The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-28
The Dead Hand I'm the
Constitution of the United States

VIM. w; Turlay In the Twentieth Cen
tury Magazine.
In England, during the MIddle Ages,
there was legal method Of beQaesth-
ing landed property In perpetusey, 30
that those who became possessed Of il
could only pass it on 10 certain sue
cessors designated in the original deed,
and could not dispose Of it eceording 2
to their own wishes.
This method was called f4@fo1tmain, T"
in the Norman French then used IN
legal phraseology. It meant tfehe dead
hand "a very expressive term by
which TO describe the control Of prop
erty by man long dead. regardless Of
the wishes or needs of later generations
The custom proved so harmful that
stricting, and fiusliy DOING away with
it, but strangely enough, we find some
thing very like it, in this twentieth
century, and in what wa aUe pleased to
consider the most progressive country
in the world, in the shape Of the Con
stitution of the United States.
Other countries are able to adjust
when we try to adopt new and more
equitable forms Of taxation, to make
the government moro directly respons-
ible TO the people, to reform Legal
methods, or to regulate commerce and
business In the interests of justice, we
find the road barred by the "dead
hand" which framed an instrument &C
cordingEto the theories of the eighteenth
century, when popular government as we
-nn instrument which. It Is true, pro
vided for changes, but made the pro-
cess so tedious and so difficult as to be
almost impossible except In tine of
great and sustained popular excitement
(such as the time Of our CIVIL wary, pre-
cisely the time, as we know. when
changes nre likely to be made the least
wisely.
In justice to the men who wrote our
Constitution, we must bear in mind not
only their lack of any precedents. and
of experience in popular government,
but also the fact that they had TO re-
concile the conflicting demands of the
representatives of the various colonies,
each Jealous for its individual rights,
besides solving the general problem
raised by the conflict between re ad~
racy and those Of more, restricted
form. The latter (the Federalists),
who may be sHid to have prevailed, de-
sired especially to avoid two dangers
which appeared very real to them-the
rise of dictator. and what they called
I" mob rule. -
The difficulty of framing a Constitu-
tion which should provide for a strong
and efficient central government, and at
the same time preserve the rights Of an
increasing number Of separate and SOW
ereign states, was almost insuperable,
and it was inevitable that the progress
of time should bring out moro clearly
the intrinsic defects Of such 4 system
While giving all due honor, therefore,
to the great men who framed our Con-
stitution. we are under no obligation
to regard it as in any sense an inspired
or sacred document, but only as com
promise, which should be amended from
time to time 10 meet conditions, or to
correct such defects as experience has
made conspicuous.
England and France, the two great
countries whose systems of government
most nearly resemble our own. are per-
haps more fortunate in the matter Of
their constitutions than we are. Both
countries 0eaving coloAies out of con.
sideration) are smaller in population,
and especially in. area, so that a greater