The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-01

/ III pOpulaUlOn ana material development
i and for steady growth in intellectual free
= dom and force. Its continuing influence
2 upon the welfare and destiny of the human
race can only be measured by the capacit,
of man to cultivate and enioy,the boundles
opportunities of liberty and law. The elo
quent Characterization of MIR. Gladstone
condenses its merits: The American con
stitution is the most wonderful work ever
struck off at a given time by the brain anC
purpose of man.
1.-THE statemen who composed this great
senate were equal to their trust. Theil
conclusions were the results of calm debate
and wise concession. Their character and
abilities were so pure and great as to com
mand the confidence of the country for the
reversal of the policy of the independence
of the state of the power of the general
inyariable practice and almost universal
opinion, and for the adoption of the idea OF
the nation and its supremacy.
Towering in majesty and influence above
them all stood Washington, their President.
Beside him was the venerable Franklin.
who though eighty one years of age, brought
to the deliberations of the convention the
unimpaired vigor and resources of the
wisest brain, the most hopeful philosophy,
and the largest experience of the times.
| Oliver Ellsworth, afterwards chief JUS
tice of the United States, and the
profoundest iUrist in the country;
Robert Morris, the wonderful fnancier of
the revolution, and GOuveneur Morris,
the most versatile genius of his period ;
Roger Sherman, one OF the most eminent
of the signers of the Declaration of indie
pendence, and John Rutledge, Rufus King,
Elbridge Gerry, Edmund Randolph and the
! PinckneyS, were leaders of unequalled pa
triOtism, courage, ability and learning;
while Alexander Hamilton and James Mad
ison, rs original thinkers and constructive
statesmen, rank among the immortal few
whose opinions have for ages guided minis
tiers of state and determined the destinies
of nations.
This great convention keenly felt, and
with devout and serene intelligence met, its
tremendous responsibilities. 1t had the
moral support of the few whose aspirations
for liberty had been inspired or renewed
by the triumph of the American revolution
and the actives hostility of every govern
mert in the world
''There were no examples to follow, and
the experience of its members led part of
them to lean toward absolute centraliza
ton as the only refuge from the anarchy of
the Confederation, while the rest chung to
the sovereignty of the states, for fear that
the concentration of power would end in
the absorption of liberty. The large states
did not want to surrender the advantage of
the danger to their existence The leagues
of the Greek cities had ended in loss of
freedom, tyranny, conquest and destruc-
ton. Roman conquest and assimilation
had strewn the shores of time with the
wrecks of empires, and plunged civiliza
ton into the perils and horrors of the dark
ages. The government of Cromwell was
the isolated power of the mightiest man of
his age, without popular authority TO fill
his place or the hereditary principle to pro-
tect his successor. The past furnished no
light for our state builders the present
was full of doubt and despair. The future,
the experiment of self-goverhment the per
petuity and development of freedom, al
most the destiny of mankind, was in their
hands
AT this crisis the courage and;confidence
needed to originate a system weakened.
The temporizing spirit of compromise
seized the convention with the alluring
proposition of not proceeding faster than
the people could be educated to follow The
cry Let US not waste our labor upon con
clusiOns which will not be adopted, but
amend and adjourn was assuming start
ling Unanimity. But the supreme force
and majestic sense of Washington brought
the assemblage to the lofty plane of its duty
aud opportunity. He said: 1t is too prob
able thatnO plan we propose will be adopted.
Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to
be sustained. If to please the people
we offer what we ourselves disapproVe,
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 Cod I am the state
said Louis the Fourteenth, but his line |
ended in the grave OF ab5Oluti5m Forty |
centuries look down upon YOU was Napo- |
Icons address 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 lead /
ers have sunk into oblivion or led their |
party to defeat, Oy surrendering their con !
victiOns to the passing passions of the |
hour, but Washington in this immortal |
speech struck the keynote of representa-
tive obligation, and prOpOunded the funda- |
mental principle of the purity and perpe-
tuity of constitutional government.
''F'reed from the limitations of it's envir-
onment, and the question of the adoption
of its work, the convention erected its gov
eminent upon the eternal foundations of
the power of the people. 1t dismissed the
deluSiYe theory OF a compact between in
dependent states and derived national
power from the people of the United
States. It broke up the machinery of the
and put in practical opera
ton the glIttering generalities of the
Declaration of independence. From chaos
~,
from disintegratiOn and civil war came
law and liberty, with the principle pro-
claimed in the preamble of the great char
ter, We, the people of the United States,
in order to form more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquil
ity, provide for the common defense, pro-
mote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity, to ordain and establish
this constitution for the United
States With wisdom inspired
of God, to work out upon this CONT
nent the liberty of man, they solved the
problem of the ages by blending and yet
preserving local self-government with
national authority, and the rights of the
states, with the majesty and power of the
republic. The government of the states,
under the articles of confederation, be-
came bankrupt because it could not raise
5 100000; the government of the union,
under the Constitution of the United
States, raised S6,0O00O0,000, it's credit
growing tirmer as its power and resources
were demonstrated. The congress of the
fled from a regiment, which
it could not pay; the Congress of the union
reviewed the comrades of a million of it's
victorious soldiers, saluting as they
marched the flag of the nation, whose
ises of the confederacy were the scoff of it's
states; the pledge of'the republic was the
honor of its people.
1.-THE constitution, which was to be
by the strain of century, to
be a mighty conqueror without subject
to triumphantly survive the
greatest of civil wars without the confsca-
ton of an estate or the execution of politi-
cal offender, to create and grant home rule