The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-11-05
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
THE CONSTITUTION BROKEN OR
IGNORED.

Tie new way of governing in u
country has had many illustrations!
The other day the Messenger gave some
examples of serious departures from the
good old way of the fathers, and
showed how a the government had
drifted from the old landmarks.
When Roberts, the Mormon polygamist,
with his three or four wives, one young
and handsome, was excluded from the
United States house to which he had
been elected, it was not done under the
constitution but under precedent"
This is the statement of the article in
the New York Forum quoted from re-
Gently in these columns. The able
writer of that article gives this, and it
IS very suggestive and convincing as to
the alleged departures and changes
from the old order of things:
THE constitution provides for uni
form customs, but reciprocity is prac-
tised without constitutional sanction.
The United States has paid compensa-
ton for the murder of Italian and Chi
nese aliens within state jurisdiction,
thereby ~encroacbing upon state sover-
eighty. That SUCH action is in accord
ance with the jus centrum, the law OF
nations, does not admit OF doubt. But
the constitution does not authorize the
general government to invade a state
and settle it's private affairs. 1t would
be a difficult task to find constitutional
authority for the creation of the electo-
raj commission of 1S77-composed or
five United States senators, five United
States representatives, and associate
supreme court justices-to settle the
electoral votes of Louisiana, Florida
South Carolina and Oregon.
In 1898, during the Spanish war, the
president declared that no privateering
would he resorted to by the United
6 ates. Now the constitution declares
at congress has the power TO declare
r. grant letters of marque ana re-
prisaI, and makes rules concerning Cap
lures on land and sea" Can the pres
ident perform the duties of congress!
All this and more show how serious
and frequent are the violations OF Or
ganic law and how readily the govern
ment ~disregards the precise limitations
of that law. Monroe had no constitu-
tional right to set up that so-called
Monroe doctrine" Southern man as
ne was he took power and law into MS
own hands and his new born policy has
beeh praised time and again, even by
democrats, when III pOlAA III A"G
did not get his power to proclaim such
a law, of far reaching. and it may be
i'm the end of dangerous consequences,
but usurped power No nation recoS-
nizes this doctrine as international law
writes MIR. d. H. Pingrey. he points
to Cleveland's violation of the const1-
tuition when he called upon the congress
gs,n sn1nnnn1nnT American
commission TO fix the boundary line be-
tween Venezuela and British territory.
He points further to the unconstltutlon-
al procedure of the United States repre-
sentatives in 1899 to the International
Peace convention. and the declaration
they made as to reserving the Monroe
doctrine as still in force. The constitu-
ton authorizes no such act. And so
with the foreign canal digging MIR.
Pingrey contends that his government
can derive from the constitution no
right or power Ito enter foreign terri
tory to dig canals for the benefit of
civilized nations" 1t really appears
that violations of organic law are con-
slant, facile and blind. In view of the
changes in the constitution, and the
violations of it by presidents and con-
gress, the ice sacred So
revered ard protected by the great
men in the long ago, has become a mere
rope OF sand, and it is made to yield to
any party necessity, and to the sup
posed conditions of the country. Wen
may the Forum ask with so much of
point and penetration:
The question arises: Is the constitu-
ton of such a nature that it must be
construed and interpreted to meet the
exigencies of the times in a m
s~ubservient to popular sentiment and
progressive history? Has the supreme
court plenary powers to modify the con-
stitution, by construction and interpre-
tation. to meet tn edemands of civiliZa-
ton? Have the executive and the leg
islative departments potentially to ig-
more The constitution when eXpediency
seems TO require it?
The constitution is supposed to be a
great instrument. Gladstone, in a pam
agyric on our constitution said: The
American constitution is the most Won
derful work ever struck off at one time
by the brain and purpose OF man.
We have given before other specimens
of stretching the constitution arbitra-
rily and violently, and how Cleveland
violated it, and how another president,
Mckinley we believe it was, refused to
violate the law under similar circum-
stances. The great enemy of the con-
stitution is perhaps the supreme court.
In Washington's time Chief Justice
Marshalrs interpretations of the great
instrument gave elasticity and far
reaching powers when it had not been
supposed they could reside in that law.
He helped Alexander Hamilton no little
in his strong government ideas. The
supreme court is not the infallible, con-
sistent, safe tribunal that men think
and writer's praise. There are serious
many changes wrought by it. Mr..
Pingrey ear the close of his instructive
paper on The Decadence of the Con-
Sfiiufior - offers his readers and CONN.,