The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-08-22

Cil1o 40 a SOfOl vi laws, NV VI
men. He said in part: Is.
We are living in an age ofdenun-
citation. Men are looking for the
evil in others. rather than the good
One of the frailties of humanity is
the tendency to think i'll of people.
1t is defect of character we should
strive to cure. There is class of
self-constituted guardians of the pub
lie who are crying aloud about the
evils of the present day. They see
+. no good in the government. The.
constitution was conceived by de-
/ signing men for the. protection of the
wealthy and aristocratic classes and
did not, and was not intended to
confer upon the people of the coun-
try such a democratic government
as is necessary to the preservation
of liberty; that the courts are the
last resort of the vested interests,
and that the legislatures, are corrupt.
They are eager to impute dishonest
motives, and are happy in denunci
alton. F..
The Real Facts.
Now, let us look at the real facts,
unclouded by prejudice, and with no
visions of office before our eyes, We
are living in a rich and fertile land,
,~dnr very good government; not
perfect, because government is but
an epitome of the character of all
the people, and humanity is not per-
feet. But the fact remains, when
one candidly reads the pages of his
tory, that no people have ever been
blessed with a. more righteous, lib
eral, benevolent government than
ours; none more conducive to indi-
vidual happiness, enterprise and pros
perity. for every government is in
separately bound up with the pros
perity and happiness of people.
Structure of Government.
''The structure of this government
was conceived by remarkable body
of statesmen. They were deep stu
dents of history They knew of all
the forms of government which had
come and gone on the worlds stage
of civilization-pure democracies,
loose considerations, oligarchies and
monarchies, both absolute and con-
stitutional. ~
Mr. Kellogg sketched briefly and
concisely the conditions which led
up to the establishment of the United
States government, and told of the
substantial character of the men who
were at the head of affairs of that
time He believed in their sincerity
and in their ability, and put aside
the suggestions that are often made
by people who say that the men who
established the government were the
wealthy and so called higher class
of people. He believed that the princi-
pies of the men who undertook run
ming the affairs of this new nation
were above reproach and were sim
cere. 4
ut was intended that each branch
of the government should be indie
pendent, and not subject to the pow
er of the other; that the legislative
should not be subject to influence of
the executive; that the executive
branch should be represented by a
single person with various appointive
officers throughout the United States.
That there should be responsibility
to a single head in order to insure
prompt and intelligent execution of
the laws; and lastly that the judicial
branch charged with the high duty
of constituting the constitution and
the laws and enforcing the rights of
the people should be independent of
the other two branches. This latter
provision of our constitution was the
greatest contribution to government
which was made by the constitutional
convention.
"As | have said, this was not pure
ly an experiment This form of gov
lernment had to large extent been
4, existence in the states and colon
! les preceding the constitution. The
constitution of Massachusetts, adopt
ed during the Revolutionary War, in
! 1880 provided that the legislative de-
, partment,
Shall never exercise the judicial
or executive powers or either of
them; the executive shall never ex-
ercise the legislative or judicial pow
ers of either of them; the judicial
shall never exercise the legislative or
executive powers, or either of them;
to the end it may be government
of laws and not of men,
An. Admirable Provision.
"rf1fs admirable provision repre-
scented at that time the ideas oil
public men of a proper form of con
stitutional government. We should
! impress this upon our memories
This language should be taught tt
every youth and when we attempt
| in carrying out reforms to keeE
! abreast with the progress of the
world, we should not lose sight OF
these principles which required cen
turtles to establish. The criticisms
which are most frequently made, arr
of the legislative and judicial branch
es. The advocates of pure democrac!
say there should be no limitations
upon the legislative power; that TIT
people are capable of governing
themselves, and have right to pass
any law they please. No one vii
B dispute the capacity of this people
for self-government, but government
!. is something more than constan
trial of. experiments. There ar
some principles which it will do vel
YrsI. n,