Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-21
THoUGHToN CURRENT TOPICS
Material Alterations in Our Supreme Organic
Laws-The Teachings of History
to Guide Us.
Fonr woarH. -. jan. IS, I8sa.

pers and newspapers without govern
ment, he would prefer the latter When
we summons into requisition the latent
resources of our talents that we may
press and pursue to virtuous issue in
quiries in test Of the quality Of PROPOSE
tons, which perforce OF their novelty
and concern with affairs of state arrests
and enchains our attention the more, we
should in the service of equity and truth
the touchstone of real merit-take
care lest, through languor, our
steps be unattended with its sus-
tanning grace and we miss the
quicking prod which imparts a fresh i'm
petus to our inclinations to forge ahead
and delVe below the strata of vulgar con-
siderations deeper down until is reached
the richer ores of human experience and
testimony, and these, by dint of pick and
drill, be made TO yield their choicest
stores. Milton, in one of his transports,
saw fit to embalm in deathless verse his
fanciful idea Of the painted heavens be-
ing brmful of state. Be our faith ever
so sublime in his unique conception, we
are not bound from poverty of circum-
stances to train our lorgnettes upon the
astral splendors OF the spangled
empyTean in quest of evil
dences other than sub-astrai,
in sustainance of the likelihood that at
no very remote period the American peo
pie are to exert a tangible expression OF
their sentiments with reference to mater
ial alterations in their supreme organic
laws In certain quarters there is afoOt,
stalking abroad over the land, an evil
spirit of unrest and Impotence with eX-
listing constitutional methods and princi-
pies. Agitation has already numbered
its artillery and opened fire at short range
with characteristic spirit and vigor. The
proposed reforms may be outlined as fol-
lows, viz:
l. An amendment changing the term
time frosa four TO six or more years.
?. A supplementary provision supply
ing an impeachment to the reelection of
the president.
3. An amendment subversive of the
principles articulated in the electoral
college system, and providing instead,
for the election of president by direct
vote of the people.
1t may be worth our pains and boot us
a small profit as wen if we proceed to ex-
pend fraction of the vital energy at our
beck, by passing these grave matters as
digestible grist through the rubbers and
boiling cloths of qualitative analysis.
Mr.. Lincoln said it was bad idea to
swap horses while crossing stream.
The dolt of a mariner who, on star
less night, when enswathed III CHM
merriam gloom with unnumbered
submarine perils lurking in his way and
with leagues of unchartered seas out
stretched before him should lay aside his
trusty compass and take up new and
untried magnet, would deserve public
ex9cratien. If there is one circumstance
above another that tends to enervate our
faith in the principles of representative
government it is the element of evan
escence in our laws. Swift and inconsid-
crate changes breeds distrust and jeal-
ousy. There is less of Unborn respect and
affection among the masses for the integ
rity of new than old and fire-hardened
Institutions. Assuming this premise
to be sound, it follows as a corOl-
larry that a cultivated desire for
change might widen into a breezy passion
which would of its logic beget a transi-
tory order of things which, aside from
attendant evils, would lead outsiders
amid alterations of derisiOn and Jeers
after the lapse of a century of lustrous
achievements, to still view us as engaged
with the doubtful experiment of free gov
eminent. Around old associations are
=
tions and memories of the past which have
wrought in the popular mind as subtly
as leaven attachments as deep-rooted as
are the cycles of time, and which should,
as the ages are enscrolled and the
centuries enguIfed, be ever watered
and nourished at the perennial font of a
nation 5 just pride. The bridge over
which we have strobe spans an eventful
century Of prosperous existence. The
tensile strength of its girders and arches
have been tried by every known criteria
of test. Against its well-baIlasted
abutments the enfrenzied torrent of
time with its driftwood of stOrming events
has hurled itself, yet it has withstood
the siege and borne us safely over the
chasm. In the twilight and upon the
threshold OF another century, we stand
gazing outward upon the gulf stream,
rolling between shores wide apart. An
drew Johnson, when engaged in the dis
charge of the highest magisterial func-
tons, had occasion to remark as an
outcome of keen observation that,
under the propensities of the age,
legislatures had degenerated into a
species of invention which, aside from
gratifying a disennobling ambition for
notoriety, could subserve no praise
worthy aim or patriotic purpose. Thomas
j jefferson likewise aired his contempt for
the teo great facility and precipitation
with which laws were changed, and re-
ferred in terms of depreciation to the
evil consequences likely to ensue, be- |
cause of their instability and mutability.
A hasty retrospect viii not reveal to view
two men who, upon the theater of
American politics ever rose to the
highest distinction unaided by adj |
ventitious circumstances, and who,
me assured more nearly up to the popular
ideal of Thoroughbred representative |
statesman.
The expansion of commerce. the growth |
of agriculture and the confiction of null
tiplyinS material interest and manifold |
other causes imperiously demand whole
some laws, which, in a true spirit of
catholicity, conform in their tenor with
the requirements of the public interests
at large. After a period of four
months CESSATION, the original con-
stitution, leaped from the con-
vention moulds of 1888, like Minerva |
from the brain of Jove, almost divine in
form ana beauty. The question of the |
length of tenure of the highest executive |