After the
independence of the colonies was acknowledged, the formation of a more
perfect union was seen to be the only method of securing peace and
making a nation which should be respected by foreign powers; and so in
1788, after much discussion, the present Constitution of the United
States was adopted,--a constitution which satisfied very few people at
the time, and which was from beginning to end a series of compromises,
yet which has proved in its working a masterpiece of political wisdom.
The first great compromise answered to the initial difficulty of
securing approximate equality of weight in the federal councils between
states of unequal size. The simple device by which this difficulty was
at last surmounted has proved effectual, although the inequalities
between the states have greatly increased. To-day the population of New
York is more than eighty times that of Nevada. In area the state of
Rhode Island is smaller than Montenegro, while the state of Texas is
larger than the Austrian empire with Bavaria and Wuertemberg thrown in.
Yet New York and Nevada, Rhode Island and Texas, each send two senators
to Washington, while on the other hand in the lower house each state has
a number of representatives proportioned to its population. The upper
house of Congress is therefore a federal while the lower house is a
national body, and the government is brought into direct contact with
the people without endangering the equal rights of the several states.
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