James Beck: “But what of its future and how long will the Constitution wholly resist the washing of time and circumstance?”

That vision will remain with them as long, and no longer, as there is in their hearts a conscious and willing acquiescence in its wisdom and justice.

If it ceases to be of the spirit of the people, then the yellow parchment whereon it is inscribed can avail nothing.

Its protection should be given to those of superior skill and diligence, who ask the due rewards of such superiority.

The greatest and noblest purpose of the Constitution was not alone to hold in nicest equipose the relative powers of the nation and the States, but also to maintain in the scales of justice a true equilibrium between the rights of…