CHAPTER I. THE RELATIONS OF THE STATES TO THE UNION. 644. THE CONSTITUTION HALF A POLITICAL SYSTEM.Our examination of the National government of the United States shows very clearly that it is but half a political system. No state could exist a day with such an imperfect government as this. The explanation of what might strike a foreigner as a strange anomaly is, that the regulation of the important matters that the Constitution omits was already entrusted to a series of secondary jurisdictions called the States. 645. THE UNION DEPENDENT ON THE STATES. - The Constitution enlarged the sphere of the National government, and gave it power to act directly upon the people irrespective of the States. But it is still necessary for the States to keep the complex machinery of the government in motion. The Constitution assumes: (1) That the legislatures will fix qualifications for the electors of Representatives; (2) That the States will conduct or manage the elections of Representatives; (3) That the legislatures will elect Senators; and (4) That each State will appoint Presidential Electors. Plainly, if the States should fail to perform these duties, or any of them, the National system would fall into ruins. Here the National government has no coercive power whatever. Hence the State governments are part and parcel of the National government; or, as Judge Jameson puts it, "The constitutions of all the States form a part of the Constitution of the United States. 1The Constitutional Convention, 87, 88. 646. THE PROPER STATE SPHERE.-But, important as are the National functions performed by the States, they do not determine the proper State sphere, but are only incidental and secondary. The real sphere of the State is the exercise of those necessary powers of government which are not delegated to the Nation. These powers have been treated with some neglect both by practical politicians and by students of Political Science. The causes are obvious. In the division of powers made a century ago, the more imposing ones were assigned to the Nation, the less imposing to the States. Then, National politics has grown at the expense of State politics; Washington is a larger political theatre than Albany or Columbus. 647. THE RELATIONS OF THE CITIZEN TO THE TWO JURISDICTIONS.-Important as the powers of the Nation are, the common citizen, in time of peace, has few relations with it outside of the Post Office Department, while his relations with the State are numerous and constant. Said President Garfield in 1871: "It will not be denied that the State government touches the citizen and his interests twenty times where the National government touches him once. For the peace of our streets and the health of our cities; for the administration of justice in nearly all that relates to the security of person and property, and the punishment of crime; for the education of our children, and the care of unfortunate and dependent citizens; for the collection and assessment of much the larger portion of our direct taxes, and for the proper expenditure of the same, for all this, and much more, we depend upon the honesty and wisdom of our General Assembly [of Ohio), and not upon the Congress at Washington." Mr. Woodrow Wilson, discussing the same subject, says the twelve greatest subjects that have occupied the public mind of England in the present century are: Catholic emancipation, Parliamentary reform, the abolition of slavery, the amendment of 1 Works I., 733. the poor laws, the reform of municipal corporations, the repeal of the corn laws, the admission of the Jews to parliament, the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the alteration of the Irish landlaws, the establishment of national education, the introduction of the ballot, and the reform of the criminal law. And all of these except the corn laws and the abolition of slavery would have been, under our system, so far as they could be dealt with at all, subjects for State regulation exclusively.' 1The State, 487. |