Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-01-19
OUR Old CONSTITUTION.
New York Evening Post.

y
which Is Just expiring, the reference
of Americans for their Federal Cunsti.
tuition has heen the marvel 81 .ptib-
licists. Its success, In fact, in secur-
ing the attachment of the people has,
as is well known, much surpassed the
expectations Of its trainers. 1t has
long been held up to admiration as the
browning proof OF the political capacity
| OF the ,Anglo-Saxon race. The wonder
has been, too, not solely that the
American people devised 1t, but that
they obeyed it and lived quietly under
it. We have no doubt that some, at
least, Of the Spanish American fepub-
lies have Constitutions which seem as
good as ours ON paper, but the people
| do not respect them in practice. They
revolt every now and then, when the
Constitution. stands I'M the way of some
| ambitious politician. In fact, ever
| since Toequeville began to write about
| the American Constitution in the
| thirties, our alteration Of IL has puzzled
Europeans. A great many Englishmen
treated il as q kind OF superstition.
| At the outbreak OF the Civil War, one
English writer of eniuence explained
that one of our great difficulties was
"thatlwe had false bottom to our
political though" namely, the Con-
stitution. For 10 years it furnished
protection to an institution which dis
graced us,in the eyes of the world, and
shocked the moral sense of the most
intelligent portion Of our own people.
1t was worshipped because il furnished
for the first time in history ap effective
and enduring Federal bond. !
As the democratic spirit spread and
| wealth increased, and we saw what was
happening to private rights, even in
England and in France, where there
was no such institution. it was wor-
! shipped by the lawyers especially, be-
| cause it furnished complete protection
| for property holders against popular
craze or greed. There have been many
illustrations of this in the decisions of
the Supreme Court. After the Civil
War, We had still enough reverence for
it not to take any step which seemed
i seriously to violate its provisions, with
| out amending 1t. so as not to seem to
| disregard it. We even took the trouble
| to make slavery formally unconstitu-
| tional, after we had abolished it by
| military force. Artemus Wards joke
| that "the earth revolved on her own
| axle tree subject to the Constitution of
the United States, was hardly an ex-
aggerated expression of the popular
feeling about 1t.
The first real breach in it was made
by the invention of the war power
to enable President Lincoln to abolish
slavery. No one would now say that
this was not at that time necessary,
but it made it possible for any Presi
dent practically to suspend the Consti-
tuition by getting up war anywhere
that is, by calling into existence and
activity the most anti-social and anti
legal and most judgment. disturbing Of
all the influences by which men are
swayed. There is no way of making
President account for what he does
in time of war except by very uncer-
tain processes which cannot be brought
into play until long after the event.
President Mckinley, for instance, has
been exercising powers during the last
nine months which have been bringing
tho Constitution more and more into
contempt, and to which some portion
of the nation disputes his right. There
is no practical means of checking him,
and sort of fiattery has sprung up
about him which not long ago, would
have been thought impossible in the
case OF ruler elected under q Consti'
tuition for q short term. What his
career has most distinctly brought tc
our notice. is, the rapidity with which
q very ordinary man elected for pur
pose to which he paid no attention may
turn opinion away from the Constitu.
tion and its necessities and its value.
II any one had predicted even 10 years
ago chat such person by the aid of,
for US, triiling war, could in SO short
time not only make the Constitution
seem of small consequence, but bring
the great mon of our heroic age into a
sort OF discredit, that he would make
il easy for any "space writer" to pooh.
pooh George Washington, who would
have believed him?
The second great breach in the Con
stitution was the legal-tender decision.
That so plain an intention of tho Con.
stitution with regard to the national
money, as it expressed with regard tC
State money, could be explained away &c
easily was serious revelation to the
vast multitude of "have-nots'' poured
into the United States after the wal
OF the rebellion. To it we soon owed
the "greenback crazen and afterwards
tho "silver craze III truth, 1t was
the beginning of whole series of at
tempts on property of various kinds,
and it eliminated in the BRYAN move
ment, which seemed an attack on al
our institutions. including the Supreme
Court, and frightened us terribly.
For the last year the men who goi
Mckinley elected under pretence of re-
forming the currency, have been trying
to divert attention from the Bryai
spectre by war, and the war has
helped them a good deal. But in sc
doing they have given the Constitution
another tremendous kick They have
done much to destroy all respect for il
among the large body who voted fol
Bryan in 1896, and who will doubtless
| vote again for somebody like him.
+ Tho great Mckinley, whom we are
asked so glibly TO accept as n better
adviser than Washington, will not be
with us always. Two years, We hope,
and six years, We are sure, will SEQ the
end of him as a public man. He will
retire, and his wisdom with him, tc
Canton, o., and leave us TO face the
mischief he has worked. That mis-
chief is tho destruction, even among a
large portion of our most Intelligent
class, of all sense OF the value Of
our old Constitution as defence oil
property and order, great diminutior
OF the sense of its value, in compari
son with that of England, in placing
bounds to any possible excesses of uni
versal suffrage, of which we get plent,
of specimens from our State Legisla
lures. Fancy the silver or groenbacl
majority in tine House and Senate ir
1874 armed with the power over taxa
tion, and currency, and wills, ant
legal procedure, of the British Parlia
ment. and yet that is apparently what
"a good many of us are driving at in