tion of that simple and sublime utterance, which touches all human hearts: "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not." As I look back and recall many of the wonderful acts of this wonderful man, this was, to me, one among the most impressive and touching, and to-night presents to my mind a picture of moral grandeur, such as the world never before looked upon, a scene such as the future can only witness when like causes reproduce such an occasion - and such a man. "Ah, if in coming times As the colossal figure of Lincoln casts its shadow down the centuries, it will be a guide to all coming generations of Americans, inspiring, as it did, with courage and hope all loyal men during the darkest hours of the great struggle for our national life, when he "Faithful stood with prophet finger "Fearless when the lips of evil And his contemporaries, while they live, and his countrymen for all time, will cherish the thought, that neither time nor distance, nor things present, nor things to come, can dim the halo which surrounds and glorifies the unselfish and manly life of Abraham Lincoln. Letter from Hon. Isaiah T. Montgomery, Mound Bayou, Miss. The art of government is one of the first necessities of mankind, and the pages of history testify to the rise and fall of empires, which facts attest their imperfection in the science of government. And though American civilization has reached an exalted plane of development, our frequent periods of turmoil and evident strain in the administration of State and National Governments, should serve as a timely warning to be heeded, ere our great republic shall become involved in the common ruin that has befallen so many of its predecessors. All democratic governments should be subject to the conISAIAH T. MONTGOMERY. trol of the human intellect. It ought not to be expected that the founders of this republic should have attained perfection, especially when we consider the imperfect lights before them, and the common distrust then prevailing in the most enlightened minds, as to the capacity of the untrained masses of men for the safe depository of individual sovereignty. The subject of improving and perfecting our system of free democratic government, so lucidly treated by the author of this address, is sufficient to arrest the attention of every patriot, and command the earnest thought of every statesman, irrespective of party affiliations. Experience in the affairs of our Government, whether State or National, has clearly demonstrated the tremendous power of party machine managers, backed by party organizations, whose chief aim is the control of the patronage and emoluments of gov. ernment. That it forces upon the people a continual and often unsuccessful struggle to preserve the purity of their institutions, is well known. A continuation of these conditions, which are becoming more steadily intensified by the rapid increase of population, ought to be sufficient to suggest to all thinking minds, the conclusion that we are rapidly approaching a point beyond which our present system will prove inadequate to bear the strain. We are already witnessing efforts to purify the body politic, in the discussion of the propositions to nominate and to elect U. S. Senators by a direct vote of the people, of lengthening the presidential term to six years, and providing that the incumbent shall be nominated and elected by a direct vote, and be ineligible to a re-election. There is also a continual dread of a clash between State and National authorities, and a consequent jealousy on the part of the States, of any enlargement of the powers of the National Government. Within the States there is a growing distrust of the convention system, and in many instances recourse is being had to primary elections. The new constitution of this State (Mississippi) makes it encumbent upon the legislature to enact such laws as will insure fairness in conducting this class of elections. It seems to me that the system proposed in this address ought to prove particularly acceptable, because it clearly enlarges the powers of the people, appealing directly to their intelligence and patriotism for pure government, and guaranteeing absolute uniformity in the action of the States pertaining to national elections, without necessitating national supervision. The feature that proposes to equalize the powers of electors and secure to minorities the right or privilege of representation, is the SINE QUA NON of free democratic government; being vastly superior to the cumbersome methods now in vogue, through which an unchallenged majority, in order to strengthen its lease of power, sometimes stoops to deeds of tyranny as violative of the principles of justice as the baleful edicts of a crowned autocrat. Governor Ashley's plan contemplates direct and untrammeled action by the individual voter, and the creation of a carefully selected body of citizens in each State to act for them during any interim. This plan ought to commend itself to a people who have been prepared by a century and a quarter of varied experience, for the highest enjoyment of free government. ISAIAH T. MONTGOMERY. ADDRESS BY HON. J. M. ASHLEY, BEFORE THE OHIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 9th, 1891. THE IMPENDING POLITICAL EPOCH. "The world advances, and in time outgrows -James Russell Lowell. "As the fatal dogma of secession, was buried in a common grave with the great rebellion, it is fitting and proper that the national Constitution should be so amended, as to conform to the new and broader conditions of our national life." -From page 805 of Address. OHIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, 236 Fifth Avenue. Hon. J. M. ASHLEY, 150 Broadway, N. Y. MY DEAR GOVERNOR ASHLEY: The paper which you read last evening before the Ohio Society of New York touching upon existing defects in the Federal Constitution, the dangers they involve, and the remedies at hand, aroused in those who heard it a strong sense of its interest and value. A resolution thanking you for it and soliciting a copy of it for publication was unanimously passed. Sharing as I do this feeling of the Society, it is a personal pleasure to me to transmit to you their request, and to join personally with them in soliciting compliance. Very truly yours, WAGER SWAYNE. NEW YORK, November 11th, 1891. MY DEAR GENL.: It gives me pleasure to comply with the request of the Ohio Society of New York. Herewith I hand you a copy of my address for publication, and thank the Society for its complimentary approval. My acknowledgements are also due for the very agreeable manner in which you have been pleased to convey their wishes, and for the personal expression of your interest in the address. Truly yours, To Genl. WAGER SWAYNE, President of the J. M. ASHLEY. "Ohio Society of New York." MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE OHIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK: The favor with which this society received my address at its annual banquet last year, and the letters of generous commendation received by me from eminent men, thanking me for that contribution to our anti-slavery history, was so unexpected and gratifying that I am now glad I then acceded to the request of our worthy President and delivered it. But for his friendly determination that I should make such an address, it would not have been prepared. I can but hope that what I am to say before you to-night, may receive a like cordial reception. To you, and through you to the considerate judgment of all who may read what I shall say, I propose to submit some observations upon impending national questions, in connection with our increase of population, as disclosed by our census reports for one hundred years of progress; questions which, if I forecast aright, are certain at an early day to confront us, and to demand practical solution. If the appeal I am about to make against our present political system, shall cause you and those whom you can reach, to read and to give a deliberate judgment on the facts which I may present, I shall have accomplished my object. As there have been in the past, so in the future there are certain to be epochs in our national history, so marked, that he who runs may read. Our transition from a confederation to a nation, including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the War of the Rebellion, and the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, are great and important epochs of the past. In the near future, the impending epoch will mark a more complete recognition than we have yet witnessed, of the democratic idea in government, by amendments to our national Constitution, which will make it conform more fully than it now does to the imperative demands of a great republican commonwealth. James Russell Lowell says, that "He who would win the name of truly great The Constitution of our fathers, acceptable as it was a hundred years ago to a majority of the then population of three millions, could not be adopted without material amendment by any national constitutional convention which might now be chosen by the votes representing our sixty-three millions of people. If, then, it be true that with all our veneration for the Constitution of Washington, it would not to-day be accepted as it is and without material change, if submitted as a new Constitution to the people of the United States for their ratification or rejection, its defects must, indeed, be marked and radical. But it is not at all strange that in a hundred years we |