The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-06-06
SHOULD OUR NATIONS CONSTITUTION
BE RECAST1

under our observation for months, docu-
ment arguing to and advocating the most
radical changes in our form of govern
me,t t, is pamphlet just issued by Mr..
O. j. Smith, of New York city. The open
ing paragraph of the article explains its
drift: "Now, that The echoes of hundred
impressive centennial orations, clarifying
the Constitution ard COM rstulating our
selves, have died away, let us pause to en-
quire whether all is really well with us.
la the lives of men and of nations it some
times happens that the period of the
greatest self-complacency Is the main
point of danger. Let US go back of the
swelling periods of our orators and in
auire into the facts" The writer then
abruptly plunges into the cause for lis
ditquie ude in this language:
We have, it is conceded, a spoils sys-
tenn. 1t is an cid system, which has
grown with the growth of the nation, and
is stronger now than ever before. We
have two spoils parties and spoils gov
eminent. 4 he age and the strength of
the spoils system indicate, upon the sur
face, that it is one of our cherished insti-
tutions. Ard why! Is it because of our
ignorance? Our people, in mass, are bet
ter educated and more intelligent than
those of any other country. Is it be-
cause we lack patriotism and interest in
public affairsr The experiences in our
civil war give an answer in the negative.
Ours is the only nation in the world in
which parties are maintained only for
spoils purposes, and in which the govern
msnt is little more than spoils machine;
and yet we are not deficient in patriotism,
public spirit or intelligence. One other
fact, that almost universally our people
who have no personal interest in spoils
detest the system, adds to the perplexIty
of the situation.
What is the cause of the spoils system
Why has this disease of the body polite
grown so long and assumed such proper
lions under conditions apparently unfa-
vorable to itP Bishop Potter says that
we have d4generated. The assertion has
no foundation in fact. The civil service
reformers tell us that the wicked and
vicious have got possession of public af-
rally and overthrow the machine. But
why in free state have the wicked been
more powerful than the good?
The cause of the spoils system lies
mainly in the Sfixed and Interchangeable
nature of our general government. The
great and good men who created our re-
public reformed or abolished everything
that in their view called for change. They
broke up the established order from its
foundations and built new structure.
Having finished their work, they incor-
porated in the organic law provisions
practically forbidding change. They had
faith in thems elves, but little in those who
we're to come after them. If they had
mistrusted themselves as much as they
doubted posterity they would have inau-
gurated no revelation and established no
republic. The letters which they placed
in the organic law are called the checks
and balances of the Constitution-the two
houses of congress, the one representing
the people, the other the states; the veto of
the executive; a president with more
power during his term of office than any
constitutional monarch, and supreme
court holding for life. These are the con-
servstive influences in the Con-
stitution intended to prevent
change without due consideration.
Bat change is progress, and in forbiddiDg
change the fathers forbade progress. In
providing against the possibility of mis-
takes they fixed in our political system
the greatest possible blunder-the inabil-
ity to correct mistake. They did not
see that in forbidding the people to go
backward they restricted them from going
forward.
Upon this sweeping premise he builds
elaborate argument for such changes in
our form of government as will correct
what he calls mistakes made by the franz
ers of our Constitution, among which the
most important mentioned are as follows:
1t fixed unohangeably the representa-
ton of each state in the United States
senate, under the working of which one
voter in Nevada has the same representa-
ton as one hundred voters in New York.
1t gave us a com plicated electoral college,
which has more than once defeated
the will Of the people. Under our
Constitution minorities rule over
msjorities and majorities are powerless
to produce change. The republican
party, which polled in the last general
election 100000 votes less than the demo-
cratic party, now controls all branches of
the general government. With the ad-
mission of the new states the republican
party may, through its power in the s, n
ate, prevent the expression of the will of
the majority for fifty years, though ell
ways in the minority in votes. Why
should good men concern themselves
about politics when the checks and balan-
ces of the Constitution forbid changer
What can we expect but that politics shall
become trade in which the meanest and
lowest engage, that the buying ard selling
of votes shall become universal, and that
parties shall become mere spoils mac hines
in state where change is practically for
hidden by the organ 10 law?
The writer then institutes comparison
between the growth of governmental re-
form in England aid Anne RIGA, and says:
England has advanced at home through
peace; America has progressed only
through revolution. In England parties
stand for measures, ard reorganize readily
upon the line of principle; in America
parties stand for plumber, and outlive all
distinctions of principle. The public
questions of Englsndare live ones and in
teresting to the whole of civilization; in
America the issues are usually dead ones
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