The Evolution of the State. 101 



cratic Government, he argues with great cogency that we 

 need to reorganize our organic law, and that a Convention 

 should be called to that end. Whatever may be said of 

 the perfect character of the work of our fathers, they 

 themselves were not so vain-glorious as not to provide, in 

 the terms of the instrument they presented for adoption, 

 the process of amendment. And, although it is probably 

 true, as Von Hoist has declared in his history of Consti- 

 tutional Law, that <'the republic has been more conserva- 

 tive in its fundamental law than any State whatever of the 

 European Constitution," yet it must be conceded that if we 

 cannot, as a people, be trusted to sit in deliberation upon 

 what the organic law of our nation should be, then we have 

 already demonstrated the failure of a republican or demo- 

 cratic form of government. Furthermore, if we are candid 

 with ourselves, we must see that, for some reason or other, 

 great evils have arisen in government, which are due either 

 to an inadequate organic law or to an imperfect adminis- 

 tration of that law. 



Let us pause for a moment to consider one of the most 

 obvious of these. I refer to the conspicuous incapacity of 

 any present mode of city government. No demonstration 

 of this fact is needed. The public till is deemed by many 

 to be a legitimate field for plunder. Its guardians have a 

 market price. There is no municipal legislature in any 

 considerable city of the Union, the character of whose 

 working majority of membership is such as to command 

 any large degree of confidence in either its integrity, indus- 

 try or intelligence. The important franchises of our cities 

 are hawked about in undiscovered places to the holders of 

 the largest purses. Public interests lie dormant; private 

 interests are ram/pant. Public office is made to produce the 

 largest results to the smallest number. Men Avith polished 

 exterior insist that they must make terms with what are 

 called the "practical politicians," or else we shall accom- 

 plish nothing at all; and so the dispensers of patronage 

 quietly place good men where they will do the least harm, 

 and deliver the most important interests of the city to men 

 who market their opportunity to the best personal advan- 

 tage. 



The representation of the City of New York in the last 

 legislature is a frightful example of incapacity and corruji- 

 tion; and what else could be expected when we find that 



