The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-05
LET IT BE UNANIMOUS.

Nothing connected with the Constitu- tional Convention will give so much real satisfaction and qualification as the now plainly apparent fact that the rumored strong opposition to the ratification of the new instrument will not materialize. It is not to be denied that there have of late been many disquieting and disheart- ening reports circulated throughout the State. It was whispered around that General Oates and General Harrison, and General Sanford and Captain White and other strong and able members of the Convention would be found in the ranks of the opposition when the new Consti- tuition went before the people.
 The Advertiser has not seen proper to comment heretofore on these rumors, be- cause it. believed that they were with out foundation and we felt that it would be unjust to those gentlemen to notice such reports until they were verified We were unwilling to believe them because we had too much faith in the patriot iem and honesty of these able men to believe that they would turn against the new Constitution because 1t did not meet their views in every particular. They have proven that our confidence in them was not misplaced.
 It is a credit to the gentlemen named, and to other able and conscientious men in the Convention that they are not sat isned with some of the provisions of the new Constitution. It is an evidence that each had his ideals of what should or should not go into the new instrument, and that he would contend for those ideals as long as the question was de- batable. It is an evidence of their con- servatism. their patriotic devotion to their State and their people, and their desire for harmony that they yield some of their own convictions and will join iu the fight to make ratification a triumph | ant certainty.
 That Lherc arc some features of the | new Constitution which we do not favor is a fact. That some things are in 1t which we believe should naze been Jeff out is equally true. We have no doub' that every thinking man in Alabama will find what he looks on as faults of omis- | sion or coTEHnission, but that was to bt expected. Let each one of us try to pic ture to ourselves what kind of an inetru. ment 1t would be if every man had beer allowed to put in just what he wanted | If each delegate, even. could have got ten in just what he wanted would 1t not have been the most ponderous and alto gether impossible document that was ever promulgated? All the lawyers ant all the courts in Christendom couldn't eonstrue or reconcile such an instrument No convention or association of men of whom we have any record ever sent | out an instrument which was not tC some extent the result of compromise 1 Edmund Burke one of the greatest ol | English statesmen, in his memorable speech on "the Consolidation of America, said: All governnent-indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every vir
 tue and every prudent act-is founded or i compromise anu barter"
 | burke was right. The Constitution which now goes to the people of Ala
 bama for their approval or rejection; i. a compromise between conflicting opin
 ions and divergent convictions. Every delegate could not get just what h( wanted, but every delegate can go hofor, 1 his constituents with the firm convic
 tion that we have Constitution tha
 is far better than the .one under whici
 we now live, and one which the peopl,
 of Alabama should ratify by d practical | ly uu nimous vots.
 As before stated. this Constitution i
 not exactly what we wanted, but ther,
 Is so much in it to approve. and 1t il
 such an improvement on the old on,
 that The Advertiser will use all its pow
 CTS anl all it's influence to ensure its
 adoption. In addition to its other claimi it is the work of a body of able men, Sc Iected by the Democracy of Alabama and that of itself should secure its ap l nroVal.