the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. 650. Objects of the Section.-In 1866 it was feared that efforts might be made (1) to repudiate the National debt created to carry on the war; (2) to pay the Southern war debt; or (3) to pay for the slaves that had been emancipated. Hence the incorporation of the foregoing prohibitions in the Constitution. Section 5.-The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this Article. 651. Amendment XV.-When the Constitution went into operation in 1789, persons of color voted in several of the States. Subsequently the right was denied in nearly all of the States, and this was the situation in 1866. It was soon seen that the indirect plan of securing such persons the suffrage, (Amendment XIV., section 2,) would either fail wholly of accomplishing its purpose, or would be a long time in doing so. Congress accordingly proposed, February 27, 1869, a new amendment to reach that end directly. Thirty of the thirty-seven States having duly ratified it, Secretary Fish issued his certificate declaring it in force, March 30, 1870. It is in these words: Section 1.-The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2.-The Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation. 652. Effect of Amendments XIII.-XV.-The circumstances under which these Amend nents were incorporated into the Constitution, were not favorable to a careful consideration of their real import and probable effect. They were adopted to prevent existing evils, and how far-reaching they might prove to be, was not maturely considered. Even those members of Congress who agreed in desiring to make such another struggle as the Civil War impossible, by no means agreed as to their immediate or ultimate effect. Hence, when the Amendments had become parts of the Constitution, the questions arose at once: How far have they weakened the States? How far have they strengthened the Union? These questions have since been passed upon, in their general features, by the Supreme Court. In the Slaughter-House Cases the Court said: "We do not see in those amendments any purpose to disturb the main features of the general system. Under the pressure of all the excited feeling growing out of the war, our statesmen have still believed that the existence of the States, with powers for domestic and local government, including the regulation of civil rights—the rights of person and property-was essential to the perfect working of our complex form of government, though they have thought proper to impose additional limitations on the States, and to confer additional power on that of the Nation."1 And Mr. Justice Miller, commenting upon the decision, has said: "The necessity of the great powers conceded by the Constitution originally to the Federal Government, and the equal necessity of the autonomy of the States and their power to regulate their domestic affairs, remain as the great features of our complex form of govern ment." 653. Civil Rights Acts.-Soon after the Thirteenth Amendment was declared in force, Congress passed the first of that series of acts known as the Civil Rights Acts, with a view "to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights." The last of these Acts, bearing date March, 1875, section 1, declared: "That all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theatres and other places of public amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude." The succeeding section imposed penalties for violations of the rights here enumerated, and prescribed legal remedies. It is clear that if the new Amendments authorized such legislation as this, then they had fundamentally changed the nature of the Government. But in the Civil Rights Cases, decided in December, 1882, the Supreme Court held that this legislation was unconstitutional so far as it related to the States. 1 16 Wallace 36. 2 109 U. S. Reports 3. 654. Amendments Proposed but not Ratified. Of these there are four. The three first have been quoted on preceding pages. The last one, sometimes called from its author, Hon. S. A. Douglas, “the Douglas Amendment," proposed in 1861, was in these words: “No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." PART III. THE STATE GOVERNMENTS. CHAPTER XLIX. RELATIONS OF THE STATES TO THE UNION. REFERENCES. Some references bearing on the present division of the book have been given in Part II. Attention may again be drawn to Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, which is the great authority on State Constitutional Law. For the rest, it seems better to give references in connection with the several chapters when references are called for. 655. National Constitution Half a Political System. -Our examination of the Federal Government shows very clearly that it is but half a political system. No state could exist a day with such an imperfect government as this. The explanation of what might strike a foreigner as a strange anomaly is, that the important powers that the Constitution omits had already been intrusted to a series of secondary jurisdictions called the States. 656. The Union Dependent on the States.-The Constitution of 1787 enlarged the sphere of the National Government, and gave it power to act directly upon the people irrespective of the States. But it is still necessary for the States to assist in keeping the machinery of this Government in motion, as well as to exercise their own proper powers. The Constitution assumes: (1) That the Legislatures will fix qualifications for the electors of Representa tives; (2) That the States will conduct or manage the elections of Representatives; (3) That the Legislatures will elect Senators; and (4) That each State will appoint Presidential Electors. Plainly, if the States should fail to perform these duties, or any of them, the National system would fall into ruins. Here the National Government has no coercive power whatever. Hence the State Governments are part and parcel of the National Government; or, as Judge Jameson puts it, "The constitutions of all the States form a part of the Constitution of the United States." 1 657. Proper State Sphere.-But, important as are the National functions performed by the State, they do not determine the proper State sphere, but are only incidental and secondary. The real sphere of the State is the exercise of those powers of government which are not delegated to the Nation or forbidden to the State. These powers have been treated with some neglect both by practical politicians and by students of Political Science. The causes are obvious; in the division of powers made a century ago, the more imposing ones were assigned to the Nation, the less imposing to the States; National politics have grown at the expense of State politics; Washington is a larger political theater than Albany or Columbus. 658. Relations of the Citizen to the two Jurisdictions. Important as the powers of the Nation are, the common citizen, in time of peace, has few relations with it outside of the Post Office Department, while his relations with the State are numerous and constant. Said President Garfield in 1871: "It will not be denied that the State government touches the citizen and his interests twenty times where the National Government touches him once. For the peace of our streets and the health of our cities; for the administration of justice in nearly all that relates to the security of person and property, and the punishment of crime; for the education of our children, and the care of unfortunate and dependent citizens; for the collec 1 The Constitutional Convention, pp. 87, 88. |