Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1876-08-15
THE SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Sixteenth Amendment, commonly known as
the ''Blaine Amendment" was passed on the
4th instant, with but five dissenting voices.
The Amendment is as follows:
Article 16. No State shall make any law
respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no
money raised by taxation in any State for the
support of public schools, or derived from any
public fund therefor, nor any public lands de,
voted thereto, shall ever be under the control
of any religious sect or denomination nor
shallany moneys so raised, or lands so devoted,
be divided between religious sects or demons
nations. This article shall not vest, enlarge
or diminish legislative power in the Congress.
The last sentence is the only alteration of
the original measure as drawn by Mr.. Blaine.
We presume Messrs. Hereford and Wilson
voted for it, while Mr.. Faulkner was absent.
The only apology for these gentlemen is that
they yielded to the imperative demands of a
party caucus, while the party itself made an
equally cowsrdly surrender to tho exigencies
of a political campaign. The resort to organic
changes in the Constitution at each recurring
National election, as an issue in the canvass
and to perpetuate the ascendancy of the dom
inaut party, is one of those new political ex-
pedients-aud perhaps the worst-with which
the Republican party has cursed the country.
Every observant man, who has watched the
development of this new departure in party
tactics, should be convinced of two facts
first that the practice is ono which, if con-
tinued, must necessarily prove fatal to the
stability, and hence to the permancncy of our
Institutions and secondly, that We now have
on hand, laid up in reserve by the Republican
leaders, the material for enough more of these
Amendment to outlast the present genera
ton. Female Suffrage; Intermarriage be-
tween races Compulsory Education ; The
Bible in the Schools Chinese emigration I;
the Electoral College ; and many other sub.
jects, heretofore left to the regulation of the
States themselves, are as political exigencies
may require, to be moulded into quadrennial
campaign Amendments. The most dangerous
feature of that now proposed is that it is the
entering wedge to Federal interference with
Religion. Does any one suppose that the
fanatics whose religious agitation has suc-
gcsted this measure to a dangerous ~demagogue.
and apparently forced its adoption upon the
Democratic party, will be satisfied with this
concession Or will the party which circu-
lates, as its chosen campaign literature, such
documents as '.The Bible the security of
American Institutions" or .'Vaticanism in
Germany and the United States" and many
Others conceived in the same spirit of religious
intolerance. be content with an emasculated
Article, which imposes a restriction but with
holds the power to enforce it, and PROFOUND a
principle, but denies the authority to establish
i's recognition Net atall. This tub to the
whale of intolerance will only amuse but not
arrest him. In fact this concession does not
amount to anything. As a campaign move,
its whole efficacy is defeated by the q~ualiGca-
ton denying legislative power while tie sur
render of a principle opens n Pendora's box
of evils, without even Hope in the rcarguard.
The true point of discussion which has given
prctext Tor this Amendment has been the use
of the Protestant Bible in the Free Schools.
VIII this practice come within the prohibition
of the proposed Amendment ? 1.-THE Protcs
tants constitute a religious sect, then the use
of their Bible in the public schools certainly
places such schools under the influence or
'~'control of a religious sect" There will be
needed a further amendment to clear up this
difficulty. These questions between Catholics
and Protestants, heretofore confined to q few
large cities, are now to be dragged into the
arena Of national politics, and the seed of a
religious war waited by the power of the press
and rostrum from one end Of Tie continent to
the other. And all this the result Of a sue
cessful political venture. whereby in the State
of Ohio, Governor Hayes was elected By max
ing the Groghan Bill an issue in the contest.
Hayes was the first to make war on the Cath
olics, and to declare that they were in alli>
ance with the Democratic party. This war
cry, full of inccndiary inspiration for the
ignorant masses, saved TIE Republican party
In Ohio, and filed them with the hope that it
might have the same happy effect in The pres
ldent'al contest. Grant commended it in his
message, and Blaine, the accomplished mouth.
piece of the couspiring leaders, gave it form
aud substance in this Amendment. What
was needed from the Democratic party was
the heroic treatment with which We met and
crushed hnOw>Nothingism, only another
form Of the same intolerant spirit. We may
rest assured that the party whose highest
method of success has been to infamc section
against section, and race against race, will not
hesitate to kindlc the flames of religious
hatred and persecution for the SAM purpose.
They have now By the cowardice of a Dem>
ocTatlc House gained the first advantage. and
if they once succeed in establishing a fulcrum
IN the Constitution itself, we shall have n