Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-08-12
BY BISHOP W. A.
CONSTITUTIONAL IMMORTALITY

tn HE historian Grote has warned the
nations of Christianity against the
- dangers of what he calls "consttu-
tional immortality" by which he means the
disposition to renounce the fixed principles
of good government and to adopt all sorts
of sensational and sentimental eXpedients
in place Of the established truths of social
order.
This tendency to radicalism becomes es-
peciaIy prevalent during the periods which
follow wars.
Accordingly Edmund Burke has observed
that war suspends the rules of moral OBJ
legation, and what is long suspended is in
danger of being abrOgated. Civil wars
strike deepest of all into the manners Of
the people. They yitiate their politics; they
corrupt their morals; they peryert even the
natural taste and relish of equity and JUS
tice"
This profound observation of the great
British statesman finds abundant ilustra-
ton in the history of our country.
Prior to the War Between the States few
amendments were proposed to the Federal
ConstitutiOn-that great charter Of our ma
tional government which Mr.. Gladstone did
not hesitate to affirm was the greatest in
strument ever conceived by the uninspired
mind of man. During the first seventy-fiYe
years of it's history few changes in it were
offered and still fewer were adopted
But after the Civil war a number of
amendments were framed in sectional pas
sion and were adopted with much heat and
haste. Then began in the years called 1.-The
period of reconstruction" the era of "cOnsti-
tutiOnaI immortality" the evil tendencies of
which have not ceased
During the session of Congress which be-
gan last December and ended in June near
ly a hundred amendments were offered,
some of which purpose the penetration of
federal powers into the most sacred and
fundamental relations of life. Behind each
of them was body of proponents organized
in the form of some society, or bloc, for
the purpose of pushing their pet measures
Among them found in some cases
well-meaning, but misguided reformers who
were aiming to accomplish good Objects
but who failed to see that the measures they
proposed might defeat the very ends at
which they aimed might create more
evils than they could by any possibility
cure
For example, an amendment to the Con-
stitutiOn was proposed and theoretically sup
ported by a Jealous group of men and
women to give the Congress "power to
make laws which shall be uniform through
out the United States, on marriage and di-
vorce, the legitimation of children, and the
care and custody of children affected by an
nulment of marriage, or by divorce"
The evils arising from easy divorce and
loose divorce laws hardly be overstated
or deprecated too strongly; but this meas
ure would aggrayate them rather than cure
them. uniform divorce law, enacted by
the federal government, would supersede
many good laws in the several states, such
as the law of South Carolina, and it would
spread over the whole country lax statute
on divorce; for nothing but a compromise
bill could be enacted by the national legis-
lature. 1t would not extend South Cardinals
good law over the entire nation, but it
would set over the entire republic some
thing more nearly like the loose legislation
of such states as Nevada How would that
improve conditions?
Nevertheless some good people are urg-
ing the adoption of this unWise amendment
to the constitution who know not what they
do.
Another amendment which has passed
both houses of the congress is as follows!
"Section I. The congress shall have
power to limit, regulate and prohibit the
labor of persons under eighteen years.
"Section II. The power of the several
states is unimpaired by this article except
that the operation of the state laws shall
be suspended to the extent necessary to
legislation enacted by the congress-"
The second section was doubtless inserted
q sort of sopOrific TO quiet the fears of
the people about the enormous power con-
ferred on congress by the first section and
which is in no wise reduced but only thinIy
disguised by the second section.