Evening star., 1937-09-17
Constitution Celebration.

Today the people of the United States
celebrate the one hundred and flftieth
anniversary of the signing of their Con-
stitution. But the grand event at Phila-
delphia on September II, 1887, ought not
TO be isolated from the general course
Of history. The creators of the silent
magistrate" which was to rule the Ma
zion were merely fifty-flve representa-
tives of the population thereof. Nothing
set them apart save only the deliberate
mandate OF their contemporaries. They
were the agents of the common folk,
the work they assembled at Independence
Hall to do was a designated task in the
interest OF the commonweal. Public
servants, they met "in order to form
more perfect Union, establish Justice.
insure domestic tranquility, provide for
the common defense, promote the gen.
eral welfare, and secure the blessings
OF liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
The success of their endeavors has
been manifest to five generations of
American citizens. Even the tragic strife
OF the North and the South between
1861 and 1865 did not destroy the Re-
public. Rather it may be said to have
strengthened it-since it proved, per-
haps as nothing else could, the power
instructive in the Constitution. Yet that
tremendous dynamic force requires to be
understood. The famous philosopher,
DR.. Samuel johnson, provides clue to
the riddle when he declares: "The law
Is the last result of human wisdom act
ing upon human experience"
Measured by such yardstick, the Con-
stitution is not what Gladstone deemed
1t to be; 'The greatest work ever struck
of at any one time by the mind and
purpose of man." Instead, it is exempt
from seasonal limitations; 1t is all-inclu-
sive, all-embracing, omnipotent as truth,
omniscient as infinite knowledge. The
founding fathers invented nothing.
Rather, they were content simply to cor
relate the intelligence OF the race ac-
quired through millenniums of aspiration
and achievement. Their sources were the
Magma Charta and the Bible, the basic
codes OF Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Greek
and Hebrew civilization. Henry William
Elson Is patiently right when he insists
that: "On the whole, the instrument
was compilation, not an original pro-
duction." 1t in may be discovered the in
tegrity of Washington, the sage prag-
matte philosophy of Franklin, the ra-
tionalized conservatism OF Hamilton, the
tdealistic liberalism of Randolph and Ma
son, the legal learning of James Wilson,
the profound patriotic loyalty of Madi-
son, the ripened perspicacity of Robert
and Gouverneur Morris, the brilliant in
cisiveness Of Rutledge and Pinckney and
the sober tolerance of Roger Sherman.
But something more than personal
genius makes the Constitution all that
it was hoped by its authors to be. The
stream OF everlasting life moves through
1t. 1t is bright with suns that never set,
rugged as mountains are, deep as the
fathomless ocean, yet gentle as the dew
Because Of it, the noblest of democracies
survives and the most charitable of fell
lowships endures. Praising it, then, the
people render homage to equity ano
mercy, the providential attributes of a
government which, as Lincoln foretold
shall not perish from the earth" Let
chaos prevail in every other quarter, the
United States, endowed with its License
from God," still will stand firm amic
the storm.