The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-29
LAW AND HUMAN PROGRESS.
Address Delivered by Hon. Walter Clark Before the
State Bar Association of Kansas.
BY Chief Justice Walter Clark OF the
Supreme Court OF North Carolina.


fore the Kansas State Bar Assertion at
Topeka. 9th January, 1902
Progress is the law of life. OF the
three learned professions, medicine has
been completely revolutioniZed in the
last few years. There are even those who
believe that there has been some progress
in theology; but the masses think that
law is the one stationary. unmoving. and
unmovable thing in all creation, and that
presidents bind judges and lawyers to
the past. hand and foot. The law, how
ever has not been able wholly to escape
the influence of the age in which we live,
and in great degree is sure record
of the progress of civilization
As to the progress of constitutional
law, Il is sufficient to point to the numer-
Gus new State constitutions Cor radical
amendments thereto), which average it is
said one in every twenty years for each
State in the Union AS to the Federal
Constitution it is true the alterations
have been much slower, as much too slow
in fact as il may be the changes in the
State constitutions have been too fire.
quent. In New York the State constitu-
tlon imperativoly requires that the ques-
tion of calling a constitutional conVen-
ton shall be submitted to the people every
twenty years. and permits this to be done
oftener If the Legislature shall think
proper. This being so in the "effete
East" we cannot expect that such
changes should be more infrequent in the
progressive West.
AS to the Federal Constitution, many
causes have combined to prevent changes
that the necessities of the time really re-
uuire, with the result that that instru-
ment has become Anticipated and in many
respects unsuitable for the demands of
the present day If the Constitution Of
1887 had been admirable in all respects
and altogether perfect when adopted, the
immense changes in population. in terri
tory in public conditions, and in the
needs of this generation, would make it
i'll adapted in some respects for our pur-
poses today 1t would be strange indeed
If the men of one hundred and fifteen
years ago, when popular government was
new and untried and the environments
of the times were totally different could
have made better Constitution for us
than we with more than century of ex-
perience could now make for ourselves.
Some would make of the Constitution of
1887 a fetish but it was the work OF
that day just as Were the State consti-
tutions, and it is no more sacred than
they all of which have been materially
changed. There is a wide difference be-
tween the Union which the makers OF the
Constitution intended should be per-
petuaI and the Constitution itself, which
provided for dts own amendment either
by Congressional action or the call of q
constitutional convention, thus recog-
niZing its imperfections and that the pro-
gress of time would necessitate unknown
changes.
When the Federal Constitution was
adopted ii was not considered by its MAX
ers as perfect or entirely adapted even
to the needs of that day. In all its lead
ing features it was a compromise. and
therefore not expressive in it's entirety
of the wishes of a majority of the Con-
vention that made ii. 1t was passed
with closed doors and without the bene-
fit of an expression of public opinion. Ii
was not submitted to the votes of the
people in single State. 1t was accepted
with great hesitation by the Thirteen
States. which in their notifications 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-
ton of power by the Federal Supreme
Curt was submitted by Congress as
early as 1894, and was promptly ratified
by the States. The Presidential election
in 1901 showed another dangerous defect
Al the organic instrument, which was
.rperfectly 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 tC
make it do duty for eighty millions
from Florida to Alaska, from Maine tC
California. Whether it also applies t.
Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines
is a question we are now trying to fine
out, and that recently evoked nine dis
senting opinions in single case in the
highest Federal court at Washington. II
1887 our population was mostly rural
AANNN
but five towns in the whole country
with as many as $500 inhabitants each
We then had 70 post-offices, with $37 600
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
ing the first ten years of our national
government the total expenses of the
government averaged, including payment
of revolutionary debts. ten millions an
nually Now they are very near. OF ncl
quite. eighty times as much. We have two
States the population of each of which
is double that of the whole Union al
the time of the adoption of our Constitu-
ton. Steam railroads. gas, electricity
and a thousand other inventions and dis
coveries have profoundly ~>07''ied the
life and customs of the people, and gov
ernmental requirements and dangers are
totally different from what they were
in 1881. The power of colossal aggre-
cations of wealth was then inconceivable
and trusts were then unheard of Cor
porations were almost unknown. Only
one hank in the whole Union was in pX-