Changing the Constitution
By Editor
There are so few true conservative-of-the-good utterances in these days, that it is worth while to note them, and send them on for others to consider. One of these is from former Governor Henry T. Gage of California, the newly appointed minister to Portugal. He is quoted as saying: "There are many principles in government which should never be changed. There is no more necessity now for changing the Constitution of the United States than there is cause to change the multiplication table every time people desire to work a new problem in arithmetic, or cause to reform the Lord's prayer because of its ancient origin. There are too many laws. The country to-day is being overburdened with new laws. We need greater stability in law and its more perfect enforcement. There are too many reckless and bulging changes made in our laws every time our Legislature convenes. No amendment to the old alphabet will ever improve it or be needed for the people either to spell justice or to do justice, and the fewer the changes made in the principles of our constitutional government the better for the preservation of the rights and happiness of the American people. Ought the Bible to be amended in order to suit the ways of the modern sinner, or should the sinner be reformed to abide by its grand precepts? Let the Constitution of the United States alone, and for the good of the country let a lot of the political sinners that would needlessly amend our national creed, to suit their own notions of themselves, be made the subject of reformation." And these remarks have a good deal broader application than in a political sense. The principles are just as apt regarding God's great constitution, the Decalogue.