In a word, the provisions which were rejected, such as a Senate chosen by the House of Representatives; such as a Senate having "the sole and exclusive power" to declare war, to make treaties, to appoint foreign ministers and judges of the Supreme Court; such as a national legislature having power to "revise the laws of the several States" and "to negative and annul" those which infringed the powers delegated to Congress--do not cause either wonder or admiration. It is the valuable practical provisions of the draught which provoke doubts. Yet these are for the most part the work of selection by an author thoroughly versed in what may be called the Constitutional literature and studies of the day, and who by experience knew precisely what was needed to transmute the Confederated States into an efficient National government. In our minds we picture the framers of the Constitution as remarkable men, sage in council, experienced in affairs of state. But there were two young men, the one 36, the other 30, who furnished the constructive minds of the Convention. Madison was foremost in framing the Virginia resolutions, which brought before the Convention questions for abstract discussion and bases on which to rest principles of government. Pinckney formulated a constitution which became a basis for the most of the concrete work. Both had had the severe practical training of members of the Congress of the Confederated States during the sorest period of its humiliating helplessness, the darkening days which preceded its dissolution. Both understood thoroughly the existing system which made the Federal government dependent upon its States and therefore inferior to them; and they knew by what had been to them bitter experience that the solvency of the Federal government was dependent upon the voluntary contributions of each and all of the States, and that a single one of the great States by refusing to pay its quota could bring the nation to bankruptcy. They knew too that while the general government could make treaties, the States could violate them--that they had violated them, and even then had brought the country to the verge of a foreign war. Their minds recoiled, as the minds of young men naturally would, to the opposite extreme, and each believed in the subversion of the States. How fully they agreed a single illustration will disclose. On Friday, June 8th,