The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-21

same, closing with some suggestions
to the duty OF the living I'm vfndi- |
Of the memory of our dead.
Necessarily must / advert TO some Of
the peculiarities OF the different forms
Of government, which have controlled
the inhabitants OF this earth. You
well n that these have been var
Gus, rejecting the temper of the times.
and the stratum of civilization, char
the various epochs in h
OF u race. sometimes they
been pure depotisms. again h
would swing way round in
contrary direction, and the world
would rejoice in short lived republics.
Sometimes We would have constitu-
tional monarchies. and again mems
petted crochets Of popular govern
ment would come into the ascendency
as with a bosom of destruction. Almost
every vestage of liberty as vested to
and in their blind madness
defied reason, and nave expelled
all the purer forms of religion, have DEL
uged her affairs with the blood of her
best people. Sad and well nigh tear
full are the many wrongs which have
been perpetrated on his earth in the
name Of liberty, but alas. in .,ie great
majority Of cases, license has been
founded with the wise teachings OF
this fair goddess. Amid this Babel Of
confusion it seems in the providence
Of the great Ruler of all nations to
have accorded to the Anglo-Saxon race
the most successful ventures in the
field OF constitutional liberty. Eng
land, step-motherish though she has
to US as the winner and the wear
er, which have come to her from
Magma Charta at Runnymede, has Sc
cured eminent privileges a. she has
on during the long generations
past, buttressed and fortressed, in all
those marked characteristics Of gov
eminent which constitute her h very
citadel OF constitutional liberty. But
as the Bablonish, Assyrian, Greecian,
Roman dynastics have all had their
day, so may it be said to-day with the
marked changes that have come over
the government Of Great Britain from
the rapid development Of all the ele-
ments OF democratic changes that she
a not been exempted from tie
changes and chances Of all human
Institutions. The colonies which
sprang from the breast Of their
old English mother and essayed
the Herculean task Of separate
government, detached from the quad
ianship Of England made good their
aus after seven years of bloody
strife when at Yorktown in 1888, it.
became necessary to construct q era
die for what was happily believed to be
a fair young republic. It will not be
forgotten that Great Britain in deal
ing with h colonies treated each n
of them as a separate and distinct
individuality, a crystalized unit, and
on this basis peace was declared be-
tween the mother country and her
infant children. A convention for the
exact adjustment Of the varied rela-
tiOns Of these thirteen children, now
free and independent, became neces-
sary. This convention met. The
ablest men in the whole country were
present and participated in it's DELHI
erations. The finest talent Of New
England, pr~onOuncedly the leading
statesmen from the middle states, by
all odds the greatest men from Vir-
ginia, were present in Philadelphia at
this august hour. Never in the history
of man has graver responsibilities
been met by calmer, wiser, Inc more
exhaustive deliberations. The sanity
Bishop White, n other eminent de-
vines invoked the blessing Of Almighty
God Upon this most remarkable body
Of men. Day after day, and night
after night, these o patriots
planned and counseled, and counseled
and planned. But 5000 miles away
from all the battle fields of Europe,
deluged with blood in mans. applied
experimental efforts to secure the
greatest good to the greatest number,
and this citadel liberty forever, but
tressed upon the affections M conf
dence of a free people, it was not ac-
cOrded our forefathers to escape the
dangers of human government.
Naturally enough, Mr.. Hamilton of
Nnur VnrIl froch frnro tho inHr1nnoo Of
mOnarchial institutions upon his great
and commanding intellect, was fully
in love with that form of government
centripetal, which we call centralism,
or a mild form Of monarchial govern
ment. Naturally enough, Mr.. jefferson
of Virginia, and those who thought and
cO-Operated with him in that they
represented the cavalier element of our
young population in the southern COL
onies, were equally as much enamored
with the pleasing thought, amount
ing in their case to an absolute con
%viction, that the panacea Of all our
ills as a people, and the keystone in
the arch of human liberty depended
upon the recognition of the Antagonist
tic principal Of centrifugalism as OPP
posing ~centripetalism, necessary to a
preservation, of the true harmony and
healthful life in the relation of h
state to the federal government.
1t will be seen al a glance how an
~tagOnistic these two theories Of hu-
man government are; tO-Wit, the
HamiltOnian theory of the exercise of
controlling power by the centre along
strongly guarded radii over all forms
of popular rights lying out between
the centre n the circumference. while
the states right men sought to leave
their impress upon federal relations
by emphasizing the doctrines of the
sovereignty of the states. These
giants Of high intellect, and We mus.
say Of equally beautiful devotion to
their divergent views of the govern
ment which they were trying to form,
battled with each other upon a high
plain Of Intellectually and wonderful
mastery Of the various forms Of human
government, which perhaps has never
been eQualled in the history of men.
Battling on and battling on, each for
the acceptance Of his own views. these
distinguished schoolmen were at last
driven to the conclusion that neither
o~%r - 49, ~0-l -.