that any proposed amendment to the Constitution
must twice run the gauntlet of representative assemblies, receiving
first a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and later a
majority in both houses of the legislature or in conventions in
three-fourths of the states, we readily see that this provision
effectually precludes the possibility of any important amendment.

One of the principal objections to the Articles of Confederation--that
they lacked a practical amending power--applies, then, with no less
force to the Constitution itself. In one respect the Constitution is
even more rigid than were the Articles of Confederation, since the
Congress of the Confederation was the court of last resort for passing
on the constitutionality of its own legislation. This gave to Congress
under the Confederation at least a limited power of virtually amending
the Articles of Confederation by the ordinary process of law-making--a
power possessed by the legislature in all countries where the system of
checks and balances is not recognized. Under the Constitution, however,
this power to amend the fundamental law can be exercised only to a very
limited extent by Congress, since the interpretation of the Constitution
by that body for the purposes of law-making is subject to revision at
the hands of the Federal Judiciary. The Constitution, then, more
effectually prevents changes desired by the majority than did the
Articles of Confederation, since the former guards against the
possibility of amendment under the guise of ordinary legislation while
the latter did not.

Another distinction must be borne in mind. The Articles of Confederation
made amendment difficult in order to prevent the general government from
encroaching on the rights of the several states. It was not so much a
disposition to make change impossible, or even difficult, as, by keeping
the general government within established bounds, to leave the several
states free to regulate their own affairs and change their institutions
from time to time to suit themselves.

This view finds support in the character of the early state
constitutions. These were shaped by the same revolutionary movement
which produced the Declaration of Independence, and were largely
influenced in their practical working by the "self-evident" truths
proclaimed in the latter. One of the axioms of political science
embodied in the Declaration of Independence was the right of the people
to alter o