and development. remarking upon some of the perils through which our government has passed, observed: "Much of the favorable working of a form of government, or the opposite, may be traced to circumstances having no necessary connection with its intrinsic excellence. The Polish constitution of 1791 was immediately overthrown by the interference of neighboring powers interested to destroy it. The constitution of the United States has survived till now, and bids fair to last much longer. But if we could for a moment suppose the geographical position of the two countries to have been exactly changed, looking back at the nature of the political controversies which agitated America for many years, it is at least open to question whether as marked disorders would not have been developed under the Constitution of the United States as were ever found in the worst of times in Poland."1 All this is very true; and it is equally true that the insular position of England provided favorable circumstances, without which the peculiar excellences of her political development would have been impossible of attainment. Local circum Mr. Charles Francis Adams, stances are, after all, the most influential factor in determining governmental arrangements; but the conditions were peculiarly fortunate for the development of a new and superior type of gov 1 Note on p. 374, Vol. IV., of his edition of John Adams' Works. ernment, when English institutions were planted in the New World and began an independent career. From a humanistic point of view, it was the transmission of the intellectual estate of the Romanized world, relieved from entail to privileged classes, and intrusted to a people whose capacity for government had been developed by the direct succession of their institutions from their own race origins, and whose political habits had been. made instinctive by the continuous discipline of their own race experience. In this aspect, American politics may be regarded as at work upon the denouement of a drama of liberty whose acts have included the destinies of nations. Materials for it were provided by obliterated empires, the remains of which science is disinterring. It was begun by Greece and systematized by Rome; revived by Italy and enlarged by Europe. Its latest episodes have been the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Revolution, in their various national phases, with widely different results. The world now waits to see how it will come out in the hands of America. Mr. Lecky has recorded the opinion that "the future destinies and greatness of the English race must necessarily rest mainly with the mighty nation which has arisen beyond the Atlantic." De Tocqueville long ago foretold that all the European states would follow the same law of development as ourselves, and would end in the 1 History of England, Vol. IV., p. 113. democratic system which shall have been established here.1 When existing conditions are viewed with discernment, grounds of confidence as to the future are afforded by evidences of political virtue which, after the dust of present turmoil subsides, may cause these times of struggle and anxiety to be regarded as the heroic age of America. The generation which endured the Civil War has witnessed the rehabilitation of the prostrated section, and has seen the ascendency of the race reëstablished in the face of tremendous odds. Extinction of the bitterness of conflict is so complete that late combatants hold fraternal reunions on fields over which once they fought, and both they and their children rally around the flag at their country's call; while distinctions between victors and vanquished in eligibility to public service are effaced. This period of our national existence has also seen the development of our material resources carried to a point which confers industrial primacy, with corresponding extensions of enterprise and business organization, implying resources of probity no less ample than of intelligence and skill. And, finally, the nation has shown the world that democratic institutions and an industrial type of society are compatible with the possession, in their highest degree, of all the heroic qualities which are the peculiar claim of 1 Democracy in America, Vol. II., Chap. IX., p. 190. militancy, while combining with them a deadly precision of attack which is the expression of an abounding mechanical skill, such as only industrialism can produce. Such manifestations show that the sources of national greatness are uncorrupted, so that amid the baleful confusion of our politics patriotism may cherish the hope that a purified and ennobled republic will emerge "Product of deathly fire and turbulent chaos, APPENDIX DIRECT PARTICIPATION OF THE HEADS OF EXECU DEPARTMENTS IN THE TIVE PROCEEDINGS OF Extract from Senate Report, No. 837, 46th Congress, 3d Session, February 4, 1881 THE power of both houses of Congress, either separately or jointly, to admit persons not members to their floors, with the privilege of addressing them, cannot be questioned. "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings," is the provision of the Constitution. Under this power each house admits a chaplain to open the proceedings with prayer. Under this power the House of Representatives constantly admits contestants to argue their title to membership, and sometimes admits counsel to argue in the same behalf. No one would doubt the power of the Senate to extend the same privilege to a claimant, or his advisers. By the act of 1817, it is prescribed that “ every Territory shall have the right to send a Delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States, to serve during each Congress, who shall be elected by the voters in the Territory qualified to elect members of the legislative assembly thereof. . . . Every such Delegate shall have a seat in the House of Representatives, with the right of |