would have been an assembling of theoretical machinery, of untried
experiments, which could not have met the shock of being suddenly put
into motion to replace a broken down system. It could not have won
back, solely on its merits, the confidence of the discouraged people.
If it had been "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given
time by the brain and purpose of man," it could scarcely have withstood
the vicissitudes of a growing people for over a century, with amendment
in four particulars only. More experiments and less experience might
have required the adoption of more of the fifteen hundred amendments
which have been proposed to the Constitution in these hundred years.
Experience is a safe ground upon which to build. Gouverneur Morris
demolished a vast amount of eulogy when he wrote to a correspondent
in France that some boasted the Constitution as a work from Heaven,
while others gave it a less righteous origin. "I have many reasons to
believe," said this matter-of-fact man, who bore such a large part in
recasting the phraseology of the document, "that it was the work of
plain, honest men."

As matter is not created in any of its forms, but simply assumes new
combinations by its own laws or under the guidance of man, so apparently
new models in statecraft may be resolved by analysis into old ideas
in new combinations. The American Constitution is the English system
of government adapted to American soil through the intervening colonial
and state governments. The president is the king through the royal
governor, but shorn of his prerogative, descent, and perpetuity in the
transition. The Senate is the House of Lords, with its permanency
changed into a long tenure of office by passing through the colonial
council. To the same intermediate State is due the power of appointment
to office and of treaty-making which the Senate shares with the
executive, thus reviving the relation of the privy council, chosen