of the Constitution had too much regard for consistency, to use the word in a document based on the principles of liberty and justice.

PROVISIONS TO PROTECT PRIVATE RIGHTS.

The chief safeguard of the people against oppression by the national government is contained Habeas Corpus. in the provision that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. The Constitution does not declare who shall be the judge of the necessity of suspending the privilege. In 1863 Congress authorized the president to suspend the privilege of the writ throughout the whole or any part of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety might require it. Accordingly it was, by proclamation, suspended in some of the States. But, when the emergency had passed, the right was promptly restored: military rule ceased; municipal law became again supreme, and free to act through the ordinary channels of judicial procedure. This, more than the successful prosecution of the war, was the grand triumph of the government; for, though it may be easy for a government to acquire power, it is not so easy to give it up.

The Declaration of Independence had stated as a self-evident truth, that all men are created Titles of Nobilequal. Any artificial division of the peo- ity.

ple into classes would be contrary to the fundamental principle of the government. Hence the Constitution declares that no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States or by any State. The Constitution also forbids any officer of the United States accepting any

present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state without the consent of Congress. Presents have been made by foreign sovereigns to some of the presidents of the United States; but they have been received officially rather than personally, and are preserved as public property at the seat of government. Congress frequently grants permission to officers to accept gifts from foreign governments.

Another private right that has always been dear to the American people is trial by jury. This Trial by Jury. is guaranteed by the Constitution itself in criminal cases; and by one of the amendments it is also secured in civil suits when the value in controversy exceeds twenty dollars. The trial is to be held in the State and district where the crime is committed. If not committed in any State, Congress by law determines where the trial shall be held.

The people of the States, in forming their own constitutions, were careful to provide for all Other Rights. those civil and political rights for which their fathers had struggled in England, and which had been denied them by the British Government. They knew their worth because they knew what they had cost. When the Constitution was presented to them for ratification, without any declaration of these rights, they naturally hesitated, lest they should by their own act create a power that might oppress them. Hence, with their ratification, they presented articles of amendment to supply the defect. These have been noticed in a preceding section.

CHAPTER XXXII.

RELATION OF NATIONAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS.

In the first part of this book it was said, that a state is a whole body of people; that a govern- Source of Aument is a part of that whole body; that thority. authority to govern is in the state; that this authority is delegated to the government by the state, under conditions and limitations; that the form of the government, and the extent of its powers, are determined by the state; that the state may withdraw its grant of powers in part or wholly, and may delegate again to the same organization or to a new one. These are fundamental principles. In considering the relative authority of the national and state governments, we have to inquire for the people by whom this authority is delegated in each case, and notice their condition before these governments were organized.

Previous to independence, the people of the thirteen English colonies in America held two distinct political relations, one national, the other local. They all

alike belonged to the British nation: its authority, as vested in the king and parliament, was supreme. This relation they held in common. As subjects of Great Britain they were one people.

In another respect they were distinct.

That the

functions of local government should be exercised directly by the people most concerned, had always been a cherished idea of the Anglo-Saxon people. In accordance with this idea, the people founding the different colonies had claimed the right of local self-government. The king had so far yielded to this claim as to establish separate organizations, in which the people had more or less power. Thus the people of the colonies were one in their relation to the king, and separate in their local organizations.

During the war for independence, these two relations of oneness and diversity continued, but with this change. The people of the different colonies created permanent organizations for local government, by forming their several State constitutions. The one people of all the colonies established the Continental Congress for such general purposes as seemed necessary, but made at first no complete and permanent organization. As soon as more pressing necessities had been met, they established the confederation as a national government, leaving the local organizations as they were. But they found by short experience, that they had given to the national government too little power, and had left to the local governments too much. Hence the new

organization under the Constitution.

The Constitution was made by the same people that formed the confederation. They were one under British rule, one in the war for independence, one under the confederation, and the same one under the Constitution. The government organized by the Constitution received its authority from this one people. It was optional with this people to give up its oneness, to establish no national government, to separate itself into

thirteen distinct and independent states, each with all the powers of such. It was also optional to vest all the functions in the national government, giving to it the power to provide for local administration. The first course would have been political suicide; the second would have been to throw away what had been a sacred birthright of their fathers, cherished through a history of a thousand years. They chose neither of these two courses, but organized a national government for national purposes, and allowed the local governments to exist with purely local functions. This idea is expressed in the article which says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States. respectively, or to the people."

The national government, therefore, receives its authority from the whole people of all the States. The State governments exercise what authority the same people has suffered them to retain.

Functions of
Each.

The relation of the national and State governments to each other is further shown in the nature of the functions of each. So long as the American people were a part of the British nation, they held no relations to foreign nations. France knew them only as British subjects; and if she had declarations of war to make, or treaties of peace to negotiate, she dealt with the government of Great Britain. She went to headquarters.

But when, at the beginning of the revolution, the Continental Congress addressed the people of Great Britain in the name of the American people, and uttered the Declaration of Independence in the name of the people of the united colonies, France recognized a new nation;