Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. Relation Of The State To The General Government ? The Building Of A New Nation ? Powers And Limitations Of The Federal Government?What The States Can Not Do ? The Two Spheres ? An Illustration. Having now shown the origin and described the constitutional framework of the federal government, and illustrated its mode of action, I shall devote this chapter, and perhaps the next, to a consideration of the relation between the general government and the States. Ours is frequently called a “ dual government, and in a certain sense the designation is a true one. But it must not be understood that this involves any conflicting or divided allegiance. The relation of the States to the general government, in our system, is one which ought to be very easily understood. E Pluribus Unum, ?from many, one,? the old Latin motto which every boy has seen on the coin, expresses it very well. The
one
is the federal government, the nation; the many are the States and their governments. These latter have contributed to make the national government to which we all owe allegiance, and, to use the astronomical figure, they may be said to revolve around the general government like the tributary orbs in the planetary system. MAKING THE NATION. It is plain that the purpose of the framers of the Constitution was to make a Nation. They had tried the Articles of Confederation, a mere league, or contract, between the several colonies to stand by each other under the leadership of the Continental Congress during the Revolution; but when the Congress expired in 1786, this league was found insufficient, and the country was fast drifting into anarchy. A central government was needed, clothed with the functions and authority of supreme direction. All this was seen by the wise and …
