exceeded the
powers delegated to its members by their respective States. It
was the supreme moment, and upon the action of the historic assemblage
depended events of far-reaching consequence. The Constitution
of the United States is the enduring monument to the courage, the
forecast, the wisdom of the members of the Convention of 1787. It
was theirs to cut the Gordian knot, to break with the past, and,
regardless of the jealousies and antagonisms of individual States,
to establish the more perfect union, which has been declared by an
eminent British statesman "the greatest work ever struck off at
a given time from the brain and purpose of man."

The oft-quoted expression of Gladstone is, however, more rhetorical
than accurate. The Constitution of the United States was not
"struck off at a given time," but as declared by Bancroft, "the
materials for its building were the gifts of the ages." In the
words of Lieber, "What the ancients said of the avenging gods, that
they were shod with wool, is true of great ideas in government.
They approach slowly. Great truths dwell a long time with small
minorities."

The period following the treaty of peace with Great Britain in
1783, which terminated the War of the Revolution, has been not
inaptly designated "the critical period of American history." The
Revolutionary Government, under which Washington had been chosen
to the chief command of the colonial forces, the early battles
fought, and the Declaration of Independence promulgated, had
been superseded in 1781 by a Government created under the Articles
of Confederation. The latter Government, while in a vital sense
a mere rope of sand, was a long step in the right direction; the
earnest of the more perfect union yet to follow.

Under the Government, more shadowy than real, thus created, the
closing battles of the Revolution were fought, independence achieved,
a treaty of peace concluded, and our recognition as a sovereign
Republic obtained from our late antagonist and other European
nations.

The Articles of Confederation, submitted for ratification by the
Colonial Congress to the individual States while the country was
yet in the throes of a doubtful struggle, fell far short of
establishing what in even crude form could properly be designated a
Government. The Confederation was wholly lacking in one essential
of all Governments: the power to execute its own decrees. Its
avowed purpose was to establish "a firm le