Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1903-06-19
Senator Hoar on Town and State
and Nation.

and Nation.
At the annual meeting of that veneer
able and useful society, the American
Antiquarian society, which has its home
in Worcester, Mass, a paper was pre-
scented by U. S. Senator George Hoar re-
lating to the part taken by his ancestor,
Roger Sherman, in the formation of the
Constitution of the United States, and
especially in the clauses establishing the
existing distribution of political power
between the states and the nation In
view of the current efforts to substitute
legislative districts for towns, in the gen
eral assemblies of the states and to elect
United States senators by popular votes,
Mr. Hoar's remarks in presenting his
paper are worthy to be noted. lie said:
" | think our generation does not ade-
quately comprehend the importance of
treating a state, or town, or city, as
moral being with character, and aifec-
tiOns. and principles, and influence, and
history, instead of a mere aggregation of
human beings to be reckoned by num-
bers. Our ancestors recognized the
~
ties, and did not apportion political power
according to the mere brute force of
numbers. | am glad to learn that Con-
necticut has lately, in her recent consti
tuition. held on, in part, to the doctrine
that the old Connecticut town, with all
its associations, with all that belongs to
it, and its name and all that it has stood
for for more than two hundred and fifty
years. is not to be drowned out by mod
ern communities by mere numbers.
"WhO would think of having a Con-
federacy to which all Europe should
belong, and having Switzerland, or
Holland, or Sweden vote in proportion
to numbers in the same body with
Russia, or Turkey: If there had been
such a League, or Confederacy. for
national government in ancient times
who would have thought of having
Athens, or Sparta belong to a Confed-
eracy with Persia and having to vote
in proportion to numbers: The fact that
a city, or state, or town is moral being,
with life of its own and quality of
its own, is one Of the great secrets of
constitutional liberty, 1t is the secret of
the great things which have been
wrought out in political life in all human
history. The fact that you think of your
country or your state, or your city as
you do of your mother. as an individual,
Is what makes you love her, and ready
to die for her. | have often thought,
what indeed have said more than once
elsewhere. that it is this individual
quality, this moral quality which men in
free States attribute to the State, or the
country, that creates all there is to value
in country's history. The citizen has
conception of the moral character of
his country, and that conception inspires
him with the same moral qualities,
whether they be noble or base.
when the French soldiers marched
with Napoleon through Europe over
throwing all her kingdoms and powers.
to the tune of the Marseillase-' Sons of
France Awake to Glory.'-it was the
master passion of France, the mother
that inspired her sons. At the end of
that march forty centuries looked down
on her from the pyramids. But one day
in Trafalgar bay, they met the children
of another mother, of very different
moral quality and character, inspired by
very different sentiment. To them
Nelson gave his immortal signal Eng
land expects every man to do his duty
Duty-oving England and glory-loving
France met in that deadly conflict, and
then as ever, the lover of duty proved
the stronger. The England that ex-
pected every man to do his duty was as
real a being to the hunblest sailor in
Nelson's fleet as the mother that bore
him. That is what has made England!
That is what has made Massachusetts,,
That is what has made little Rhode
Island! That is what has inspired their
children with filial love!
This is a matter as | said of i'm
mense practical importance to this gem
Grafton. The attempt lately made to
substitute for the State, with its moral
quality and its moral being, and its indi-
vidual history, meeting with its forty
four or fifty fellows to govern this re-
public in national matters, mere aggre-
cation of numbers-to have two popular
branches, both elected by the people.
differing only in the size of the constitu-
ency, is the first and most insidious, and
most dangerous, attempt to overthrow
the constitution. Other amendments
have been amendments of mere mechan-
ism, or have been amendments designed
to secure individual and personal rights.
But this proposed amendment of the
constitution of the Senate goes deeper,
and is the first great change ever pro-
posed in the principle on which the con
stitution is founded. The Senate and
the Supreme Court of the United States
are the two great contributions of this
country to human progress, as far as it
is written and secured in constitutional
governments. | hope and | confidently
believe that this generation will not
throw away either"