The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-26

topic is the attacks, bold and fnsidious
 that have for their aim the strengthens | ing or the federal government at the ex- | pense of the powers reserved to the state 1 which attacks. if allowed to go unchal- l lenged and unchecked. would finally de | stroy the separate state governments and l leave us only a semblance of the dual
 ity that the fathers sought to assure for
 themselves and for us
 Division of Opinion.
 Out Of a division of opinion on the oues-
 tion of the right of the states to with draw from the union that they volunta- rly formed arose the bloodiest and cost
 Hest war of all the centuries. Happily ] now for a united country that question l is forever settled. The right of a state to withdraw from the union was de- termined adversely to the states, and the l acknowledgment was made finally and l forever at Appomattox. Surely. no one 1 does now OF will ever desire to have l that question targued. either in the
 forum or upone hcarnadine fields. At the l first opoprturnN presented to them the ] Confederate soldiers of Alabama, in 1875, wrote it into tie organic law of our be i loved Commonwealth that the right of secession no longer exists. a doctrine l that we need not now discuss, however once 1t was so ably advocated in forum and so brilliantly defended upon the field. It is not referred to here, except in the
 spirit of the commandment defining mans | highest duty in his relation to mankind.
 Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which
 the Lord thy God giveth thee
 It was in Massachusetts that the doc Urine of secession was first promulgated, but Massachusetts now knows that Ala bama would no more follow the ancient teaching of Massachusetts than Massa- chusetts would herself.
 And those of LIS here who are the sons 1 of Confederate soldiers need not here or l elsewhere offer the penitential plea"
 that they believed they were right from 1860 to 1865. Tn language unbiased, utter ing an opinion, undistorted by the rancor | of actual conflict, the Hon. John c. Spooner of Wisconsin has judged this issue. In the Senate of the United States
 on May 31, 1902. speaking of the results
 of our civil war, he said:
 They
 Meaning the framers of the constitu- l tion-
 of this land @ recognition and protection
 of slavery.
 And proceeding:
 The southern people-they thought rightly and we thought wrongly-decided that we had invaded, or intended to in-
 wade, their constitutional rights; that 1 there had come an irrepressible conflict between the north and the system of slave labor in vogue in the south, and recognized by the constitution. If they had had the men and the resources they would have established their right We suppressed their rebellion and pre- served the union, because we had re- sources of men and money to whip this
 ''consent- of the governed theory out of the good people of the south We forced government upon them against their will.
 Certain it Is that the result of the civil war has never Justified encroachment upon the great number of rights reserved to the states That war was not fought to make the government at Washington a centralized despotism. That govern ment remained one unimpai-ed for the purposes of its establishment, and is still in theory, and ought always to be in practice, a government subject to the limitations of written constitution The right to amend that instrument in man. ner provided must always be admitted.
 Some Amendments.
 Without discussing the manner of their adoption, for they have been recognized by all lawful authority as having been really adopted, a brief mention of the 18th, 14th and 18th amendments and their effect upon our government is appropri- ate. By the first of these the institu- ton of slavery was abolished. The 14th amendment was adopted to secure equali- ty before the law. Its expression, Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law" has been determined by the ' preme court of the United States to mean that when life liberty or property is taken in pursuance of and in the regular administration of the laws, in the tribun- als of a state, they are taken with due process of lawIlaw, however, that must always square with the declaration that the constitution, laws. and treaties of the United States are the supreme law of the land.
 The 10th amendement, as you know from recent public discussion in Alabama, does not confer the right of suffrage upon any citizen. President Taft, in his in- augural address, said:
 There was a time when northerners who sympathized with the negro in his necessary struggle for better conditions sought to give him the suffrage as a pro- tection and to enforce it's exercise against the prevailing sentiment of the south. TheSmovement proved to be a failure. What remains is the 18th amendement to the constitution and the right to have statutes of states specifying qualiflca- tions for electors subjected to the test of compliance with that amendment It will never be repealed, and it ought
 never to be repealed. If 1t had not passed 1t might be difficult now to adopt 1t; but with it in our fundamental law, the pol icy of southern legislation must and will tend to obey it. and so long as the statutes
 of the states meet the test of this amend ment and are not otherwise in conflict | with the constitution and laws of the United States it is not the disposition or l within the province of the federal gov .ernment to interfere with the regulation 1 by southern states of their domestic af- 1 fairs.
 This timely utterance of the chief ex- l ecutve is welcome. It Is a declaration l of right of the state and an acknowl- | edgment of federal limitations. Usurpation of Power. There was a time when the extreme
 disciples of Alexander Hamilton sought
 to heap >obloquy upon the doctrine of l states rights. But that time has passed. Whatever may have been the usurpe- | ton of power by the federal government and federal agencies in time of war, they can not be justified in the times of | peace The danger now, my fellow coun- :! trymen, Is not from violent usurpations | of power on the part of the federal gov ernment and those who administer it.. The danger comes from secret usurpa- tions and from the propagation of the | vicious doctrine that the federal govern
 ment must grow in power, that the con- stitution of the United States must eX- tend in scope by unauthorized executive and congressional action and by judi cial construction. These make the ground for apprehension to all thoughtful people who value undiminished state govern ment as the chosen guardian of the most of the rights of the individual.
 The soundness of that doctrine, modi-