around the sun, acting and acted upon, will move on in harmony and majesty only so long as a beautiful equilibrium between them is preserved!" The preservation of this "beautiful equilibrium" is the most sublime and important task imposed upon the American voter.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What political features have the States in common?

2. Indicate in general terms the powers of the State.

3. What is the nature of the reserved powers of the State?

4. For what reason are there likely to be conflicts between State and federal authority? How are disputes between the State and the federal government settled?

5. What is the nature of the "republican form of government" to which a State is entitled?

6. What interstate relations are established by the Constitution? 7. How may you distinguish State authority from federal authority? 8. Why is it important that existing State and federal relations be preserved?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. On the chart suggested in the preceding chapter insert in circle B the most important State powers.

2. Prepare a ten-minute paper on "Our State." (Sketch briefly the history of your State; write of its size, its population, its industries, its resources, its schools, its cities, its great men, and give reasons why you are proud of it.)

3. Show how neighboring States have influenced your State in reference to (a) government, (b) religion, (c) occupation, (d) education, (e) political parties.

4. Of the following matters name those which come within the authority of the federal government: (a) Punishment for robbing the mails; (b) regulation of the speed of trains; (c) the suppression of a riot; (d) punishment for robbing a store; (e) the construction of a sewer; (f) the building of a school-house; (g) the construction of a battle-ship; (h) the repairing of a road; (i) the defense of a coast; (j) the improvement of a harbor; (k) the granting of a pension to a soldier; (1) the borrowing of money for public purposes; (m) the annexation of territory; (n) the maintaining of a military academy; (0) the protection of the public health; (p) the organization of a company of militia; (g) the controlling of the movements of a flyingmachine; (r) the protection of an author in his rights; (s) the regulation of the descent of property; (t) the construction of a canal from

Cleveland, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio; the construction of a canal from Columbus, Ohio, to Chicago; (u) the regulation of the use of dynamite; (v) the regulation of wireless telegraphy; (w) the regulation of flyingmachines.

5. What is meant by the "New Nationalism''?

Topics for Special Work.-The Limitations of the State: 6, 243–247. The Relation of States with One Another: 8, 131-155. Interstate Relations: 9, 272-289. The Present Meaning of the Constitution: 30, 65– 73. The Constitution and the New Federalism: 30, 76-82. The States and the Federal Government: 30, 89-92.

IX

THE EXPANSION OF THE FEDERAL UNION

The Admission of New States. The federal government which went into operation in April, 1789, included within its authority eleven States-New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. In November, 1789, North Carolina, and in May, 1790, Rhode Island, ratified the Constitution and joined the Union. The federal union thus began its history with thirteen States. The Constitution provided for the growth of the Union by authorizing Congress to admit new States (118). The terms upon which a new State may be admitted are determined by Congress, but when a State is once within the Union it is the equal of its sister States. With the consent of Congress a State may be divided into two or more States, and two or more States may join to form a single State; but no State once within the Union can withdraw from it. There is nothing said in the Constitution of the right of a State to secede, but since the Civil War the United States has been regarded as "an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States."

The Admitted States East of the Mississippi. In giving an account of the growth of our Union it will be convenient to begin in the east and follow the course of expansion westward to the Pacific. The original boundaries of the United States, as they were determined upon by the treaty which acknowledged our independence, and as they existed in

1789, were the Great Lakes and Canada on the north, the Atlantic on the east, the Gulf of Mexico on the south (excluding Florida) and the Mississippi River on the west.

The story of expansion in this region begins with the admission of Vermont, the first adopted daughter of the Union. Vermont had framed for herself a constitution during the Revolution, and had declared herself an independent State, but because she was claimed by New York she was not recognized as a State. In 1790, however, New York relinquished her claim, and in 1791 Vermont was admitted into the Union on the same footing with the original States.

Vermont

1791

During the Revolution and throughout the period of the Confederation emigrants from the older States rapidly filled the rich and inviting territory west of the Appalachians, and at the time of the inauguration of the federal government there were two communities south of the Ohio River that deemed themselves worthy of the honor of statehood. These were Kentucky and Tennessee. Kentucky belonged to Virginia, but her people wanted to be recognized as a separate State, and in 1789 the parent State consented to a separation, which took place in 1792, when Kentucky was admitted to the Union. Tennessee belonged to North Carolina (a narrow strip on the south belonged to South Carolina), but, like Vermont, during the Revolution she longed for statehood and was not permitted to enjoy it. In 1790 she was ceded by North Carolina to the United States to be governed by Congress as a Territory (p. 184) until her population should entitle her to be admitted as a State. In 1796 she knocked at the door of the Union and was admitted.

Kentucky 1792 Tennessee

1796

We now come to one of the most interesting phases of our national development. Into no quarter of the Western country did emigrants move more rapidly after independence was acknowledged (1783) than into the fertile districts north of the Ohio River and west of Pennsylvania.

The matter of governing this vast region, known as the Northwest Territory, and now forming the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota, was taken up by the Congress of the Confederation, and one of the last acts of that body was to pass the Ordinance of 1787,1 a political document second in importance only to the Constitution itself. This law provided that not less than three nor more than five States should be formed out of the Northwest Territory; that each State should have a republican form of government; that there should be no slavery; that religious liberty should be guaranteed; that education should be encouraged; that the Indians should be justly treated; that when one of the political communities should have 60,000 inhabitants it should be admitted into the Union with all the rights of a State; that until a community should be large enough for statehood it should be governed (as a territory) in part by Congress and in part by the people, Congress appointing the governor and judges, and the people electing the legislature.

This Ordinance enacted by the old Congress was reënacted and faithfully carried out by the new government. In 1802, the community just west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio River, having been governed for fourteen years by Congress as a territory, sought to be admitted into the Union as the State of Ohio. Congress passed an act enabling the people to frame a constitution for themselves, and a convention met at Chillicothe to lay the foundation for a great State. What did the members of the convention have to guide them in their work? The framers of the constitutions of the original States had their old charters as patterns, but the men of Ohio had no charter upon which to build. They could do nothing contrary to the Constitution of the United States, or to the Ordinance of 1787; aside from these instruments they had to rely upon their own experience and knowledge for guidance. As former citizens of the older States, of Virginia, of New York, of Pennsylvania, they 1 See Appendix C.

1