(2) THE STATES CREATE THE UNION

The most casual reader must have seen that states were in the act of creating a Union. After the representatives of eleven states had drafted the paper now known as the constitution, it had no binding force whatever until ratified by conventions of at least nine states, and then only upon those ratifying it. Each state acted separately as a sovereignty through a convention. Three states reserved the right to withdraw whenever their interests were in danger. Two staid out of the Union for some time: North Carolina, till 1789; Rhode Island, till 1790. After the ninth state ratified the constitution, the other four might have staid outside as separate and independent republics; for, at that time, no such idea as that the states were created by the Union had ever been dreamed of in our philosophy.

Meantime, what became of the old Articles of Confederation? They were styled articles of "perpetual union," and yet, in seven years, they were coolly set aside as too weak for purposes of a strong Federal government, and a new paper substituted for them.

This was nothing short of secession. Nine states seceded and set up a new republic, and no voice was raised in protest. "Nothing secedes like secession" may be said of that movement, as well as of the secession of Panama from Columbia in November, 1903, the Roosevelt administration standing as godfather to the lusty infant nation as he yelled himself into the family of republics.

The word secede is not found in the constitution. To put it there would have been sheer folly; for doing so would

have invited every discontented state to threaten secession. That the right of secession was held by all sections in 1788 is, however, now admitted by some of the most eminent Northern men, such as Henry Cabot Lodge and Charles Francis Adams. (In another chapter we shall show that secession was first threatened in New England.)

Bancroft calls James Madison "the chief author of the constitution." The "Virginia plan," outlined by Madison and presented by Edmund Randolph, was adopted in preference to plans outlined by Northern statesmen. Compromises on various questions had to be accepted. Problems were left for posterity to solve; some of them, unfortunately, to be settled on the field of battle. But might cannot make right, and gunpowder cannot determine moral questions. The South looks to posterity to prove that she has never violated the constitution.

James Madison is known in history as "the father of the the constitution." In this connection, we may quote the late John Fiske, of Massachusetts: "In the making of the government under which we live, these five names, Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Marshall-stand before all others."

All but one of these five are Southern men. The name of Jefferson is a household word among men of all political parties. Both the great parties of our day use his name to conjure with, and claim him as their founder, their patron saint. Of Marshall we need only say that he is recognized both at home and abroad as the greatest expounder of the constitution. Both North and South have combined to

glorify him; the former being swayed to some extent doubtless by the fact that he interpreted the constitution according to the view long popular north of the Potomac; the South being swayed by her admiration for his great abilities and by her confidence in his spotless character. While referring to this supreme chief-justice, we may pause to remark that, for nearly two-thirds of its existence, the Supreme Court of the United States has been presided over by Southern jurists, Taney and Marshall.

We have seen already that the idea of absolute religious freedom was born in Virginia. This idea was engrafted on the Federal constitution, the clause enacting that "no relig ious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the authority of the United States," being moved by C. C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, and championed ably by James Madison. At this time and for several decades afterwards, England would not permit any one to hold office, or even to take a degree in her universities, unless he communed according to the rites of the established church. So that the statesmen and the legislators of the South blazed the way of religious freedom for the sages of Europe.

To the head of the new Federal government, all voices called George Washington. In his cabinet, sat Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, James McHenry, Charles Lee, and Joseph Habersham, Southern jurists and statesmen.

The foregoing paragraphs on the constitution are merely introductory. They are intended to show the part played by Southern statesmen in laying the foundations of our gov

ernment. The conflicting views of the constitution, and the long, sad quarrel over its doubtful clauses, we reserve for later chapters.

X

The South's Part in Maintaining and Expanding the Union

(1) THE WAR OF 1812.

Let us pass on to later eras. Let us study some statistics of the post-revolutionary and ante-bellum periods. In those periods, when sectional lines were less closely drawn than they were afterwards, the Southern states furnished nine out of thirteen presidents. Moreover, the only men elected to second terms were five presidents from the South: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson. Are those facts merely accidental?

To return to the great wars: Without Virginia and the Carolinas, the Revolution would have been a total failure. Let us consider the War of 1812. In this second struggle with England, sometimes called the Second War for Independence, the South again covered herself with glory. In bringing on that war, the lead was taken by Southern statesmen, because the warm blood of the young men of the South could no longer brook the insults of England, especially her stopping American ships on the high seas and dragging off sailors on the pretext that they were Englishmen. This war was very unpopular in New England, and was opposed by a few of the great leaders of the South, more especially the famous John Randolph, of Virginia. Clay, Calhoun, Crawford, Felix Grundy, Langdon Cheves, William

Lowndes, and other young leaders of the South determined to fight; and it is said that Mr. Madison thought of making Clay commander-in-chief of the army. The South furnished nearly all of the greatest soldiers, such as Isaac Shelby, Zachary Taylor, William Henry Harrison, Winfield Scott, and Andrew Jackson, and fully five-eighths of the private soldiers. Especially distinguished were Harrison and Jackson. Harrison, already famous as the hero of Tippecanoe, won the great victory of the river Thames, which, following the naval victory of Lake Erie by Commodore Perry, drove the British out of Michigan, and practically broke the power of the Indians in the Northwest. Jackson won the great battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815), which showed the world that the fighting power of the Americans had not declined since the days of King's Mountain, Cowpens, and Yorktown.

Both Harrison and Andrew Jackson became national heroes. The former is known in history as "Tippecanoe;" the latter, as "Old Hickory." Both were elected to the presidency before the days of "dark horses," that is, in the times when both parties put their strongest men on the presidential ticket.

Even in a rapid sketch, we may pause to mention a few other men of Southern birth or Southern descent who distinguished themselves in this war. We again meet Isaac Shelby, of King's Mountain. Though sixty-three years of age, he fought under General Harrison, and distinguished himself in the battle of the Thames. In this same battle, Col. Richard M. Johnson, member of an illustrious family