Page:Frank David Ely -Why defend the nation? Sound Americanism... (1924).pdf/25

Rh years immediately following on the Declaration of Independence, when the Nation's efforts were all but paralyzed in the actual establishment of that independence under the operation of the Continental Congress and, later, under the Articles of Confederation, the weakness of both establishing the necessity for centralized authority with full coercive and sovereign powers; the promotion of the general welfare, a broad provision carrying the necessary authority for all development and improvement for which time might develop the need and which might not be included under the other provisions; and lastly, the insuring of the blessings of liberty to themselves and to all posterity, than which no other desire was more strongly intrenched or more effective in securing independence.

These six broad purposes, the ground plan of the government we today enjoy, are as essential to the continued growth and the maintenance of this Nation as they were when originally enunciated and adopted. One hundred and thirty-four years of growth under the Constitution (during which period the Nation has endured through trials that would have terminated it had it other than the soundest of foundations) have thoroughly demonstrated its fitness to endure as planned, and further, that it could not endure as a free Nation if subjected to any vital change. Tinkering with the Constitution is most dangerous.

The facts above stated should lie deep in the minds of every man and every woman who exercises the rights of suffrage. That they are not so is very apparent from the constituencies which return to seats of power men who have demonstrated the most thorough unfitness to have voice in the affairs of government. Truly, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” and it should become the vow of every good American to contribute all that he may to the furtherance of knowledge of the essentials of our government, and to give his unqualified support to every vital basic purpose thereof.

From the beginning of history men formed themselves into groups for mutual self-interest—primarily for self-protection and defense. This tendency of mankind—than which there is no other so humanly fundamental—resulting in obvious ad-