The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-31

Incidentally. it is not amiss to recal 1 that when the constitution of 17S7 was framed at Philadelphia the several Amer ican states had no uniform laws regulat- l Ing the elective franchise. Each state ratified the constitution by sovereign con- ventlon and the delegates to these con ventions respectively were elected under state laws then prevailing, no two states l having the same qualification for the en- | joyment of the suffrage This is the ex- I plantation of Article l, section 2 of the constitution, which leaves to each state | It's original power in determining who shall vote. Had the constitution attempt ed to take that power over the electorate away from the states. 1t is not presump- tious to say the wonderful instrument would have been lost beyond recovery. To recapitulate, in July, 1861, quickly after the first great conflict of the armies
 the battle of Manassas each house of Congress passed a resolution, intended to proclaim to the Confederacy and to all 1 nations, declaring
 War is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose | UT CoHHucSl OA ohbJb6dtiOAS iAOA Pdi Po1N of overthrowing or interfering with the rights of established institutions of those states, but to maintain the supremacy of | the constitution and all laws made in | pursuance thereof and to preserve the Union with all the dignity. equality anu rights of the several states unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are &C., complished, the war ought to cease.'
 remarkable event was that this an- | nouncement to mankind and to all gov | ernments was not made by, joint resolu- ton of the two houses, but by each house l in It's own name.
 resolution. Upon that resolution President Lincoln instructed Grant and Sherman, at the meeting of the three for the pur- I pose on board the steamboat at City | Point, Virginia, three weeks prior to Ap- pomattox to accord to Lee and Johnston l the terms on which the surrender of Con- | federate armies were made, towit the | soldiers were to be paroled to stack l their arms at the capitals respectively of their states and to obey the laws | of their states The courts of the United I states had opened their dockets and tried | causes and pronounced opinions to the l effect that the status of the states re- mained "indestructible." as soon as ths Confederate armies dissolved, long before | Congress by the acts of the year 1867 abol- l ished ten state governments of the south. l Congress did not make constitutions. l The constitution provided for congress, | among other features of federal govern | ment, and among the powers entrusted to the Congress was this, Ito provide for calling forth the militia" The mill tia"-not the Hand and naval forces,
 recognized by the clause next preceding | were to be called forth to execute the
 laws of the union, suppress instructions | (sic) and repel invasions.'- The attentive | reader of Madison's Journal of the de- bates in the Philadelphia convention, ol 17S7, If candid with himself, will discover that "insurrections. quoted above. ap. plies to disturbances within each separate
 state only and does not name or intimate the federal union. To assist the authori- ties of a given state to quell "ineurrec- tions." Congress was given power to cal out the militia of other states, but the land and naval forces of the United States are not made available.
 The attentive reader, still candid witf himself. will also discover from Madi
 sons Journal that three different times on three different days. far apart. thu Philadelphia convention. that directly and specifically gave to Congress power te call out the militia to suppress insur' rections" voted down motion to give Congress power to use the land ant naval forces of the United States to re-
 duce a recalcitrant state.
 It is a beautiful and complex form oi
 government" we have. Education in iti
 theories and motives, its forms and prac'
 tices, Is the ultima thule of American knowledge. A profound excitement
 sways the public mind this day. The cen
 tre of disturbance is rivalry of opinions
 that seek to prevail over the federal gov
 ernment and direct 1t, the one schoo
 board concentration of power over purs'
 and sword, the other toward distribution of governmental functions among th'
 governed. These are the constituents
 they are the convenient and essentia
 agents of distribution, and when we re-
 view the success of Alabama fin her long
 and desperate labor, given to t.lu over
 throw of the scheme of the fragment o
 Congress. to extinguish hey autonomy we enlarge our intelligence, cultivate oui
 spirit of vigilance. fortify our love of fret
 institutions. and prepare ourselves fol
 self government as no other act of prep aration may accomplish for us
 Congress or rather that fragment which
 seized the national capitol legieated Will
 liam H. Smith and the others on his ticket into the state and county governments July 12. 1868. and then legislated six mer l of it's own selection or the selection of its machinery. into the House of Repreeen
 tstives. Lieutenant esovernor-elect Apple
 gate of Ohio known better in Alabama al Jack Appletoddy, became impatient tt take up his nonors. He had never beer
 so blessed before. The heirs of Thompson
 had paid him for their private papers ) stolen by him from Thompson's library in Mississippi His money was conscious
 and his gall overfowing. General Meade
 might have put him in possession of hi! dignity immediately after the election o r February, but Meade insisted in higi
 places that no lieutenant governor ol
 other officer. county or state, had beer chosen at the election. Jack, smarsing un der the returning officers incredulity
 sought way of his own. He remembered
 that the late constitutional convention hat 1 DO ssed and published an ordinance tba l the new state government must % into eff feet on March 1S-after the February cleo Ition. That was enough to make lieu 5 tenant governor, Jack argued with him
 eelf The generals Quibbles would not up