82 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



will prohibit Alliances from taking organized action in partisan politics or 

 sectarian religion, under penalty of forfeiture of charter, and that all Alli- 

 ances to be hereafter organized be notified of that law before charters are 

 issued to them. 



"Your attention is called to the necessity of defining both for the infor- 

 mation of the membership and as a guide for your executive the genius 

 of your laws, both organic and statutory : this will be found a task worthy of 

 careful execution. It seems that the order is under two distinct systems of 

 law and government, and must necessarily be so as long as it is a secret order 

 with a written constitution the charter from the United States government 

 and the constitution adopted at the first meeting of this body, composed of 

 delegates from two States and ratified by those States comprises the organic 

 law. Under it each State is a separate autonomy, limited only by the rights 

 and powers expressly delegated to the national government in the constitu- 

 tion, thus making the order like the government of the United States, a con- 

 federated form of republican government, and authorizing its legislative branch 

 to make laws to the extent expressly delegated by the constitution only. 



" The other system of laws that governs the order, and to which it is sub- 

 ject, is similar to that of all other secret societies, and is of the nature of a 

 limited or constitutional monarchy, and must ever be so as long as the secret 

 work emanates from the general government. By authority of this system, 

 you have in your legislative capacity, while in session, powers co-ordinate at 

 least with the constitution. No constitution has ever prescribed a penalty for 

 violating the obligation, still any Sub-Alliance or any president, by virtue of 

 this last system of laws, to which the order is subject, would, on sufficient 

 evidence, expel a member for that offence, and expulsion is the extent of pun- 

 ishment possible under the constitution. Your powers, then, as a legislative 

 body, are supreme under the one system, and are only limited by the consti- 

 tution under the other. You will therefore be at liberty, should you so 

 decide, to pass a system of statutory laws, and to offer the State Alliances 

 constitutional amendments for their adoption. It will be found a great con- 

 venience to adopt a uniform rule when enacting statutory laws ; have them 

 read by caption, numbered, and referred to appropriate committees ; also require 

 that they all commence in the same form, as, 'be it enacted.' This will save 

 time from being wasted in useless discussion before the body. Statutory 

 laws enacted by this body, by virtue of the authority of the unwritten law or 

 secret work, should be supreme, controlling and being recognized and en- 

 forced by all subordinate divisions of the government. That is to say, should 

 this body pass a law by that authority which affected the individual member- 

 ship, all State, County, and Subordinate Alliances would immediately be sub- 

 ject to that law and responsible for its execution. 



" The organic law, as embodied in the constitution, should express nothing 

 but general principles, and should leave the provisions for applying those 

 principles entirely to legislative enactment. This is peculiarly necessary in 

 our form of popular government, where amendments to the constitution have 

 to be ratified by three-fourths of the State Alliances before becoming laws. 



