Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-06
The Constitution and the People

70 the Editor Of the Eveniro Public LEDGER:
Sir-Now that the Chief Justice and
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court
of the United States have come to
Philadelphia and rededicated the re-
stored edifce at Fifth and Chestnut
streets, where under the Constitution
were held its first sessions, may we not
indulge the hope that that tribunal will,
without delay, restore to the people OF
the United States the government
which they ordained and established,
and rededicate to liberty the Constitu-
ton Of the United States?
The structure of the government
erected by the Fathers Of the Republic
street between Fifth and Sixth, by dis
use and abuse has become quite as
unrecognizable as were the buildings be.
! fore their restoration. And now that
the buildings have been restored, what
could be more appropriate than res
toration of the peoples government
which those buildings typify?
Although the preamble to the Constitu.
tion framed there declares, 1--WE, the
people of the United States ," to
secure to ourselves and our posterity the
blessings Of liberty. do ordain and es-
tablish this Constitution" the agencies
of government have now declared 1t to
be the law Of this land that the people
have no direct voice in altering o. an
nulling the powers of the government
which they ordained and established.
| The sovereign power which the people
bv the Constitution expressly reserved
to themselves has been by the agencies
of government transferred from the pe0.
ple to governmental agents. In the sew
eral States of the Union the people have
been separated from their own Legis-
latures in the act of ratifying an
amendment to the Constitution Of the
United States. They have been told
that these Legislatures, which they cre-
ate BY their State Constitutions, do not
receive from them the power to ratify
an amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, but that that power
is conferred on the Legislatures by the
Constitution Of the United States. In
the act of ratifying an amendment to
the Constitution of the United States
the Legislatures Of the several States
are now by the law declared to act under
the power of the United States, and the
people who created the Legislatures and
who ordained and established the Con-
stitution of the United States are told
that they are voteless and voiceless In
changing the form Of the government
which they made.
of the Constitution: '"It Is the peo.
ple's government-madeb by the people
responsible to the people," And Lin
colin at Gettysburg pleaded for n new
birth of freedom that government of
the people. by the people, forIthe peo-
pie. shall not perish from the earth"
Yet under the law as it is now de-
clared by the agencies Of government,
the Government of the United States Is
now a government of agencies-made by
agencies-r to no one.
For when the governmental agents
separated the people of the several
states from all power over their I.egis-
latures in the act of ratifying an amend
ment 60 the Federal Constitution, they
separated the people of the United
States from the government which they
ordained and established. Surely the
spirits Of the patriot founders OF the
Renublic must have hovered over the
Gathering in the old Supreme. Court
building yesterday and caused ihany a
twinge of conscience In the breasts of
those there gathered by recalling to their
minds the simplicity and purity of the
principles Of freedom on which they
grounded the government. If the res
toration and rededication of the old edi-
fee shall lead to restoration of govern
ment to the people and rededication of
the American people and their govern
mental agencies to the principles of free
dom, established by the Declaration of
Independence and embodied in the Con-