The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-06-25
Our Institutions
UNUSUALLY Plastic
New York Commercial Advertiser.

New York Commercial Advertiser
GPHEY WHO distrust the capacity of
the United States to adjust the
theory and practice Of government
to the new conditions about to
grow out Of the war with Spain
have read the history of the country 10
little purpose This people has been ad-
justing itself to new conditions for more
than century, and has passed through
more phases of political life than any
nation of Europe in a thousand years
We were a plastS people to begin with,
and imperative conditions have obliged
us to keep our institutions in a state Of
flux, ready to take new forms at the
command of any new crisis. without los
ing anything of the old spirit.
1t is a curious thing that a nation
with a rigid constitution should have
been able to confront changing condi-
tions with less strain upon its institu-
tions than a nation whose constitution
is unwritten and susceptible to change
at the will of parliament. We Save
met greater changes in national spirit
and purpose without revolution than
| Great Britain passed through in 1910 or
| 1855. our constitution has undergone
only tritling changes in form in a. CEN
| tury, and the real changes in national
spirit have come through interpretd-
| tion of amendments as well as original
clauses in IL way tho authors never
| dreamed Of We have learned to in
| terpret the constitution through the
! executive as well as the judiciary, in
way to make II an instrument of neces-
sary and vital change. rather than
rigid frame Of government which ad-
mitted no alteration
| o.
We began as a loose league of states
| and united with dit 1ulty into a fedora
tiOn in which local spirit was still SUI
preme. We have grown to a homo
geneous nation. i'm which the national
! feeling overcomcs all other and in
which the national power stands undis-
puted al home and abroad. We began
| as a paroChial group of seacoast COM
munities trading along the Atlantic
| shores and growing their own food, but
little more. We have grown to a ma
| ton sitting in the midst of a continent
| and the center of hemisphere, self
| suffiCing industrially and grasping a
fast growing share Of the worlds com
merce. our growth, politically and So
cially, has been measured by our ac-
QUESTIONS of territory, and our SWIFT
changes of national spirit and point Of
| view have been brought about by new
responsibilities imposed on us by eX-
pansion Of our domain. Conquest of the
Mississippi Valley by the frontiersmen
and acquisition of the Western lands
by the peace Of 1888 made US nation
by giving us a national domain outside
of state lines. The Louisiana purchase
made us a continental nation and the
Mexican CorqueSts introduced diver.
sity OF interests which brought on the
struggle of the Civil War and that
confirmed supremacy Of national ovel
local power forever. Every vital chang
in our national life has grown out Of the
necessity of adjusting institutions tC
new conditions CreGtcd by some vast ac
ccssion of territory.
We have met these crises in the pas
with a singular fertility Of resourc,
and fleXibility Of adaptation whi,l
ought to inspire confidence instead q
distrust in our power to meet new con
ditiOns now We have met the peCulia
conditions of our national eXistenc,
by evolving a federal republic Of
type unknown before on earth, so nice
ly does it combine central vieor will
local freedom. why should not We ol
the spur of necessity. evolve ncv
type of colonial empire, uniting the op
posite features cf metropolitan dOmn
ion and local autonomy in even highe
degree than the British?