low citizens, and deliver to them what is called his inaugural address. The gist of his oath, as already intimated, is to defend the government and execute the laws. Fiery old Andrew Jackson, when defied by the Nullifiers, added a supplementary "by the eternal," and conscientious Abraham Lincoln, equally patriotic, but more reverent, told the same rebellious South that his oath was "registered in heaven." The president could take his oath before a justice of the peace or a notary public, in a private office without witnesses, and it would be equally binding; but the imposing inauguration ceremony, the long presidential procession from the White House to the Capitol, amid waving flags and the thunder of cannon; the chief justice in his robes of office, with the attesting Bible in his hand; the presidential speech, and the huzzaing multitude - all of these comport better with the dignity and the greatness of the occasion when the chief magistrate of a nation of 70,000,000 freemen is inducted into his high office.

I have here given only the broad outlines, the bare unfilled framework, of our general government. There is no room in a work like this for all the details and ramifications which belong to a full description or learned discussion of the subject. In my next chapter I will try to put somewhat of life and blood into this governmental skeleton, and see how it will work in practice.

THE

TARIFF THE PASSING OF LAWS A GOVERNMENT
BY DEPARTMENTS.

In addition to what was said in my last article, outlining the Constitution as first adopted, may properly here be mentioned the fifteen amendments since added to the original instrument. These amendments, as required by the Constitution, have each been proposed by a two-thirds majority in Congress and ratified by a like majority in the Legislatures of three fourths of the States. The first ten of these amendments constitute what is called the "Bill of Rights," being a declaration of fundamental rights, or principles of government; such as, freedom of speech and the press, religious toleration, the right of petition, the right to bear arms, trial by jury, etc. It was thought best to put these great rights in this form, and the matter was attended to by the first Congress under the new government, and the ratification by the States immediately followed. Passing over another amendment, the twelfth, designed to simplify and make more clear the working of the electoral college,-the last three, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, are the evermemorable amendments growing out of our Civil war, and giving liberty, citizenship, and suffrage to the colored race.

THE CABINET AND ITS FUNCTIONS.

The framers of the Constitution left it for Congress, the law-making power, to fill in with the necessary details and directions the great outlines of government which they had established. Even at that early day it was seen that the executive department, placed in the hands of a single man, would need support from proper subordinates, and so one of the very first acts of the first Congress was to provide for the appointment of secretaries of state, of the treasury, of war, and an attorney-general, or law officer to the government. This was the first cabinet, and these officers were Washington's official advisers. It is a little singular that there is nowhere any legal requirement that the president shall pay any heed to their advice. There have since been added to the cabinet a secretary of the navy, a postmaster general, a secretary of the interior, and recently a secretary of agriculture. We shall see farther along what these officers have to do.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT LAUNCHED.

Thus prepared for action, with a president, vicepresident, and a Congress duly elected under the forms prescribed by the Constitution, the new government commenced its career on April 30, 1789, in the city of New York, when George Washington, the military hero of the Revolution, took his great civil oath as the first president. Thus commenced the trial of the Constitution, and the experiment of republican institutions in modern times and on this side of the ocean. Our ship of state was now fairly launched. It was to sail an unruffled sea for seventy-two years, until the great storm of 1861.

RAISING THE REVENUES.

The first and indispensable duty of every government is to provide its revenues. The nation must keep

house, and must pay its expenses. These it must raise from its own resources, or borrow; and when it comes to borrowing to pay household expenses from month to month, the family is well on the way to the county house. But I beg pardon, I am not writing about politics, but about government. Naturally, therefore, the first stress was felt in the treasury department, where that wonderful genius for government, Alexander Hamilton, had been placed by his great chief, who knew him so well in the Revolution. The machinery of the new government was now put in motion by that series of measures, emanating from the brain of Hamil ton, and constituting the great financial system on the principles of which the government has been run even down to our own day. It was in reference to this marvelous work of the great financier that Daniel Webster said, in that splendid burst of figurative eloquence: "He smote the rock of our national resources, and streams of revenue gushed forth; he touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it stood upon its feet."

THE PASSING OF LAWS.

Now we shall begin to see how the government will work in practice. To organize and establish this financial system required the action of Congress, and so the law-making power of the government was thus evoked. Let us see now how the legislative department will provide for the executive, and how laws are passed. It will be remembered that the Constitution

had provided that all bills to raise revenue should originate in the House of Representatives; and this rule that the money to carry on the government shall be voted by the popular branch of the Parliament, the Congress, or the Legislature is the rule the world over, in all constitutional governments, republican or monarchical.

Suppose now, to illustrate our subject, that we jump from the beginning of our government up to to-day, and see how a revenue bill is passed through Congress, and this will serve as an example of all other bills. This government to-day is a government by parties and by committees. In theory any member of Congress has a right to rise in the House and offer a revenue bill, or any other bill, and have it considered, and passed or rejected on its merits. But that is not the way in which business is done in Congress. The speaker of the House might not see the member or hear him, even if vociferating in plain sight, on the front row. The committee of ways and means has all power in such matters, and will mature and present a general bill, or a single measure, which the speaker will then see is rushed through the house under the party whip and by the party majority. When the bill is reported to the House by the committee of ways and means, it is generally discussed in committee of the whole,—that is, of the whole House,-reported back to the House proper, and put upon its passage. This is done by calling the roll of members, recording and declaring the vote, and if the affirmative prevails, sending the bill to the Senate for its concurrence, when, if it passes that body also, it goes to the president for his signature, the speaker and vice-president having previously signed it. If the