Moreover, the Federal Government is, as I have just observed, the exception; the Government of the States is the rule.

The author who should attempt to exhibit the picture as a whole before he had explained its details would necessarily fall into obscurity and repetition.
The great political principles which govern American society at this day undoubtedly took their origin and their growth in the State.

It is therefore necessary to become acquainted with the State in order to possess a clue to the remainder.

The States which at present compose the American Union all present the same features, as far as regards the external aspect of their institutions.

Their political or administrative existence is centred in three focuses of action, which may not inaptly be compared to the different nervous centres which convey motion to the human body.