precepts; that the system of government which those words embody
has in reality changed, is changing to-day.

[Footnote 1: Bryce: "The American Commonwealth," Vol. I, p. 400.]

The makers of the Constitution represented the people of distinct and
independent states, jealous of their rights and of each other but
nevertheless impelled by experience of danger lately past and sense of
other perils impending to substitute for their loose and ill-working
confederation a more effective union. The most formidable obstacle,
apart from mutual jealousies, was a fear of loss of liberties, state and
individual, through encroachment of the central power. The instrument,
drawn with this fear uppermost, was designed to limit the National
Government to "the irreducible minimum of functions absolutely needed
for the national welfare."[1] To this end the powers granted were
specifically enumerated. All other powers were by express enactment[2]
"reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

[Footnote 1: Bryce, "The American Commonwealth," Vol. I, p. 324.]

[Footnote 2: Tenth Amendment.]

The strength of the popular sentiment against any encroachment of
federal power was speedily demonstrated in a striking and dramatic way.
Under the grant of power to determine controversies "between a state and
citizens of another state"[1] the Supreme Court in 1793 proceeded to
entertain a suit by one Chisholm, a citizen of South Carolina, against
the State of Georgia.[2] It had not been supposed that the grant of
power contemplated such a suit against a state without its consent. The
decision aroused an indescribable state of popular fury, not only in
Georgia but throughout the Union, and led to the adoption of a
constitutional amendment[3] prohibiting such suits in future.

[Footnote 1: Art. III, Sec. 2.]

[Footnote 2: See 2 Dallas, 419.]

[Footnote 3: Eleventh Amendment.]

There is a long step between such an attitude toward the Constitution
and the viewpoint which finds in it authority for the enactment by
Congress of White Slave and Child Labor laws. Obviously there has been a
profound change in what the Constitution means to its adherents. It will
be interesting to consider briefly what has caused the change of view,
and how it has been put into effect.

To one searching for causes the most striking phenomenon is the growth
of a national consciousness. At the outset it was practically
non-existent. To-day its power has astonis