A history of the United States for schools . iate means of raising a revenue, and itbecame quite clear that something must be done withoutdelay. The famous Federal Convention met at Philadelphiain May, 1787, and remained in session four months, withWashington presiding. Its work was the framing ofthe government under which we are now living, and inwhich the evils of the old confederation have The Fed-been avoided. The trouble had all the while ventionatbeen how to get the whole American people ^,^.^^^! ° r r phia, May- represented in some body that could thus right- Sept., tax the w
A history of the United States for schools . iate means of raising a revenue, and itbecame quite clear that something must be done withoutdelay. The famous Federal Convention met at Philadelphiain May, 1787, and remained in session four months, withWashington presiding. Its work was the framing ofthe government under which we are now living, and inwhich the evils of the old confederation have The Fed-been avoided. The trouble had all the while ventionatbeen how to get the whole American people ^,^.^^^! ° r r phia, May- represented in some body that could thus right- Sept., tax the whole American people. This was thequestion which the Albany Congress had tried to settlein 1754, and which the Federal Convention did settle in1787. In the old confederation, starting with the Continen-tal Congress in 1774, the government was all vested ina single body which represented states, but did notrepresent individual persons. It was for that reasonthat it was called a congress rather than a parliament. 254 THE REVOLUTION. Ch. HAMILTON. It was more like a congressof European states than thelegislative body of a nation,such as the English Parlia-ment was. It had no execu-tive and no judiciary. Itcould not tax, and it could notenforce its decrees. The new constitutionchanged all this by creatingthe House of Representatives,which stood in the same rela-tion to the whole American people as the legislativeassembly of each single state to the people ofthat state. In this body the people were rep-resented, and could therefore tax the same time in the Senate the old equal-ity between the states was preserved. Allcontrol over commerce, currency, and financewas lodged in this new Con-gress, and absolute free tradewas established between thestates. In the office of Presi-dent a strong executive wascreated. And besides all this,there was a system of Federalcourts for deciding questionsarising under Federal laws. Mostremarkable of all, in some re-spects, was the
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