know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law
is King. ¹

This suggestion, which was to eventuate more than a decade
later in the Philadelphia Convention, is not less interesting for
its retrospection than it is for its prophecy.

In the words of the younger Adams, "the Constitution itself
had been extorted from the grinding necessity of a reluctant
nation"; ² yet hardly had it gone into operation than hostile
criticism of its provisions not merely ceased but gave place to
"an undiscriminating and almost blind worship of its princi-
ples" ³ --a worship which continued essentially unchallenged
till the other day. Other creeds have waxed and waned, but
"worship of the Constitution" has proceeded unabated. ⁴ It is
true that the Abolitionists were accustomed to stigmatize the
Constitution as "an agreement with Hell," but their shrill
heresy only stirred the mass of Americans to renewed assertion
of the national faith. Even Secession posed as loyalty to the
principles of the Constitution and a protest against their viola-
tion, and in form at least the constitution of the Southern Con-
federacy was, with a few minor departures, a studied reproduc-
tion of the instrument of 1787. For by far the greater reach of
its history, Bagehot's appraisal of the British monarchy is di-
rectly applicable to the Constitution: "The English Monarchy
strengthens our government with the strength of religion." ⁵

The fact that its adoption was followed by a wave of pros-
perity no doubt accounts for the initial launching of the Con-
stitution upon the affections of the American people. Trav-
elling through various parts of the United States at this time,

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