a
multitude of questions relating to the interpretation and application of
the Constitution to be solved by patient deliberation. The United States
Mint was erected, and our so felicitous monetary system, based upon the
decimal principle along with the binary, established in place of the
desperate monetary chaos prevailing before. Hitherto there were four
sorts of colonial money of account all differing from sterling, while
Mexican dollars and numberless other forms of foreign money were in
actual circulation.

The noblest part of all this work was the organization of the federal
judiciary, through an act drawn up with extraordinary ability by Oliver
Ellsworth of Connecticut. A Chief Justice--the first one was John
Jay--and five associates were to constitute the Supreme Court. District
courts were ordained, one per State and one each for Kentucky and Maine,
not yet States; also three circuit courts, the eastern, the middle, and
the southern; and the jurisdiction of each grade was accurately fixed.
As yet there were no special circuit judges, nor, excepting the
temporary ones of 1801, were there till some eighty years later. Clerks,
marshals, and district-attorneys were part of this first arrangement.
Originally the Attorney-General was little but an honorary officer. He
kept his practice, had no public income but his fees, and resided where
he pleased.

As his title implies, the Secretary of War was to have charge of all the
nation's means of offence and defence, there being until April 30, 1796,
no separate secretary for the navy. We had indeed in 1789 little use for
such a functionary, not a war-vessel then remaining in Government's
possession. In 1784 our formidable navy consisted of a single ship, the
Alliance, but the following year Congress ordered her sold.

The senators most active in the creations just reviewed were Langdon,
King, and Robert Morris, besides Ellsworth. In the House, Madison outdid
all others in toil as in ability, though worthily seconded by
distinguished men like Fisher Ames, Gerry, Clymer, Fitzsimmons,
Boudinot, and Smith. The three Connecticut representatives, Sherman,
Trumbull, and Wadsworth, made up perhaps the ablest state delegation in
the body.

CHAPTER II.

FEDERALISM AND ANTI-FEDERALISM

[1790]

Early in the life of our Constitution two parties rose, which, under
various names, have continued ever since. During the strife for and
against adoption, those favoring this had