Guthrie ConstitutionalMorality 1912
Guthrie ConstitutionalMorality 1912
Guthrie ConstitutionalMorality 1912
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Review
The title and the text of this article were taken fro
Grote's History of Greece. The historian, reviewing t
state of the Athenian Democracy in the age of Kleisthen
points out that it became necessary at that time to creat
in the multitude, and through them to force upon the lea
ing men, the rare and difficult sentiment which he term
constitutional morality. He shows that the essence of thi
sentiment is self-imposed restraint, that few sentiments a
more difficult to establish in a community, and that its d
fusion, not merely among the majority, but throughout a
classes, is the indispensable condition of a government
once free, stable, and peaceable. Whoever has pondered th
history of Athens well knows that the Grecian Democrac
was ultimately overthrown, not by the spears of conqueror
but through the disregard of constitutional morality by h
own citizens.
We American lawyers would be blind, indeed, if we d
not recognize that there is at the present time a growi
tendency throughout the country to disregard constitution
morality. On all sides we find impatience with constitution
restraints, manifesting itself in many forms and under many
pretenses, and particularly with the action of the courts
protecting the individual and the minority against unc
stitutional enactments favoring one class at the expense
another. However worded and however concealed und
professions of social reform or social justice, the underlyi
spirit in many instances is one of impatience with any ru
of law.
Again we are meeting the oldest and the strongest political
plea of the demagogue, so often shown to be the most fal
*Ah address delivered before the Pennsylvania State Bar Association
at its annual meeting, Cape May, June 25, 1912.