The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-11-22

erelgnty imported into the events of 1774-S9
meaning tnat could not be found in the rec
ords. He had therefore attempted to begin
without theory and &c. give a, literal render
mental congress. He hoped 1t would not ap-
pear presumptuous to address gentlemen who
had been much longer familiar with the facts
to be considered: He could expect them to
be interested simply in observing the atti-
TUE OF a student who had approached
these subjects for the first time after they
had been removed from the political arena.
Ia explanation OF his views Mr.. Small said
Inc facts of American history were very
early confounded with the definitions and
before our constitution was three score
years old 1t had been associated with mass
OF theoretical and fancifull folk-l0ve whose
whose authenticity was more vehemently
asserted than were the facts themselves.
oyr u grew Up aDoms the opghS
IN which all conclusions from documentary
sources must be cast. This apocryphal ele-
ment obscured the genuine portion of our
history, and became the criticism by which
an hypothesis, which the examination of ev-
idence should justify or destroy The gen
eral view Of our national development which
found its ablest political champion in Daniel
United States an experience absolutely I'M
precedented. 1t saw nation born in
day" 1t saw, nevertheless, the anomalous
spectacle of repeatedly threatened and final
y attempted self-destruction in the body
thus spontaneously generated.
Students who have approached the subject
since the Interpretation of your constitution
ceased to be subject for angry dispute, are
to be pardoned IL they suspect that the period
OF observation from which our history pre-
sents such phenomenal aspect was not for
tunately chosen. 1t is not surprising that
men who have been taught to trace between
all historical causes and effects the slow pro-
cession of gradual advance are suspicious of
not silence the superstition that there must
have been process, plan, not merely catas-
erophe, at the foundation of our nationality,
and it is natural for them to search for evil
at some length, acknowledged the debt Of
American scholarship to Mr.. Bancroft, but
pointed out the failure of his volumes on the
constitution to discriminate between dis
tinct kinds of development, and to show the
ence to one kind of development but mad
missible, without important modification, as
proof of other progress. He also expressed
his establishment that after thirty years for
reflection, Mr.. George Ticknor Curtis had re-
ths s seeonS Chapter the of %Rsh bep
the fundamental question by asserting that
the Congress OF ITO was national govern
III
question to be answered by the student of
our documentary history is: What was
the exact relation of the continental con-
gress to the colonies and states" He then
proceeded to illustrate the method by which
must proceed upon the principle thus in the
nature OF the case there is and can be but
one text book of our Constitutional history
That book is in many parts, but it is COM
posed solely Of the authentic records of
nrth In nc mill Co -
individual utterances. The outcome of the
study up to 1889 is the demonstration that,
from this time forward, two distinct ques-
tions are to be decided: LIST, what is the
necessary legal Interpretation of the consti-
tuition on the subject of Interstate relations?
I'd. more important fundamentally, but not
properly recognize until it passed into
history. What is the actual will of the peo-
pie on the subject of interstate relations?
The historian of the present generation, who
studies the records independently, cannot
fail to discover that while the logic of the
constitution answered the first question in
one way all the significant public acts of the
period answered the second question in
ed ses D Tay dr as pssps of the nn
of formulating their will upon the distinct
subject of national sovereignty until the leg
islation of the sword began in 1861. The JUS
LITIGATION of the success of Northern armies
was not in its vindication of assertions about
the meaning of events in 1775.S9. 1t was in
its proclamation of the completion of an his
torical process begun in 1859. This con-
clusi0n, which the documentary evidence ir-
resistably enforces must determine the meth
cd of treating our history under the consti-
tuition. The remainder of the time was de-
voted to the premises from which these con-
illusions were derived. In closing the speak
er said, plead guilty of the large ambition
to live long enough and have freedom enough
from other labors to follow cut this method
and rescue our constitutional
history from the misinterpre-
lations Of Won Hoist, whose word must be
considered the latest on the subject, from
any source supposed to be authoritative. I'M
less Mr.. George Tcknor Curtis shall advance
beyond Won Hoist in the promised second
volume. The struggle of state sovereignty in
this country for its right of primogenition
and the gradual obliteration of that right,
through the development of new economies,
social and moral conditions, which at last
violently prevailed is subject still obscure
enough, but surely instructive enough to re-
ward the labor of him who shall win recog-
milton as its truthful historian.
There was large attendance of members
from the city and several from out of town,
including Hon. j. w. Bradbury and Dr.W. B.
Lapham of Augusta, Hon. William Goold of
Windham, Hon. Joseph Williamson Of Bel
fast, Parker M. Reed, Esq, of Bath, John
s. Locke Edward P. Burnham, Lauriston
w. Small and others.