L. A. S by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 12, 1903

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

It has not been often in the history of the United States that changes have been made in the national Constitution. Such changes as have been brought about have been the outcome of crises in the nation’s life, when the welfare of millions of its citizens has hung in the balance. From the nature of that document and its fundamental importance in the republican system of government in this country, it must be true that a change in its provisions is a matter of grave importance to its citizens, directly so to some, and indirectly to all; for no change can be made in the fundamental law of a republic which does not concern all the citizens with which the republic has to do.

That a change in the Constitution is now pending, and is indeed practically an accomplished fact, is a matter to which public attention is called by a recent decision of the supreme court of the United States, touching the force of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution as against a provision of the amended constitution of Alabama. The fifteenth amendment says:—

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The New York Sun, speaking of the case in question, declares that the nation is rapidly coming to believe that this amendment “was one of the most deplorable mistakes in our history.” The Sun believes that “sooner or later the country will have to face squarely the question of its repeal,” and that in view of the attitude of the supreme court as shown by its refusal to enforce the amendment where a State has disfranchised some of its citizens, the time of its repeal can not be far off.

A change in the fundamental law of the American republic is but one thing of many which admonish us that we are living in a time of great and sudden changes, a time when prophecy is fast fulfilling, and momentous events looming up on the horizon of the future. At such a time we should make sure that we ourselves are “steadfast, unmovable, . . . abounding in the work of the Lord.”