INDIFFERENCE TO GREAT PRINCIPLES.
UNDER the subhead of pernicious private interpretation, James R. Randall, a well-known writer, has the following in the Catholic Mirror of December 3; it presents some things worthy of serious consideration:— In civic affairs there is a pretense of veneration for the Constitution of the United States, but it was thrown overboard about forty years ago, in certain sections, and just now we read as follows in the New York Evening Post’s Washington correspondence:— “The most extraordinary thing about the expansion plans of the party in power is the indifference of supposed statesmen toward the constitutional questions involved. Nearly everybody takes it for granted that our tropical possessions will have a different tariff system from ‘the mother country,’ but how such an arrangement is to be established, in the oft-quoted words of the constitution, ‘all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States,’ is not fully apparent. That nobody knows what the government at Washington purposes to do in this particular is not so surprising as that nobody seems to care. American self-confidence has received such an impetus from the victories of Dewey and Sampson that the inhibition of the poor old Constitution is not taken seriously.” When a people repudiate their organic law, their written constitution, or pervert it for selfish ends, their form of government must be seriously impaired or in danger of violent revolution. To restore the Constitution, to save the republic, to preserve our real freedom,—these are the things most demanded of true patriots, who remember that “extended empire, like extended gold, exchanges solid strength for feeble splendor.” Utter indifference to great principles is a characteristic sign of the times. Men false to every principle of righteousness, as are some men prominent in public life to-day, are held in power and place by the people, or by party leaders. Expediency is more than righteousness; policy is more than principle. The Constitution stands for principles, but if these principles of righteousness and equality are obstructions to an “expansive” policy or “imperial” ambition or dominion, the principles are torn to shreds. And when a government departs from these principles, it is certainly in danger; it is in itself in a worse condition than a revolution; it is disintegrating. There is a reason for all this. The most of the people of this land are professed believers in the Bible. The Constitution of that Book is expressed in God’s Ten Words, the Decalogue. Men are repudiating that; and in repudiating that they repudiate the principles of righteousness for which that to all eternity stands. When God said: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . The Seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” on all principles of sound logic He meant the Seventh-day, the day before the First-day of the week; but men have in effect said that they know better than God, and have read into His Constitution the First-day instead of Seventh-day. This was done under apostasy in the Dark Ages; but now, in these days of enlightenment,7when the truth is made plain, men repudiate the Constitution of High Heaven, and continue in its stead the counterfeit. And if they will do this as respects the Divine Government, how much more the human! There are doubtless many who would not do this if the issue came clearly before them. Many would not favor the present “imperial” policy of the United States if they knew that it was inhibited by the Constitution; if they knew that involved in it was the sacrifice of principles of righteousness and equality; if they knew that it meant in the ultimate the certain ruin of the republic; but they are swallowed up in the great tidal wave of indifference which has swept over the land. Men are trusting in a name of the dead past, but blind to the present conditions. “Our fathers believed in equality and justice to all; we are their progeny, and wiser, and therefore we so believe. Our fathers believed in religious liberty, and fought for it; we are their inheritors, and wiser, and therefore we do.” So men fatuously reason, possessing a name, but having lost the substance. So the Jews reasoned when Christ was upon earth. They swore by Moses, and slew Him whose Spirit inspired Moses. They built costly memorial sepulchres to the prophets, and crucified Him who sent the prophets. He only is safe in Church or State who abides by the eternal principles of righteousness and equality set forth in the Constitution of God’s government, not perforce, but willingly. He only will not be ensnared who shakes off indifference, and exercises “eternal vigilance.”