arms, under forty-five years of age. But no one need be enrolled,
who from scruples of conscience is averse to bearing arms. At the
present moment such scruples do not seem to be very general. Then
follows, in Article XI., a detailed enactment as to the choosing of
militia officers. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that the
privates are to choose the captains and the subalterns; the
captains and subalterns are to choose the field officers; and the
field officers the brigadier-generals and inspectors of brigade.
The Governor, however, with the consent of the Senate, shall
nominate all major-generals. Now that real soldiers have
unfortunately become necessary, the above plan has not been found
to work well.

Such is the constitution of the State of New York, which has been
intended to work and does work quite separately from that of the
United States. It will be seen that the purport has been to make
it as widely democratic as possible--to provide that all power of
all description shall come directly from the people, and that such
power shall return to the people at short intervals. The Senate
and the Governor each remain for two years, but not for the same
two years. If a new Senate commence its work in 1861, a new
Governor will come in in 1862. But, nevertheless, there is in the
form of government as thus established an absence of that close and
immediate responsibility which attends our ministers. When a man
has been voted in, it seems that responsibility is over for the
period of the required service. He has been chosen, and the
country which has chosen him is to trust that he will do his best.
I do not know that this matters much with reference to the
legislature or governments of the different States, for their State
legislatures and governments are but puny powers; but in the