Afro-American courier. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1926-19??, 1938-05-01


Final and absolute sovereignty shall reside in the
will of the people, Though they sovereign and above
the law, though they make the law still people do not
directly govern themselves. They not and never did
Either government is imposed upon them they i'm
pose is upon themselves.
There is therefore, only possible answer to
the question: Who shall restrain the sovereign power?
The sovereign power must be willing to restrain it.
SELF and that is why the writing of Constitution is
the highest and most reasonable political act far
performed by people, 1t is people at their best The
Constitution is their character their conscience the
of their wisdom, their appeal from themselves to
Themselves their ideal statement of things that done
and things that not done 1t is if they Civ
ing hostages to justice and equity, knowing be-
forehand how liable they in sudden passion to be
unreasonable, unjust and impulsive They establish the
fundamental law in laudabe brevities This is their Con-
stution. They define the kind of they will
have and confer upon what they believe to be all the
necessary powers-these and
Formerly debate what government should
be. More and leave that side and debate what
government should do What it should do in providen-
tal manner for people than people do for
themselves, how it shall confer upon them welfare,
security happiness-forgetting that though omnpo
tent government able to confer these blessings
would be obliged the same time TO confer upon peo-
pie the status of sS>vty.
Nearly all the current proposals for changing the
fundamental law in to alter the American form of
government contemplate, directly indirectly, thing,
namely: to give the government increased power to
distribute wealth. There is running here, elsewhere in
the world for the first time and certainly not for
the last time, dark destructive thought toward wealth.
Thus, clause of the Constitution perhaps has
been malgned than the due process of law which
means compensation The feeling is that this clause
has been often invoked legally to defend the greed and
selishness of wealth.
That more or less true 1t has but one who admits
this is faced with the question: Then shall property
rights be placed above human rights? Do you answer
yes no?
i is not matter of yes The Supreme Court,
upholdng the due process clause does not yes
The question is not what is asked The question
is: On what shall government be carbohydrates or
principles? Poverty versus human rights is emotional
phrase, innocent of principle you not define it.
In the first place there is such thing bascally as
property rights. Property has rights But there is
human right to possess property 1t is of the
rights. The trainers of the Constitution regarded it as
of the three great natural rights may be un-
derstood from the clause whole 1t in the Bill
of Rights, and reads that person shall be deprived
of life, liberty, property without due process of
law"
"The supreme lawmaking power of the land. is
hereby vested in the Congress of the United States,
and legislative may be delegated to such depart
ments of government may be created from time
to time by act of Congress-
These few words, which perhaps would dare
to offer as an amendment to the Constitution, would
set the government free In constitutional manner they
would produce that chance which the Supreme has
usurpaon, but at least people would know what they
were doing. 1t would be change from limited to un-
limited government. Never again would any act of Con-
gress any sudden law imposed upon the country by
system of executive bureaus be declared unconsti-
tutional by the Supreme Court in cold legaistc
words principle.
But the most important of the forces are those
made up of average American citizens blessed with
capacity to think for themselves, and governed in their
dealings with their fellow by at least reasonable
human understanding and charity and is to this group
that we must dress ourselves They form the perma
nent structure of American life
according to Thomas Jefferson, the American sys-
tenn is wise and frugal government, which shall re-
strain men from njuring another, which shall
leave them otherwise free to regulate their pursuits
of industry and Improvement and shall take from the
mouth of labor the bread it has earned
1t is an axiom that the government of democracy
derives its from the consent of the governed I'll
is another axiom that governments only source of
supporting revenue is taxation.
The earth belongs to the living, and the economic
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