changed all this by creating the House of
Representatives which stood in the same relation to the whole American
people as the legislative assembly of each single state to the people of
that state. In this body the people were represented, and could
therefore tax themselves. At the same time in the Senate the old
equality between the states was preserved. All control over commerce,
currency, and finance was lodged in this new Congress, and absolute free
trade was established between the states. In the office of President a
strong executive was created. And besides all this there was a system of
federal courts for deciding questions arising under federal laws. Most
remarkable of all, in some respects, was the power given to the federal
Supreme Court, of deciding, in special cases, whether laws passed by the
several states, or by Congress itself, were conformable to the Federal
Constitution.

Many men of great and various powers played important parts in effecting
this change of government which at length established the American
Union in such a form that it could endure; but the three who stood
foremost in the work were George Washington, James Madison, and
Alexander Hamilton. Two other men, whose most important work came
somewhat later, must be mentioned along with these, for the sake of
completeness. It was John Marshall, chief justice of the United States
from 1801 to 1835, whose profound decisions did more than those of any
later judge could ever do toward establishing the sense in which the
Constitution must be understood. It was Thomas Jefferson, president of
the United States from 1801 to 1809, whose sound democratic instincts
and robust political philosophy prevented the federal government from
becoming too closely allied with the interests of particular classes,
and helped to make it what it should be,--a "government of the people,
by the people, and for the people." In the _making_ of the government
under which we live, these five names--Washington, Madison, Hamilton,
Jefferson, and Marshall--stand before all others. I mention them here
chronologically, in the order of the times at which their influence was
felt at its maximum.

When the work of the Federal Convention was sanctioned by the
Continental Congress and laid before the people of the several states,
to be ratified by special conventions in each state, there was earnest
and sometimes bitter discussion. Many people feared that the new
government would