BUILDING POLITICALLY;

OR,

THE CONSTITUTION AND THE STATES.

'ROM COLONY TO STATE.—Having taken a view of the country in the rough, seen its titles and beginnings as they arose like dry land out of a multitude of waters, caught something of that free, republican spirit which ripened in the colonies and urged perpetually - toward independence and union, and witnessed our majestic territorial strides from Atlantic to Pacific, buying where the market was open, conquering where it was closed, let us turn to finer parts of the national fabric.

The resolution of the Continental Congress, passed May 10, 1776, suppressing royal authority in the colonies, made necessary the formation of local governments, capable of answering the ends of political society and of continuing without interruption the protection of law over property, life and public order. These newly formed local governments, or these reformed colonial governments, for fortunately the political situation in many of the colonies required but little departure from their previous local institutions, were the true beginnings of the States. They were spoken of as "States" in the Declaration of Independence, and they made a near approach to States as they now are, under the Articles of Confederation. But, though States of a Union, they were not our States of the Union. How were they transformed?'

THE FIRST STEP-As has been seen, the Continental Congress was the only government during the Revolution and up until the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781. It was simply a revolutionary government, with power for any