Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-07-24
THE WORKING OF THE CONSTITUTION

" Al poFernuleHt curing Inc last seVenty-Hve years
perhaps no one of these results has proved more u
sorry than the great and confident idea of the secu
rlties Tor freedom, and especially the ixedness, a
iorded by Written Constitutions the supposed vir.
tue OF which has, thus far, been almost as little
realized IN the experiment as ever were the chemic
hopes of those who, in the infancy of experimental
science, were constantly fattering themselves that
they had detected Natures great secret of turning
all the base metals into gold, or had achieved the
| preparation of some divine elixir that bestowed
upon It's possessor perpetual youth and health Few
things IN the history of human have been
remarkable, and one might say instructive, but that
nations seem seldom to be very apt scholars, and
event, there is certain point in their progress
when their hearts become hardened, as were those
OF Pharaoh's people of old, and when they refuse
to be taught either by the example of other coun-
| tries or by their own experience.
II Written Constitutions, unsupported by the ha-
bits and fixed principles of People, gave those
certainties to freedom which they have been sup
posed to carry, how came it that France, from the
assembling of her States-General down to the as
sumption of Empire by Napoleon, saw, within a
dozen years, as many Fundamental Codes, all won
drously wise and free and all witnesses in turn of
nearly every evil which Government can infict,
from the despotsm Of cutthroat up to the fures
OF thousands The most perfect and refined ideas
that all the wisdom of the world past or actual old
or new, could supply, were then embodied for
France; and with what effect? Only such as will,
while history shall last, make one of its stranges
and most dismal pages
Unwarned, however, by the example, Spain, still
less prepared than France for the Innovation caught
the contaglon of Constitutions; and how have they
prospered with her, or with her neghbor and cou-
sin, Portugal? So marvellously as to have con-
verted the entire Peninsula, ever SINCE into field
of faction and of blood, where every man fights
like gladiator, while Europe gazes on the combat
utterly unable to divine for an instant what they are
fighting for or what against.
Upon this continent, from the Sabine of Texas
almost to Patagonia, the efficacy of Written Con-
situations has been, for some twenty-five years, sub
mitted to still wider tests. Let any man count, if
he can the fruitless crops of them which have been
grown in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Buenos Ayres,
and all over Spanish America. Plans" pro-
nunciamentos, " bases,' "proyectos EVERY
thing, from the germ of Constitution to its gayest
blossoms, has sproued there, as fast as mushrooms
in swelery September night, and persisted in a
succession almost as rapid as that in which they
sprung into existence.
The virtue, then, of the Paper Constitution has
proof of its potency, that we are acquainted WITH
unless we take it from the success of that inven-
ton among ourselves. How far it has succeeded
in this country, and, far as it has not succeeded
why it has failed, are questions which are becom-
ing daily more and more vitality important.
Viewing it fairly, the Constitution of the United
States has both succeeded and failed. Down 10
1923 it must be considered as successful to very
extent. Since that time, it is difficult
for any candid man to deny that the paper buL
warks of our rights have been broken through, or
battered down, almost wherever it has pleased pow
er and party to bring gun to bear upon them.
The irresistible popularity of Gen. JACKSON ena-
bled him to add to the Written Constitution or to
take away from it, whatever provisions itliked him
and the ready submission to his usurpations has
taught the two last of his successors to usurp as
boldly as he.
In word, the Written Constitution has, in other
countries, shown itself able to create no freedom
no political securities, where such did not previous
ly exist in the constitution, temper, habits of the
people: these must ever make the real Constitu.
ton for Charters do not carry in them, ndepend-
emily of grantor and grantee any particular energy
which makes their execution inevitable. Such is
manfestly the fact in other countries, where Con-
stitutions have proved of no avail. In our own,
where at one time they have been operative and at
another at least partially nugatory it would seem
strong conclusion that the amazing safety which
they have been supposed to afford was such chiefly
achen there ,cas no attack. Gibraltar, strong as it
is not only requires brave, an incorruptibe, and
skilful garrison, with plenty of munitions, to keep
it, but garrison numerous enough to man all its
works turn it, however, into rock on paper and
walls of ink, with tape and sealngwax for the ar
tillery, and you will find that not a mere garrison,
but great army is necessary to guard it and that
even such an army will fall if the soldiers have no
will to fight and the commander wishes the place
taken. What is, in order that this should be other
wise, the instrument which we call Constitution
1t is hope, not a reality it is but a prophecy, !
not the event: the hone NAV he irrational inst in |