Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 23.pdf/258

 230

The Green Bag

institutions; that it involves an altera tion of the whole machinery of the Constitution by removing the checks and

balances

therein

so

exquisitely

adjusted, a step may be taken without the people realizing the grave conse quences it involves. I respectfully

dissent from the view that this move to change the manner of electing Senators is a popular one, or that there is any clamor of public opinion demanding it. On the contrary, notwithstanding many states have pronounced in favor of it,

I believe that the people at large have taken very little interest in the question. Certainly as a separate national issue it has never been seriously discussed.

In the last Presidential campaign Mr.

tendencies of the people. These can always be changed by legislation to suit existing conditions. They are not unlike fashions of dress which are often

altered to meet the whims and caprices of the people, and if they do not suit they can promptly be modiﬁed or abandoned. Constitutions are bodies of permanent rules, general and wide in their language and application, and intended to meet every condition and

phase of national life. These monuments of wisdom comprehending in their text and spirit the humanity, justice and freedom of a people, are made to endure and like the magniﬁcent architectural structures of the world, have been

Bryan distinctly tendered it and the

erected to withstand the storms, changes and ravages of centuries. Unhappily

people distinctly voted against it. It has been largely engineered by a class

this important distinction has been frequently overlooked, and many state

the

Constitutions are unnecessarily loaded

lurking dangers involved in the change, has blown the infectious doctrine through out the land upon the wings of a false vox Populi. After examining with more than superﬁcial attention the small library of official and academic literature ac cumulated upon the subject, I have not seen a solitary ground based upon principle, reason or fact to sustain this proposition. On the contrary in my

with provisions whose subjects should be dealt with by the legislatures. This has encouraged a looseness of thought among many of our public men and prop ositions to change the organic law are often treated as if only ordinary legisla tion were involved.

result in the absorption of the two houses of legislation as now constituted by one

humble judgment history, reason and

large popular Assembly.

principle unite in an emphatic and deep

asked, of what eﬂﬁcacy are two houses of legislation chosen in the same man ner? Two legislative bodies popularly elected? And a resolution has already

of

reformers

which

protest against it.

overlooking

In unfolding my

views I shall in the proper places en deavor

to

fully

answer

the

several

grounds urged by the advocates of the amendment.

Any change of any kind in the organic law is a serious event and unless there be plain and very substantial reasons demanding an amendment it should not be encouraged.

Constitu

tions are not like laws, which closely follow the temper, customs and present

A change in the method of election of

United States Senators will eventually

For, it may be

been introduced in the Michigan Legis lature asking for the abolition of the Senate. The Thane of Cawdor had but one bloody step to take and he would

be King. This legislator of Michigan, gifted with the prophetic vision of the witches, would hasten the course of

evolution and precipitate a result which must inevitably

follow a change

in