onstitution by
Hamilton when defending it in _The Federalist_,[46] that a private
plaintiff could sue a state in the Federal Court. This decision aroused
a storm of indignation, and Congress in 1794 proposed the Eleventh
Amendment, which counteracted the effect of this decision. The Twelfth
Amendment, proposed by Congress in 1803, merely changed the method of
electing the President to meet the requirements of the party system
which had then come into existence.

These first twelve amendments were all adopted during the infancy of the
Constitution, and while it was still regarded as an experiment. But
though they had the effect of quieting public opinion and allaying the
fears of the people concerning the new form of government, they made no
important changes in the Constitution, leaving all its main features as
originally adopted. The same may be said of the last three amendments,
which were the result of the Civil War. They were proposed and ratified,
as Bryce says, "under conditions altogether abnormal, some of the lately
conquered states ratifying while actually controlled by the Northern
armies, others as the price which they were obliged to pay for the
readmission to Congress of their senators and representatives."[47]
These amendments were really carried through, not by the free choice of
three-fourths of the states, as the Constitution requires, "but under
the pressure of a majority which had triumphed in a great war,"[48] and
used military and political coercion to accomplish what otherwise could
not have been brought about. Nothing could have been farther from the
intention of the victorious Northern states at that time than any
important change in the form or character of the government which they
had waged a gigantic civil war to defend and enforce. Slavery, it is
true, was abolished to remove forever the bone of contention between the
North and the South. But the Constitution survived the Civil War,
unchanged in all its essential features, and more firmly established
than ever.

That the plan of government originally established has undergone no
important modification by constitutional amendment can not be ascribed
to the fact that important changes have not been suggested. With the
growth of more liberal views concerning government many attempts have
been made to remove the constitutional barriers erected by our
forefathers to stay the progress of democracy. Among the political
reforms contemplated by thi