The Short Constitution Part 34

30 The Thirty-fifth General a.s.sembly of the State of Iowa provided for a State Inspector of Weights and Measures whose duty is to travel over the State and investigate conditions among those who buy and sell, and to make arrests and prosecute those found defrauding others by giving short weights or measures, or who sell or offer for sale spoiled foods, or keep their shops or stores in an unsanitary condition.

31 Const.i.tution of the United States, Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 5.

_ 32 Revised Statutes of the United States_, Sec. 5413 and following.

33 Very few letters are ever lost in the mails. The writer one time addressed a letter to a friend living in Sydney, Australia. It was mailed at Iowa City, Iowa, and was sent east. That letter went by way of New York, England, France, Italy, the Suez Ca.n.a.l, and the Indian Ocean to Sydney, Australia. The person to whom it was sent had, in the meantime, left Sydney and the letter failed of delivery.

About three months after being first mailed it was returned to the writer whose return address was on the outside of the envelope. In being returned it came by way of the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco and across the United States from the west. The letter had encircled the globe and was returned safely to the original sender. Pretty good work for the International Mail System.

34 Const.i.tution of the United States, Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 7.

35 There are four general theories as to the origin of the Const.i.tution of the United States: (1) That it was an entirely new doc.u.ment. This theory was inspired by the statement of Gladstone. People who heard Mr. Gladstone or read of his comment on the Const.i.tution misinterpreted his saying and came to believe he meant that that great Const.i.tution was the work of the moment as conceived by the men in the convention at Philadelphia. No one knew better than Mr.

Gladstone himself that such was not true. (2) That it was copied almost entirely after the English const.i.tution of that time. This was the theory of Sir Henry Maine, and it was just as erroneous as was the common acceptance of Gladstone's statement. There are many things in the Const.i.tution of the United States that were not in the English const.i.tution of that time. (3) That it was based entirely upon the experience of the colonists themselves. This theory is also incorrect as the facts show that many fundamentals of the Const.i.tution were copied directly from the governments of European countries. (4) That it was due to all the above influences taken together, but that they were worked out by the colonists and the Const.i.tution makers in their many years of experience in making Const.i.tutions for the States after their independence from England, and during the time of the Confederation.

A careful study of the debates in the convention at Philadelphia will reveal the fact that the different governments, inst.i.tutions, rulers, and statesmen of Europe were referred to in the making of the Const.i.tution.

During the discussions in the convention one hundred and thirty allusions were made to the government and inst.i.tutions of England.

The allusions made to France numbered nineteen. Those made to the German States were seventeen. Those made to Holland were nineteen.

Greece was referred to thirteen times; Switzerland was alluded to five times; and Rome was alluded to sixteen times.

The English government and inst.i.tutions were held up as a model to be imitated fifty times; as an example to be avoided, twenty-four times. France was held up as a model three times, and as a warning five times. Rome was cited five times as a model and seven times as a warning.

From the standpoint of training, experience, and general qualifications for const.i.tution makers, the delegates who sat in the Federal convention at Philadelphia were the most remarkable group of statesmen the world has ever seen. Sixty-five delegates were chosen, of whom fifty-five attended the convention and of these thirty-nine signed the Const.i.tution, three were present but refused to sign, and thirteen were absent on the last day. Of the fifty-five who sat in the convention, twenty-five were from northern States and thirty from southern States. Of the thirty-nine signers, nineteen were from the North and twenty from the South.

Of the fifty-five men thirty were college men, twenty-six had degrees, forty-seven were afterwards prominent in public life; of the remaining eight, at least four died soon after the close of the convention. The most noted men were: Was.h.i.+ngton, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Wilson, Patterson, Gerry, Sherman, Pinckney, and Randolph.

Six men who signed the Const.i.tution had also signed the Declaration of Independence-Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Robert Morris, and George Clymer of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and George Read of Delaware.-Meyerholz's _The Federal Convention_.

36 Montesquieu, a famous French writer of the eighteenth century, tells us that political liberty consists in the security one feels in doing whatever the law permits. However we must remember that the laws themselves must likewise be sound.

37 We must notice that Article I of "The Short Const.i.tution" commences, "_Congress shall make no law_" etc., which means that these first eight amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States apply only to the Federal government, and are limitations on the powers of Congress rather than on the powers of the States. However most States have similar provisions in their Const.i.tutions.

38 Article X is important because it tells in a few words the exact relation of the States to the Federal government.

39 Article V of the main body of the Const.i.tution provides that when nine States should ratify the Const.i.tution, it should be established as the frame of government. The first State to ratify was Delaware, December 7, 1787; the ninth State was New Hamps.h.i.+re, June 21, 1788; and the last State was Rhode Island, May 29, 1790.

40 George Was.h.i.+ngton expressed the vast importance of this thought when he said: "_The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make or alter their const.i.tution of government._"

"The Const.i.tution is itself in every rational sense and to every useful purpose a bill of rights."-Alexander Hamilton.

"Much of the strength and efficiency of any government in procuring and securing happiness to the people depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of the people and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Const.i.tution wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered."-Benjamin Franklin.

"In the fullness of time a Republic rose up in the wilderness of America. Thousands of years had pa.s.sed away before this child of the ages could be born. From whatever there was of good in the systems of former centuries, she drew her nourishment; the wrecks of the past were her warnings. The wisdom which had pa.s.sed from India through Greece, with what Greece had added of her own, the jurisprudence of Rome, the mediaeval munic.i.p.alities, the Teutonic method of representation, the political experience of England, the benignant wisdom of the expositors of the law of nature and of nations in France and Holland, all shed on her their selectest influence. Out of all the discoveries of statesmen and sages, out of all the experience of past human life, she compiled a perennial political philosophy, the primordial principles of national ethics-she sought the vital elements of social forms and blended them harmoniously in the free commonwealth which comes nearest to the ill.u.s.tration of the natural equality of all men. She entrusted the guardians.h.i.+p of established rights to law; the movement of reform to the spirit of the people and drew her force from the happy reconciliation of both."-George Bancroft.

"In spite of its supposed precision, and its subjection to judicial construction, our const.i.tution has always been indirectly made to serve the turn of that sort of legislation which its friends call progressive, and its enemies call revolutionary, quite as effectively as though Congress had the omnipotence of parliament.

The theory of the latent powers to carry out those granted has been found elastic enough to satisfy almost any party demands in time of peace, to say nothing of its enormous extensions in time of war."-_The Nation_, November 7, 1872, No. 384, p. 300.

"Our fathers by an almost divine prescience, struck the golden mean."-Pomeroy's _An Introduction to the Const.i.tutional History of the United States_, p. 102.

"It (the United States Const.i.tution) ranks above every other written Const.i.tution for the intrinsic excellence of its scheme, its adaptation to the circ.u.mstances of the people, the simplicity, brevity and precision of its language, its judicious mixture of definition in principle with elasticity in details. One is induced to ask, to what causes, over and above the capacity of its authors and the patient toil they bestowed upon it, these merits are due, or in other words, what were the materials at the command of the Philadelphia Convention for the achievement of so great an enterprise as the creation of a nation by means of an instrument of government. The American Const.i.tution is no exception to the rule that everything which has power to win the obedience and respect of men must have its roots deep in the past, and that the more slowly every inst.i.tution has grown, so much the more enduring it is likely to prove. There is little in this Const.i.tution that is absolutely new. There is much that is as old as Magna Charta."-James Bryce, author of _The American Commonwealth_.

"Let reverence for the law be breathed by every mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, seminaries, and colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books and almanacs; let it be preached from pulpits, and proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice; let it become the political religion of the nation."-Abraham Lincoln.

"The Const.i.tution, which may at first be confounded with the Federal Const.i.tutions which have preceded it, rests in truth upon a wholly novel theory-a great discovery in modern political science. In all the Confederations which have preceded the American Const.i.tution of 1787, the Allied States ... agreed to obey the injunctions of a federal government; but they reserved to themselves the right of ordaining and enforcing the laws of the Union...." (The American government, he explains, claims directly the allegiance of every citizen, and acts upon each directly through its own courts and officers.) "This difference has produced the most momentous consequences."-Tocqueville's _Democracy in America_.

"It will be the wonder and admiration of all future generations and the model of all future const.i.tutions."-William Pitt, after reading the Const.i.tution of the United States.

"The Const.i.tution of the United States is by far the most important production of its kind in human history. It created, without historic precedent, a federal-national government It combined national strength with individual liberty in a degree so remarkable as to attract the world's admiration. Never before in the history of man had a government struck so fine a balance between liberty and union, between state rights national sovereignty. The world had labored for ages to solve this greatest of all governmental problems, but it had labored in vain. Greece in her mad clamor for liberty had forgotten the need of the strength that union brings, and she perished. Rome fostered union, nationality, for its strength, until it became a tyrant and strangled the child liberty.

It was left for our own Revolutionary fathers to strike the balance between these opposing forces to join them in a perpetual wedlock in such a way as to secure the benefits of both. They selected the best things that had been tried and proved. Hence their great success, hence the fact that 132 years after its signing, this same Const.i.tution is still the supreme law of the land and more deeply imbedded in the American heart than ever."-Henry William Elson.

"The Const.i.tution is not an arbitrary, unchangeable doc.u.ment, but can be adapted to meet new conditions whenever the people decide. It should be upheld because under its wise provisions the United States has developed into a great nation of happy and prosperous people; because it contains sacred guarantees of protection for the individual; and because it affords freedom and opportunity for every citizen, whether native-born or naturalized. American citizens.h.i.+p securely rests upon its firm foundation."-Henry Litchfield West.

"The Federal Const.i.tution, the whole of it, is nothing but a code of the people's liberties, political and civil. The Const.i.tution is not a ma.s.s of rules, but the very substance of our freedom, not obsolete; but in every part alive; more needful now than ever, and as fitted to our needs."-Stimson's _The American Const.i.tution_.

"No other country in the world possesses the guarantees of individual liberty and inherent rights that are accorded by the Const.i.tution of the United States."-David Jayne Hill's _The People's Government_.

"We need not view with apprehension or even regret the gradual adaptation of the Const.i.tution to the ever-changing needs from generation to generation of the most progressive nation in the world. The Const.i.tution is not a static inst.i.tution. It is neither, on the one hand, a sandy beach, which is quickly destroyed by the erosion of the waves, nor, on the other hand, is it a Gibralter rock which wholly resists the ceaseless was.h.i.+ng of time and circ.u.mstances. Its strength lies in its adaptability to slow and progressive change. While the necessity of change may be recognised in the non-essentials, yet the Const.i.tution was based upon certain fundamental principles which were not thus changeable. These times should not wither nor custom stale. While the great compact apparently dealt only with very concrete and practical details of government in the very simplest language, and carefully avoided anything that savored of visionary doctrinarism, yet, behind these simply but wonderfully phrased delegations of power, was a broad and accurate political philosophy, which const.i.tutes the true doctrine of American Government. Its principles are of eternal verity. They are founded upon the inalienable rights of man. They are not the thing of the day or temporary circ.u.mstance. If they are destroyed, then the spirit of our government is gone, even if the form survive."-James M. Beck.

"The Const.i.tution remains the surest and safest foundation for a free government that the wit of man has yet devised."-Nicholas Murray Butler.

"I believe there is no finer form of government than the one under which we live, and that I ought to be willing to live or die, as G.o.d decrees, that it may not perish from the earth through treachery within or through a.s.sault without."-Thomas R. Marshall.

"Although not a citizen of your great country, I am heart and soul with you and your a.s.sociates in the glorious fight you are making for the preservation of your peerless Const.i.tution, which has made your country what it is, and which is today the brightest hope of mankind."-Baron Rosen, formerly Russian Amba.s.sador to the United States of America.

"Under the American Const.i.tution was realized the sublime conception of a nation in which every citizen lives under two complete and well-rounded systems of laws,-the state law and the federal law-each with its legislature, its executive, and its judiciary moving one within the other, noiselessly, and without friction. It was one of the longest reaches of constructive statesmans.h.i.+p ever known in the world. There never was anything quite like it before, and in Europe it needs much explanation even for educated statesmen who have never seen its workings. Yet to America it has become so much a matter of course that they, too, sometimes need to be told how much it signifies. _In 1787 it was the subst.i.tution of law for violence between states that were partly sovereign. In some future still grander convention we trust the same thing will be done between states that have been wholly sovereign, whereby peace may gain and violence be diminished over other lands than this which has set the example._"-John Fiske, in 1888.

41 The English government forced laws upon the colonies to restrict trade and manufactures, to place a standing army in America, and to raise taxes. The tax laws were denounced as illegal by the colonists, who argued that they were not represented in Parliament.

Read the charges made against the king and the government of England in the Declaration of Independence.

42 Read the famous speech made by James Otis against the Stamp Act in the Stamp Act Congress in New York, October, 1765. See _American History Leaflets_.

43 The following were the fundamental defects of the Articles of Confederation.

a. They did not provide for a central executive, and there was no supreme executive to enforce the laws.

b. No provision was made for a central judiciary, and each State interpreted the Federal laws as it saw fit.

c. They permitted concurrent legislation on vital subjects: i. e.

each State could legislate as it pleased on such subjects as tariff, foreign treaties, currency, etc.

d. They permitted each State to regulate its own coinage and there were at one time at least fourteen different kinds of coins in the thirteen States. This greatly interfered with trade.

e. They gave Congress no power to enforce the observance of treaties. Congress could pa.s.s laws but could not enforce them.

f. They gave Congress no power to coerce a State-it could only recommend to the States.

g. They required a two-thirds vote on all questions in Congress, and votes were cast by States. Most bills may pa.s.s the present Congress by a majority vote.

h. Congress could not reach the individual to punish him for crime committed against the Federal government, except through the State in which the crime was committed. Often the States refused to act.