The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-07-31
RALEIGH. N. c., JULY 81, 1894.

discussion OF their government as SOW
ereign Wall street does, our institutions
will not long remain in jeopardy. Wall
street is already familiar with all the
facts contained in the following ad-
dress:
THE CHANGED RELATIONSHIP OF THE
STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS.
In the most important counts in
that celebrated indictment against
kingcraft commonly know as the
declaration of independence, the gov
ernment of England is arraigned for
cutting off our trade with all parts of
the world, for imposing taxes on us
without our consent, for erecting a
multitude of new Offices and sending
among us swarm of officers to harasss
our people and eat out their substance,
and for quartering large bodies of
armed troops among us. Whether any
OF these evils which brought on the
War OF the Revolution exist now or
have been aggravated we will consider
later on.
Thomas Jefferson, who was the in
carnation of the spirit of democracy in
America, was in France at the making
and adoption of the constitution, but
he wrote to Madison, who was after
wards President, that the object of
forming a general government was for
protection against foreign nations and
the settlement of disputes between the
States.
The constitution which JEFFERSON had
been the main instrument in making
and which Washington fought to
establish, I mean the Articles Of Con-
federation as they were called, clearly
showed the main evil to be guarded
against, even when we locked in the
throes of foreign war, was the dan
ger of destruction of the States by the
Federal Government. So these Ar
ticles of Confederation provided that
each State should have an equal vote
IN Congress without regard to popula-
ton, that no troops or Federal taxes
could be levied in any State without
the consent Of its legislature. Even the
power to make war and treaties of
peace and the power to coin money
and regulate its value could not be ex,
ercised without the consent of nine out
Of thirteen States, and the articles
themselves were utterly imperative
without the consent of all the States
expressed separately through their leg
islatures. They could only be amended
by the common consent of all the
States. They were called solemn
league of friendship"
1t may be -shrewdly suspected that
the aristscratic influence in Virginia,
which Jefferson had lately done so
much to dethrone, and the money
hunters in New York and New England
rather rejoiced in the opportunity
afforded by Jefferson's absence in
France to make a new constitution
certainly they had a good excuse, for
the articles of confederation needed
amendment in several particulars and
there was some need of haste too as
the North and South had already be-
gun to drift apart. This new cOdstitu-
tion is that under which we now live.
The first ten amendments to our
present Federal Constitution (Which
were intended to give fuller prote ctiOn
to the powers reserved to the States
and to the rights of individuals than
was originally guaranteed by that in
strumenD were adopted two years
after the formation of the government,
and old North Carolina which was
about the last to adopt the constitution
was among the first to adopt the
amendments. AS you well know,
North Carolina at first rejected and
for two years hesitated about and
finally accepted the constitution only
when it was ascertained that the ten
amendments we're to become a part of
it. In the light of our subsequent his
tory, this action of the "Old North
State is shown to be one of the most
decent and wisest she ever performed.
If another amendment which she pro-
posed had been made a part of the con-
stitution, that the States instead of the
United States should determine the
time, place and manner of holding
Federal elections, the menace of the
force bill would never have been felt
or feared.
As soon as the war was over the
question of taxation again thrust up its
hydra head. Direct taxes, which under
the articles of confederation had been
apportioned according to the value of
Inndr II, the Souorol ltotoe 1zora fol1n6