The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-05

lieve i'm the Declaration of Independence
Whether this be true or false, certainly
there lis coterie in every community
who doubt the right or propriety CT the
masses to take part in government and
especially TO make and unmalxe the con-
stituAon whenever and whatever they
see fit. And if. this practice of making
wrong, unmaking wrong and making
OVER wrong, the fundamental law, be
continued, to say nothing of Mr.. ]. W.
Dubose's suggestion to Incorporate a
provision in the next constitution of Ala
bama, providing for a periodical revision
of the written governmental charter, say
every twenty vars, not long and this CO.
teIbe will have become a ma jorbty of the
community and all attempts alt this So
called constitution making will be aiban-
doned
For If THE Incorporation of the South
ern University ait Greensboro, Ala, In
1856, which prohibited THE sale of intox-
icamts wiz HIN five miles of the town, was
q great injustice to the saloonlseeper, A.
M Dorman, doing business there at th9
time, how much more injurious to whole
classes of much more meI'btortjouS citizens
rs tn 8 radIca1 making over Of THE "conSti-
sltuu4on?' Cons 1tutions are mot crea-
tlt'n5 OF a day, they are this instructive
growths of centuries if NOT ages and peo-
pie of property and settled busine SIS hab-
sttss cannne look with favor upon ootnsti-
tuttonal changes, which are nothing less
than radical pisess of legislation.
In the interviews recently publ shed
i'm The Age-Heraid, against THE present
written constitution of Alabama, poir1t-
ing out why a constitutional convention
should be called, and a new state charter
made, which might be more in accord
with the governmental instincts of the
people, THE true fundamental law of the
land, Ut is charged:
First That this present constitutional
limit of municipal llaxation lis too low
Second. That tine constitutional proh.-
b1tIon of the taxing power to 'indllvid-
uals' and private corporations" makes
local taxation for educational purposes
and the free school Impossible
Third That The constitution authorizes
too many elections, breeding too much
politics for the good of business
Fourth. That without a change of the
fundamental law establishing something
like the Nj ssbssippi or the South Caro-
lima plan, elections cannot be properly
r=gu1ated and
Fifth. That without a constitutional
convention the size of the judicial dis
tricts, now too large, cannot be reduced,
or the methods of judicial procedure so
changed That the proceedings in all
courts might approximate to that of
chanoer-y where negroes and white
TRASH" as witnesses and jurors are not
needed in the administration of Justice,
a la Italy.
Examine thess complaints as you will
they do not all fall wftfdln the purview
or the present constitution and If they
did There IS noit probably a single constl.
t1tlonal question: proper among them
they arr purely political matters for the
consideration of the legislature that by
mistakes We're Incorporated in the con-
Sthtut1On of 1875, by the convention eff
fa1at date, or the questionable DECISIONS of
the state supreme court since. And IL
Ine SITUATION proves anything it is the
folly of Incorporating legislative mat
ters in the constitution and the proper
remedy for such wills Ills not necessarily
a new constitution IN which the same fol-
lies are repeated, but by amendments to
THE present one. eliminating such things
from the Fundamental charter or by
making a new one, constituting the gov
eminent differently
It. is not always easy to distinguish be-
twe'en legislation and constitut ,onal uues-
lions, and especially in a community
like Alabama, where the population is
made up of Sc per cent white and "a per
cent. colored, each race having it's own
instincts Of governm snta1 institutions
and IDEAS of politics, one cEingfng to Eng
fish models and ideas the other that of
the African family, or tribe; but there lis
a distinction as plainly marked as the
diHerence between the governmental in
stfnctS of the two races, and Ut is this
viz; Open Legislative matters there Is
diversity of opinion evsn among mem
bers of the same race and much discus
sion, while concerning constitut onal in
stituufons, the instructive conceptions of
government, they are Nike th:- dictates of
consobe nee, there is little or no differ
ence of opinion among members of the
SAM racial family. the word government
suggesting to- the Anglo-American, a leg
fslature of tlw'o houses a court made Of
judge, grand and pettit jury and presi-
dent. governor, sheriff or corfstable-all
tctgether making, adjudfcatdng, and exc
cutting the customs or laws of the COM
murGty, religion being rega rded as a sep
ara'te and private concern, while to the
American Ind an, negro or othsr savage
so far as not eoerced by the presence of
his white nflbghbor, ut means a family or
trtbal arrang' snient- directed by fathsr,
or chief, whose Interpretation of Gus
tom. lis gospel and Justice, both tempered
and divine.
In the savage system emily persons are
considered and there is no executive pow
er compelling obedience, but the fngfi-
. vidual Is fres- to the point of Incense
while in the truly clvilltzed state, persons,
lands and 6nsititut ons are represented in
the government and all are compelled to
abide by the will of the afortty. the
barbarous being "a mixture of the fore
going Kinds of society where only DR.
SENS and lands are considered i'm the
governmental organi2altlon and where in
dividual action fer good and bad have
the widest range.
For these reasons, there should be no
mixing of legislative and cons htutional
matters lin the fundamental law of Ala
bama and what is more important tn re
should be no compromising of the gov
ernmenta1 instincts of tine Anglo-Amer-
lean with Those of the savage and bar
bantam The government of the state
should be shap.d after the BIft.s h model,
in which, as the parliament representa-
ton of THE peeple, THE Land and anstitu-
tions of England lis cLivflly, what It is
naturally the supreme power under God
In Great Britain, so Alabama's lsgsla-
ture properly constituted should be the
sovereign power under God and the fed
eral constitution. Within Tits territorial
Boundaries. The Interests of all parties
and races in the slabe as well as the
cause of civilization require that all po-
litfcal problems in which all are intar-
ested and about which all Disagree shall
be relieved of many constitutional re-
strictions and that q. government be GRE