“Under the American Constitution was realized the sublime conception of a nation in which every citizen lives under two complete and well-rounded systems of laws,—the state law and the federal law—each with its legislature, its executive, and its judiciary moving one within the other, noiselessly, and without friction. It was one of the longest reaches of constructive statesmanship ever known in the world. There never was anything quite like it before, and in Europe it needs much explanation even for educated statesmen who have never seen its workings. Yet to America it has become so much a matter of course that they, too, sometimes need to be told how much it signifies. _In 1787 it was the substitution of law for violence between states that were partly sovereign. In some future still grander convention we trust the same thing will be done between states that have been wholly sovereign, whereby peace may gain and violence be diminished over other lands than this which has set the example._”—John Fiske, in 1888. 41 The English government forced laws upon the colonies to restrict trade and manufactures, to place a standing army in America, and to raise taxes. The tax laws were denounced as illegal by the colonists, who argued that they were not represented in Parliament. Read the charges made against the king and the government of England in the Declaration of Independence. 42 Read the famous speech made by James Otis against the Stamp Act in the Stamp Act Congress in New York, October, 1765. See _American History Leaflets_. 43 The following were the fundamental defects of the Articles of Confederation. a. They did not provide for a central executive, and there was no supreme executive to enforce the laws. b. No provision was made for a central judiciary, and each State interpreted the Federal laws as it saw fit. c. They permitted concurrent legislation on vital subjects: i. e. each State could legislate as it pleased on such subjects as tariff, foreign treaties, currency, etc. d. They permitted each State to regulate its own coinage and there were at one time at least fourteen different kinds of coins in the thirteen States. This greatly interfered with trade. e. They gave Congress no power to enforce the observance of treaties. Congress could pass laws but could not enforce them. f. They gave Congress no power to coerce a State—it could only recommend to the States. g. They required a two-thirds vote on all questions in Congress, and votes were cast by States. Most bills may pass the present Congress by a majority vote.