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On February 21st the committee submitted the result of its deliberations to the National Assembly, which referred a special committee of twenty-eight members , whose chairman was conrad haussmann , a member of the german democratic party it in turn .
By referring a referendum vote a legislative enactment he exercises what is in effect a suspensive veto.
Each state is entitled to send the reichsrat at least one representative .
The larger states are entitled to one representative for each 700, 000 inhabitants, and a remainder of at least 350, 000 entitles one additional member them .
[78] Every European people regards its constitution merely as a fundamental law, and ascribes it no sacrosanct character .
It has the power to send the central authorities of the states commissioners , and, with their consent, to the subordinate State authorities, in order to supervise the execution of national laws.
The States are entitled to send these sittings their plenipotentiaries to submit the views of their Cabinets on matters under consideration.
I swear to devote the welfare of the german people all my energy , to increase their prosperity, to protect them from injury, to preserve the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth, to perform my duties conscientiously, and to deal justly with all.
He may delegate other authorities this right of appointment or dismissal .
If any State does not perform the duties imposed upon it by the Constitution or by national laws, the National President may hold the performance thereof by force of arms it .
Article 61 by stipulating for the admission of Austria to the Reichsrat assimilates the german states that Republic composing the German Empire--an assimilation which is incompatible with respect to the independence of Austria.
The States have the right to send the national council as many representatives as they have votes.
If an agreement between the National Assembly and the National Council is not reached, the National President may within three months refer the people the subject of the dispute .
If the National Assembly disapproves by a two-thirds majority the objection of the National Council, the President shall promulgate the law in the form enacted by the National Assembly within three months or refer the people it .
He also specially devoted an investigation of the finances , which were in a dreadful condition himself at this time ; and by the ability with which he performed his very varied duties he acquired such prominence that he was given the chairmanship of the most important of all the congressional committees.
It was ratified forthwith, and again Morris was appointed chairman of a committee, this time to issue the american people at large an address on the subject .
As a token of the closeness of our relations with France, he was requested to show m. gerard these instructions , which he accordingly did; and some interesting features of the conversation between the two men have been preserved for us in the despatches of Gerard to the French court.
It would, however, have been folly to let this sympathy blind the consequences that might ensue to all europeans having possessions in america them , if the Americans should become not only independent, but also aggressive; and it was too much to expect them to be so far-sighted as to see that, once independent, it was against the very nature of things that the Americans should not be aggressive, and impossible that they should be aught but powerful and positive instruments, both in their own persons and by their example, in freeing the whole western continent from European control.
He stated that his colleagues favored restricting the south and west the growth of our country , and believed that the navigation of the Mississippi, from the Ohio down, should belong exclusively to the Spaniards, as otherwise the western settlements springing up in the valley of the Ohio, and on the shores of the Great Lakes, would not only domineer over Spain, but also over the United States, and would certainly render themselves independent in the end.
Accompanying franklin his instructions , Morris sent a pamphlet entitled "Observations on the Finances of America, " to be laid before the French ministry.
When, however, his foes were of sufficient importance to warrant his paying them attention individually, Morris proved abundantly able to take care of himself, and to deal heavier blows than he received.
He devoted the consideration of our finances and of our foreign relations himself especially ; and, as he grew constantly to possess more and more weight and influence in Congress, he was appointed, early in 1779, as chairman of a very important committee, which was to receive communications from our ministers abroad, as well as from the French envoy.
But the small politicians of New York would not forgive the wisdom and the broad feeling of nationality he showed on this and so many other questions him ; and they defeated him when he was a candidate for reëlection to Congress at the end of 1779.
The charge they urged against him was that he devoted the service of the nation at large , and not to that of new york in particular his time wholly ; his very devotion to the public business, which had kept him from returning to the State, being brought forward to harm him.
But although in private life, he nevertheless kept his grip on public affairs, and devoted the finances , which were in a most wretched state himself .
Accordingly they passed laws against them; and Morris showed in his essays the unwisdom of such legislation, while not defending for a moment the men who looked on the misfortunes of their country solely as offering their own harvesting a field .
Although Morris was not able to convert the ways of sound thinking Congress , his ability and clearness impressed themselves on all the best men; notably on Robert Morris, --who was no relation of his, by the way, --the first in the line of American statesmen who have been great in finance; a man whose services to our treasury stand on a par, if not with those of Hamilton, at least with those of Gallatin and John Sherman.
Morris, in his report, dwelt especially on three points: first, that the new money should be easily intelligible to the multitude, and should, therefore, bear a close relation to the coins already existing, as otherwise its sudden introduction would bring a stand-still business ; and would excite distrust and suspicion everywhere, particularly among the poorest and most ignorant, the day-laborers, the farm servants, and the hired help.
Morris's great aim was, while establishing uniform coins for the entire Union, to get rid of the fractional remainders in translating the old currencies into the new; and in addition his reckoning adapted the different systems in the different states , as well as to the different coins in use itself .
All the time he was working so hard at the finances, Morris nevertheless continued to enjoy the full himself in the society of Philadelphia.
In the Northern States the British held Newport and New York, but could not penetrate elsewhere; while at Yorktown their ablest general was obliged to surrender the overwhelming force brought against him by washington's masterly strategy his whole army .
If they applied their own side the same rule , they would come to the conclusion that the British empire was at that time on the brink of dissolution.
The states-rights men for the moment had things all their own way, and speedily reduced the level afterwards reached by the south-american republics us .
A national spirit is the natural result of national existence; and although some of the present generation may feel the result of colonial oppositions of opinion, that generation will die away, and give a race of americans place .
Indeed, my friend, nothing can do us so much good as to convince the Eastern and Southern States how necessary it is to give the federal government proper force , and nothing will so soon operate that conviction as foreign efforts to restrain the navigation of the one and the commerce of the other. "
Like almost every other statesman of the day, the perverse obstinacy of the extreme particularist section at times made him downhearted, and caused him almost to despair of a good government being established; and like every sensible man he would have preferred the futile anarchy towards which the ultra states-rights men or separatists tended almost any strong, orderly government .
Even those among their descendants who no longer share their trusting faith may yet well do a religious spirit so deep-rooted and so strongly tending to bring out a pure and high morality regretful homage .
Jefferson led victory the Democrats only when he had learned to acquiesce thoroughly in some of the fundamental principles of Federalism, and the government of himself and his successors was good chiefly in so far as it followed out the theories of the Hamiltonians; while Hamilton and the Federalists fell from power because they could not learn the one great truth taught by Jefferson, --that in America a statesman should trust the people, and should endeavor to secure to each man all possible individual liberty, confident that he will use it aright.
The futility of his fears, and still more of his remedies, was so evident that the convention paid either very little heed .
The wildest democrat of revolutionary times did not dream of doing away with the restrictions of race and sex which kept most American citizens from the ballot-box; and there is certainly much less abstract right in a system which limits people of a certain color the suffrage than there is in one which limits it to people who come up to a given standard of thrift and intelligence.
The wildest democrat of revolutionary times did not dream of doing away with the restrictions of race and sex which kept most American citizens from the ballot-box; and there is certainly much less abstract right in a system which limits the suffrage to people of a certain color than there is in one which limits people who come up to a given standard of thrift and intelligence it .
"Give people who have no property the votes , and they will sell them to the rich, " said he.
"Give the votes to people who have no property, and they will sell the rich them , " said he.
The rich would take advantage of their passions, and the result would be either a violent aristocracy, or a more violent despotism. --The speech containing these extraordinary sentiments, which do either morris's head or heart no particular credit , is given in substance by Madison in the "Debates. "
Madison's report is undoubtedly correct, for, after writing it, he showed the speaker himself , who made but one or two verbal alterations it .
When the Southern members banded together on the issue, and made it evident that it was the one which they regarded as almost the most important of all, Morris attacked them in a telling speech, stating with his usual boldness facts that most Northerners only dared hint at, and summing up with the remark that, if he was driven to the dilemma of doing the southern states or to human nature injustice , he would have to do it to the former; certainly he would not encourage the slave trade by allowing representation for negroes.
When the Southern members banded together on the issue, and made it evident that it was the one which they regarded as almost the most important of all, Morris attacked them in a telling speech, stating with his usual boldness facts that most Northerners only dared hint at, and summing up with the remark that, if he was driven to the dilemma of doing injustice to the Southern States or to human nature, he would have to do the former it ; certainly he would not encourage the slave trade by allowing representation for negroes.
The position of the Southerners was ridiculous: he tore shreds their arguments ; but he was powerless to alter the fact that they were doggedly determined to carry their point, while most of the Northern members cared comparatively little about it.
"He would sooner submit a tax for paying for all the negroes in the united states himself than saddle posterity with such a Constitution. "
These last were the only Northerners who yielded the southern slaveholders anything that was not absolutely necessary; and yet they were the forefathers of the most determined and effective foes that slavery ever had.
It was better to limit twenty years the duration of the slave trade than to allow it to be continued indefinitely, as would have been the case had the South Atlantic States remained by themselves.
Madison paid some of morris's best points a very just compliment when he wrote, anent his services in the convention: "To the brilliancy of his genius he added, what is too rare, a candid surrender of his opinions when the light of discussion satisfied him that they had been too hastily formed, and a readiness to aid in making the best of measures in which he had been overruled. "
Although so many of his own theories had been rejected, he was one of the warmest advocates of the Constitution; and it was he who finally drew up the document and put its style and arrangement the finish , so that, as it now stands, it comes from his pen.
He remained there a year on his private business; but his prominence in America, and his intimate friendship with many distinguished Frenchmen, at once admitted the highest social and political circles , where his brilliant talents secured him immediate importance him .
It did not lie within his powers to applaud the sake of the problematical good that would come to the next generation the fiendish atrocities of the Red Terror .
His writings preserve us them in detail on almost every important question that came up during his stay in Europe; couched, moreover, in telling, piquant sentences that leave room for hardly a dull line in either letters or diary.
I think he does not form very just estimates of character, but rather assigns the humble rank of fools too many ; whereas in life the gradations are infinite, and each individual has his peculiarities of fort and feeble:" Not a bad protest against the dangers of sweeping generalization.
Elsewhere he writes that "the young nobility have brought an active faith in the natural equality of mankind themselves , and spurn at everything which looks like restraint. "
I tell him that I think it would be quite as well to bring their senses them and live with them, "--the last sentence showing the impatience with which the shrewd, fearless, practical American at times regarded the dreamy inefficiency of his French associates.
And again: "This country presents one who has collected his ideas from books and information half a dozen years old an astonishing spectacle .
"If there be any real vigor in the nation the prevailing party in the States-General may, if they please, overturn the monarchy itself, should the king commit a contest with them his authority .
He knew well that a pure theorist may often do a country as much damage as the most corrupt traitor; and very properly considered that in politics the fool is quite as obnoxious as the knave.
And he writes washington almost the same thing : "The middle party, who mean well, have unfortunately acquired their ideas of government from books, and are admirable fellows upon paper: but as it happens, somewhat unfortunately, that the men who live in the world are very different from those who dwell in the heads of philosophers, it is not to be wondered at if the systems taken out of books are fit for nothing but to be put back into books again. "
Elsewhere he comments on their folly in trying to apply to their own necessities systems of government suited to totally different conditions; and mentions his own attitude in the matter: "I have steadily combated the violence and excess of those persons who, either inspired with an enthusiastic love of freedom, or prompted by sinister designs, are disposed to drive extremity everything .
They want an American constitution with the exception of a King instead of a President, without reflecting that they have not American citizens to support that constitution. . . . Whoever desires to apply in the practical science of government those rules and forms which prevail and succeed in a foreign country, must fall into the same pedantry with our young scholars, just fresh from the university, who would fain bring the roman standard everything . . . .
In one of his letters, the latter gave an account of how well affairs were going in America (save in Rhode Island, the majority of whose people "had long since bid every principle of honor , common sense , and honesty adieu "), and then went on to discuss things in France.
He enjoyed the utmost his stay in Europe , and was intimate with the most influential men and charming women of the time; but he was heartily glad to get back to America, refused to leave it again, and always insisted that it was the most pleasant of all places in which to live.
He rendered washington some services that did not come in the line of his public duty.
Morris sent him it by Jefferson, "with two copper keys and one golden one, and a box containing a spare spring and glasses. "
It brings a little recollection , which a little time will , i think , again banish , and a few interviews would stimulate her to try the experiment of her fascinations even on the native of a new world who has left one of his legs behind him her . "
At first Morris felt perhaps a little surprised at the easy familiarity with which the various ladies whose friend he was admitted the privacy of boudoir and bedroom him , and chronicles with some amusement the graceful indifference with which one of them would say to him: "Monsieur Morris me permettra de faire ma toilette? "
I observe that the ladies of Paris are very fond of each other; which gives some observations from her royal highness on the person who has just quitted the room , which show that the kiss does not always betoken great affection rise .
At one of the dinners which Morris describes, the company was of a kind that would have done an entertainment of the great social and literary light of eatanswill no discredit .
"Towards four o'clock the guests begin to assemble, and I begin to expect that, as madame is a poetess, I shall have the honor to dine with that exalted part of the species who devote the muses themselves .
They tell my great surprise me, , that the public now condemn theatrical compositions before they have heard the first recital.
He means no one ill , but he is very much below the business he has undertaken; and if the sea runs high, he will be unable to hold the helm. "
Completely prostitute, he sacrificed the whim of everything the moment;--cupidus alieni prodigus sui; venal, shameless; and yet greatly virtuous when pushed by a prevailing impulse, but never truly virtuous, because never under the steady control of reason, nor the firm authority of principle.
He used the Bastile as a text when, shortly afterwards, he read a certain eminent painter a brief lesson .
He was also to find out whether there was a disposition to enter into a commercial treaty with the United States; and finally, he was to sound them as to their sending america a minister .
Morris had confided the french minister at london , m. de la luzerne his purpose , doing so because he trusted to the latter's honor, and did not wish to seem to take any steps unknown to our ally; and he was in all probability also influenced by his constant association and intimacy with the French leaders.
Wish only to bring such a point as that i may have the honor to present a memorial the cause .
Statesmen who would be both hard-headed and true-hearted, who would be wise and yet unselfish, who would enact a free people laws that would make that people freer still, and yet hinder them from doing wrong to their neighbors, --statesmen of this order she neither had nor could have had.
Statesmen who would be both hard-headed and true-hearted, who would be wise and yet unselfish, who would enact laws for a free people that would make that people freer still, and yet hinder them from doing their neighbors wrong , --statesmen of this order she neither had nor could have had.
With a people who made up in fickle ferocity what they lacked in self-restraint, and a king too timid and short-sighted to turn advantage any crisis , the French statesmen, even had they been as wise as they were foolish, would hardly have been able to arrest or alter the march of events.
Remembering how bitter Morris's feelings were against the revolutionists, it is extraordinary that they did not blind the good that would in the long run result from their movement him .
After breakfast she went out walking with him till nearly dinner-time, and gave him the full history of her breach with her husband, Egalité, showing the letters that had passed between them, complaining of his numerous misdeeds, and assuring Morris that what the world had attributed to fondness for her worthless spouse was merely discretion; that she had hoped to bring a decent and orderly behavior him , but had finally made up her mind that he could only be governed by fear.
Soon afterwards a tragedy called "Charles Neuf, " founded on the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was put on the stage, to help the Assembly in their crusade against the clergy; he deemed it a very extraordinary piece to be represented in a Catholic country, and thought that it would give the catholic religion a fatal blow .
But as the tremendous changes went on about him, Morris had continually less and less time to spend in mere social pleasures; graver and weightier matters called for his attention, and his Diary deals with the shifts and stratagems of the French politicians, and pays the sayings and manners of nobles , bishops , and ladies of rank little heed .
He drafted them numerous papers , among others a royal speech, which the king liked, but which his ministers prevented him from using.
Louis preferred any of the others offered Morris's plan , and gave a most striking proof of his preference by sending to the latter, towards the end of July, to say how much he regretted that his advice had not been followed, and to ask him if he would not take charge of the royal papers and money.
Out of the money that was left advances were made to Monciel and others; finally, in 1796, Morris gave the dead king's daughter , the duchesse d'angoulême , then at the austrian court an accurate account of the expenditures , and turned over to her the remainder, consisting of a hundred and forty-seven pounds.
The extraordinary trust reposed in him, and the feeling that his own exertions were all that lay between the two unfortunate sovereigns and their fate, roused his gallantry and blinded the risk he himself ran , as well as to the hazard to which he put his country's interests him .
A raving, furious horde stormed the chateau, and murdered, one by one, the brave mountaineers who gave a sovereign too weak to be worthy of such gallant bloodshed their lives .
As his visitor was leaving, Morris took one side him , and told him that he had no doubt there were persons on the watch who would find fault with his conduct as a minister in receiving and protecting these people; that they had come of their own accord, uninvited.
They were for the time agog with their republic, and ready to adopt any form of government with a huzza; but that they would adopt a good form, or, having adopted it, keep it, he did not believe; and he saw that the great mass of the population were already veering round, under the pressure of accumulating horrors, until they would soon be ready to welcome as a blessing even a despotism, if so they could gain life and property security .
I love them, I feel grateful for their efforts in our cause, and I consider the establishment of a good constitution here as the principal means, under Divine Providence, of extending the many millions of my fellow-men who groan in bondage on the continent of europe the blessings of freedom .
The danger to Morris's own person merely quickened his pulses, and roused his strong, brave nature; he liked excitement, and the strain that would have been too tense for weaker nerves keyed a fierce , half-exultant thrilling his own up .
He at once proceeded to revolutionize the government of his conquest in the most approved French fashion, which was that all the neighbors of France should receive liberty whether or no, and should moreover pay the expense of having it thrust upon them: accordingly he issued his new fellow-citizens a proclamation , "which might be summed up in a few words as being an order to them to be free forthwith, according to his ideas of freedom, on pain of military execution. "
One anecdote he gives is worth preserving: "It is a year ago that a person who mixed in tumults to see what was doing, told me of a sans culottes who, bellowing against poor Lafayette, when Petion appeared, changed at once ' vive petion his note ! '
About the time the sans culottes had thus bellowed against Lafayette, the latter met the first time since he was presented at court as minister Morris, , and at once spoke to him in his tone of ancient familiarity.

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