6. How may a party caucus in Congress determine legislation? Are the members of the party bound by the action of the caucus? Is this phase of our government a matter of the written or unwritten constitution? Explain.

7. Under our written Constitution, has the federal government the right in matters essentially national to exercise such original and inherent powers as belong to a sovereign state? Explain.

8. What is meant by "senatorial courtesy"? How far is it applied in the matter of presidential appointments? Explain.

9. By whom are the presidential appointees removable? Is this matter determined by constitutional provisions? Explain.

10. How was the cabinet created? What regulates its action and its relation to the president and to Congress? Discuss fully.

11. What penalty is inflicted for violations of the provisions of the unwritten constitution? What would happen, for instance, if a presidential elector should vote contrary to the wishes of his party, or a member of Congress to the decision of his party caucus ?

CHAPTER XXIX

STATE GOVERNMENTS

In our study of the federal Constitution we have already considered the relation of the states to the national government (Chapter XXV). We must now attempt to outline in a general way the government of the states themselves.

National Expansion since 1789 has been very rapid. At that date there were thirteen states, with an area of 392,520 square miles,1 whose population by the census of 1910 is 37,310,849. Three new states have been made from parts of these, and thirty-two others have been added, with an area of 2,632,360 and a population of 54,661,417. "Westward," indeed, "the course of empire takes its way," and the power which New England and her sister states once exercised in politics is now shared with, if not entirely transferred to, the great states of the Mississippi Valley and of the Far West.

Diversities and Uniformities among the States. When we consider how dissimilar are the elements that compose our population, how great the extent and how varied the character and climatic conditions of the territory over which that population is spread, and finally, how large a measure of political independence is left to the states by the federal constitution, we might expect a much wider

1 Including Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, also parts of Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and Maryland.

diversity of political arrangements between the states than actually exists. Diversities there are, to be sure, but they are in matters of detail. In general outline the governments of these forty-eight great commonwealths are surprisingly alike. This similarity must be attributed in part to direct copying of portions of the constitutions of the older states by the newer ones; in part to the constant movement of population, which tends to prevent the growth of local peculiarities; in part to the influence of railways, newspapers, and telegraphs, which tends in the same direction; in part to the absence among the newer states of both natural and historical boundaries and of separate traditions. In all the states we shall find written constitutions, which provide systems of government alike in all essential particulars.

Origin of State Constitutions. The state constitutions are the direct descendants of the royal charters under which the early English settlements in America were made. From the beginning the English colonists in America were accustomed to the idea of a fundamental law, usually written, which created for them a frame of government, and which emanated from an authority superior to the ordinary law-making power in the colony. This superior authority resided at first in the British crown or in the crown and Parliament, but when the colonies became independent commonwealths, it passed over, not to the legislatures, but to the people of the newly created states. In the ten colonies that were either proprietary governments or royal provinces it was deemed necessary to frame new constitutions or to make considerable alterations in the old ones, but in the three charter colonies, namely, of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, the colonial charters were intended to serve as state constitutions, with

only such changes as were made necessary by the substitution of the authority of the people for that of the crown. We have already seen how largely the federal Constitution was influenced by the preëxisting state constitutions. As might be expected, it has in its turn influenced the constitutions of states admitted to the Union since its adoption; but still more have they been influenced by the constitutions of the older states from which the settlers of the newer states have come. The original constitutions of the first thirteen states, as well as the constitutions of the newer states, have been not only frequently amended but even entirely remodeled, so that the constitutions now in force in the several states date from all periods of our history.

Methods of Constitution-Making. At first state consti- · tutions were formed either by the legislatures or, more commonly, by special constitutional conventions. These conventions were rarely required to submit their work to the people for approval; they were empowered not only to draft but also to adopt the constitution. Up to 1810 only three out of the twenty-five constitutions adopted had been submitted to the voters for ratification. Gradually these methods have changed in nearly all the states, and constitutions are now framed by specially elected conventions, whose work is then submitted to the voters for ratification or rejection (a referendum).

The Present Process. In detail the present process of forming a state constitution is practically as follows: A resolution is passed, in some states by a two-thirds vote, in others by a majority vote of the members of the state legislature, calling for a constitutional convention. If, at the next election, the voters signify a desire for revision of the constitution, another resolution of the legislature

prescribes the number of members for the convention, the election districts, and the mode of election. When the convention has met and finished its work, the new draft is submitted to the people for ratification, though only one third of the states require such popular sanction. Usually it is accepted or rejected as a whole, though extra clauses on certain subjects are occasionally voted upon separately. In some states constitutional revision is required at stated intervals.

Constitutional Amendments. If, instead of general revision, certain specific amendments to the constitution are desired, such amendments are first proposed by the state legislature. In a few of the states the proposal for amendment may be passed by a mere majority of the members of the legislature; others require a three-fifths vote; others, a two-thirds vote; while still others require that the proposal be passed by two successive legislatures by votes varying in different states from a majority to three fourths of the members elected. After the proposed amendments have been passed by the requisite majorities, they are submitted to the people for ratification, and in this popular vote likewise special majorities are required by the different states. . While the process of amendment may seem at first sight somewhat difficult, it has not been found so in practice. Constitutional changes in the states have been made frequently - too frequently, some critics believe. The fact that the more recent constitutions require the consent of only one legislature, rather than of two successive ones, to a proposed change, would seem to indicate a tendency to make the process a shorter and thus an easier one. When we come to consider the contents of state constitutions, we shall see that they deal in the most detailed manner with a great variety of matters, many of which are of such