estates of decedents, or any other power, the will of the sovereign people will have to be obeyed. But let us hope that when amendments are adopted they will be conservative and wise, that the reserved powers of the states will not be heedlessly curtailed to the embarrassment of the states, and that it will be appreciated that local self-government is still essential to the perpetuation of our republican and federal institutions. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 59: Address delivered before the National Civic Federation at its annual meeting held in New York, December 13, 1906.] [Footnote 60: Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed., p. 705.] [Footnote 61: 157 United States Reports, p. 583.] THE DUTY OF CITIZENSHIP[62] At the outset of our deliberations, Republican delegates, it may be interesting to recall the circumstances of two prior national campaigns in which political symptoms and dissensions were quite analogous to those existing to-day. When the Republican state convention met in 1880, and again in 1896, the outlook for the success of the Republican party had for a time been discouraging. In each of these campaigns there were many who feared that the party had been disrupted and that its usefulness might be coming to an end. In each campaign a wave of false doctrine, sentimentality and prejudice threatened to drown reason amid the prevailing excitement, clamor and declamation. But in each courage and soberness came before November, and the common sense, honesty, sanity and patriotism of the American people supported the sound principles and policies of national and constitutional government for which the Republican party stands.