Instead of a
document expressed in terms of a royal grant, they adopted a document
expressed in terms of a popular edict. To this the legislature must
conform; and people were already somewhat familiar with the method of
testing the constitutionality of a law by getting the matter brought
before the courts. The mental habit thus generated was probably more
important than any other single circumstance in enabling our Federal
Union to be formed. Without it, indeed, it would have been impossible to
form a durable union.
[Footnote 6: Bryce, _American Commonwealth_, vol. i. pp. 243,
415.]
[Sidenote: Abnormal development of the state constitution, encroaching
upon the province of the legislature.]
[Sidenote: The Swiss "Referendum" 196]
Before pursuing this subject, we may observe that American state
constitutions have altered very much in character since the first part
of the present century. The earlier constitutions were confined to a
general outline of the organization of the government. They did not
undertake to make the laws, but to prescribe the conditions under
which laws might be made and executed. Recent state constitutions
enter more and more boldly upon the general work of legislation.
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