Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. All the other States, that are now members of the Union, have been since admitted in the following order, viz. :—

Vermont-which was separated from New York, was admitted into the Union, 1794.

Tennessee-which was separated from North Carolina, was admitted, 1796.

Kentucky-originally a part of the territory of Virginia, was admitted, 1796.

Ohio- which was formed from lands north-west of the Ohio River, that have been ceded to the General Government by the States to which they belonged, was admitted, 1802.

Louisiana-formed from the Louisiana purchase, admitted, 1812.

Indiana-from a portion of what is called the North-west territory, in 1816.

Mississippi-from part of the territory of Georgia, admitted, 1817.

Illinois-from the North-west territory, admitted,

1818.

Alabama-from part of Georgia, admitted, 1819. Maine-which was separated from Massachusetts, was admitted, 1820.

Missouri-formed a part of the Louisiana purchase, was admitted, 1820.

Arkansas-from a portion of the Louisiana purchase, was admitted, 1836.

Michigan-which was constituted a territory in 1805, was admitted, 1837.

ORIGIN OF THEIR NAMES.

69

The several origin of the names of these States are as follows, viz. :—Maine was so called as early as 1688, from Maine in France, of which Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, was at that time proprietor. New Hampshire was the name given to the territory conveyed by the Plymouth Company to Captain John Mason, by patent, Nov. 7, 1639, with reference to the patentee, who was governor of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, England. Vermont was so called by the inhabitants, in their Declaration of Independence, January 16, 1777, from the French verd, green, and mont, mountain. Massachusetts from a tribe of Indians in the neighbourhood of Boston. The tribe is thought to have derived its name from the Blue Hills of Milton: "I have learned (says Roger Williams) that Massachusetts was so called from the Blue Hills." Rhode Island was named in 1644, in reference to the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. Connecticut was so called from the Indian name of its principal river; New York, in reference to the Duke of York and Albany, to whom this territory was granted. Pennsylvania was named, in 1681, after William Penn. Delaware, in 1703, from Delaware Bay, on which it lies, and which received its name from Lord De La War, who died in this bay. Maryland, in honour of Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., in his patent to Lord Baltimore, June 30, 1632. Virginia was named, in 1584, after Elizabeth, the virgin Queen of England. Carolina, by the French in 1564, in honour of King Charles IX., of France.

Georgia, in 1772, in honour of King George Third. Alabama, in 1817, from its principal river. Mississippi, in 1800, from its western boundary. Mississippi is said to denote Kie, whole river, that is, the river formed by the union of many. Louisiana, so called in honour of Louis XVI. of France. Tennessee, in 1736, from its principal river: the word Tennessee is said to signify a curved spoon. Kentucky, in 1782, from its principal river. Illinois, 1809, from its principal river. The word is said to signify the river of men. Indiana, in 1802, from the American Indians. Ohio, in 1802, from its southern boundary. Missouri, in 1821, from its principal river. Michigan, named, in 1805, from the lake on its borders. Arkansas, in 1819, from its principal river. Florida was so called by Juan

Ponse Le Leon, in 1572, because it was discovered on Easter Sunday; in Spanish, Pascus Florida.

The co-existence of these several independent sovereignties, resting in the full and uncontrolled enjoyment of their individual rights and privileges, altogether independent of the Federal Government, to which they have delegated but a partial and defined power, presents to the world an unusually strange and complex state of legislation; especially to the foreigner, who finds it difficult to reconcile with his preconceived notions of a firm, united, and settled government, the many disjointed fragments, the partial and unequal laws, the uncertain and piece-meal legislation, by which the country is governed; and which carries with it in its compli

CONFLICTING INTERESTS.

71

cated machinery, its dissonant and incongruous materials, in the conflicting interests of the various intersections into which it is divided, the germ of a probably early dissolution, that ever and anon threatens to shake the Republic to its centre, and expose the fallacy on which it is based. It was only in the years 1832, and 1833, that South Carolina, relying upon her state reservations, asserted her right (and in her instance, the rights of the other States) of seceding from the Union, whenever believing her individual interests compromised by any interference or general law, though made applicable to the entire States; and declared her determination to resist with open force, certain imposed restrictions of the general government, by which a protecting duty was extended to the manufacturing States of the north, to the assumed prejudice of the exports of the south. This question of mere internal regulation was near being determined by a direct appeal to arms, in which most of the southern States would have united against the Federal Government, and scattered the confederacy to the winds, had not the timely interference of Congress, directed by Mr. Clay, to whom his country is much indebted, arrested for a while, the impending crisis, by sanctioning a compromise between the refractory State and its nominal head, based upon the most liberal concessions to South Carolina, and, which thus, for a time, succeeded in saving the Republic from a convulsion that threatened its dissolution. "A crisis is approaching," declared Governor

McDuffie in his inaugural address to the Legislature of his State, and directed to the south generally, "which the people must prepare to correct by force; by it alone will they be able to maintain those rights, which cannot much longer be secured by that miserable mockery of blurred, obliterated, and tattered parchment, the Constitution of the United States."

Nor was the public voice in the north raised against the dangerous principle asserted by these proceedings, where the pretensions of South Carolina were also vehemently insisted on by many, as of the common rights of every State within the Union. To the timely concessions of the Federal Government, however, is the Republic indebted for its preservation on this occasion; its temporary release from the very serious embarrassments with which it was menaced, and restoration to tranquillity and order; though not without germinating future difficulties for itself, in the constructive admission of State pretensions, even to the extent insisted on by South Carolina.*

"In the interpretation of the anti-federalists, the subsisting connection between the several States of the Union is insisted on, as a mere compact-a treaty, under which, though still retaining an entire and undisputed sovereignty, they entrust certain restricted powers to the general government, still preserving the right of withdrawing them at pleasure. This principle is asserted by Rawle, who insists that it is perfectly competent for any State to secede from the Confederacy, on its electing to do 80. This position is, nevertheless, denied by other eminent Jurists, both by Webster and Story, who maintain, that the pre