The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-08-20
A NEW CONSTITUTION.

The new constitution of Kentucky, which
supersedes the constitution OF 1S49, has been
ratified by the people by an overwhelming
vote. Kentucky has been the most con-
sentative Of States, and among the slowest
to change its laws. In order to check the
tendency to try new things, it was provided
by the constitution of 1919 that period of
seven years must elapse between the pas
sage of an act providing for changes in the
organic law and their ratification by the
people. Hence kentuckians have been
vanly endeavoring for nearly twenty years
to modify their constitution so as to adjust
it to the altered circumstances of the State.
They have now succeeded at last; the new
instrument is understood 10 embody all that
is best in the new constitutions which have
been framed within the last ten or fifteen
years.
When the constitution of 1S49 was adopted
slavery was the leading interest in the State,
and the most significant features of the in
strument were provisions for the protection
OF the peculiar institution. In 1919, the
abolitionists, who were once a powerful
party in the State. had disappeared from the
political field. and it was not necessary to
guard against their Vaccinations by insist
ing on voting by word of mouth. However
viva voce voting and provides that all cleo
tons by the people shall be by secret ballot.
Thus the open ballot ceases to figure in
American politics. Kentucky was the last
State to abolish it.
The evil against which the Constitutional
Convention of Kentucky directed their chief
efforts was the growth of corruption of pol
tiles. The instrument which they framed
abOuuds in preventive and punitive provs-
ions aimed at this evil Any person who
has obtained a nomination or secured an
election by the unlawful use of money,
| bribery or intimidation, or any other cor
rupt practice, shall be deprived of his office.
Any corporation which is shown to have
| used money, or intimidation, or corrupt
| practices to promote its own schemes shall
| forfeit its charter. Any official who accepts
| free passes on railroads or steamboats, shall
| forfeit his Office. These provisions are dras-
| tic enough. 1t remains to be seen whether
= they will be carried out in practice. They
are not much more stringent than the pro-
visions of our own State Constitution
| against corruption in politics, and yet we
| realize that an election seldom takes place
in this State without the corrupt use of
| money, and yet no one is punished for so
using 1t, and no one is turned out of Office
for having bought his nomination and the
votes which elected him. Laws against
corruption must be carried out or they
amount to nothing.
An ingenious Frenchmau, NJ. Emile Bout
| my, has just published study on cOnStitu-
| tional law which compares the constitutions
| of the United States, England and France.
| He points out that these three nations.
| aiming at the same goal popular govern
| ment-are pursuing very different paths.
| England has no written constitution; its
| place is taken by Magma Charts, the Bill of
! Rights, number of acts of Parliament, and
a number of judicial decisions. This loose
machinery, it Is urged, possesses the advan-
| tage of elasticity, and adaptability to change
| when altered circumstances require change.
1t is far too vague, however, to suit the
| French, who want every emergency pro-
yided for, and every provision of law to be
logical deduction from principle
In this country we are minded like the
French rs to the necessity of written con-
stitutionS, but foTeseeing that nothing in
legislation is finality, the States have pro-
vided for review and amendment of their
constitutions. Happily for this country the
people are so orderly and SO patient under
| the Inconvenience which result from at
temptS to carry out obsolete laws that the
| troubles which would arise in France under
| the like circumstances are not to be appre-
heuded