The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1889-04-26
washington and the Consultation.

Washington and the Constitution.
As the centennial of the Inauguration
our constitutional government approache
It IL well for Americans, In reverent spiri
to ponder upon its significance. We all b'
: lievc, and our history gives us right to d.
sr lieve, that the American constitution, as MI
s. Gladstone has said, Is the "most marvelou
work of man ever struck off at give
j. time" 1t was both a development and a
= inspiration. 1t Is of itself demonstrate
-" of the truth of the great underlying Demo
cratic principle that the aggregate OF the IN
y tell igence of the whole people IL greater thai
that of any one or any part. 10 realize Uni
we have only to compare its working witt
n that of the constitutions given the Soutl
g American states by Bolivar, who earnestl.
. sought, as he said, to combine the wisdom
, and experience of all ages and nations In MI
constitution. But while his started will
higher ideals in some respects, particularly
with reference to slavery, while the condi
lions as to popular intelligence and resources
were not greatly different in the beginning,
and while the old explanation Of an essential
inferiorty in races, although Bolivar him
self offered it, fails to account for the diff
ference, as the remarkable progress now
being made by several Of the Spanish-Amer.
lean republics proves, the fact remains that
the Bolivar constitution was failure from the
start, while ours has been constantly grow
ing success, steady evolution out of its own
defects. And the main, the decisive differ
ence was that the American constitution
came from wider and broader intelligence.
1t came up from the people instead of down
from any supposedly superior man or set of
men.
The debates attending the formation of the
constitution, especially Madson's minutes Of
the convention, ought to be text book In
every public school No man, no class, no
age even, was equal to the production OF such
a system. There was not a member OF tne
convention whose ideas it agreed with wholly.
1t was born amid a, well nigh universal dis
trust of Democracy out Of disputes about
principles that now seem fundamental and
automatic, and from labyrinthine conflict
of interests. Whether the small states
should have equal power with the big ones,
or whether, being then all independent |
republics, they should take the risk of
being practically wiped out by submitting to
representation according to population;
whether power shsrld be apportioned on
wealth or manhood; what should be the sta
tus of the negro, man or chattel, or part and
part; how soonest and best to get rio of the
evil of slavery; whence should come the
different branches of government-with
propositions running all the way from uni !
gersal appointment by sort of dictator to
election, of judges and all, for ,
short terms; whether there should be more {
where each state had one {
vote; whether the congress should be kept t
lear to the impotence of the old one, or t
hould be given unlimited and centralized s
ower over everything, as the representa-. l.
i've bodies of England and France r
Practically have; whether the senate
hould derive its power direct from
be people, or rest upon some basis of aris-
)cracy of wealth or birth; whether there a
hOuld be any president and whether he d
hould have any power like that of the veto;
ow aud where to draw the line for the
gifts of individuals and states against fed
'al authority; how to regulate foreign and
tier state commerce-these and multitudes .
other questions had to be answered by Ill
en, no two of whom could agree entirely, q
I'd who finally prepared plan only after 81
onths of comparing views and enlightenment III
lie by another. We have only to study the al
fierent ideas and plans advanced, like that u,
IF Instance for choosing the president by o.,
t, to See how feeble was any one human in -
llcct before the problems to be solved. ~
And yet1there issued from it all scheme ST.
government which is the admiration of no
ankind, delicate system of checks and bal. or
ccs, all resting upon the popular will, yet an
will so filtered as to make sure that it is Gr
} deliberate and well-considered will of the tn,
ople,-whch is then recognized as being ha
nearest to absolute truth and wisdom chi
It humanity can reach. And 1t is system the
Itch contains within itself cure for its ills, pie
provision, almost like perpetual motion, col
a reaction from its own excuses. When sib
need was strengthening and consolidation of
re was room for the work of Alexander rec
milton's genius. When Federalism went mol
far as to threaten the extinction of the es-
tial idea of free government, then came 4
ferson and Democracy to rescue the con- On
ution from its danger, and for 60 years to Qu
lonstrate the blessings of well-ordered Dut
nocracy. Then when the move INA
ut was towards the other ex- us
ne and decentralization went to the thie
ent of secession, the American sys- Is
surprised its old.world critics by prov gre'
that it contained full self-preservative leri
,r, and the one great mistake of the con- Vua
ltion. the permission of slavery. was ior
ed ont. And for the problems and dangers "u
eloped by more modern conditions the van
lciples of this old constitution are still ad- ""'
ITO os q ;,,s.r.,od h., ,,a ,,,,h,.;o, of sho,
great railroad corporations under the pan
r state law. The tendency towards plu- app
acy, over which all thoughtful men are "oi
iOus, the amazing multiplication OF mil rep
aires, by means of tariff subsidies, grants Veil'
roo, domo;ps to cor,ora,;ons and tho 20. plaiI
: ..,.., s,.s o. .r,st oo,nh,,. max
s and ilegitimate speculations, are all the soo'
duct of disregard of the essential prn- any
90 of tho constitution and tho ron,od,, Sher
hem will come. not in anv So beme of 81 prev
~, h,,, ~, ,o,,,uu a.. ,,o1 .a,, is a
locratic idea of non-interference of the a''o
rnment either to help or hurt in the or An'
ry affairs of men. T,
is also to be remembered that this sys mast
by which such great results for human stick