Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[114] it is sufficient to mention the right of waging war and making peace, the right of coining money, of collecting customhouse duties, and of representing the commonwealth in foreign countries. The flag was national; civil and political rights were enjoyed in common by the citizens of all the States; no customhouse could be established in the interior; the Federal government had exclusive jurisdiction over certain questions of general interest; it was the sovereign arbiter both between States and between such States and private individuals aggrieved by them. Finally, besides its limited jurisdiction in the States, it exercised a sovereign authority over the Federal possessions and the new territories acquired by the Republic. The forts, the arsenals, and the District of Columbia, which contained the seat of government, had been ceded to it with full right of property; the immense uncultivated regions where colonization daily extended were becoming peopled under its protection; and it alone could impart political life to territories sufficiently civilized to claim the right of adding another star to the azure field of the national flag. The very manner in which the national power was constituted proved that it represented one single nation, and not an agglomeration of independent States. This power was composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives, invested conjointly with political and legislative sovereignty; of a President, constituting the executive power; and finally, of a Supreme Court, whose province was to enforce the superior authority of the national laws, and to pass judgment as a court of final appeal upon all constitutional questions. With the exception of this tribunal, appointed by the President, the other powers (executive and legislative) were elective. While the Senate represented in a proper measure the autonomy of the States, and comprised within its organization two members sent by each of those political bodies, whatever their size or importance, the House of Representatives was the direct product of popular suffrage; the entire surface of the Union was divided into districts equal in population, each of which elected one member. The election of the President, although nominally of a twofold character, was also essentially national and proportioned to the population. Each State designated as many special electors as it sent Representatives and Senators to Congress, and these