PRACTICAL OPERATION OF THE NATIONAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS, AND THE RESPECTIVE POWERS OF EACH.

To understand properly the theory and operation of the the Federal Government, the peculiar relations of the FEDERATIVE SYSTEM must be considered. It must be remembered that the United States Government is not like the British Government, having one centre of political life. But that while there is a National Government, having for its objects National and chiefly external affairs, there are also separate State Governments with Executive, Legislative, and Judicial departments, having for their object local and wholly internal affairs.

By section 8th, Article 1st, of the Constitution, the States have delegated to Congress the power to declare war, to make peace, to enter into treaties, coin money, regulate commerce, and in short all acts characteristic of national sovereignty; and by sec. 10th, the exercise of these national powers by the states, is prohibited. Also by article 10th of the amendments, the powers not delegated to Congress are reserved to the states or to the people. Therefore the powers to enact municipal laws, i.e., all laws which concern only the states directly and immediately, are among the reserved rights of the states and the people, and are vested by the people, in the State Legislatures.

Thus the States having reserved these internal powers, neither the President nor the national Congress, under the Constitution, have any power to interfere with them in their internal, local and domestic affairs.

On the other hand the States having delegated to Congress those characteristics which pertain to national sovereignty, they have no control over such national and external affairs.

The separate states are, therefore, sovereign in a municipal capacity; while the General Government is sovereign in a national capacity, and is represented and known officially as one nation throughout the world.

The Constitutions of the several states all agree in their main features, and the powers vested in them are principally the same.

In all there is the same form, and the same principles lie at the foundation.

The executive in every State is the same, viz., a Governor. The duties of the Governors are in general analogous to those of the President, as far as the several State Governments are analogous to those of the Union. They have the nomination, and in conjunction with the Senate, the appointment of many important officers. Like the President they make recommendations to the Legislature, and take care that the laws are executed. Like the President they may be impeached and removed for treason, bribery, or other high crimes.

The departments of executive officers under the State Governments are also organised in analogy to those of the general government so far as they go. They have departments of State, Treasury, &c. But the departments of war, navy, post-office, and mint, do not exist under the State Governments, since the States have no power over these matters.

The leading provisions of the State Constitutions, are also very analogous to those of the national Constitution. Indeed the latter has in a great measure been the moden of all the State Constitutions formed since its adoptiol;

and that again was formed from the English Constitution amended and modified by the circumstance of many states united into one national government.

Like the general Government, the powers of the state Governments are divided into three departments-Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The legislative department is likewise divided into two branches-the Senate and House of Assembly-the former elected by larger bodies and for a longer time; the latter more popular in its character. They are governed by the same rules of precedence as the national Government. These, also, are derived from the rules of the British Parliament, except where the peculiar circumstances of Republican government render them inadmissable. They, like Congress, decide on the qualifications of their own members, and determine the rules of their own proceedings.

Every Bill, like the laws of Congress, requires the signature of the Governor to become a law, and he also has the power of vetoing it, and unless subsequently passed by a majority of two-thirds of both Houses, it is rejected.

The chief business of the state Legislatures is performed by the committees, who are also constituted in the same manner as in the national Congress, being generally appointed by the speaker. In the state Legislatures there can, of course, be no committee on foreign affairs, for the states have no foreign affairs to transact.

There are, however, same minor differences between the different state constitutions. For instance, in respect to the right of suffrage; but in most of the states the qualifications are so low that the right of suffrage, in reality, is universal among all white male citizens above twenty-one years of age. In some of the Free States free coloured persons are entitled to a vote.

Without entering into detail we will briefly notice some of the important powers possessed by the separate State Governments.

First. The enactment of domestic and municipal laws, and the enforcement of them by a proper organization of

judicial courts. These constitute the large mass of objects upon which the State Legislatures are occupied.

Among them are—

1. Those which relate to corporate and public bodies, incorporating, railway, and stock companies, chartering banks, and literary and public institutions, taxation, &c.

2. Police regulations, and the punishment of crimes, except crimes committed against the General Govern

ment.

3. Those which concern private property and rights such as the order in which the land of the ancestor shall descend to the heirs, &c.

4. Those which relate to the institution of slavery, the states having the power to abolish it entirely if they think proper, as the Northern states have already done.

Second. The power of officering the militia and governing them when not called into service by the General Government.

Third, The co-operation in the amendments of the Constitution, three fourths of the states being required to assent to every amendment.

Fourth. The mode of choosing the President of the United States, appointing the "electors" in such manner as the State Legislatures shall direct.

THE ADMISSION OF NEW STATES AND GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORIES.

In addition to the thirty-four states, there is a large district of land belonging to the United States lying westward towards, and extending to the Pacific. It embraces an area of 1,344,000 square miles, and is divided into eight districts called "Territories." Notwithstanding their immense area-on account of their, distance from markets-they only contained in 1860 a white

population of 220,149. They are mostly inhabited by wild tribes of native Indians, but are rapidly being settled up from the states and by foreign emigration. These territories are under the control of Congress, but any of them may be admitted into the Union as states on the same footing as the other states on enumeratinga population necessary for one representative in Congress viz., 124,000.

Each territory is established under the provision that Congress may hereafter divide the same or annex any portion of it to another state or territory. The relations sustained by each of them to the general Government are nearly identical.

The first and second clauses of section third, article fourth, of the Constitution, are the foundations upon which Congress erect and administer the territorial governments, and subsequently admit them into the Union. Under the old confederation no such provision existed; and so little anticipation was had of the growth and prosperity of those wild regions-whose population has since more than trebled the original states-that no provision existed for forming or admitting them. Since the adoption of the Constitution, however, by the thirteen original states, twenty-one new states have been formed out of the territories, and have adopted, assented to, and ratified the Constitution, and become integral parts of the Union-making thirty-four states in all-eight territories still remaining.

The power given by the Constitution to do this is one of the new principles introduced into this system of government, and is perhaps the most anomalous and most influential upon its future destiny of any. Many of the nations of antiquity held immense provinces, which con, stituted a part of the state, for the purposes of revenue and armies, but were never admitted upon terms of equality, and whose inhabitants were never citizens. The idea of constituting a government, to be increased as to the source of law-by its own colonization, is wholly new. The principle is simply this, that a colony settled upon