The Short ConstitutionWade, Martin J. (Martin Joseph)
History
The Short Constitution
Wade, Martin J. (Martin Joseph)
United States. Constitution
“The Federal Constitution, the whole of it, is nothing but a code of
the people’s liberties, political and civil. The Constitution is not
a mass 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 Constitution_.
“No other country in the world possesses the guarantees of
individual liberty and inherent rights that are accorded by the
Constitution 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 Constitution to the ever-changing needs from
generation to generation of the most progressive nation in the
world. The Constitution is not a static institution. 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 washing of time and
circumstances. 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 Constitution 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 constitutes 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 circumstance. If they are destroyed,
then the spirit of our government is gone, even if the form
survive.”—James M. Beck.
“The Constitution 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 God
decrees, that it may not perish from the earth through treachery
within or through assault without.”—Thomas R. Marshall.
“Although not a citizen of your great country, I am heart and soul
with you and your associates in the glorious fight you are making
for the preservation of your peerless Constitution, which has made
your country what it is, and which is today the brightest hope of
mankind.”—Baron Rosen, formerly Russian Ambassador to the United
States of America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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