Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-30
THE CONSTITUTION
Subject Of George B. Peck's Address
to Bar Association.
HISTORY OF The INSTRUMEN1
Contrast Between That adopted
by France and Ours.
BASIS OF ENGLAND'S LAW


SARATOGA, N. Y, August 30.-At to-
days session of the twenty-third annual
meeting of the American Bar Association
the annual address was delivered by George
R. Peck of Chicago, ILL., who spoke on THE
March of the Constitution"
George r.. Peck's Address.
Mr.. Peck said in part: For something
more than a hundred years the people of
the United States have enjoyed-or have
had the right to enjoy-the protection of a
written constitution. It's sanctions and it's
guarantees have been with them and over
them so long that they often seem to be
only natural and everyday rights, imme-
MORALLY existing. But the federal Consti-
tuition was great creative work. 1t es-
tablished a union of states and breathed
into ii the powers and attributes of ma
tionality. 1t was a new departure; for
until then, though there had been various
leagues and declarations united by written
covenants, and some small local constitu-
tons, there had been no attempt, any
where in the world, to make a written con-
stitution on a large scale; one that should
be the supreme organic law for great ma
ton. What is a constitution? The ques-
ton is more difficult than 1t seems. In a
general way, however, it may be said that
it is the system or body of fundamental
principles, written unwritten, under
which a nation, state or body polite is
formed or governed.
Unwritten constitutions, like the British
that ancient fabric which our fathers knew
and revered-are evolutionary, growing
from year to year, from reign to reign, and
from century to century. Bagenot, writ
ing of the English constitution, was OPP
pressed with the difficulties of the subject,
because of this very element of growth.
There is a great difficulty in the way OF
"A. who
sketch living constitutional constitution
that is in actual work and power the dill
Guilty Is that the object is in constant
change" An unwritten constitution is
never completed; for, silently, with the
growth of years. it is modified and en-
larged to meet the exigencies of what Glad
stone termed progressive history, 1t is
an old story; on one side successive de-
mands, on the other successive refusals,
until that which was stubbornly contested,
finally settles down and becomes incor-
porated in the great catalogue of indisputa-
bic rights.
The English Constitution.
1t is. perhaps, not quite accurate to speak
of the British constitution as an unwritten
one, for it's great features were written in
black and white to the end that they should
never be forgotten. Such was Magma Char
ta of which Prof. Stubs says that the en-
tire body of English constitutional history
is but a commentary upon 1t. Such was
the petition of rights. the habeas corpus
act of 1879. the bill of rights and the net
of settlement. These are parts of the Brit
ish constitution, not because they are In
writing but because they are of such fun
damental character that they are presumed
to inhere in the common rights of British
subjects.
But, gentlemen, it need not be said that
the British constitution, however splendid
it's proportions. could not suffice when the
American people proposed to embark upon
a career of separate nationality. They had
their local charters, constitutions and laws;
they had the articles of confederation, and
each had for itself the English common
law. But all these did not, and could not.
make a nation: or, if you like the term bet
ter, a national government. Surely, never
did men face a graver responsibility than
did those who undertook to bring order out
of the chaos which then enveloped them.
They proposed to form a perfect
union. establish Justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common de-
Tense. promote the general welfare and Sc
cure the blessings of liberty to themselves
and their pOsterity. This lofty enumera-
ton of their purposes was, in itself, sol
emn judgment upon the articles of confed-
Grafton, which indeed. all men knew were
altogether inadequate for gathering or
holding the fruits of their struggle for in
dependence. The confederation, in the
language of that great lawyer. Horace Bin
ney, was no more than the limited repre-
sentative of other governments, and not
government llStiI. II was league OF SOW
ereigns, but not a sovereign" Indeed, 1t
is not just use of language to call that a
government which had no executive, no
cOercive power, no power of energetic Of
Tense or defense. and no means of raising
revenue beyond the voluntary contribu-
lions of the different states. Washington's
genius was of that sane, clear-eyed quality
which does not often indulge in figures II
speech; but the man who never gave up
hope when his armies were in the field
against appalling odds said. in 1886:
1T is clear to me as A. B, c that an ex-
tension of federal powers would make us
one of the most happy, wealthy, respect
able and powerful nations that ever inhab-
tied the terrestrial globe. Without them,
We shall soon be everything which is the
direct reverse | predict the worst conse-
quences from half starved, limping gov
eminent, always moving upon crutches and
tottering at every step"
Washington Not an AIarmist
The father of his country was not an
alarmist. and seldom suffered his mind to
be moved from its serene equipoise; and it
was surely an alarming situation that could
wiring such language from him.
And so the convention which framed the
federal Constitution called. 1t is Gu
rfous to note how little was said by those
who pressed upon the people and upon the
state governments the necessity of con-
vention, about the paramount reason that
was in their minds, which was that the
country was rapidly drifting into anarchy.
The governors and dgnitaries who were
working together to bring about a conven-
tion, the legislatures that passed resoiu-
tons in favor of it and the great leaders
who in private life Were influential in
mo!dtng public opinion generally yelled the
real meaning of the movement by talking
about the necessity of a better understand
ing in respect To their commercial relations
a fair distribution of trade, the construc-
ton Of canals and other such matters,
which, though certainly important were
as nothing when compared with the irlme-
date and imperative necessity of trans
forming the confederation into a govern
ment of real national vIgor, possessing not
only the authority which belongs to a ma
ton, but the power to vindicate it at home
and abroad.
1t il a hard thing to make a constitution
still harder to make a good one or one
which can be relied upon to stand the strain
of actual use. Nevertheless the delegates
undertook the task and made a beginning
which augured well for the success of their
efforts when on May %, 1884, by a unani-
nous vote, they chose George Washington
to preside over their deliberations. In lit
tie less than four months the work of the
convention was finished. The instrument
they framed is known to ali-at least it's
language and the general scope of its va
rious provisions. Time has shown, and
every year ii becomes clearer, that Glad