Birmingham state herald., 1897-07-02
THEpROPS KNOCKED OUT
 LIT From Under the Anniston Hot ]. Blasts Proposition 20 ORGANIZE SILVER ISSUE 2 he Only Reason Urged for Such Concession : !. SboMn to Be Good Reason for Ad- z 2. herring to Principle

Montgomery Journal.
 n Alabama needs and must have a new sc6nstitution, and we are in favor of all .thc men who claim to be democrats get Hing together and making this the issue of the next years state campaign.-An- Riston Hot Blast.
 @ To the Journal: If the legislature of -1S9S-99 is expected to submit a call for a Constitutional convention, that is the ar agument for thorough canvass of the IT. sval claims of democracy and plntocracy Tor the dominating influence in the con Eention, and the time to begin the can gass is now. The proposition of the Hot zBlast is predicated upon the false view That state politics comprehensive enough 10 determine the nature of a new con- zstitution for Alabama can be separated from federal politics; it is predicated Upon the disastrous assumption that Ala -bania, while in an imaginary condition sef mind, equally free from the Cleveland 1Ianna sentiment and from Bryan, cannot Set up on her soil an industrial political And. social system that shall develop no acute sympathy with the one or the -ether of these rival federal influences. The suggestion is absurd.
 = Nothing else, mind you; just the bald sfact that Alabama needs and must shave new constitution" Who denies It? Baltzell does not; the Advertiser is ssurcharged with this spirit that possesses athe public mind. The sole qualification Shat Baltzell desires is reasonable as- Sufance that a new constitution would Snow under his present enemies; the Ad- zvertiser is for the call and for the tissue" Nnstanter, because 1t honestly believes ihe present constitution Is capable of pro- smQting Bryan and his cause Bryan and -1!s cause make up the sum of American nemocracy and the rights of many. If sihis fact is to enter our new organic law Jet the people see to it that no such de- eeption the Hot Blast proposes and The Advertiser accepts shall be saddled 1pn them.
 s- Birmingham and other comparatively knew towns nead new constitution to gain municipal rights now denied them ihe whole state needs protection against false enumeration of school children, as in the celebrated case of Lowndcs coun- ty, and a consequent fraud upon the school fund. the right to vote must be made valuable in the right to have the ballot counted as cast. All the same, the new constitution of Alabama must be made under democratic or Jeffersonian construction of the federal nation to be of any avail to personal liberty here. We Rcither desire Hanna nor Debs. Alaba- ma 1awyeSs take the professional oath fo practice law according to two const-. Autions, towit: the constitution of Ala bama and the constitution of the United States. As Jackson said to congress: You keep your oath the supreme court may skcep its oath, I, as the other department of this government. will keep mine. | Shall obey the constitution as l, the pres. ident, think he must see it." Jackson thus laid down the only theory upon which a constitutional system composed of inter-dependent parts can be admin 1stered. The rule goes on to meet code pendencc of the state and the confeder- sacy of states. A constitution cannot be made for Alabama that does not construe one way or the other. the federal consti- -tntion and this act of construction by the state must be the result of the discus sion of federal questions alive at the time -And which the Hot Blast proposes to ig- more.
 4 Appomattox need not be a cause of Fepining to the imperishable principle of state rights. It presents the military ul- ~tmatum of the hour. No more, no less. The shadow of Appoma ttox is neither so-deep nor. so sombre that Alabama of today cannot see her way to construct a new constitution after the freest inter- sjectlve of this. her purpose in the contro- xersy of 1898 between the Cleyeland-Han- ~na forces and the Bryan forces upon her Soil. Let us illustrate: A few years ago the state of New York met in sovereign convention to frame a constitution. In course of the proceedings it was moved to amend the preamble to declare the supremacy of the federal government =nble empire and the state of New York was a province attached thereto. That .iwas the idea of the nation. All or near fly ali of the ex-union soldiers voted yea ron the motions. The younger men from sthe universities outvoted them and in sdignantly defeated it. Here was a move msnt inspired by the modern plutocracy that the Hot Blast knows quite well is a present peril even in Alabama and swhieh 1t would tuck tail to-
 q We will come nearer home. What is the matter with the present constitution of Alabama? The chief source of it's weakness and its fallacies is found in the