the State of New York the Lower House is called the Assembly. In
most States the Governor is elected annually; but in some States
for two years, as in New York. In Pennsylvania he is elected for
three years. The House of Representatives or the Assembly is, I
think, always elected for one session only; but as in many of the
States the legislature only sits once in two years, the election
recurs of course at the same interval. The franchise in all the
States is nearly universal, but in no State is it perfectly so.
The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and other officers are elected
by vote of the people, as well as the members of the legislature.
Of course it will be understood that each State makes laws for
itself--that they are in nowise dependent on the Congress assembled
at Washington for their laws--unless for laws which refer to
matters between the United States as a nation and other nations, or
between one State and another. Each State declares with what
punishment crimes shall be visited; what taxes shall be levied for
the use of the State; what laws shall be passed as to education;
what shall be the State judiciary. With reference to the
judiciary, however, it must be understood that the United States as
a nation have separate national law courts, before which come all
cases litigated between State and State, and all cases which do not
belong in every respect to any one individual State. In a
subsequent chapter I will endeavor to explain this more fully. In
endeavoring to understand the Constitution of the United States, it
is essentially necessary that we should remember that we have
always to deal with two different political arrangements--that
which refers to the nation as a whole, and that which belongs to
each State as a separate governing power in itself. What is law in
one State is not law in another, nevertheless there is a very great
likeness throughout these various constitutions, and any political