The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-13

Sn6CIlNelY used. OuT concern 16ro Is. with history upon it's proofs. Mr. Lin- coins fame is founded upon his career in the offlce of President. Was Mir Linz coin ever elected President "by the peo- pie, for the people?" The table below answers the question, as to the election of 1860:
 For Douglas ......1, ,375, ,157 For Breckenridge .... .. .. .. .... s47, ,953 For Bell ...... .... .... .... 590,6 Against Lincoln .. .... .... ...... 2 ,s13, 74f For Lincoln ....,.. ........... H. ,S66, 452
 So much for the voice of the people" But 1t was federal and not a national election and thus MT. Lincoln received 1S0 electoral votes as against 123 for the opposition combined.
 Passing down to Lincoln's next election, in 1864, he received 55 per cent of the popular vote and General Mcclellan re- ceived 45 per cent. But history intervenes with certain facts Of great moment bear ing upon the election. The issue of the the war a failure?' Mcclellan repre- scented the affirmative There was no voting except in the '1oyal' States. The polls everywhere were under martial law 100000 soldiers voted under the super vision of officers of election, who were also officers of the army commanded Dy MT. Lincoln. The army counted the vote and the head of the army was declared elected. The point here is that. acknowI- edging the validity of the count. MT. every 10292 votes of the people for him while General Mcclellan received one electoral vote for every s6,2H votes of the people" for him.
 But is 1t not written in the first line or the organic law: We the people of the United States" There ought to be this key accompanying the notable pream- ble in every school book: The cenven- tion had perfected the draft or the Con stitution. debate over its provisions had taken charge. The preamble read: We the people of Massachusetts, New Hamp- shire, Connecticut. Rhode Island. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Della ware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, in order to form more perfect Union," etc. The Committee called the attention of the con- vention to an inconsistency Of the pre- amble enumerating the States in full with the provision allowing nine of the num- The self-evident force of this suggestion of anomaly compelled the amendment of the preamble by striking out the names of all the States and substituting the word that contained the same meaning the States united or the United States. Nevertheless, when Massachusetts met in State Convention to ratify the Con- situation. she made her act of ratification dependent upon an Amendment. Article x. declaring: ''The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution. nor prohibited by It to the states, are reserved" etc.
 Perhaps the most gratuitous of the er- TOTS of Peterman Is. p. 60, alleging: "The Constitution of each State Is a written instrument, modelled tsic) after the Con stitution of the United States" etc. This marvellous discovery, peculiar to the author, Is reproduced on p. 106 where We are called upon to believe that: "The Constitution of the United States is the model upon which all State Con- stitutions are framed" In truth, the federal and State Constitutions have not the same sources of origin. in asmuch as the one originates in the action of all the States and the other in single State; the two act upon different prin- cipies, inasmuch as the one possesses only delegated powers and the other contains a grant of all powers not ex- pressly withheld"
 We shall appeal to Chambers, the com panion work, to correct Peterman. On page 257 of Chambers's "Higer History of the United States" he says:
 Long before July, 1776, each colony had expelled the royal Governors, and other officers of the King, and had assumed control of its own affairs At first, tenn porary governments were organized; but after the Declaration of Independence. State Constitutions were drawn up and permanent (slc) State Governments were organized. South Carolina and Virginia, however, adopted their Constitutions be- fore Independence was declared"
 While this authority here relates to the thirteen States. original States, 1t does not, in that, release Peterman from an astonishing misstatement A State Con- stitution cannot be "modeled' on the federal Constitution, in the nature of each. If the student will turn to S4 Ala bama Reports. the case Dorman vs. The State, he will see perhaps the most luminous comparison of the two systems, State and federal government, in our literature.
 We have inadequately reviewed the de- fects O. a school text book of prime lm- portance A written Constitution can do no more than preserve the form of gov ernment The substance Is, in the men who hold office and control government. It is therefore of vital moment that the school text books be true and not false to first principles.
 Gibbon, speaking of the machinations of Augustus to gain supreme power, says he labored ito deceive the people by an image of civil liberty and the army by an image of civil government. Every consul was dispatched to his post. every praetor assigned to his duty and the tribunes assumed their places But the government fell. Let us see that the text books of the public schools do not conceal an Augustus Caesar
 J. w. DuBose. Gro be Concluded.)