have Power ... to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the
several States, and with the Indian Tribes." The great question of
taxation was settled by fourteen words: "The Congress shall have Power ...
To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises."

[Sidenote: Omissions.]

In a few respects the Constitution was deficient. It did not profess to be
all-comprehensive, for the details of the government were to be worked out
in later statutes. There was, however, no provision for future annexations
of territory. No safeguards were provided for the proper appointment and
removal of public officers. The growth of corporations was not foreseen,
and no distinct power was conferred upon Congress either to create or to
regulate them. Above all, the convention was obliged to leave untouched
the questions connected with slavery which later disrupted the Union.

[Sidenote: The work finished.]

On Sept. 17, 1787, the convention finished its work. To the eloquent and
terse phraseology of Gouverneur Morris we owe the nervous English of the
great instrument. As the members were affixing their signatures, Franklin
remarked, pointing to the picture of a sun painted behind the President's
chair: "I have often and often,... in the vicissitudes of my hopes and
fears, looked ... without being able to tell whether it was rising or
setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a
rising and not a setting sun."


65. DIFFICULTIES OF RATIFICATION (1787, 1788).