The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-17
CONSTITUTION DAY

TT is fitting that indianapolis joins with the
nation today to celebrate the anniversary
of the signing Of the United States Constitu-
ton. Its preamble. its body, its Bill Of Rights
and its 81 amendments form an instrument
worthy of the great Republic that has adopted
it as charter and guide.
But America should be warned Of attempts
to make prison of its Constitution. Certain
reactionaries today are doing this. They OPP
pose change as dangerous in itself. Even be-
fore any concrete suggestions have been made
for an amendment or amendments they are
raising hue and cry against the very thought
Of change.
Those special interests seeking to conhscate
the Constitution for selfish ends and those to
whom it has become sacred law from Sinai
should recall the warning Of Thomas Jefferson
against a rigid Constitution in a changing
world
We offer again as a fitting sermon for this
day letter jefferson wrote in 1916 to Samuel
Kercheval:
Some men look at constitutions with sane
timonious reverence, and deem them like the
Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched
They ascribe to the men of the preceding age
a wisdom more than human, and suppose what
they did to be beyond amendment. I knew
that age we'll; I belonged to it. and labored
with it. 1t deserved we'll Of its country 1t was
very like the present but without the expert
ence Of the present; and 40 years of expert
ence in government is worth a century of book
reading; and this they would say themselves,
were they to rise from the dead.
L am certainly not an advocate for fire.
quent and untried changes in laws and con-
stitutions. think moderate imperfections had
better be borne with; because, when once
known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and
find practical means of correcting their i'll
effects. But know also, that laws and insti-
tutions must 90 hand in hand with the prog
ress Of the human mind. AS that becomes
more developed, more enlightened, as new dis
coveries are made. new truths disclosed, and
manners and opinions change with the change
Of circumstances, institutions must advance
also, and keep pace with the times.
we might as well require a man to wear
still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as
civilized society to remain ever under the
regimen Of their -. ancestors. E. Each gen.
Grafton is as independent of the one preceding,
as that was Of all which had gone before. 1t
has then, like them, a right to choose for it.
self the form Of government it believes most
promotive OF its own happiness; consequently,
to accommodate to the circumstances in which
it finds itself, that received from its predeces-
sors; and it is for the peace and good of man
kind that a solemn opportunity of doing this
should be provided by the Constitution;
SO that it may be handed on, with periodical
repairs, from generation to generation, to the
end Of time. if anything human can so long
endure. g. This corporal globe, and every
thing upon it, belong to its present corporal
inhabitants, during their generation.
They alone have a right to direct what is
the concern of themselves alone, and to de-
clare the law of that direction. If this
avenue be shut to the call Of sufferance, it will
make itself heard through that of force, and
we shall go on, as other nations are going in
the endless circle Of oppression, rebellion
reformation, and oppression, rebellion, reforma-
ton, again; and SO on forever"
The Constitution is Americas home, not
its prison. And, as President Roosevelt said
of his own home, the White House. every
once in a while we have to make repairs"