This is not so very hard to understand, is it? The President and Congress elected by the people; the Supreme Court and Cabinet selected by the President; the Constitution the foundation of our government; and the laws passed by Congress the building erected on the foundation.
Its great feature is that it is a republic—a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Ours is not the first republic. There have been others. But it is the greatest. It is the only one that covers half a continent, and is made up of states many of which are larger than some of the kingdoms of Europe. For more than a hundred years the Constitution made in 1787 has held good. Then it covered thirteen states and less than four million people; now it covers more than forty-five states and eighty million people. Then it was very poor, and had a hard struggle before it; now it is very rich and prosperous. It has grown to be the richest country in the world and one of the greatest.
CHAPTER XVI
THE END OF A NOBLE LIFE
EVERY four years a great question arises in this country, and all the states and their people are disturbed until this question is settled. Even business nearly stops still, for many persons can think of nothing but the answer to this question.
Who shall be President? That is the question which at the end of every four years troubles the minds of our people. This question was asked for the first time in 1789, after the Constitution had been made and accepted by the states, but this time the people found it a very easy question to answer.
There were several men who had taken a great part in the making of our country, and who might have been named for President. One of these was Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence. Another of them was Benjamin Franklin, who got France to come to our aid, and did many other noble things for his country. But none of them stood so high in the respect and admiration of the people as George Washington, who had led our armies through the great war, and to whom, more than to any other man, we owed our liberty.
This time, then, there was no real question as to whom should be President. Washington was the man. All men, all parties, settled upon Washington. No one opposed him; there was no man in the country like him. He was unanimously elected the first President of the United States.