The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-11-24
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

that the authors of the constitution
were human, very human, and in
no way was this more completely
demonstrated than by the fact that
they were not quite honest with
themselves or the country. Many
of them were slave-owners. They
wanted to protect their property in
humanity. They desired the votes
of the slave-holding states to ratify
the instrument. Thousands of
men can be found who will place
life on the altar of freedom in time
of war, but men who will sacrifice
dollars for principle in times of
peace are mighty scarce. The
descendants of the young man
"Who went away sorrowing, be-
cause he had great possessions" are
as numerous as the sands of the
sea. But be it said to the everlast
ing credit of the fathers of the
constitution and the men who pro-
claimed to the world freedoms
creed in the Declaration of indie
pendence,-"We hold it to be a
self evident truth that all men are
created equal and entitled to certain
unalienable rights among which are
life, liberty and the persuit of
happiness, that they could not
bring themselves to write the word
''slave" or "slavery' in the consti
tuition of free government. And
the cunning of sinful righteousness
was never better exemplifed than
by the subtle manner in which they
put slavery into the constitution
without mentioning it in terms;
and curiously enough, the first
time the word "slavery" was
written in the constitution, was
when by amendment slavery was
forever put out of it. There is a
legend that when the Saviour of
men assembled to the courts of
heaven he bore upon his robe a
dark stain of grave-earth that the
whiteness of his garments might be
more dazzling by comparison, and
the heavenly incense of liberty that
emanates from our Magma Charta
of the rights of men is all the
sweeter now, because of the faint
odor of birthstone from the hell of
slavery which still clings to it.
One of the fundamental prin-
ciples of a government like ours
was APPLY set forth in an epigram
uttered by one of the constitution
molders, "The National Govern
ment should do nothing for a state
that the state can do for itself and
the state should do nothing for an
individual that he himself can &C
complish." This is as true now as
when first uttered, This principle
was never lost sight of by the
trainers of the constitution and
should never be lost sight of by
our present lawmakers. If this
proposition is true and it's truth is
self evident, the converse is also
true. The nation should perform
the functions that are necessary
to the public welfare that a state
cannot, and state should confine
its powers to the things the indi-
vidual cannot accomplish. ''The
baby that is always led will never
walk alone and the kid who is
never held up creeps a long time"
The constitution makers only
reserved to the general government
such powers and functions "a from
the Inherent nature of things it
alone could exercise, and all others
were very properly relegated to the
jurisdiction of the states.
1t would be an absurdity to say
That one state could declare war or
could conclude peace by itself, so
the power of declaring war and
making peace was vested in the
National Government. The right
to "coin money and regulate the
value thereof was vested in Con.
gress for reasons so obvious that
any enumeration of them would he
a waste of time.
The most casual reader of the
constitution will at once observe
that only such jurisdiction was re-
served to the general government
as the states could not exercise.
only such functions were assumed
as the states could not assume, and
only such prohibitions of state
legislation made as would affect