Birmingham state herald., 1897-02-07
OUR LETTER BOX.
THE CONVENTION QUESTION.

| 1f16 (OlN ' E1N HUN VI I1k9 HUN
 To the State Herald:
 Should not an acknowledged power in the people to determine the exigencies of the times as they arrive inspire all COZ fidence In their capacity to meet the ques- tion of a sovereign convention now? Is not our whole system of our popular government regulated by two prime con- alterations of the public veal. CD The opportunity to make the law, and ez) the, opportunity to change the law?
 I doubt if there Is any intelligent man, who is yet so indifferent to the interests Of this state as to refuse to see the mel ancholy situations to which we are re- duced for the want of wisdom and vigor in our state government. Somehow or other, those who seem to have the heart to conceive are deprived of the hand to execute needed reforms. Is 1t the vio- lence of faction? Turn to South Caro- lima, where the negro population is in vastly more proportionate numerical strength than here. What has that hot spur among the commonwealth done now only a year ago? She called her three powerful factions, by their representa- tives, together, at Columbia, and they agreed that the state should have the new constitution which common sense dictated she needed.
 .i These factions then and there agreed that each should have representation in the sovereign convention proposed &C., cording to its strength at home. The convention met; it deliberated- long and It enacted so wisely that, not since the autocratic power of Calhoun ceased, has there been in the Palmetto state such internal peace and prosperity, yea, verify, a genuine prosperity, not distracted by any arbitrary violence of political par ties. The cotton mills resting on the soil of South Carolina will soon consume more raw staple than the state produces. thus increasing the value of one bale to three, five, or ten bales of Alabama cot ton; the yield of tobacco is so rapidly increasing as already ta have made of obscure inland villages great tobacco martS; the public schools are supported by a tax of three mills and they are of the highest class. Why cannot Alabama trust her factions to make by this illus trious example of success following trust? Our people are divided on a question of federal policy, very vital question that has defied reconciliation. Nevertheless there is a lofty state pride and bouyant hope in the breasts of all Alabamians, shared alike when Ala bama interests alone are up for deter imitation.
 - Let no man be an enemy to his country wh5n vigilance is the test of his loyalty. Let no man prove traitor to his country by smothering a pressing demand on his courage to serve her veal The oppor- tunity to promote Alabama is here.
 At the last election the voters seized their opportunity. The leaders now have their own. No man was elected to the general assembly last August who did not receive his commission under the full understanding that the people ex- pected him to summon sovereign con- venton. Why deceive them? Why pat ter with their sacred trust? The life blood of Alabama Is now collected at the heart, her general assembly is at the capital. The hour is come, precipitated by proud people conscious of their strength and animated by sense of lofty and uncompromising duty. The leg islator who deserts the trust reposed in him at an alarming crisis, as is now upon Alabama, is a public enemy
 Are we waiting for peace among our selves? Are we an unfiedged constttu- ency which has to be disciplined by teachers, by corporations, by this or that contrivance, until the maturity of our virtues shall justify our assembling in sovereign convention? On the con trary, I think, we the people, are seri- ously menaced by those wire-pullers who hold up to us our own folly CD to conceal their own lapses. There will never have been a more fragrant example of misrepresentation than that general assembly which despiseS the will of the people of Alabama in this year of Grace to revise their organic law that 1t may comport with the Conditions of their so- cial life and we'll being.
 When George Washington declared the constitutional convention sitting at Phil adelpha, one hundred and ten years ago, adjourned Sine die, he turned to his desk to write to Lafayette in France then lowering upon the brink of the great rev. olution, announcing the marvellous com pleton of the work and his firm faith in its perpetuity because of what? Because of its inherent quality of amendment. he said, of repair of exhausted methods of recuperation and adoption to ever chang ing circumstances. Let us not forget, fellow citizens of Alabama, that because party spirit rose up in America to ob- scure this faith expressed by the father of his country, Alabama was, not so long ago. the tramping field of mighty armed hosts and that the desolation of the most vindictive of wars was our share of the penalty paid by all the people in their prolonged refusal to amend their federal constitution. So much for the lesson of example set before us.
 Nothing less than contempt of the dic- tates of prudence. nothing less than an obstinate disregard of fair warning. noth- ing less than feeble spirit in Alabama can justify a failure to revise now our organic law. A POPULIST.
 Birmingham.
 phauna fisp, atfac cks tbe hack and