Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/797

UNITED STATES. inserted empowering Congress to pass all laws deemed necessary and proper to carry out the powers expressed. Compared with the vast range of powers left with the States the few powers conferred upon Congress seem quite insignificant, and this disparity seems all the more noticeable when compared with the omnipotence of the British Parliament. But the apparently narrow powers vested in Congress have been rather broadly construed by the Supreme Court throughout the entire period of our national history. With the sanction of the court, sometimes under the stress of emergency, but more frequently in time of peace. Congress has steadily extended its powers in every direction, exercising functions which were probably never intended by the framers of the Constitution to be assumed by it. Thus under the simple power to lay and collect taxes (doubtless for revenue only) Congress has employed its power to destroy State bank currency, to encourage certain industries and destroy others, and to restrict commercial intercourse. In pursuance of the power to coin money and pay debts it has established national banks, issued bills of credit, and given the legal-tender quality to its treasury notes. Under the power to establish post offices and post roads it has made a Government monopoly of the entire postal service, established a money-order system, and provided for free delivery of mail in all cities and in many rural communities. Under the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce it has regulated not only traffic, but telegraphic intercourse and navigation on inland rivers and canals. This power has been employed also for the purposes of prohibition, reciprocity, retaliation, and revenue. It has included the laying of embargoes, the enactment of non-intercourse and non-importation and quarantine laws, the dredging of harbors, the erection of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, etc. Likewise Congress, without express authority, has acquired foreign territory, erected it into States, and governed its inhabitants without their consent. It has made large grants of land to aid in the construction of railroads, passed laws to regulate and control Federal elections, governed rebellious States through military agency, conferred suffrage upon the negroes, and undertaken to secure for them equality of treatment in public places. During the controversy over Reconstruction it encroached seriously upon the sphere of the executive and the courts declined to interfere in the latter's behalf.

In reviewing the first century of the history of Congress and its place in our scheme of government, several criticisms are worthy of note. These are the invariable practice of choosing members from local districts, the short tenures of Representatives, the large and unwieldy size of the Lower House, the long interregnum between the time of the election and the organization of the Congress, the shortness of the second session, and the exclusion of the Cabinet from seats in either House.

. The Constitution of the United States provides that all powers not delegated to the United States nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people. Those powers absolutely prohibited to the States are the conclusion of treaties, alliances, or confederations among themselves; the granting

of letters of marque and reprisal; the coining of money; the issue of bills of credit; the making of anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts; the enactment of ex post facto laws, bills of attainder, or laws impairing the obligation of contracts; and granting of titles of nobility. Those prohibited except with the consent of Congress are the levying of duties on imports or exports, except such as may be absolutely necessary for executing inspection laws; the laying of tonnage duties; keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace; entering into agreements or compacts with other States or foreign powers, or engaging in war unless actually invaded or when the danger is such as not to admit of delay.

Upon examination it will be seen that the relation of the citizen to the State Government is far more close than with the National Government. Nearly the whole domain of civil and religious liberty, education, suffrage, domestic relations, marriage, business transactions, property, professions, trades, contract relations, administration of the criminal law, and many other social and business relationships come within the sphere of the State Government. The fundamental law of each State is embodied in a written constitution drawn up by a constituent convention and ratified in most cases by the electorate at the polls. The earlier constitutions were brief instruments containing little more than the law for the organization of the Government and the necessary safeguards for the protection of civil liberty, but the later ones are bulky documents containing a vast amount of matter which should properly appear in the statutes. In each of the States the legislative power is vested in the Legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, though in six States the latter chamber is styled ‘the Assembly’ and in three ‘the House of Delegates.’ Both Houses are chosen by popular vote and by the same electorate, although there are variations as to the mode of choice and tenure. Usually the districts from which Senators are chosen are larger than those from which Representatives are elected, and as a consequence the Lower House is a more numerous body. The Senates range in size from 17 members in Delaware to 51 in Illinois. Delaware has also the smallest House of Representatives, consisting of 35 members, while New Hampshire has the largest, with 390 members. The relative size of the two Houses in New York is 50 and 150 members, respectively, in Pennsylvania 50 and 201, in Massachusetts 40 and 240. The tenure of State Senators is usually longer than that of Representatives. In a majority of the States it is four years, the usual term of a Representative being two years. In many of the States provision is made for partial renewal of the Senate, usually by halves every second year. In a few States the qualifications for eligibility to the Senate are higher than those of the Lower House. The franchise for the election of the Legislature and of all elective State officers is regulated by the State constitutions and is universal manhood suffrage, except that in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and some of the Southern States educational tests are required, while in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado women enjoy the suffrage equally with men. (For further details, see and 