History Of The Federal Constitution
Origin of the first Union -Its weakness -Congress appeals to
the constituent authority -Interval of two years between this
appeal and the promulgation of the new Constitution.
The thirteen colonies which simultaneously threw off the yoke of
England towards the end of the last century professed, as I have already
observed, the same religion, the same language, the same customs, and
almost the same laws; they were struggling against a common enemy; and
these reasons were sufficiently strong to unite them one to another, and
to consolidate them into one nation. But as each of them had enjoyed a
separate existence and a government within its own control, the peculiar
interests and customs which resulted from this system were opposed to a
compact and intimate union which would have absorbed the individual
importance of each in the general importance of all. Hence arose two
opposite tendencies, the one prompting the Anglo-Americans to unite, the
other to divide their strength. As long as the war with the
mother-country lasted the principle of union was kept alive by
necessity; and although the laws which constituted it were defective,
the common tie subsisted in spite of their imperfections.
[1] But no sooner was peace concluded than the
faults of the legislation became manifest, and the State seemed to be
suddenly dissolved. Each colony became an independent republic, and
assumed an absolute sovereignty. The federal government, condemned to
impotence by its constitution, and no longer sustained by the presence
of a common danger, witnessed the outrages offered to its flag by the
great nations of Europe, whilst it was scarcely able to maintain its
ground against the Indian tribes, and to pay the interest of the debt
which had been contracted during the war of independence. It was
already on the verge of destruction, when it officially proclaimed its
inability to conduct the government, and appealed to the constituent
authority of the nation. [2] If America ever
approached (for however brief a time) that lofty pinnacle of glory to
which the fancy of its inhabitants is wont to point, it was at the
solemn moment at which the power of the nation abdicated, as it were,
the empire of the land. All ages have furnished the spectacle of a
people struggling with energy to win its independence; and the efforts
of the Americans in throwing off the English yoke have been considerably
exaggerated. Separated from their enemies by three thousand miles of
ocean, and backed by a powerful ally, the success of the United States
may be more justly attributed to their geographical position than to the
valor of their armies or the patriotism of their citizens. It would be
ridiculous to compare the American was to the wars of the French
Revolution, or the efforts of the Americans to those of the French when
they were attacked by the whole of Europe, without credit and without
allies, yet capable of opposing a twentieth part of their population to
the world, and of bearing the torch of revolution beyond their frontiers
whilst they stifled its devouring flame within the bosom of their
country. But it is a novelty in the history of society to see a great
people turn a calm and scrutinizing eye upon itself, when apprised by
the legislature that the wheels of government are stopped; to see it
carefully examine the extent of the evil, and patiently wait for two
whole years until a remedy was discovered, which it voluntarily adopted
without having wrung a tear or a drop of blood from mankind. At the
time when the inadequacy of the first constitution was discovered
America possessed the double advantage of that calm which had succeeded
the effervescence of the revolution, and of those great men who had led
the revolution to a successful issue. The assembly which accepted the
task of composing the second constitution was small;
[3] but George Washington was its President, and
it contained the choicest talents and the noblest hearts which had ever
appeared in the New World. This national commission, after long and
mature deliberation, offered to the acceptance of the people the body of
general laws which still rules the Union. All the States adopted it
successively. [4] The new Federal Government
commenced its functions in 1789, after an interregnum of two years. The
Revolution of America terminated when that of France began.