Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/42
38 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAPERS.
Even in the matter of amending the federal constitution, be- hold Senator LaFollette's "gateway amendment," by which a minority is empowered to propose amendments. A similar pro- vision was made fifty years before in the constitution of the Confederate States of America; (54) a most decided improve- ment, in favor of the rights of the minority, over the cumber- some and reactionary provision of the federal constitution re- quiring a two- thirds majority even to propose amendment for consideration by the amending power.
These, I submit, are no fanciful comparisons, no imaginary parallels. No matter what may be all the details, all the motives, in each case, on the whole we may confidently affirm that through it all runs a larger sense than before of the rights of the weaker; of the beauties and blessings of peace; of the folly, and worse, of war. The Hague tribunal and the Bryan peace treat- ies are further witnesses to this auspicious change. To come nearer home: an acquaintance of mine, a gentleman from Cali- fornia, remarked casually, in the course of a conversation with me, that among the people of the Pacific coast there was quite a good deal of talk to the effect that they have their own inter- ests and are quite capable of maintaining a separate political existence ; although, he added, there is among them, too, a strong attachment to the union. Just how these two things are recon- ciled, or to be reconciled he did not say. And (another coinci- dence) much of the differences, if such we may style them, be- tween the Pacific States and the East, like the former contro- versies between South and North, arise from a race question growing out of the presence in their midst of an alien, dark- skinned race..
So we see the tardily turning tide of national and inter- national ideals and tendencies at last following the once over- whelmed, never really lost, current of Confed- Our Past Ex- erate p r i nc ipi es . And the South, the ever faith- emplrrs Our . t . A . /-, ,
Future Guides South, of later times we find revering her
leaders of the earlier and darker periods, for "there is life in the old land yet."
