Evening star., 1944-09-17
Constitution Toduy

SOIStltutbOu tVOOy
A wise statesman recently has
pointed out that it is a mistake to
emphasize the propositions "of,"
"by" and "for" in the last sentence
of Abraham Lincoln's address at
Gettysburg November 10, 1868. The
word which should be stressed, he
contends, Is people; and the more
one thinks of the matter the more
one is apt to agree with the view Of
the text thus set forth.
Lincoln certainly did not invent
the conception of government Of,
by and for the whole national COM
munity. There is tradition, some
times challenged, that John Wyclif
announced his translation Of the
Scriptures in 1882 as a Bible "for
the government of the people, by
the people and for the people" But
even If this legend be rejected as
improved, 1t still must be admitted
that Daniel Webster, speaking in
the Senate on January 26, 1880, de-
clared: "The peoples government
us) made for the people, made by
the people and answerable to the
people," and that Theodore Parker.
in an address at Boston on May 20,
1850, argued: 1.-THE American idea
''' demands, as the proximate or
ganization thereof, democracy
that is, a government of all the
people, by all the people, for all the
people"
The doctrine was "in the air"
Lincoln, familiar, as he undoubtedly
was, with the language Of both
Webster and Parker, deliberately
had recourse to three phrases which
he knew from experience would be
not strange and novel to his audi
ence, but, instead, readily and
quickly comprehended by his hear
ers. Much of the essential grandeur
of his affirmation derives from the
accumulated folk intelligence which
it connotes. A stupid, selfish ma
ton could not have produced such
an utterance nor appreciated it II
by impossible chance 1t had been
produced.
September II, 1914, is perhaps as
good a date as any for thinking
about what "the people" means to
the people of the United States.
This is the one hundred and fifty
seventh anniversary of the adoption
of the Constitution, beginning: 1--WE,
the people," The Declaration of In
dependence, proclaimed to the world
eleven years earlier, had dealt with
proceeding in separation. "One
people" had dissolved "the political
bands" which had connected them
with another. The result of the
corporate action Of the thirteen re-
voting Colonies, however, had not
been to create a nation. On the
contrary, it had had a centrifugal
effect. Not until the Revolutionary
War had been won slowly and te-
diously and at vast cost did the
necessary Federal Union develop.
Then what Gladstone called "the
most wonderful work ever struck off
at given time by the brain and
purpose of man" was achieved. It
emanated directly from the people
and was not the act Of sovereign
and independent States. The pre-
amble contemplates the body of
electors, and the terms people" and
Citizens" are synonymous. AS
Henry Clay asserted in 1850, the
Constitution was made for pos
terity-unlimited, underlined, end
less, perpetual posterity." It was
designed to shield "all classes of
men, at all times and under all cir
cumstances," as Justice David Davis
insisted in 1885, And in the solemn
opinion of Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes in 1904, it was not intended
to "embody particular economic
theory" but "is made for people of
fundamentally differing views"
It is good to remember these
things and to ponder them on the
eve of a national election. America
will live and prosper in the ratio
and to the degree of her fulfllment
of her basic charter of freedom and
order.