They Have Been Arranged According To The
Judgment Of The Different People Concerned, And Have Been Altered
From Time To Time To Suit Such Altered Judgment.
But as the States
together form one nation, and on such matters as foreign affairs,
war, customs, and post-
Office regulations, are bound together as
much as are the English counties, it is, of course, necessary that
the constitution of each should in most matters assimilate itself
to those of the others. These constitutions are very much alike.
A Governor, with two houses of legislature, generally called the
Senate and the House of Representatives, exists in each State. In
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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 377 of 538
Words from 100214 to 100487
of 143277
