system dependent for its efficacy on the concurrence of so many
separate communities contained in itself the seeds of dissolution, and
it soon became apparent that one of two things must occur--either the
American States must cease as such to be a nation, or the component
members of that union must each be prepared to relinquish a further
portion of the sovereign or quasi-sovereign powers which it possessed.
Under those circumstances, what was the course taken by the thirteen
States? They perceived that it was quite possible to maintain complete
unity and compactness as a nation if, in addition to investing the
Supreme Government with Imperial and quasi-Imperial powers, they added
full power to impose federal taxes on the component States and
established an Executive furnished with ample means to carry all federal
powers into effect through the medium of federal officers. The
government so formed consisted of a President and two elected Houses
called Congress, and, as a balance-wheel of the Constitution, a Supreme
Court was established, to which was confided the task of deciding in
case of dispute all questions arising under the Constitution of the
United States or relating to international law. The Executive of the
United States, with the President as its source and head, was furnished
with full authority and power to enforce the federal laws. The army and
navy were under its command, and it was provided with courts of justice,
and subordinate officers to enforce the decrees of those courts
throughout the length and breadth of the Union. Above all, a complete
system of federal taxation supplied the Central Government with the
necessary funds to perform effectually all the functions of a supreme
national government.

The nature of the Constitution of the United States will be best
understood by considering the position in which its subjects stand to
the Central Government and their own State Governments. In effect, every
inhabitant of the United States has a double nationality. He belongs to
one great nation called the United States, or, as it would be more aptly
called to show its absolute unity, the American Republic, having
jurisdiction over the whole surface of ground comprised in the area of
the United States. He is also a citizen of a smaller local and partially
self-governing body--more important than a county, but not approaching
the position of a nation--called a State.

It is no part of the object of this art