it was voted to appoint a Committee of Detail, to whom should be referred the proceedings of the Convention, except what related to a supreme executive, for the purpose of reporting a Constitution embodying what had been agreed upon. This Committee, appointed by ballot the next day, consisted of Messrs. Rutledge of South Carolina, Randolph of Virginia, Gorham of Maine, Ellsworth of Connecticut, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. The propositions of Mr. Patterson and of Mr. Pinckney were also referred to this Committee. On the twenty-sixth, after some instructions, to the Committee of Detail, the Convention adjourned to the sixth of August.

This Committee reported at the time appointed, and their draft was considered by the Convention till the eighth of September, when a committee of five was appointed to revise the style and arrange the Articles. This Committee consisted of Messrs. Johnson of Connecticut, Hamilton of New York, Morris of Pennsylvania, Madison of Virginia, and King of Massachusetts. On the twelfth, they reported the Constitution; also a letter to Congress to accompany the Constitution.

The discussions were continued until Saturday, the fifteenth of September, when the Constitution, as amended, was agreed to, all the States concurring.' It was then ordered to be engrossed, and on the Monday following it was signed by the members, after striking out 40,000 as the basis for representation and inserting 30,000. The form of signature was this: "Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1787, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the twelfth."

'The votes had been by States, as in the Continental Congress.

1

Two of the three New York delegates having left the Convention, that State was technically not present, though Alexander Hamilton's signature was attached. Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts and Messrs. Randolph and Mason of Virginia did not sign the Constitution, though it was signed by a majority of the delegates from each of those States.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This first sentence of the Constitution is often called a preamble." But that term was not applied to it by those who framed the Constitution, and is not found in the original manuscript. It is not a preamble, either in form or substance, but is the enacting clause-an integral part of the Constitution itself. A preamble gives reasons why a resolution should be adopted or an enactment made, but it is no part of the resolution or enactment. The enacting clause, on the contrary, is mandatory. No other part of a statute is more important. Such is the introductory sentence of the Constitution. "We, the People of the United States," for certain purposes, "do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." "The enacting clause is perfectly authoritative in its source,-the people; peremptory in its action,-ordain and establish; definite and exact in its subject,-this Constitution; and distinct, broad, and extensive in its purposes and ends, embracing the liberty, safety, and welfare of the whole Union, and all its people.""

1 Farrar's Manual of the Constitution, p. 88.

We have here (1) the authority-We, the People of the United States; (2) the ends for which the Constitution is made, in six particulars; (3) the explicit ordaining of this Constitution, including this introductory clause; (4) the nation for whom it is made,-"the United States of America."

The Constitution was ordained by the people of the United States as a nation. The language presupposes the unity, the nationality, and the sovereignty of the people. The nation began to exist on the fourth of July, 1776. The people then cast off their allegiance to Great Britain, and became a separate nation, possessing the rightful sovereignty of the country. They became united in a national corporate capacity, as one people, and took for their national designation the name, the "United States of America." From that day to the present, they have been known to the world by this name. Wherever in the Constitution these words occur, or the briefer form, the "United States," they signify the nation as a whole; wherever the word "States" occurs it signifies the States considered separately, or as distinguished from the nation.

The purposes for which the Constitution was formed are admirably stated: "To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.'

The Congress of the Confederation called the Constitutional Convention for the purpose of forming "a firm national government ** adequate to the exigencies. of government and the preservation of the Union." The Union under the Confederation was imperfect and unsatisfactory, and the framers of the Constitution determined to submit to the people an instrument which should be more efficient than the Articles of Confederation. It was a union of the people of all parts of the country, as con

stituting one nation, which they wished to secure, instead of a mere league of States. Under the Articles of Confederation, there was no distinct judicial department, as there was no executive, while the new Constitution provided for both. The domestic tranquillity had been greatly interfered with because of the power given to the individual States; the central government having little more than the power to recommend. The national government would insure this domestic tranquillity. The words "common defense" and "general welfare" were introduced near the close of the Convention, but they met with no opposition. No language could be more comprehensive than this, "to promote the general welfare."

For these various purposes the people of the United States ordain this Constitution for themselves. It is the organic, fundamental law for the whole people of the country whose corporate name is the United States of America. The nation, as such, establishes this Constitution, making it sufficient for all the exigencies of government. As the organic law of the nation, it is everywhere supreme. Subordinate governments may continue and new ones be established, but always in conformity with this.

The Constitution contains seven articles, which are subdivided into sections. In the original there are

no headings to the articles.

are numbered.

Both articles and sections

Article 1st relates to the Legislative power.

Article 2d, to the Executive power.

Article 3d, to the Judicial power.

Article 4th, to various subjects.

Article 5th, to the mode of amending the Constitution. Article 6th, to the validity of debts contracted before the adoption of the Constitution, and to its supremacy. Article 7th. to the mode of its ratification.

Besides these seven articles, fifteen amendments have