The Springdale news., 1919-03-07
Springdale, Ark, Friday March ', 1919
FIGHT FOR THE CONSTITUTION.

There is a striking, though limited, resemblance between the fight for the ratification of the constitution of the League of Nations and that for the adop- tion of the American Constitution l3l years ago It Is a limited resemblance, for the similarity ends with the form of the organization. that one being to estab- fish national union of a group of states, while the present one is to effect coop erative association of states without loss of their sovereignity But the purpose of union and the arguments of the antago- nists of union were much the same as to- day The American colonies had been brought together and held together by common peril, just as the nations have been during the last four years. When the war ended the cohesion ended. No morning ever daWned more favorably than ours did and no day was ever more clouded than the present. We are fast verging to anarchy wrote Washington to Madison in 17S6 The wiser men of the states-time has proven they were wiser realized that something must be done to unite the states firmly for their own pro- lection, and without any authority from the people, the constitution of the United States was drafted. When 1t came be- fore the conventions of the several states for approval 1t was violently opposed. In Pennsylvania 1t was denounced as q "political monster" which originated in mystery and must terminate in deSpo- tism" 1 Massachusetts opponent de plored the darkness, duplicitv and studied ambiguity running through the whole constitution The name of the first speaker was not Reed nor was that of the second Lodge but possibly they were ancestors on the distaff side
 Il was in Virginia however that the crucial contest for the adoption of the constitution took place. Virginia was at that time the largest, most populous and most powerful of the states. and the fate of the constitution depended upon the ae- tiOn of he convention Ihal assembled in Richmond n June f7SS l majority If tht people of the state were against it. FeW people had seen t. but there was a general impression that it vas a perilous experiment. and that was lhe feeling of some of the most eminent men of the state and the time We are inclined to forget that 1t was an absolutely new proposal in government, that 1t was an even great CT departure from custom and tradition than the League of Nations. Our chance of success depends on you wrote Hamilton to Madison, and from the array of it's antagonists there was much reason to fear the cause was lost. At their head was Patrick Henry, the revered apostle of liberty and with him were George Ma son, author of Virginias constitution and bill of rights; William Grayson, one of the strongest men in the state, who be- came Virginia's first Senator under the constitutions James Monroe and John " Ter, two men who afterwards became president under the constitution they so bittery opposed, and Benjamin Harrison the father and the great-grandfathe of two other presidents The leaders against these were Madison. Gov. Ran dolph, John Marshall, Henry Lee and Chancellor Pendleton.
 The debate in that convention was perhaps the most brilliant display of for ensic genius and parliamentary strategy in the history of this country, but our purpose here only to call attention to some of the objections to the constitution. objections that sound so much like those of today. My anxiety and fears are