The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-08-26
Constitutions Grow.

eax. F.e
Constitutions Grow.
In q superficial sense, Nations and Consti-
buttons are made by man and are the direct
product of his own will, but IN profounder
one they are not. Like every living organ
ism, they grow and are governed by the same
laws OF life, but by laws more intricate,
deeper, subtler and almost beyond the pow
er of mans intellect to reach-a blending of
the physical and the metaphysical, the moral
and the intellectual, and, as many affirm,
higher series still, the spiritual, crossing and
intercrossing all the Others, like the million
stranded net of the spider spread out in sill
yer beauty on the dewy grass any bright
summer morning, but throbbing with life
and driven by that hidden, mysterious force,
whose order of working may by patient
telling be found out, but whose source no
man has ever seen, but all men have called
God.
In the light of this theory, in which the
most advanced schools of learning now
agree, is it strange, is it unnatural, that in
nations full of thought and emotion, and all
the more condensed spiritual forces, and all
the coarser life blood of humanity, that civil
constitutions should change as we'll as the
constitutions of the human body or any
| other organized vitality. Is not change the
| Ian of civil constitutions? Is not change
the lao of all constitutions 2 Is not change
the lao of the Universe9 Nothing is at rest !;
OF rather "the rest OF infinite motion, the
sleep of the spinning top" is all that we
know of God himself And in the heart of
this never, ceasing change of particles of
matter and thoughts OF mind exists the still
more beautiful law of Order, and the harmo-
nious development of man both in body and
soul hinges upon the discovery of that law.
Order in the body is called health; in the
mind, culture and discipline; in the Nation
peace; and the power possessed by man to
discover Lao and Order is the highest ar
gument yet put forth to prove that he was
created in the image Of God.
It was beyond the power, therefore, for the
founders Of our government, wise and good
men as they were, to frame a Constitution
that would last throughout time. Jefferson
seems to have been the only statesman of
that period who fathomed the deep philoso-
ply of things, and in the distant future saw
the life-giving principles he gave uttcrance
to in the Declaration of Independence, work
ing out the salvation of the country, by work.
ing themselves into the organized structure
of the nation. And atlast they have, by meas
ures at times slow and peaceful, and again
convulsive and war-like, worked their way
into the hearts of the people, there to remain
until higher principles of government and
broader views of humanity are brought to
light. And it requires but slight knowl-
edge of what is taking place within the av-
erage intelligence of the world. to see them
| working their way in the minds of all the
statesmen who are to be the master build
ers of the great nations which will soon
spring into life and beauty on the ruins oil
those about to pass away.
| While insisting, therefore, upon changes
of government and constitutions, whenever
those in existence do not meet the require
ments of mankind, we are not advocates OF
violent commissions and rebellions. We be
lieve the pen is mighter than the sword, and
thoughts and ideas safer revolutionists than
Columbiads and Parrot guns.
It is beautiful sight when standing OF
some high eminence to see the mighty Mis-
sissippi Is. : s.l ssai5.l5 III (, /,
tl "winding in its own sweet way"
but it is beautiful only when it winds within
its banks But even its banks change and
SHIFT, and grow higher and higher and slow
| ly build up the walls of the great artery
through which the commercial life-blood Of
the nation is to flow. ~,
| It's beautiful to watch the upbuilding o.
vast islands under the burning sun of th'
equator, as you dip and drift and rock to tbs
! music of the waves; but it is terrible to ses
islands rise up mountain peaks to the chant
of earthquakes and the roar of oceans leap
ing to the skies. Nations, therefore, II they
would live, must provide in their organic
laws for this law Of growth and change
| The South would not admit the only living
| principle in the Declaration Of Independence
| in all its logical reach and comprehension
and threw down the gauntlet Of wal. Thu
| North accepted the challenge and grapplet
| with her, and the result is that " ALL Nh
ARE ENTITLED TO LIFE, A1sERTr, AND THr
PURSUIT OF HAPPINEss,n is now an organic
principle in the Constitution And wher
| is the ma ton on. the face vi the earth tina
can take it out9. ''''s''-1 : : is.'is sl.ee.