The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-30


philippines, or any other spot blessed by
the protection OF our fiag-aye. and write
''accursed" across the brow OF him who.
even i'm thought, would WELD a sceptre. IL
Is our free institutions working now in one
way, and now in another. now by one
method and now by another, after the
fashion OF our practical race, that will es-
tablish order, equal laws. free speech, un-
purchased justice and life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" throughout our ocean
possessions. And IL is the spirit OF our in
situations, working slowly perhaps, upon
the mind and characters Of our children
wards, which may. In the distant end. de-
velop them to that high state of self-gov-
eminent, with ali its burdens and blessings,
to which those institutions after centuries
and centuries. have developed US.
1t is our institutional law. therefore, of
which men should inquire who would know
the meaning and the life of our constitu-
tional law. i have heard Constitution,
Constitution" "the letter of the Constitu-
ton" j have listened for our institutions,
and in vain. And yet is it not written that
''the letter killeth. but the spirit giveth
hfe?' Is 1t not written that man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out offthe mouth of God?'
And so / say 1 respect not, neither do
heed the false prophets of the constitu-
tional law who have not learned the his
tory OF our institutions, of which the Con-
stitution Is but an incident, until IL Is
part of their being and their blood. / re-
spect not constitutional charlatanism. that
pseudo learning that fastens its eye on
the printed page alone disdains our insti
tutions as Interpreting it and refuses To
consider the sources Of those institutions
the English struggle for the rights OF man:
regulated by equal laws, the spirit OF
Dutch independence, Dutch federation and
Dutch institutions, working upon that, and
still back to the cOunsels of our Teuton
fathers i'm the German forests IN the dim
light of far distant time
DUE TO THE PEOPLE.
II a people adopt a written instrument
you must understand that people and their
Institutions before you understand the
writing. You cannot separate people and
their history from a written constitution
which is only an event i'm that history.
The same words by one people may have
different meaning used by another people.
And i'm any event any writing can only be
an index to the institutions of a people
peoples constitution is only method;
their institutions are the soul of the writ
ten and unwritten law. Our institutions
embrace individual liberty and self-gov-
eminent, but they also embrace organiza-
ton and administration. They are the ex-
pressions of the characteristics and ten
denotes of our race. as are the institutions
of every people cur race is the most self
governing, but also the most administrative
OF any race of history. We are the ex
plorers, the colonizers, the administrators
of the world. We are this not from neces
sity but from Irresistible impulse, from in
stinct, from racial laws Inherited from our
centuries.
And so. our pioneers reclaimed Kentucky
and the Mississippi wilderness; they crossed
the Rockies and seized Oregon; even when
their homes behind them were still sur
rounded by virgin forest and untouched
plain. they explored new regions and
claimed new empires, and left behind them
the crimson trail of their own blood. shed
that the march of our race might not be
stayed They did this because they could
not help IL. And wherever our race has
has GOV mr. " III a
governed law, order, justice and the rights
of man have been established and defended.
All this has been in obedience to our In
situations, which, in turn, are merely eX-
pressive of racial character. And that men,
Der of the House who the other day de-
clared that our institutions were carried
in the breasts of American citizens and
soldiers wherever they went, was pro-
fcundly and gloriously correct.
OUR CONSTITUTION.
So we have in our Constitution not only
express words of power to acquire and
govern new lands, a. our race had al
ways done. but those words of empire must
be read as the large expression of our in
situations a people and tendencies
as a race. If our institutions are not
adapted to administration as well as self
government, If they are not versatile and
adaptable. if they are fixed and unyielding;
IL our racial instincts are against explora-
ton, against expansion-against organization
and administration of governments over
nonself-governing peoples; if our history
and traditions reactionary, the words
of power in our Constitution must be read
as power merely to dispose of and regu-
late territory possessed at the time the
Constitution was written. and in the way
then established. Whatever our history
our race tendencies, our traditions, our
unwritten laws, our institutions. these
large and vital meanings must pour
through the Constitution, which is but
their medium, and without which the Con-
stitution Is only an interesting assemblage
OF lifeless words
We must not read our Constitution bv the
dictionary only; we must read by the great
lexicon of our institutions and their his
tory. We cannot read 1t by the temporary
intentions of the fathers: must read by
all the experience of all the past of our
race and all the necessities of all our future
as people: Even the wisest of the
fathers saw but poorly into our future with
their thoughts; but they comprehended all
that future with their race instincts JEFF
ferson said we had territory enough for our
posterity to the thousandth generation
and there spoke his thought; but at that
very moment he was securing Louisiana
even when he was declaring that he had
no constitutional power TO do so, and there
spoke the instincts of our race In CEN
fury the Republic will number more than
200.000.000 souls; problems undreamed of by
the fathers will arise: they will be unsolv-
able IL the Constitution is but an instru-
ment of words; they will be solved If the
Constitution is the expression of our insti-
buttons.
And so. senator's. when we read those
elemental. those institutional words, Con
gress shall have power to dispose of and
make all needful rules and regulations re-
specting territory or other property belong
ing to the United States" we must read
them the utterances of the most vital
branch of the greatest colonizing, expand
ing, growing and administering race of all
the world in all its history Coiled up in
those words of racial purposes and power
IS all the infinite energy OF Raleigh and of
Drake, OF Give and Cook, of Winthrop,
race that has poured around the world its
healing tide of civilization and of law
self-Soverning where IL could predominant,
administering where il could not, but al
ways and everywhere giving equal rights
under equal laws. protecting commerce,
planting social method and establishing the
statutes OF the Almighty Father to whom
our race has ever looked. upon whose name
we have ever called. and OF whose divine
viii we the agents in our day.
POWER INSTITUTIONAL.
And so. even If those words OF might and
Judgment, of power and OF discretion:
Congress shall have power 10 dispose of
and make all needful rules and regulations
respecting territory or other property be-
longing TO the United States" were not i'm