The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-02-26

in which he lived he would have avoided
the questions which troubled his mind.
lest he had done an act beyond the Con-
stitution.'
las it was, he fell into the somewhat
absurd position of admitting the lack of
constitutional authority and seeking in
demnity for his action in the prospects of
an amendment of the Constitution to cover
so important case. The figure of speech
by which he described his action is per-
feet revelation of his state of mind on the
subject.
The Money of His Ward.
1T is said he, the case OF a guardian
investing the money of his ward, in pur-
chasing important adjacent territory; and
saying to him, when OF age. 81 did this for
your good | pretend to no right to bind
you; you may disavow me, and must get
out of the scrape as best l can; l thought
1t my duty to risk myself for you" Bat
he added, with sublime confidence in the
good sense of his country, confidence that
has never for a moment been shaken, we
shall not be disavowed by the nation
The amendment to the Constitution
which Mr.. Jefferson proposed, while it was
probably offered, was never seriously con-
sidered, and the subsequent opinion OF the
Chief Justice relating to these underlined
powers of the Constitution, very soon re-
moved the whole subject out Of the fald
of controversy and dispute.
at is fortunate that at the very
threshold of our national existence the
Government was confronted with a variety
of hard problems, and mastered them with
such a measure OF wisdom that the ma
q educated
ing with the difficulties that always sur
round a growing community. No man can
doubt that we have gone from strength TO
strength through this century-long Crap
pie with dangers and the myriad Great. ons
of anxiety and of fear.
NO people, not even the Romans of old,
ever had to struggle with a worse case
than we had in our first government of
Louisiana. The civilized population in the
neighborhood of New Orleans had passed
from the jurisdiction of one nation to
another SO many times that they were
without patriotism I'm the sense of allie
glance to any country. while the scattered
tribes OF wild Indians throughout the Mis-
sissippi Valley presented puzzle in po-
litical ethics that must have more than
once led the author of the Declaration of
Independence to reconsider. at least for
purposes of Interpretation, the glittering
dOSmas, borrowed from Rousseau, with
which our ancestors appealed to mankind
against the ministry of King George.
Besides the Spaniards and the French
men, and the native populations, there was
figure crouched in every military post,
and in every frontier settlement, the
weakest of them all, an enslaved race,
whose comings and goings were to be the
text and theme of political strife for more
than half century 1t was enough to
appall even the brave. and make panic
In the strongest hearts, as our fathers
looked the future in the face, when they
drew the plans and marked the lines UPON
which their children took up that historic
march into the wilderness OF America and
laid the foundations OF twelve Common
wealths. every one of them more imperial
in size than New York; not counting In
dian reservations and the Yellowstone
Park, in which We are serving rations TO