ABSTRACT
In the ebb tides of public spiritedness, interests temporarily in the majority, or claiming to speak for the majority, were supposed to face an imposing obstacle in having to gain the support of the greater number of states, as well as of the people directly, before they could attain the full legislative power of the Union. For at least the first half century under the Constitution, the legislators had, on the whole, fulfilled the latter and higher function. The undeliberative, often capricious, use of popular power manifested under the Confederation had been curtailed to some extent by the federal Constitution's prohibition of ex post facto legislation, bills of attainder, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts, as well as by strongly implied proscriptions against paper money. Meanwhile, democratic constitutions in the Old North-western states were prohibiting the immigration of free blacks.
