The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-02-27
Kentucky's Constitutional Con-
VentiOn.

nothing but add one more to the NUMBER
less illustrations that oratory has been
the curse Of every Southern State and
still is. Considerably over 1000 printed
pages have already been taken up III re-
ports ofthe proceedings, those proceedings
consisting chiefly of long winded and
worthless harangucs on political topics.
The arguemcnt in favor Of calling the
convention consisted in the fact that GER
tain portions of the constitution had been
rendered obsolete by the events OF the war
and by amendments to the federal con-
stitution; that the evil of special leg'sla-
ton should be prohibited, the fee system
abolished and the three departments OF
government, the Legislative, judicial ana
executive, reformed and purified.
These arguments have been accepted
and acted on in number of the states
within the last few years; but we nave not
observed that, in any of them. any reiorma-
ton Of the government has followed the
revision of the written constitution. We
gather from the public press of states
where special legislation is forbidden, that
Jobs are as frequently put through in the
false guise Of general acts, as they former
" were in different shape. We also no.
ticc that the courts have lObbics-a strange
phenomenon, truly and are under the
control Of rings in the states that are pro-
yided with brand-new constitutions. 1t is
n further fact, that in states where public
officers have been prohibited from stealing
from individual suitors by means of the
fee-system, they go to plundering the pub
lie bv means of populations, defalcations,
and downright robbery. We know that in
states where all the patent attachments
for the eifccting Of good government have
been put on, the sheritis. policemen and
public prosecutors are as easily brbed as
elsewhere. Hence, we attach but little
Importance to these new constitutional
appliances by which this, that, and the
other arc prohibited in words.
In the meantime, while these purely en-
pirical remedies have proved wholly inef-
fectual in the states that have tried them,
We are not aware that any attempt what
ever has been made to cure any one OF the
dozen gravcr and more pronounced evils
of polity which aifiict the country. We
have heard Of no attempt to compel the
payment of honest obligations; of none to
abolish the Hobbies of the so-called courts
of justice, and to utlawycrs on the bench,
instead Of politicians; of none to send
statesmen to the Legislature, instead Of
iobbers, ringstcrs, and bummcrs; of none
to obliterate the reign of the ward polit-
clan through the medium Of the caucus
and the nominating conventions and to re-
store to the people the control Of their
own affairs; of none to give effect to the
public will, as distinguished from the pas
sions Of the mob, in the enactment and
enforcement Of the laws. 1t is obvious
that any professcd statesman Or constitu-
ton maker who ignores these subjects is
quack, to begin with. For if those evils
arc not rcmcdied, there is no use in vast
ing time on smaller matters. The ex-
pedient which, with notifications TO adapt
it to the circumstances of different nations,
nature has invariably suggested in the past
as means to good government, has been
the balancing of one class of citizens
against another. Mr. Calhoun, in a ia
nous essay, has shown how it was that
Rome owed all her freedom and great
ness to this cXpcdient, and ii is noteworthy
that he advocated its adoption, in modi
fed form, in our federal system. The ex
ample of England is even more familiar
than that Of republican Rome. The Nor
man conquest, which was the most FORUM
ate event in English history, introduced
complex balancing Of the King against
the nation, and Of the commonalty against
the privileged orders. If this balancing
of class against class had existed only in
English society, and not in the govern
ment as well, it would inevitably have led
to revolution and the devastation Of the
state, as it did in France; but, fortunately,
in England this balancing Of class against
claas existed in and was part of the gov
crnment of the realm, and the result has
been the most sublime and brilliant story
that illustrates the annals Of mankind.
When our fathers came TO found the Fed
eral Union, they adopted, doubtless uncon
sciously, ali cXpedient much like that
which had worked so successfully at Rome
and in England; that is to say, they balanc-
ed the states, as privileged political entities
against the masses of the people. For
seyenty-two years the American system
was the marvel of the world. Nobody could
understand why, with so slender and con-
fessedly imperfect written constitution,
the Federal Union had been such splendid
political success. The reason, We should
think, would now be clear to all rejecting
minds. Our fathers, unwittngly perhaps,
wrote down the actual constitution which
long progress of events had prepared for
this country, and, in doing so, they en-
ployed contriyanec for the conforming Of
freedom and good government which was
almost as old as the world.
The great defect of this system of bal