The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-26
rrr srruATroN.


orderly activity It's great industries in cot
ton production. cotton manufacture, coal
mining, iron mandatory, railroad trans
portation, that Is potent to take care
over the accumulations of profit and gain
among the people, repr presented in their
banks Of deposit and discount, in their
associations of capital in ramified condi-
tons; that 10 potent to build up a system
Of public education as never dreamed Oh
by the men of a brief quarter OF a CEN
fury ago; that Is potent, finally and
forever to control that monument to the
revolution. the question Of negro suffrage
and to ensure from everlasting to ever
lasting government founded. on the
natural right Of white supremacy.
Constitutions have risen in Alabama
and been set aside. once by the results
OF war, next by the foul embrace OF
militarism, finally by the virtue ana in
telligence Of the people.
We have had six Constitutions in Ala
bama, the two full generations that meas
ure the life of the State. We will not
go amiss to call them up for mention, one
by one. The pioneers Of the wilderness
mounted their horses at st. Stephens, and
here and there in the smaller settlements,
and rode to Huntsville, In and out among
the villages Of the red men and along the
trails of the red skin hunters to assemble
there on July 5th, 1919 to make our first
Constitution. Within our limits then
were eighty thousand whites and forty
thousand negroes In round numbers. We
made the second Constitution In 1851; the
third in 1855; the fourth was made for
us. against our will and over our solemn
and indignant protest In 1853; the NTH
was made under conditions of partial ie-
covery from the degrading situation OF
1868 and we know it in this present exi-
sency as the "old" Constitution, made in
1875; let US pause here to say that the
Constitution of 1876 was the cynosure OF
Southern statesmen in every State. Here
in Alabama at this capitol ON the hill, met
ninety and nine of the chief men OF the
State. A wiser body, a Drawer body never
assembled under the sun. Perhaps most
of them were Confederate soldiers; most
of them less than ten years before moved
In their daily walks almost with
halters around their necks. Won
derful the calm courage of this
body of Alabamians leading the
entire militarism-ridden South into the
broad and widening belt Of the light of
civil government restored! The great
men of the Constitutional Convention Of
1875 did a great work.
Lo ana behold the fruits OF that work!
In steady strides the State advanced Its
Industrial forces and its social life. II
was a favorite doctrine Of Mr.. Jefferson
that every Constitution, the organic law
of free people. should be submitted at
stated periods for amendment or re
pair" Lucky had the men OF 1875 re-
quired a process of repair Of their work
at the fixed dates, say twenty years,
later. But even without the Jeffersonian
precaution of stated periods for Constitu-
tional revision, Alabama advanced with
fixed resolve to the fact of Constitutional
reform.
We got together in the historic hail on
the old hill, the best men we could get
together in the summer Of 1901. We
made the best State Constitution in
America this day.
The Constitution of 1868, made for us
and not by us, sat heavily upon our
hearts. The good, the wise among US
denounced it and swore as the days pass
ed them, that the day should come when
they would lead the hosts of the outraged
people to rise up and overthrow 1t.
Governor Johnston was one of the pro-
testants against the Constitution Of 1868.
Why does he protest against the Consti-
tuition of 1901? Dares he to take the two
documents, Section by Section and de-
clare on his conscience that Alabama has
gained Taught in the change from the one
to the other? Dares he to declare aloud
that the oath Of once In the latest, ID not
! an advance in liberty over the oath OF
office in the other? Will he for mo-
ment tell it to the people that the Con-
stitution of 1875 was intended by the wise
men who made 1t as a"y thing less than
a stepping stone to the Constitution OF
1901?
OF these two Constitutions for Alabama
the one of 1868 intruded the negro upon
the electorate. II Governor Johnston OBJ
jects to the Constitution OF 1901. seeking to
set 1t aside, to discredt 1t as the organic
law Of Alabama. then to every intent and
purpose. Governor Johnston Is engaged in
the unholy task of restoring the negro
to the electorate.
The human mind is not INFINITE. but
finite. The human mind in the people
OF Alabama is controlled by the centra
idea. white supremacy. We cannot move
in the path of positive wisdom. to accom-
plish our purpose. but must content our.
selves with slow and laborious pro-
gress amidst various errors, none of the
heart, but many of the intellect.
The movement now made by Governor
Johnston is the extreme of revolution and
| defeat of good government.
The havoc which figures sometimes play
with facts and sense is shown in a re.
cent issue Of The Hartford Comm Times
in which the statement is made that "a
mastodon, ninety feet high and weighing
1000 pounds, is ready for Vassar College -