of Chicago, and thence into branches of the Mississippi affording as
yet even less water than the Atlantic outlet. The commerce on the
lakes is largely in grain, coal, iron a11d lumber. The tonnage of
vessels cleared between American ports on the lakes in 1908 was
103,271,8S5 net tons; the freight they carried came to 80,974,605
long tons. Vessels aggregating 46,751,717 net tons, carrying
57,895,149 tons of freight, valued at $470,141,318, passed through
the Sault Ste Marie Canal and 47,621,078 tons of freight were moved
through the Detroit river in the same year. In these figures no
account is taken of the trade of the Canadian ports on the lakes.
Compared with this volume of traffic the movement through the
Suez Canal is small.
It has been estimated by O. P. Austin, chief of the national bureau of statistics, using data of 1903, that the internal commerce of the United States exceeds in magnitude the total international commerce of the world. (F. S. P.)
VII.—Constitution and Government
I.—Introductory.
§ 1. A description of the government of the United States falls naturally into three parts:-
First, an account of the states and their governments.
Second, an account of the Federal system, including the relation of the states as communities to the Federation as representing the whole nation.
Third, an account of the structure and organization of the Federal government considered as the general government of the nation.
As the states are older than the Federal government, and as the latter was, indeed, in many respects modelled upon the scheme of government which already existed in the thirteen original states, it may be convenient to begin with the states and then to proceed to the national government, whose structure is more intricate and will require a fuller explanation.
Before entering, however, on a description of the state governments, one feature must be noticed which is common both to the states and to the Federation, and gives to the governmental system of both a peculiar character, different from that of the government of Great Britain. This feature is the existence of a supreme instrument of government, a document, enacted by the people, which controls, and cannot be altered by, any or all of the ordinary organs of government. In Great Britain parliament is the supreme power, and can change any of the laws of the country at any moment. In the American Union, and in every state of the Union, there exists a documentary or rigid constitution, creating and defining the powers of every authority in the government. It is the expression of the ultimate sovereignty of the people, and its existence gives to the working both of the Federal government and of the several state governments, a certain fixity and uniformity which the European, and especially the British, reader must constantly bear in mind, because under such a constitution every legislative body enjoys far scantier powers than in the United Kingdom and most European countries.
II.—The State Governments.
§ 2. The state is the oldest political institution in America, and is still the basis and the indestructible unit of the American system. It is the outgrowth from, or rather the continuation of, the colony, as the latter existed before the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Origin of the American State. In every one of the North American colonies there was in operation at that date a system of self-government, in seven colonies under a charter from the Crown. In each there was a governor, with minor executive officers, a legislature, and a judiciary; and although the Crown retained the power of altering the charter, and the British parliament could (in strict legal view) legislate over the head of the colonial legislature so as to abrogate statutes passed by the latter, still in practice each colony was allowed to manage its own affairs and to enact the laws it desired. Thus the people were well accustomed to work their institutions, and when they gained their independence continued to maintain those institutions with comparatively little change. In two colonies, Rhode Island and Connecticut, the colonial charter was substantially maintained as the constitution of the state for many years, in the former case till 1842, in the latter till 1818.
§ 3. Each state was under the Confederation of 1781 sovereign (except as regarded foreign relations), and for most purposes practically independent. In adopting the Federal Constitution of 1787–1789, each parted with some of the attributes of sovereignty, while retaining Rights and Powers of a State. others. Those which were retained have been to some extent diminished by the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, and if the right to secede from the Union ever existed (a point much controverted), it was finally negatived by the Civil War of 1861–65. Otherwise, however, these attributes survive. The powers of a state are inherent, not delegated, and each retains all such rights and functions of an independent government as it has not, by entering the Union, affirmatively divested itself of in favour of the Federal government. Each has its own documentary constitution; its legislature of two elective houses; its executive, consisting of a governor and other officials; its judiciary, whose decisions are final, except in cases involving Federal law; its system of local government and local taxation; its revenue, system of taxation, and debts; its body of private civil and criminal law and procedure; its rules of citizenship, which may admit persons to be voters in state and national elections under conditions differing from those prevailing in other states.
The rights and functions of a state practically cover the field in which lie most of the relations of private citizens to one another and to the authorities with which they come into contact in daily life. An American may through a long life never be reminded of the Federal government, except when he votes at Federal elections (once in every two years), lodges a complaint against the post office, or is required to pay duties of customs or excise. His direct taxes are paid to officials acting under state laws. The state (or a local authority created by the state) registers his birth, appoints his guardian, provides schools for him and pays for them, allots him a share in the property of a parent dying intestate, licences him when he enters a trade (if the trade needs a licence), marries him, divorces him, entertains civil actions against him, tries and executes him for murder. The police that guard his house, the local boards which care for the poor, control highways, provide water, all derive their powers from the state. Nevertheless the state is (as will be explained later) a slightly declining factor in the public life of the nation, because public interest tends more and more to centre in the Federal or national government.
§ 4. The constitution of each state is framed and enacted by the state itself, without any Federal interference, save that the Federal Constitution requires that the Constitution under which a new state seeks admission to the Union must be “republican”; and under this requirement, State Constitutions. Congress has seemed to assume a right of making the adoption, or omission, of any particular provision in a state constitution a condition of the admission of that particular state. Even in these cases, however, the constitution derives its force not from the national government, but from the people of the state. The invariable method of forming a constitution is for the citizens to elect by special popular vote a body called a convention to draft the document, which, when drafted and circulated, is usually, though not quite invariably, submitted to popular vote. This is done either when a state is to be formed out of a Territory (as to which see post, § 10), or when an existing state desires to give itself a new constitution[1]
A state constitution usually consists of the following parts:—
A description of the state boundaries (now frequently omitted);
A bill of rights, defining the so-called “primordial rights” of the citizens to security of life, liberty and property;
A declaration and enactment of the frame of state government, i.e. the names, functions and powers of the houses of the legislature,
- ↑ Details as to state constitutions will be found in J. Bryce, American Commonwealth, chs. xxxvii.-xxxix., which is referred to here and subsequently as containing a fuller treatment of all the topics dealt with in this article. Further details may be found also in the articles on the separate states.
