Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-04-11
If the ObstruCti0nists
Had Carried The Da1

r n their efforts to thWart measures Of
progress chronic obstructionists always
= invoke the Constitution. To their
minds the Constitution is not a body of vital
principles, designed to serve a growing ma
ton; it is a strait-jacket of legalism.
Ignoring the spirit which giveth life, they
cling to the letter which killeth
Just now it is the League of Nations which
they are fighting on CONSTITUTIONAL grounds.
Because this imperatively needed safeguard
of present-day peace and civilization was not
specifically provided for in a document draft
ed more than century and a quarter ago,
the obstructionsts are immovably against it,
just as the reactionaries of 1887 were i'm
movably against the adoption of the Consti
tuition itself. To all such the New York
Times reads little lesson of history that is
highly illumining.
Thomas Jefferson himself, we are remind
ed was extremely dubious regarding his Con-
stitutional authority for the outlooming
achievement of his administration-the
Louisiana Purchase. He expressed the opin-
ion, indeed, that there should be an amend
ment approving and confirming an act which
the Nation had not previously authorized"
Josiah Quincy, House leader of the FederaliSt
party, and as famous in his time as the fore
most opponents of the League of Nations are
today, argued with vehemence that 1.-The
clause in the Constitution giving the power
to Congress to admit into the Union other
States had unquestionably sole reference to
the admission of States within the limits of
the original territory Of the United States"
mo original document, argument or treaties
at the time of the formation of the Constitu-
tion," he continued, "can be adduced to give
color to the opinion that it was intended to
extend to territories then belonging to for
9ign Powers, beyond the limits Of the original
thirteen States" And in opposing in the
Eleventh Congress the bill for the admission
of Louisiana, Mr.. Quincy solemnly declared:
eff this bill passes, the bonds of this .
Union are virtually dissolved the States
which compose it are free from their
moral obligations; and, as it will be the
right of all, so it will be the duty of
some to prepare definitely for a separa-
ton; amicably if. they can, violently if
they must
Suppose the Borahs and Shermans and
Reeds of that age had prevailed What would
the United States of America be today? 1t
would be little more than the strip of eastern
territory which it was in it's dim and feeble
beginning. It's area would be only some eight
hundred and ninety thousand square miles
instead of between three and half and four
million. Not one of those imperially rich re-
gions acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, nor
in Florida, nor Texas, nor Oregon, nor the
land possessions would be under the Stars and
Stripes Instead of reaching from ocean to
ocean, secure and self-sustaining in the mar
yelous bounty of its resources, this nation
would still be the little provincial segment
which the opponents of it's first tendency to
peaceful and natural expansion assumed it
| to be.
| Strange, indeed, do the words of the OBJ
5tructionists Of that time echo to us today;
| but no stranger than the words Of the Reeds
| and Shermans and Borahs will be to future
| generations. In truth the attempt to with
| hold the United States from League of Ma
lions is a more grievous error, and, if it
should succeed, would prove more disas-
| trous mistake than was the attempt to stay
her destined march to the Pacific. For whilst
| the earlier obstructiOnists would have fettered
her physically, these of the latter day would
put chains upon her very soul, and make her
a recreant to her own and humanity's high
est interests. But unless all omens are de-
ceptive, the spirit of America and Of the Con-
stitution which triumphed for progress in the
time of Jefferson will triumph as gloriously
in the vaster issues of today.