The Short Constitution Part 28

We must teach them that it guarantees the inviolability of contracts, that it prevents even a great State from taking the life or property of its humblest citizen without a trial under due process of law, that trial by jury is preserved, and that no man can be convicted of a crime without the privilege of being represented by counsel, and that no man can be compelled to be a witness against himself.

We must recall to them the awful tragedies enacted in the days of old, where, under Star Chamber proceedings, men were deprived of their property and their lives upon charges of treason, which were never proven; and then we must point out to them the burning words of the Const.i.tution, which provides that no man can be found guilty of treason without at least two witnesses to the overt act.

We must impress upon them the great truth, that there is not now, and never has been, a system of government which can abolish sorrow, or sickness, or stay the hand of death. That no government can help men who will not help themselves; that there is no way in which any government can bring riches to the indolent, nor bread to those who will not toil. We must combat the false philosophy which a.s.sumes that all men are equal in all things, because men are not equal, except as under the Const.i.tution they are equal before the law. No system of legislation and no method of government can equalize the strong with the weak, the wise with the simple, the good with the bad. While G.o.d gives to some men wisdom and shrewdness which others do not possess, while some are broad shouldered, with muscles of steel, and others are frail, and tremble as they walk, there will always be riches, there will always be poverty, and any scheme for equalizing the possessions of men is but an idle dream which never can be realized until men are made over into beings without pa.s.sion or pride or ambition or selfishness. Do not let them feel that its provisions are intended to protect only the rich and powerful. If the right of a railway corporation to certain lands is sustained under some const.i.tutional provision, do not allow the people to a.s.sume that this provision exists only for corporations, but impress upon them that the same const.i.tutional provision which protects the railway company in its rights, may be invoked in defense of the little homestead out upon the prairies.

If some desperado should be acquitted because he invoked the const.i.tutional requirement that he upon his trial must be confronted by the witnesses against him, remind those who criticise that this same provision is made for their sons who may to-morrow be unjustly charged with a crime; impress upon them that it is impossible to have one law for the guilty, and another for the innocent; and that under our Const.i.tution, every man is presumed to be innocent until proven to be guilty.

Then impress upon the people something of the wonderful growth of the Nation, the development of the Nation, and the progress of the Nation-all under the wise protection of the Const.i.tution. To those who may be discouraged in the battle of life, and who may attribute their failure to the injustice of social conditions, point out what other men have done under the same conditions, with no better opportunity, and ask them to ponder the question as to whether their failure is not to be attributed largely to their own lack of energy and determination.(117)

And if they point out abuses which do exist, ask them to aid in eliminating these abuses. If half the energy which is exerted by earnest, but misguided people, in efforts to tear down our form of government, were honestly applied in an effort to remedy existing evils in a const.i.tutional way, these people would show that they were patriots, and at the same time they would accomplish something for their country and their fellowmen.(118)

_Too long have we been silent_ while the enemies of our country have poisoned the minds of youth, yea, and of manhood and womanhood, with the gospel of treason.

Those who despise and condemn the Const.i.tution have in the past ten years had more earnest students of their vicious doctrines than have those who uphold the Const.i.tution and prize their liberties which the Const.i.tution guards and protects.

All over the land earnest men and women are endeavoring to teach the great truth of Americanism, and with substantial success; but those who understand human nature realize that the faith of our fathers can only be firmly established by lighting the fires of patriotism and loyalty in the hearts of our children. Through them the great truths of our National life can be brought into the homes of the land.

And the Nation will never be safe until the Const.i.tution is carried into the homes, until at every fireside young and old shall feel a new sense of security in the guaranties which are found in this great charter of human liberty, and a new feeling of grat.i.tude for the blessings which it a.s.sures to this, and to all future generations.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to a.s.sume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's G.o.d ent.i.tle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are inst.i.tuted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to inst.i.tute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his a.s.sent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pa.s.s Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his a.s.sent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pa.s.s other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pa.s.s others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his a.s.sent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a mult.i.tude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to hara.s.s our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our const.i.tution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his a.s.sent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circ.u.mstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely parallel in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, s.e.xes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Pet.i.tioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Pet.i.tions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circ.u.mstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, a.s.sembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rect.i.tude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

CONSt.i.tUTION OF THE UNITED STATES