GUARANTY OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.

Injunction respecting.

430. The United States shall guarantee to every state in the Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence.

431. A confederacy of states, founded on dissimilar principles, some of the states having a republican form of government, some an aristocratic form, and others a monarchical form, would be very apt, from opposing views and policy, to be discordant, and fail into distraction. To avoid such a condition of affairs, the Constitution has provided that in all the states of the Union a republican form of government must be maintained.

432. It has been justly remarked that the only restriction imposed on the states by this clause of the Constitution is, that they shall not exchange republican for anti-republican institutions. They may alter or amend their respective constitutions as they please, only they must take care and preserve

the republican form. If they should adopt aristocratic or monarchical systems, or such systems should be imposed on them by the violence of parties or factions, the government of the United States would be bound to interpose and restore the republican form.

433. And the standard by which the question must be determined whether the actual government is republican in form or not, is, does it correspond with the governments in existence when the Constitution was adopted? When a state is admitted into the Union, Congress determines, by the fact of admission, that the government of such state is republican in form. If changes are afterwards made which do not essentially alter the character of such government, as it stood when the state was admitted into the Union, Congress cannot interpose, however distasteful such changes may be. But, it seems, by recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, that if Congress should unjustly, erroneously, and arbitrarily determine and declare that a particular state government was not republican in form, and refuse thereupon to recognize it, the citizens of such state are without redress. The judicial tribunals, in political questions, accept and follow the conclusions of the political department.

434. The United States are also bound to protect each state from invasion; and also against domestic

violence, such as insurrection or rebellion, on application of the legislature, or of the executive when the legislature cannot be convened.

AMENDMENTS.

Mode of.

435. Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses deem it necessary, must propose amendments to the Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, must call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, are valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress; provided, that no amendment, which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall, in any manner, affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first Article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

436. As useful alterations in the Constitution might be suggested by experience, a mode is provided for making them. This mode combines two great advantages; that is, changes can be made, but without too much facility on the one hand, or too

much difficulty on the other. If changes are too easily made, there will be instability in the govern. ment; if with too great difficulty, the community may be deprived of the benefit of salutary reforms, or seek a remedy in revolution or civil dissension.

437. No amendments, it will be observed, can be made to the Constitution unless two-thirds of Congress propose them, or they are proposed by a convention called by Congress, on the application of two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states, and also, unless three-fourths of the states, either by their legislatures or by conventions called for that purpose, ratify them.

438. No amendment, made prior to the year 1808, could affect, in any manner, those clauses which relate to the migration or importation of such persons as the states might think proper to admit, and to the manner in which direct taxes should be laid: in other words, no changes could be made in those clauses which relate to the importation of slaves, or the apportionment of taxes, until after the year 1808. A A permanent limitation upon the power of amendment is, that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. It should be observed that a proposed amendment to the Constitution need not be presented to the President for his approval.