Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-11-08


/ ereignty Of the States and create a
central sovereignty Of the united
| government.
It is probable that 1t was only
! through the paramount influence of
George Washington that such con-
| vention was possible.
| The Convention met on May 20,
! 1857, but was unable to organize IN
, til June o. 1t was in session exactly
one hundred days, and recessed on
J September II, 1877. one hundred and
I thirty-nine years ago. From the
I beginning to the end of that con-
/ vention there were fifty-five different
delegates, some of whom did not re-
main until the end of the delibera-
! lions, being in disagreement and
quitting in disgust.
| OF this number twenty-nine were
! college men, graduates of Harvard,
Yale, William and Mary, Columbia,
Princeton, Edinburgh, Oxford and
! Glasgow, Twenty-six were not col
/ lege men, and this number included
Washington, then fifty-five years of
age, and Franklin, then eighty-one
years of age.
Among the college men were
Hamilton, thirty-six years of age,
and Madison, thirty-six, who were
| the most profound thinkers and OF
| the keenest intellect and the most
| brilliant and learned of the entire
| convention.
Adams and Jefferson were not
| members, being respectively diplo-
mats in England and France. Jef-
| ferson at that time wrote to friend
! in the United States saying, 1T will
be an assemblage of demigods." The
! amba ssador from France, then resid-
| ing in this country, wrote to frlend
! stating, eff all the delegates to the
| Convention at Philadelphia are pres
! ent. Europe has never seen an as
semblage so remarkable for dill
! gence, for knowledge, and for the
/ disinterestedness and patriotism or
! those who compose it." Among
J those delegates were two future
| Presidents of the United States, three
! members of the United States Su-
! preme Court, and the four others
| who composed the first Supreme
| Court of the United States were men
! who were chiefly instrumental In
bringing about the adoption of the
| Constitution.
Thirty-one of the members were
| lawyers, the others were soldiers,
statesmen, business men, and plant
erS.
The men who framed the Con-
stitution. have been called the Giants
of the Revolution. They were not
| by any means novices in matters OF
| government. The fact is that they
| and their ancestors had lived under
! constitutional government l69 years,
! being thirty-four years longer tnah
| the people of the United States nave
| lived under the present Constitution.
There is a popular notion that the
! Constitution was framed after the
| Magma Charta. The fact Is, 1t has
very little in common with 1t. Only
two things worthy of notice were
! taken from the Magma Charta, to
wit, the right of trial by jury and
| the writ of habeas corpus. But they
! had been in vogue more than 6OO
| years. throughout England and all
! the Colonies. Valuable aid was no
/ doubt obtained from the Magma
| Charta, the English Bill of Rights,
| the Mayfower Compact, the Declara-
| ton of Independence, the Articles or
| Confederation, and the constitutions
which had been framed by the sew
eral States after the Declaration OF
Independence, many of which had
much in common with the Federal
{ In 1880 the State of Massachusetts
| esta blished a constitution providing
| for three branches of government.
which was declared to be govern
! ment of laws and not of men.
COMPARISONS have been made be-
tween the Declaration of 1ndepend-
ence and the Constitution, and 1t is
sometimes debated as to which is
the greater document; but there is
no comparison. 1t may be said that
each is the greatest document of its
kind, but they belong to different
classes. The Declaration of indie
pendence has nothing to do with
government, being merely declara-
ton of rights and principles con-
tanning no pledge except in the last
paragraph before referred to.
This pledge was perhaps unneces-
sary, because the Declaration was a
reasonable article, and in the event
the Revolutionary War had failed,
every signer would have doubtless
forfeited his life. The Declaration
was the product of a crisis for the
purpose of throwing off the oppres-
sive yoke of a foreign ruler. The
Constitution was constructive work
of a body of patriots who had come
together to found nation, to per-
petuate the liberties for which they
had SO dearly paid. AS a charter
of government the Constitution was
the first to place law above kings,
presidents and governors: above
generals. armies and military power:
above all earthly authority not ex-
ercised under and in accordance with
the Constitution.
Its greatest attribute is it simplic-
ity; containing only seven articles,
twenty-four sections and less than
4, 400 words. 1t can be read under
standingly by any person of average
intelligence in less than twenty
minutes. 1t contains no antiquities,
and although hundreds of cases have
been decided by the Supreme Court
of the United States, growing out of
it's provisions, none Of those cases
was brought for the purpose of in
terpreting language of doubtful
meaning, but rather to apply it's
easily understood provisions to the
numerous governmental problems
which have arisen during the last
100 years.
In these present times of unrest
and of crime and of radicalism, sure
ly we can find stability in acquiring
better knowledge of its provisions.
Surely it has earned the greatest
compliment that was ever paid to it,
when William E. Gladstone pro-
nounced 1t the most wonderful work
ever struck off at a given time by