ed for the minor jurisdictions.
Again, there has been only one matter comparable to slavery in the
United States, and that has been vitally affected by the State
Governments also. Their ultra-democracy is not a result of Federal
legislation, but of State legislation. The Federal Constitution deputed
one of the main items of its structure to the subordinate governments.
One of its clauses provides that the suffrages for the Federal House of
Representatives shall be, in each State, the same as for the most
numerous branch of the legislature of that State; and as each State
fixes the suffrage for its own legislatures, the States altogether fix
the suffrage for the Federal Lower Chamber. By another clause of the
Federal Constitution the States fix the electoral qualification for
voting at a Presidential election. The primary element in a free
government--the determination how many people shall have a share in
it--in America depends not on the Government but on certain subordinate
local, and sometimes, as in the South now, hostile bodies.

Doubtless the framers of the Constitution had not much choice in the
matter. The wisest of them were anxious to get as much power for the
central Government, and to leave as little to the local governments as
they could. But a cry was got up that this wisdom would create a
tyranny and impair freedom, and with that help, local jealousy
triumphed easily. All Federal Government is, in truth, a case in which
what I have called the dignified elements of government do not coincide
with the serviceable elements. At the beginning of every league the
separate States are the old Governments which attract and keep the love
and loyalty of the people; the Federal Government is a useful thing,
but new and unattractive. It must concede much to the State
Governments, for it is indebted to them for motive power: they are the
Governments which the people voluntarily obey. When the State
Governments are not thus loved, they vanish as the little Italian and
the little German potentates vanished; no federation is needed; a
single central Government rules all.

But the division of the sovereign authority in the American
Constitution is far more complex than this. The part of that authority
left to the Federal Government is itself divided and subdivided. The
greatest instance is the most obvious. The Congress rules the law, but
the President rules the administration. One means of unity the
Constitution does gi