pearance of the accused at the next court, or in case he shall not appear, then to pay the sum mentioned in the bond. The word bail is from a French word meaning to deliver, or to release. Hence, the justice bails, lets free, or delivers to his sureties, the party arrested. Hence, also, the surety is said to bail a person when he procures his liberation. The bond or obligation of the surety, is in law called a recognizance, as is also the bond given by the prosecutor and witnesses for their appearance against the prisoner.

GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER XXIX.

NATURE OF THE UNION.

§ 1. Ir has been attempted, in the foregoing chapters, to illustrate the principles of civil institutions, and to show the application of these principles to the government of the states. If the reader has carefully studied these chapters, it is presumed he now understands how the powers of the government of a state are divided; by whom and in what manner these powers are exercised; and what are his political rights and duties as a citizen of the state in which he resides.

§ 2. It will be next in order to treat of the government of the United States. The youngest student in political science probably knows, that while he is a citizen of a state, and is subject to its government and laws, he is at the same time a citizen of the United States. And as he is subject also to the laws and government of the United States, it is necessary to understand his rights as a citizen under this government, and the relation which the state governments and the government of the United States bear to each other.

3. The government of this country is complicated. Not only is there a complete government in each of the states of the union, but the people of the several states are united

in one general government, whose powers control, in certain matters, the people and the governments of the states. This government, is similar, in form, to the state governments, its powers being divided into legislative, executive and judicial; and its constitution is called the "Constitution of the United States." The people of the states being incorporated into one great nation under a general constitution, this government is sometimes called the national government. The several states being united in a confederacy, the government is also called the federal government; the word federal being derived from the Latin, fudus, and signifying a league, or contract, or alliance.

§ 4. In order to a correct understanding of the nature of the general government, and of our relations to it as citizens of the United States, we must consider the condition of the American colonies while subject to Great Britain. The colonies had then no political connection with each other. They were as independent of each other as different nations. Therefore the people were not then citizens of the United States; they were only citizens of the respective colonies in which they resided.

§ 5. During the controversy with Great Britain, it became necessary for the colonies to agree upon some general measures of defense. For this purpose, the first great continental congress, composed of delegates from the several colonies, met at Philadelphia on the 4th of September, 1774. The next year, in May, another congress met to propose and to adopt such further measures as the state of the country might require; and the same congress, on the 4th of July, 1776, declared the colonies to be "free and independent states."

§ 6. This declaration was called "The unanimous Declaration of the United States of America ;" but the states were united only in certain measures of safety. There was no government which exercised authority over the states. The people were subject to their respective state governments only. They were not yet incorporated into one nation for the purpose of government, as now, under a constitution. Hence, they were not yet properly citizens of the United States.

§ 7. To effect the future security as well as the immediate safety of the American people, congress deemed it necessary

that there should be a union of the states under some general government; and in November, 1777, that body agreed upon a plan of union. The articles were called "Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States ;" and were to go into effect when adopted by the legislatures of all the states. Some of the states were slow to agree to the articles; the last state not assenting to the plan until March 1, 1781, when the articles were adopted.

§ 8. But the union formed under these articles of confederation, was not such a union as that which exists under the present constitution, as will appear by considering a few points of difference between them. In the first place they were different in form. The confederation was merely a union of states. It had not, as the national government now has, the three departments of power, legislative, executive and judicial. It had only a legislature, and that consisted of a single body, called congress; in which the several states were entitled to an equal representation; the number of delegates from each state to consist of not less than two nor more than seven.

§ 9. The nature of that union as a mere confederation of states, appears, further, from the manner in which questions were determined by congress. Votes were taken by states. If a majority of the delegates of any state voted in favor of a measure, that state was set down in the affirmative; but if a majority voted against the measure, the state was placed in the negative. Thus each state gave but one vote; and a question having in its favor a majority of the states, was declared to be carried. If an equal number of the delegates of a state voted for and against a proposition, such state was said to be divided, and had no vote. So also a state lost its vote, if there were not at least two of its delegates present and voting.

§ 10. That government differed from the present also in regard to its powers. The confederation was a very weak government. Its powers were vested in a congress. The congress was to manage the common affairs of the nation, and to enact such laws (if laws they might be called) as should be deemed necessary; but a main defect in the system was, that congress had no power to carry its requisi tions into effect.

§ 11. For example, it belonged to congress to ascertain

the number of men and the sums of money to be raised to carry on the war, and to call on each state to raise its due share; but congress could not enforce the requisition. It had no power to lay and collect taxes; it was dependent upon the states for raising the money to defray the public expenses. It could, and did, to some extent, borrow money in its own name, on the credit of the Union; but it had not the means of repaying the money so borrowed. The power being reserved to.the states to lay the taxes, it depended upon the good will of the legislatures of the thirteen independent states to carry any measure of defense into effect. Indeed, by none of the states had the requisitions of congress been fully complied with.

§ 12. It may be asked how a union of the states could exist under so weak a government. But for the peculiar condition of the country at that time, it is doubted whether there would have been a sufficient compliance with the ordinances of congress to bring the war to a successful issue, which could be done only by union. It was a sense of danger from abroad, rather than any power in the government, that kept the states united. The plan of government was devised in a time of war, and had respect to the operations of war, rather than to a state of peace and after the return of peace the inefficiency of this government very soon appeared.

§ 13. The condition of the states may be compared to that of individuals who unite in averting a common danger, or in pursuing a common interest, but whose union and friendship last only until the desired object has been attained. The war being over, the states did not long continue in harmony. Laws were enacted in some states giving their own citizens undue advantages over the citizens of other states; and in a few years, the mutual jealousies and animosities caused by these and other acts of partial legislation, became such as threatened to break up the union.

§ 14. It was now evident, that, to preserve the union, a government possessing more extensive powers was necessary; a government that could, in all needful cases, control the action of the state governments. After several ineffectual attempts to remedy some of the existing evils, congress, having been thereto requested, called a convention to revise and amend the articles of confederation.

All

the states, except Rhode Island, chose delegates, who met at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and framed the present constitution, which differs from the confederation, both in its form, or nature, and in the extent of its powers.

§ 15. The change effected in the nature of the federal government by the constitution, appears not only from the dissimilarity of the two plans, but also from the different modes in which they were formed and adopted, or the different authorities by which these acts were done. The articles of confederation were framed by congress, and ratified by the state legislatures. Hence, the adoption of these articles was the act of the legislatures of the states, and not of the people of the states; and the confederation was a union of states, rather than a union of the people of the states.

§ 16. The constitution, on the other hand, was framed by men appointed expressly for that purpose, and submitted for approval, not to the state legislatures, but to the people of the states, and adopted by state conventions whose members were chosen for that purpose by the people of the several states. Hence, the constitution is virtually the act of the people; and the union is not a mere confederation of states, but, as the preamble declares, "a more perfect union," formed by "THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES."

CHAPTER XXX.

HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION.

§ 1. THE brief description, in the preceding chapter, of the character of the confederation, designed merely to show the necessity of a change in the federal government, and to convey a general idea of the nature of the union, is deemed insufficient to prepare the political student for the successful study of the constitution. Therefore, before we proceed to the examination of the several provisions of that instrument, a more detailed history will be given of the practical workings of the confederation, and of the various efforts to relieve the country which terminated in the adoption of the constitution.