continent was in this condition, subject principally to two European powers, Spain and Great Britain. Its history for the subsequent half century exhibits a continued struggle on the part of the colonies, for the attainment of political privileges, and on the part of the parent states, to retain them in a condition of vassalage.

EMANCIPATION OF THE COLONIES. At the close of the year 1820, the whole American continent, with the exception of Nova Scotia and the Canadas in the North, and two or three small territories in South America, become enfranchised; and the government of the United States then declared, in language not to be misunderstood, that no further colonization would be permitted in America. The dissolution of the tie between the parent countries and their colonies, resolved society into its original elements, and exhibited a new era in political history. It presented the important questions to be settled by an experiment, how far a people are capable of governing themselves. And what degree of civil liberty they can enjoy without incurring the evils of anarchy. In the history of the republics growing out of these colonies, is to be found the best solution of these questions. Long before the period of the colonial emancipation, the primitive inhabitants of the continent had ceased to be of any political consideration. Their numbers had greatly diminished, and it had become well ascertained that they never would amalgamate with the Europeans so as to form one people.

CHAPTER XIV.

United States. Extent. Population in 1775, 1790, 1840. Political condition at the Declaration of Independence. Origin of the state constitutions. General principles. Distribution of the powers of gov ernment. Division of the legislative body. Condition of the States from 1783 to 1787. Origin of the federal constitution. Convention of 1787. Its proceedings. Powers delegated to Congress; reserved to the States. Interfering jurisdictions; how to be settled. Federal constitution; how received, and adopted. Proceedings of the Massachusetts convention. Amendments. Different constructions of the constitution. Bank of 1781; of 1816. Question as to the right of the States to tax the bank. American system. Its object. Its origin; constitutional questions regarding it. Sectional differences. Views of the southern and of the northern states respecting it. Internal improvements. Constitutional questions regarding them. Views of their advocates; of their opponents. Opinions of the administrations of 1825, and of 1829, regarding them. Exposition of the term general welfare, in the constitution.

POPULATION. The territory of the United States, as extended by the purchase of Louisiana and the Floridas, reaches from the Gulf of Mexico to New Brunswick, a distance of fifteen hundred miles, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, three thousand miles. It is estimated to contain 2,300,000 square miles, equal to one half of Europe, and capable of furnishing sustenance for one hundred millions of people. The inhabitants exclusive of Indians, according to the census of 1840, are, Free whites,

Free colored,

14,182,033

386,092

Slaves,

2,483,695

17,051,820

Add La Fayette parish, La.,

7,832

Carter county, Kentucky,

3,000

17,062,652

Seamen in the United States service, June 1, 1840,

6,100 17,068,752

* The census of the United States is entirely completed, with the exception of La Fayette parish, Louisiana, and Carter county, Kentucky. The estimates, how ever, of the parish and county, given above, are made by competent judges.

EMANCIPATION OF THE BRITISH COLONIES.

The first actual enumeration was made in 1790, which gave the following number,

Free whites,

Free colored,

Slaves,

Increase in fifty years,

3,172,464

59,466

697,897

3,929,827

13.138,725

being over three hundred per cent. During this period, ten new states have been organized and admitted into the Union, viz. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, from the territory northwest of the Ohio, ceded by Virginia to the United States; Michigan from the territory east of the Mississippi and north of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; Mississippi and Alabama, from the Georgia western territory, purchased by the United States, of Georgia; Louisiana, Missouri and Arkansas, from the territory purchased of France, under the name of Louisiana; and Maine, by a division of the state of Massachusetts. The immigration of whites has been encouraged, and has greatly contributed to the increase of population, while for the greater part of the time, the importation of slaves has been prohibited, and slavery abolished in the northern States, and never tolerated in those north of the Ohio.

The enumeration of 1790 was the first which was ever made of the people of the United States. The Congress of 1775, made an estimate of their number, by inquiry of the members from the different states, which amounted to 2,448,000. Little is or can be known as to the number of Indians within the territory of the United States. They are estimated at four hundred thousand. They are gradually receding to the west, and their numbers diminishing.

EMANCIPATION OF THE BRITISH COLONIES. The act of the 4th of July, 1776, which severed the colonies from the parent state, left nearly three millions of people in the state of nature, as it is called; that is, without any government to direct their internal affairs, or any bond of union to protect them from external danger. The spectacle was novel; and the experiment an important one, not only to themselves, but to the future condition of the world. A sense of common danger united their energies against a common enemy. The continental Congress, as it was then called, which first met at Philadelphia in September, 1774, and their successors, conducted an eight years' war against the most powerful nation of Europe, nearly to a close, without the semblance of any written compact, constitution, or form of government; such was the reluctance of the people against parting with any portion of power, that the articles of confederation, weak and inefficient as they were admitted to be, were not acceded to by all the states until March, 1781.

ORIGIN OF STATE CONSTITUTIONS. PRINCIPLES. POWERS, LEGISLATIVE.

out any

ORIGIN OF STATE CONSTITUTIONS. The people had another and equally difficult and delicate task to perform, that of establishing a system of internal or municipal regulations, and a magistracy to execute them. The condition of a people without a government, though called a state of nature, is a state in which they cannot exist for any length of time. Their first effort will be to deliver themselves from such a condition, and establish a government of some sort. The people of the states first resorted to committees, or provincial congresses and conventions, as they were termed, consisting of persons selected by the people in their primary assemblies, to manage their concerns, and withdefinite powers or restrictions. This, as a temporary expedient, answered well for a short time. On the application of some of the states to Congress for advice relative to the management of their local concerns, that body, with great wisdom and foresight, recommended to the people of each state, to assemble in their respective town or county districts, and to choose delegates to a state convention, clothed with powers to form a constitution or frame of government for the state, designating the manner in which its magistracy should be elected, the powers with which it should be clothed, and the restrictions to which it should be subjected. This was the origin of constitution making. It was an untried experiment. History furnished no examples of the kind, the governments of the eastern continent having had their origin in accident, fraud, or force. New as this scheme was, it has been adopted at different periods by all the states, and attended with beneficial results. The state conventions, though meeting at different times, under different circumstances, and acting without concert, agreed on these general principles.

PRINCIPLES. That all power was derived from the people, and to be exercised for their benefit, by agents chosen by them for limited periods.

That there should be no hereditary or privilegea orders, ranks, or titles.

That the laws should operate equally upon all the citizens, whatever might be their condition; and that all should contri bute their proportion to the public expenditure, according to their ability.

That nothing but crime, color, want of a certain small portion of property, or of a competent age, should deprive any citizen of choosing his rulers, or being himself elected to office.

POWERS, LEGISLATIVE. In filling up the outlines, the states took for their model, in many important particulars, the English constitution. They agreed that the powers of government should be distributed into three departments, legislative, executive and judicial; that the legislative branch should consist of two houses or chambers, each having a negative upon the other;