The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-05-10

Men of property Madison warned against
giving too much power to the masses He
said:
Viewing the subject in its merits alone
the freeholders property oWners) of the coun-
try would be the safest repositories of repub-
lican liberty. In future times great majority
of the people will not only be without landed.
but any other sort of property These will
either combine under the influence of their
common situation in which case. the rights
of property and the public liberty will not be
secure in their hands or, which is more prob
able, they will become the tools of opulence
and ambition; in which case there will be
equal danger another side
An opinion of cities. Washington feared
the urban masses. He said in a letter to
Lafayette THE tumultuous popuace of large
cities are ever to be dreaded Their indis-
criminate violence prostrates for the time all
public authority.
Gouverneur Morris of New York held the
same views. He said: Give the votes to
people who have property and they will
sell them to the rich who will be able to buy
them . The time is not distant when this
country will abound with mechanics and
manufacturers who will receive their bread
from their employers. Will such men be the
secure and faithful guardians of Hberty?"
Jefferson was equally concerned. He plac-
ed faith in the country's farmers, but had
little respect for mechanics and industrial
workers. He said II consider the class of
artificers as the panders of vice and the in
struments by which the liberties of a country
are generally overturned
An "evil" VS.. 'princple." On the cleo
ton Of Representatives by the people, Jeffer-
tiop
a house chosen by them will be very i'll quail
fled to legislate for the Union, for foreign ma
tons and forth, yet this evil does not
weigh against the good of preserving invio-
late the fundamental principle that the people
are not to be taxed but by representatives
chosen Immediately by themselves
With these thoughts in mind, the Found
ing Fathers left to the States the right to fix
qualifications for voters. At the time the Con-
sitution was adopted, most States limited the
vote to property owners. The vote denied
to Negroes, to women, and to men under II
years Of age.
Over the years, almost all of the original
ideas of the Founders have been gradually
displaced.
In 1913. the Seventeenth Amendment pro-
vided for direct election of Senators. In 1920,
the Nineteenth Amendment gave the vote to
women
The rise of political parties. the weaken
ing of the Electoral College and the extern
sion of the vote combined to produce what
amounts to the peoples election of the Presi-
dent The electoral system also tips the po-
litical balance in favor of the more populous
big city States development that the
Founding Fathers feared.
Growth of federal power. Since the early
days of this country. Congress, the President
and the Supreme Court have applied the Con-
sttution to enlarge the powers of the National
Government. This has been done through the
war power, the power to regulate interstate
commerce, and the power to tax and spend
public funds for the general welfare.
Under the war power, the Federal Gov
eminent may draft men into the armed
forces, allocate resources, impose priorites in
buying materials. Requirements for the ma
tional defense also make the Government the
biggest customer Of American industry.
The power to regulate interstate COM
MERGE has given rise to the power over labor
management relations the power to regulate
railroads. airlines. banks utilities and host
of other activities and the power to fix mini
mum wages.
The power to tax and spend for welfare
has produced the Social Security system, fed
eral aid for relief federal highways and vast
public works projects.
Actually, population growth, the develop
ment of industry and the rise of cities chang
ed the face of America. The National Gov
eminent grew, too as problems changed and
multiplied AS the late Justice Robert H. Jack
son said:
-. We have been in cycle of rapid CEN
tralzation, and Court opinions have sanction
ed a considerable concentration of power in
the Federal Government with corresponding
dimlnution in the authority and prestige of
the State governments
And Prof. Bernard Schwartz, an authority
on constitutional law, noted:
Intervention by Washington in matters
that were formerly deemed to he purely with
III local competence has. indeed, become 50
frequent that many wonder whether the States
arc not doomed TO become mere vestigial sur
NValS of formerly flourishng federal sys-
tenn
debate without end. The question of fed
cral power continues to be debated Cover
nors have complained about federal invasion
OF their rights. Congress has been criticized
Tor delegating too much power to executive
agencies. Congress and the President often
have been at odds over the division of power.
The Supreme Court. too. has been criticized
for expanding its powers
The Government that the Founding Faith
erS thought they had established appears to
be still in a process of change
iC1,t G