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forward in support of the Union, to avoid these grave questions, and to confine their attention to mere increase of numbers and trade. This progress they attribute largely to the beneficial influence of the Constitution. Pictures are drawn of the deplorable state of the country immediately before it came into operation, and of the great prosperity that has ensued. But, in truth, it was not in the power of laws to avert the debility and suffering that resulted from a war of seven years' duration,- a war undertaken by communities possessed of little wealth and no credit, and followed by oppressive debts and exhausted resources. No system of government could have prevented a period of dreary reaction from the excitement of the war, or a sorrowful reckoning of its cost. And after this term had passed away, we can imagine no Government so bad, within the limits of reason, that it could have prevented rapid progress in a country enjoying such abundant elements of growth.

We may assume that the government of the colonies by Great Britain must have been bad, to excite them to rebel, although, indeed, we see rebellion now, as a result of what we are told are excellent institutions. But believing, as we may fairly do, that it was defective, both in temper and wisdom, still it never prevented the rapid growth of the colonies. This, indeed, is obvious, from the shortness of the period within which they had acquired sufficient numbers and strength to over

throw it. Whatever may have been the alleged oppression, more than one State can be found that grew more rapidly in those days than at any time. since in the Union. We shall see that there are those which, even at the present day, look back mournfully to the prosperity of the olden time.

If, indeed, it had been the "magic" influence of the Constitution that restored prosperity to the country, we should expect to find that the same influence would have power to avert periods of similar depression. This has not been the case. A term of equal suffering followed the war with this country in 1814, though the Constitution was then in full operation, and since, there have been periods of panic, of general bank suspensions, and wide-spread insolvency, with long terms of gloomy depression, such as the era extending from 1837 to 1842, periods equal in distress to that which ushered in the Constitution.

There were, indeed, special circumstances that rendered it of great service at the time of its coming into operation. It averted the danger of civil war, which was then impending; it enabled a settlement to be effected of the war debt; it obtained the respect of foreign powers; and as the old Confederation had virtually died out, it had the great value of supplying a government where practically none existed. But the services it thus rendered are neither a certain proof of merit in its principles, nor yet of its suitability to the circumstances of the present day. Any reasonable

form of government will be of value, as compared with chaos; and it seems a very exaggerated view of the case to attribute to its excellence the subsequent progress of the country which has been, in the main, the result of obvious natural causes. It required no magic to produce that progress, nor is there anything in it to cause astonishment. The United States are really a vast region of fertile soil, to which the crowded people of EuropeEnglishmen, Irishmen, Germans, and others-have passed over. Taking with them the knowledge and experience earned in Europe by the toil of ages, they entered, so to speak, into a magnificent domain, free of rent, of tithe, of encumbrance, and with implements ready to their hands. That population should grow rapidly, and wealth increase, under such circumstances, is as natural and inevitable as that water which has gained an entrance into a valley should flow on, and spread out into a wide expanse.

And, indeed, if we are to form an estimate of the true value of the Union and its institutions, no standard would be more deceptive than that of superficial prosperity. We must seek for their effects in the intellectual and social, not in the commercial growth of a people. Tables of imports and exports are a very uncertain test of the merits of governments. Venice flourished in golden magnificence under a detestable political system. India was in political subjection to a foreign race, despotic. and alien in religion and polity, during

the only period of her history that is clothed with external splendour. When Greece fell under the Roman yoke, her material prosperity increased, a new market was opened to her commerce, a new dominion to her literature and art. In every material sense the change was to her advantage; but the mind of Greece, that once had been the peerless light of the world, waned into that obscurity from which it has never since emerged. We have, indeed, in our own time, ample proof how entirely the movements and progress of trade may be apart from the excellence of institutions. We have seen them, in France, continuously progressive under extreme changes of government; and at the present day, if advance in wealth, in exports, in luxury, in all that glitters before the eye, should be adopted as a proof of the soundness of institutions, we should be forced to submit to the opinions of those, who take an enlightened despotism as their model. But though we find that trade has often flourished under ignoble governments, we shall search in vain through the page of history to find that they are capable of maintaining health and purity in the social and political character of a people.

As we proceed, we shall frequently find it impracticable to separate the Union from the Constitution. The latter is the sole bond of union, and whatever terminates the one, ends the other. It will, however, be very necessary to recollectand it is frequently forgotten-that the present is

the second Constitution of the United States. The Union existed long before its date; indeed its germs may be traced back as far as 1754. Immediately upon the commencement of the Revolution in 1774, a Union was formed, under a government bearing the title of Congress; but although independence was declared on the 4th July, 1776, and there were terms of agreement under which the Union subsisted, no permanent and methodical Constitution was framed, until the 1st March, 1781, when the "Articles of Confederation" came into force.

But

Those "Articles" form a complete and very elaborate Constitution. We know that exception will be taken to their being termed a Constitution, because they are not called by that name. what a thing is, according to European logic, depends on the thing itself, and not upon the name given to it. Whether that name be a code, or a charter, or a set of articles, or whether indeed, as in our own case, there be no written instrument to which a title can be attached, this makes no real difference. That is a Constitution,

the terms of which are the framework of the government and political institutions of a country. In these "Articles" defects were discovered after the termination of the war, not indeed so much inherent in the instrument, as in the surrounding circumstances; and, after surmounting great difficulties, the second Constitution was framed, which is now the law of the land.

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