The convention met in Philadelphia. The States sent their ablest men; and well they did, for dependent upon their actions and decision was the destiny of a great nation. After a discussion of some weeks, the Constitution was decided upon. This Constitution, unlike the “Articles of Confederation,” gave Congress power to act, and not simply to advise the States. The government provided for by this Constitution was to be republican in its nature and was to consist of three departments: a Legislative department, or Congress, to make laws; an Executive department, the President and his officers, to enforce the laws enacted by Congress; and a Judiciary department, the Federal Courts, to decide disputed questions under the law. The Legislative and Executive departments, working in unison, were to govern the country, always acting in accordance with the Constitution as interpreted by the Judiciary department.

This form of government went into effect, being ratified by New Hampshire, the ninth State, in 1788.

During the first year of the administration of Washington, the first ten amendments were proposed. We may assign the same reason for the early proposal of these amendments as that which caused nearly half of the members of the convention to vote against the Constitution. This cause was, we think, that the States feared that too much power would be given to the Federal government. These ten amendments were adopted in 1791, thus assuring to the people freedom of speech and of press, trial by jury and a great many other privileges. The third clause in the first amendment—Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of press—was not very strictly adhered to in later days. For instance, the “Sedition Law,” passed by Congress during the administration of John Adams, was disregardful of this clause. The eleventh amendment, limiting judiciary power, was adopted in 1798. When the presidential election of 1800 came, the Republican candidates were Jefferson and Burr. The votes being counted, it was found that they had received an equal number. It now fell to Congress to decide which should be President. On the thirty-sixth ballot Jefferson received the majority, and Burr, his political opponent, became Vice-President. In order that this defect in election might be removed, the twelfth amendment was adopted in 1804. It provided that the electors should meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President, and in a distinct ballot for Vice-President.

The people had put aside their old Puritan customs and fashions, and had come to think and act to a great extent as the people of to-day. They were energetic and were steadily rising, soon to take their stand in the foremost rank of the nations of the world. Already foreign nations had begun to respect their claims, yet the country was doomed to be rent by civil strife and to flow with the blood of her sturdiest sons. The war soon passed away, the feeling soon died out, and the North and the South were known no more as two sections disputing about State Sovereignty, but as different sections of the same great nation, governed by the same laws, enjoying the same liberty and freedom, and worshipping the same Divine Being. The termination of this war in favor of the North gave rise to the thirteenth amendment, prohibiting slavery in any part of the United States or in any of her colonies, except as punishment for some crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. The fourteenth amendment was adopted in the year 1868. The fifteenth and last amendment was adopted in 1870. This gives to each and every citizen of the United States regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, the right to vote.

Thus we see that but fifteen amendments have been added to the Constitution in little over one hundred years; and these became necessary, not because the convention of 1787 did its work so imperfectly, but because the growth of the country in population, in wealth, and the change of the condition and avocations of a majority of the people demanded them.

Let us notice some of these changes. During the Revolutionary war and the period between the close of the war and the adoption of the constitution, there were no railroads and no telegraphs, there were but very few factories, and those very clumsily built. The public roads were in a very bad condition, so that the majority of the people knew nothing of the country except that part of it which was in their immediate neighborhood, for there were no means of communication between different sections, and where there is little or no communication between two sections, they know very little of each other. There were strong States oppressing the weaker ones and contentions between State and State concerning their western boundaries. About sixty years later, we find that the electric telegraph had been invented and was in successful use and that there were railroads on every hand. There was close communication between the different sections, so that every one was, or ought to have been, posted on the issues of the times. There were many factories of many kinds built on improved plans, thus changing the employments of a great many citizens. All the States with fixed boundaries were working in unison with but one purpose in view, and that the furtherance of the general good. In the former time, farming was the occupation of the masses; in the later, they were engaged in almost every industry known to the world. The population had increased from three millions (3,000,000) to over seventeen millions (17,000,000), and the wealth of the people had also increased wonderfully. Great political changes had come about. The issues of the times were entirely different, and in order that these issues might be rightly legislated upon, changes were made in the constitution, and these changes constitute the amendments.

With this constitution as a basis, our country has, for the past century, been a prosperous and happy country. She has increased in population and wealth as no other nation on earth has increased. If she goes on increasing as she has increased, half a century hence she will have two hundred millions of people, and there will be no power on earth to compare with her; for she will not be such as China, Hindoostan, Russia, but a nation of civilized men, helped by steam, electricity and machinery, so that each man can do as much work as a score of Chinese. She could then maintain fleets and armies enough to overawe the remainder of the world. She could make other nations yield to her slightest demand. She could make herself a bully and a nuisance among nations. When the United States becomes such a power as this, if rightly ruled, it may be made a great blessing to the world. If the moral forces, which have made the country what it is, should be lost, national decay would soon rid the earth of the evil, and free other nations from anxiety. North America has been the burial place of other races before ours, and it may yet be the graveyard of our own. If every man will fight every evil he sees, if he lives out man’s allotted time of life, he will be rewarded in seeing his country respected and honored by all other nations as no nation has yet been respected or honored, and in feeling that he has done his part in the great work.

S. D. M.

[For the Archive.]

The favorable notices of the Alumni of Trinity are interesting, especially to an old student. This department as a medium of communication between old graduates serves in many instances as an advertising column. All the editors ask of you for this is your subscription. And the Alumnus or any other old student who takes so little interest in the affairs of his own college that he does not subscribe for its publications, I fear has lost his patriotism.