Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-05-04

ty. But the supreme force and majestic sense of Washington brought the as- semblage to the lofty plane of its duty and opportunity. He said: "It is too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful con- fiict is to be sustained. If to please the people we offer what we ourselves dis approve, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the hands of God" II am the State," said Louis the Four teenth, but his line ended in the grave of absolutism. "Forty centuries look down upon you" was Napoleon's ad dress to his army, in the shadow of the Pyramids, but his soldiers saw only the dream of Eastern Empire vanish in blood. Statesmen and parliamentary leaders have sunk into oblivion or led their party to defeat, by surrendering their convictions to the passing passions of the hour, but Washington in this i'm mortal speech struck the keynote of representative obligation, and propound- ed the fundamental principle of the purity and perpetuity of Constitutional Government.
 HUH lllc llliliJdllOuS Ol us tL- vironment, and the question of the adoption of its work, the Convention erected its government upon the eternal foundations of the power of the people. It dismissed the delusive theory of a compact between independent States, and derived national power from the people of the United States. It broke up the machinery of the Confederation ,,,, ,,roa+.no1 0,Na-o4iA,, ho rxl,
 tering generalities of the Declaration of Independence. From chaos came order, from insecurity came safety, from disin- tegration and civil war came law and liberty, with the principle proclaimed in the preamble of the great charter, We, the People of the United States, in ord CT to form a more perfect union, estab- fish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, pro- mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and | our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States. With wisdom inspired of God, to work out upon this continent the liberty of man, they solved the problem of the ages by blending and yet preserving, local self-government with national au- thority, and the rights of the States, with the majesty and power of the Re public. The Government of the States, | under the Articles of Confederation, be- came bankrupt because it could not raise four millions of dollars; the Gov ernment of the union, under the Consti- | tuition of the United States, raised six
 thousand millions of dollars, it's credit growing tirmer as its power and resour- | 4ol
 of the Confederation fled from regi-
 ment, which it could not pay; the Con- gress of the Union reviewed the com
 rades of a million of its victorious sol
 diers, saluting as they marched the flag of the Nation, whose supremacy they | had sustained. The promises of the Confederacy were the scoff of its States | the pledge of the Republic was the hon.
 or of its people.
 | The Constitution, which was to be | strengthened by the strain of a century | to be mighty conqueror without sub | ject province, to triumphantly survive the greatest of civil wars without the confiscation of an estate or the execu ton of political offender, to create
 and grant home rule and state sover
 eighty to twenty-nine additional com
 monwealths, and yet enlarge its scope
 and broaden its power, and to make the
 name of an American citizen title o
 honor throughout the world, came com
 plete from this great Convention to the people for adoption. AS Hancock rose
 from his seat in the old Congress, clever years before, to sign the Declaration o
 Independence, Franklin saw embla
 zoned on the back of the President
 chair the sun partly above the horizon
 but it seemed setting in blood-red sky
 During the seven years of the Confed
 eration he had gathered no hope iron
 the glittering emblem, but now as witl
 clear vision he beheld fixed upon eter
 nal foundations the enduring structure
 of constitutional liberty, pointing to th'
 sign, he forgot his eighty-two years, anC
 with the enthusiasm of youth electrified
 the convention with the declaration
 "Now know that it is the rising Sun. The pride of the States and the am bition of their leaders, sectional jealous
 ies, and the overwhelming distrust O
 centralized power, were all arrayeC
 against the adoption of the constitution
 North Carolina and Rhode Island re
 fused to join the Union until long afte
 Washington's inauguration. Fo
 months New York was debatable ground , Her territory extending from the sea tt the lakes made her the keystone of tn,
 arch. Had Arnold's treason in the revo } lution not been foiled by the capture O
 Andre, England would have held Nev York and subjugated the Colonies, anC in this crisis, unless New York assented
 a hostile and powerful commonwealth dividing the States, made the Union i'm possible.
 Success was due to confidence in Wash
 lngton and the genius of Alexander Ham ilton. Jefferson was the inspiration G Independence, but Hamilton was the in carnation of the Constitution. In n, age nor country has there appeared more precocious or amazing intelligenc than Hamilton. At seventeen he ami Inflated the President of his College upol the question of the rights of the Colon
 ies, in a series of anonymous article , which were credited to the ablest mel in the country; at forty-seven, when h, died, his briefs had become the law O , the land, and his fiscal system was, anI ; after hundred years remains, the rul, and policy of our government. He gay, , life to the corpse of National credit, anC
 the strength of self preservation and az gressive power to the Federal Union , Both as an expounder of the principle and an administrator of the affairs O , government he stands supreme and un rivalled in American history. His elo , quence was so magnetic, his language st clear, and his reasoning so irresistible } that he swayed with equal ease popula assemblies, grave senates, and learned judges. He captured the people of tn, whole country, for the Constitution b, his papers in the Federalist, and conquer ed the hostile majority in the New Yorl
 convention by the splendor of his oratory
 But the multitudes whom no argu , ment could convince, who saw in tn, executive power and centralized force of the Constitution, under another name
 the dreaded usurpation of King anC Ministry, were satisfied only with thC assurance, Washington will be Presi
 dent" Good" cried John Lamb, the | Il T. f AL r