Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-04-09

says, invented the political machine
now known as the recall The high
tariff of 1928 was oppressive to the
the idea Of recalling or multiplying the
law so far as it affected South Caro-
lima; and he appeared in the novel
! character Of champion of popular
rights, or state rights as it was after
ward called. So long as he confined
himself to talk, no particular harm was
done; but when as the result of his
agitation the people Of South Carolina
met in convention and formally passed
an ordinance Of recall in which the
law was pronounced null, void, and
no law, not binding on this state, its
officers, it's citizens" etc, and duties
on imports were forbidden within the
state, it became really serious mat
ter; and we all remember how prompt
! ly President Andrew Jackson crushed
out the incipient rebellion. Recall
becomes rebellion when PVT in actual
practice" j..
Continuing the Lyman article says:
| The recall of decision of the SUI
preme court, if it means anything more
| than the claptrap. of demagogue,
means resistance to that decision
and that resistance to be effective must
be forcible; for, the president of the
! United States is sworn to "preserve,
protect and defend the constitution of
the United States" and the constitu-
ton says-"he shall take care that the
laws be faithfully executed" and he
would do so. .a
Andrew Jackson run up against the
same thing about eighty years ago
while he was president; and he swore
by the eternal that he would hang the
leader of the damnable heresy of recall
at the east end of the capitol If he
persisted in forcing the issue. In his
message against recall he said to the
people:
But the dictates of high duty
oblige me solemnly to announce that
you cannot succeed. The laws of the
United States must be executed. |
have no discretionary power, on the
subject-my duty Is emphatically
pronounced in the constitution. Those
who told you that you might peaceably
prevent their execution, deceived you-
they could not deceive themselves.
Thy know that a forcible opposition
could alone prevent the execution OF
the laws, and they know that such op-
position must be repealed"
Notification, under whatever name,
lit may appear, is the same, Yesterday.
today and forever 1t cost millions of
treasure and rivers of blood to kill and
bury it fifty years ago. We may lay
Its ghost with our ballots today, If we
do not suffer ourselves to be deceived.
We hear very little of the federal
constitution now, the Amboy editor
says because public attention has not
been called to it in any special way
for more than forty years, and the new
generation has for the most part a
rather vague idea of what it's provi-
sions are and what it's character and
Significance in present day politics.
For this reason Mr.. Lyman believes
| little history is perth ent. He says:
| Our political leaders of the so-called
progressive school appear to have for
gotten that such an instrument exists,
or have decided to cut loose from it,
las an ancient document that has
served we'll its purpose in times gone
by, but it is not to be taken into &C.
count in modern political activities
and methods. Reckoning with the
constitution is not the business OF the
lprogressives, so it appears.
Those of us that lived during the STIR
ring events of the period OF, and just
before, the civil war have profound
regard for the federal constitution. we
remember it as a portentious lnstru.
ment, the terror of demagogues, cruel
and merciless in some of it's special In
terpretations, but on whose existence
inviolable, depended our safety and
our integrity as nation.
The constitution was framed by
convention of some of the most patriot
ic and eminent men from the thirteen
states, such men as George Washington,
BENJAMIN Franklin, Alexander Hamll-
ton, James Madison, Edmund Ran
dolph. Chas. c. Pinkney, being
among them. John Adams and Thom-
as Jefferson were absent as ambassa-
doris in Europe.
The convention met in Philadelphia
in 1887, and George Washington was
elected unanimously president OF the
body. It sat with closed doors, ana
after four months of patient, thought
full labor, free discussion, mutual con-
cessions to interests and feelings, the
new constitution as it exists today, ex-
ceptine the amendments, was perfected
and presented to the people OF the
states for adoption in place OF the
articles of confederation. T..
Concluding his article the Illinois
editor says:
We had supposed that the doctrine
of state rights and notification mad
been settled for all time by the clVn
war. ;. t.. .o
When the constitution was sub
mitted to the people and adopted by
their votes the people acknowledged
the sovereignty Of the new general
government and pledged their al
legience to it. There Is, the Amboy
editor says, no reserved right Tor
the people, any more than there is for
the states; the adoption of the consti
tuition was an unconditional adoption
in toto and forever. He adds:
The people are sovereign as citizens
of the United States in the same sense
that they are free agents individually.
xosI nd their