The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1919-08-13
Three HUNDRED
YEARS OF NATIONAL.
ISM IN AMERICA
Constitutional Government In This
Country Has Developed Wonder.
fully Since jamestown
Settlement.

Washington, August 13.-Tracing
the history of America from the time
of the first settlement at jamestown In
1919 through 300 years of growth to
the present day, the Republican Pub
licity Association, through its Presi-
dent, Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr., to-
day gave out the following statement
showing the continuous development
Of Constitutional government in this
country. The statement contrasts the
record of three centuries with the
complete reversal of national policy
that now confronts the country.
ION July 3Oth, 1919, exactly three
hundred years ago, the first legisla-
tive assembly in the New World was
organized The scene was jamestown,
and the event was the first meeting of
the House of Burgesses Of Virginia.
Thereafter popular government
spread throughout the colonies as they
were formed by immigrants from the
Old World intent upon escaping from
the Old World intent upon escaping
from the expressions of Europe. In
1920 the Mayflower compact was
drawn up as the governing pact for
the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.
In 1888 Connecticut adopted the first
constitution, which bears a striking
similarity in fundamentals to our own
Constitution. In 1913 the first effort
to form a union was successfully
made. Four colonies, then operating
under separate charter governments,
combined into the so-called Union OF,
the New England Colonies. In 1854
Benjamin Franklin proposed what
was known as the Albany plan for
union of the thirteen American col
onies, but 1t was rejected by England
because it was too democratic, and
by the colonies themselves on the
ground that it was to aristocratic. In
1916 the idea of independent govern
ment was embodied by Thomas Jeffer-
son in the Declaration of Independ
ence The year 1871 witnessed the
unsuccessful experiment of the Ar
ticles of Confederation, but in 1887 the
Constitution was drafted and adopted
From that day to this it has remained
the fundamental law of the land with
amendments from time to time to meet
conditions as they changed Under its
provisions the United States has
grown from a nation of 100000 souls
to a world power with 100000 pao-
pie and double the wealth of any cth-
er country on earth.
THAT has been the history of Amer
lean expansion and national develop
ment through period of 300 years. 1t
is a record the equal of which can lot
be found elsewhere in the entire story
of human progress. From the very
beginning the men who directed the
affairs of America were imbued wit
fundamental inspiration, that of di-
vorce from the institutions of the Old
World, from the expressions of wi ich
they had emigrated across the oco IN.
From the earliest times the tendency
has been to make more secure our m
dependence from the influence of Did
World autocracies, and endurin rly
cement the institutions that have mi lie
our national prosperity possible.
"But now what a change; An Amor-
lean President, elected to perpetu%te
the very principles that have been Cur
guide from the beginning, advocates
the abandonment of the objects for
which we have striven for 800 YET 8,
and the immediate return to the very
conditions the colonists sought to es-
cape. He would have us subjugate tae
American Republic to the dictatior Of
world council, composed of six cln-
pires and kingdoms and three repub-
lies, In which the United States would
have one vote and foreign nations
eight. Is that the manner in which
Americans wish to commemorate The
three hundreth anniversary Of the es-
Enlistment of popular government in
the New World"
In the national war garden the lOl-