ABSTRACT
Two centuries are only three times the lifespan of a man, but in them the world has changed beyond the wildest dreams of the wildest prophet. As so often has happened in politics high and low, narrow self-interest divides and loses where enlightened self-interest would have united and won. The abolition of slavery opened the way for new conceptions of civil rights and their embodiment in the legal and constitutional order. The Declaration of Independence had boldly asserted that governments are instituted among men to secure for all certain fundamental rights. The railway-building period enlisted the support of government, and most of the western lines involved deals for governmental subsidies and land grants. On one political principle there was general agreement, and that was on the need for limiting the power of the central government. To that end the system of checks and balances had been devised.
