The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-03-31
LAW AND HUMAN PROGRESS.
Address Delivered by Hon. Walter Clark Before the
State Bar Association Of Kansas.

of the wishes of a ma jOrity Of the Con-
yention that made it. 1t was passed
with closed doors and without the bene-
fit of an expression of public opinion. 1t
was not submitted to the votes Of the
people in a single State. 1t was accepted
with great hesitation by the Thirteen
States, which in their ratiflcations sug-
gested altogether over one hundred
amendments ten of which We're in fact
passed by the first Congress, and being
ratified by the requisite number Of
States became a part Of that venerable
instrument An eleventh amendment pro-
tecting the states against an assump-
tion of power by the Federal Supreme
Court was submitted by Congress as
early as 1894 and was promptly ratified
by the States. The Presidential election
in 1901 showed another dangerous defect
- the organic instrument, which was
rnperfectly patched UP by the twelfth
amendment in 1903 as subsequent events
have shown Three other amendments
followed in the wake of the great Civil
War.
When the Federal Constitution was
adopted at Philadelphia We had three
millions of people scattered along the
Atlantic slope We are now trying to
make it do duty for eighty millions
from Florida to Alaska, from Maine to
California. Whether it also applies to
Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines
IS a question we are now trying to IND
out and that recently evoked nine dis
senting opinions in a single case IN the
highest Federal court at Washington. IN
1887 our population was mostly rural;
for three years later, IN 1870, We had
but five towns in the whole country
with as many as $500 inhabitants each.
We then had 10 post-offices, with $4,000
annual post office receipts. We have
now over one thousand times as many
post offices and more than one hundred
million of post office expenditures Dur
ine, the first ten years of our national
government the total expenses OF the
government averaged, including payment
/ of revolutionary debts, ten millions an
nualIv. Now they are very near, Of net
quite. eighty times as much. We have two
States the population of each of which
/ is double that of the whole Union at
1be time of the adoption of our Constitu-
| ton. Steam. railroads. gas. electricity,
and thousand other inventions and dis
| coyeries have profoundly --~7:f'o7 the
life and customs of the people, and gov
| ernmental requirements and dangers are
| totally different from what they were
| in 1877. The power of colossal aggre-
| cations OF wealth was then inconceivable
| and trusts were then unheard of. Cor
| porations were almost unknown. Only
| one bank in the whole Union was in ex-
istence till four years after the adoption
| of the Constitution. when the second bank
| was smuggied into existence only by the
| ingenuity of Aaron Burr who had il in
! corporated as a water company If it
| had been a railroad or a trust company
this might have been more Ineligible
/ to Us.
So far was the Constitution when adopt
| Cd from being satisfactory even ct that
date. that out of the small Constitutions
al Convention of 50 members only 80
concurred il the final result It's proper
construction has been matter of per-
petual debate on the hustingS, in Con-
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