B. To borrow money on the credit of the United States. C. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.

D. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.

E. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. F. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.

G. To establish post offices and post roads.

H. To promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

I. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.*

J. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. K. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. L. To raise and support armies.

M. To provide and maintain a navy.

N. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.

O. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.

P. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."†

8. How are the several States prevented from interfering

*NOTE. The Supreme Court of the United States is established by the Constitution. See Art. I, Secs. 1 and 2.

tArt. I, Sec. 9 of the Federal Constitution.

8. How are the States prevented from interfering with the Federal Government?

with the Federal Government in the exercise of these powers?

The Federal Constitution explicitly forbids them. It also requires the States to perform certain duties alike, so as to preserve everywhere the liberties of the citizens, just as the State Constitution prescribes uniform regulations to all its own counties and towns.

9. How, on the other hand, is the Federal Government prevented from intermeddling with the State Governments, or with the rights of the people?

By the ninth and tenth amendments to the Federal Constitution, which provide that "the enumeration (in that document) of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people": and that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

10. You now understand clearly the following principles: A. That government by the people means that the people make and maintain the Government in such form and in such hands as suit themselves, through the frequent exercise of the individual right of suffrage.

B. That government for the people means that the only purpose for which Government exists is to protect the lives, liberty, property and happiness of the people, and thereby "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity.

C. That the first means used in the United States to carry

*See preamble to the Federal Constitution.

9. How is the latter prevented from disturbing the former?

10. Repeat the principles printed in large type:

A. What is government by the people?

B. What is government for the people?

C. What use is made of political divisions of territory in carrying these principles into practice?

these principles into practice is the division of the whole territory into States; of the States into Counties; of the Counties into towns, and of the towns into school districts, in each of which certain public officers are entrusted each with a minute portion of the Government powers.

D. That each officer is elected by the voters of the district he represents.

E. That each elected officer is accountable for the discharge of his official duties only to the people of the district that elects him; that is, to his own constituents, and to none others.

F. That the exact powers and duties of each officer are clearly fixed by law.

G. That the several States have nothing to do with each other. The several counties in each State have no right to meddle with each other, nor the different towns in a county, nor the school districts in a town. But each has the right to manage its own domestic affairs in its own way, under the general constitutions and laws, so long as it does not infringe upon the liberties of the people.*

H. That the principle of "confederacy" is carefully excluded from the entire American system.

I. That the United States are all one country: the relation of the several States to the Union being merely a division between them of the several

* Art I, Sec. 10; IV, 3, 4; VI, 38, of Federal Constitution.

i

D. Who elects the officers of each district?

E. To whom is each officer accountable?

F. How are the powers and duties of each officer fixed?

G. Have the various political divisions of territory any thing to do with each other? Does each manage its own concerns?

H Is the principle of confederacy admitted in the United States?

I. Are the United States all one country? What is the relation of the States to the Union?

functions of the Government, which, if not so divided, would be impossible under the Republican form.

11. That Sovereignty resides in the people, and not in any of the governmental establishments or officials.*

Now turn back to the diagram representing the American system. Apply the last two chapters to it, and you will find the principle of "Government by and for the people,” firmly and clearly fixed in your memory.

LESSON V.

OF CHECKS AND BALANCES IN THE GOVERNMENT.

1. In Lesson II, Section 6, you learned "that the objects of laws in the United States were to protect the people from oppression, whether attempted by individuals or by the government that power loves to be felt and to strengthen itself, and that ambitious men are everywhere found who seek it, and having attained it, then they labor to subjugate their race by every possible means.”

:

2. Now the prinicipal reason why the absolute monarchs of Europe have so grievously oppressed their subjects was because there was no check or limit to their power. And when under the system of "limited monarchy" the Parliament as in England, during the reigns of several of the kings and queens ending with Charles I, in 1648, attempted to curb the aggressions of the prince, a fierce and finally a bloody controversy was waged between them. The kings claimed the unlimited right to tax the people as

*Cal. Political Code, Sec. 30.

11. Where does " Sovereignty

reside in the United States?

LESSON V.-1. Repeat the quotation from Lesson 2?

2. Why have Kings been able to oppress their people? What was the cause of dispute between the Kings of England and Parliament previous to 1648? What did the Kings continually seek to do? How did the Napoleons manage to make themselves Emperors in France?

a part of the prerogative of the crown. When parliament refused its consent to such taxes, it was repeatedly "prorogued ” or “dissolved," so that the King could do as he pleased while it was not in session. Thus, having power through the army to enforce laws made by himself, he would of course make such laws as would increase his power. This has been the almost universal history of king-craft. Even in this century, we have seen the two Napoleons in France, each abusing the too great powers entrusted to. him by overthrowing the constitution of that country, and making himself emperor over the ruins of a republic.

3. Now the only way to prevent this abuse of power, and consequent enslavement of the people, is not to give the whole power of the Government to anybody; but instead of this, to give to each officer just as little as will enable him to serve the people in his own department, while another officer shall be set to watch him, and see that he does his whole duty, and nothing but his duty.

4. Thus in all American Constitutions the powers of the Government are separated into three grand divisions, viz :

A. The Legislative, which makes the laws under and in accordance with the Constitution.

B. The Executive, which sees that the laws made by the legislative department are obeyed.

C. The Judiciary, which administers the civil and criminal law, dispensing justice between man and man, punishing criminals, and deciding whether the laws passed by the Legislature are conformable to the Constitution.

Each of the principal officers who occupy these several departments is separately elected by the people, and they are not only independent of each other, but they con

8. State the only way to prevent the enslavement of the people by their governments? Into what three grand divisions do American Constitutions separate the powers of government? Describe the functions of these divisions? Is the system of checks and balances confined to the three divisions?