The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1903-03-03
NEEDED CHANGES IN THE FEDERAL CON-
%STITUTION.

Postmasters, Federal Judges and United States
Senators.
The Constitution has been subject to the law
of progress and of change, aside from the amend
ments that have been submitted and ratified by
the necessary number of States. By judicial con-
struction meaning has been written into the Con
%slitutiOn in many matters that were not in con-
temptation by the makers of that instrument. In
some instances these amendments by judicial con-
structiOn were necessitated by the progress Of
thought, the evolution of the age, and the changed
condition of the people. But there are radical
changes that have been made therein by the silent
pressure of public opinion, without aid from Con
gress or the courts. When the Federal Constitu-
ton was adopted, of the three departments, legis-
~lative, executive, and judicial, direct control was
given to the people of only one-sixth of the gov
eminent, to-wit, one-half of the Legislature; for
the lower house of Congress was the only body
chosen by the people. The Senate was made elect
i've at second hand through the State legislatures ;
the Executive was to be chosen at second hand
through a body of electors selected for that pur-
pose, and it was, contemplated that in fact the
Executive should be chosen at third hand, as the
electors were originally elected by the State legis-
latures; and the judiciary and Cabinet officers
were selected at fourth hand by the Executive,
subject to ratification by the Senate. The govern
ment was thus removed from the direct action of
public opinion as far as could possibly be the case
in a republic. At that time education was not
general and popular government was a new exper-
iment. There were many misgivings as to the
capacity of the people to govern themselves. In
only one State was the Governor then elected by
the people; in most if not all of them the upper
house of the General Assembly and usually both
houses were elected by a restricted suffrage, and
in none was the judiciary chosen by popular vote.
This state of things was reflected in the Federal
Constitution, of course, and in form at least re-
mains unchanged in that instrument, though in
these respects there have been great changes in
the constitutions of the several States.
Though no changes in these matters have been
made in the Federal Constitution by constitution
al amendment or judicial construction, there has
been none the less great alteration by the prac-
teal operation of public opinion and other causes.
The election of the President has been changed
to a direct election by the people by the simple
process of treating the electors as fgureheads and
electing them in the several States at the ballot
box instead of through the State legislatures. AS
late as the great contest between Adams, Jackson,
and Crawford, in 1924, the electors we're
still chosen IN a majority OF the States by thelr
legislatures. This was soon changed as one of the
results of that contest, though the electors IN
South Carolina we're still chosen in that manner
down to the Civil War. Indeed the Presidential
electors were chosen by the legislature in Colorado
in 1876. A similar change has been made as to
the election of Senators in many of the States by
requiring primary elections for Senators or by
pledging candidates for the Legislature and IN 9TH
er methods. A constitutional amendment to give
the election of United States Senators directly to
the people and to dispense with the legislatures
as Senatorial electors has repeatedly passed the