sake.  And Moses, too, the great founder of the Jewish polity, permitted polygamy because of the hardness of men’s hearts.  So the fathers of the Constitution preferred a constitution with slavery to no constitution at all.  Had each of those illustrious men persisted in his own views, we should have had only an autonomy of States instead of the glorious Union, which in spite of storms stands unshaken to-day.

I cannot dwell on those protracted debates, which lasted four months, or on the minor questions which demanded attention,—­all centering in the great question whether the government should be federative or national.  But the ablest debater of the convention was Hamilton, and his speeches were impressive and convincing.  He endeavored to impress upon the minds of the members that liberty was found neither in the rule of a few aristocrats, nor in extreme democracy; that democracies had proved more short-lived than aristocracies, as illustrated in Greece, Rome, and England.  He showed that extreme democracies, especially in cities, would be governed by demagogues; that universal suffrage was a dangerous experiment when the people had neither intelligence nor virtue; that no government could last which was not just and enlightened; that all governments should be administered by men of experience and integrity; that any central government should have complete control over commerce, tariffs, revenues, post-offices, patents, foreign relations, the army and navy, peace or war; and that in all these functions of national interest the central government should be independent of State legislatures, so that the State and National legislatures should not clash.  Many of his views were not adopted, but it is remarkable that the subsequent changes and modifications of the Constitution have been in the direction of his policy; that wars and great necessities have gradually brought about what he advocated with so much calmness and wisdom.  Guizot asserts that “he must ever be classed among the men who have best understood the vital principles and elemental conditions of government; and that there is not in the Constitution of the United States an element of order, or force, or duration which he did not powerfully contribute to secure.”  This is the tribute of that great and learned statesman and historian to the genius and services of Hamilton.  What an exalted praise!  To be the maker of a constitution requires the highest maturity of reason.  It was the peculiar glory of Moses,—­the ablest man ever born among the Jews, and the greatest benefactor his nation ever had.  How much prouder the fame of a beneficent and enlightened legislator than that of a conqueror!  The code which Napoleon gave to France partially rescues his name from the infamy that his injuries inflicted on mankind.  Who are the greatest men of the present day, and the most beneficent?  Such men as Gladstone and Bright, who are seeking by wise legislation to remove or meliorate the evils of centuries of injustice.  Who have