118 Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 
tered into voluntarily, could be dissolved at will, staked 
their theory on the issue of a war, and lost. Those who 
regarded it as an indissoluble union won; and not con- 
tent with their victory as to the construction of the 
instrument, forced into the constitution certain amend- 
ments of the most revolutionary nature, which, added to 
the work of the courts along broad construction lines 
have effectively remodeled it, and, it has been hoped, 
made it over to a degree which renders further change 
unnecessary. Indications are multiplying, however, that 
we are coming upon another era of demand for institu- 
tional change, and assuming this to be the fact we at 
once look to the constitution for possible barriers to 
change: we, having for many years enjoyed the benefits 
of a written constitution in certainty of rights and immu- 
nities, are now confronted with one of its drawbacks, 
inflexibility to change. 
That changes will be soon demanded may be taken 
for granted. While the constitution has been greatly 
changed since its adoption, the conditions of life in the 
nation have been, in many most vital respects, com- 
pletely revolutionized. The Constitution, statesmanlike 
document that it was, was the reflection of the national 
life of 1787, in so far as there was at that time any 
national life. Its defects grew out of the mutual sus- 
picions and jealousies, the fear of the large states on the 
part of the small ones, their isolation from each other, 
and the lack of that national feeling which their history 
of dependence upon Britain and independence of each 
other had not been able to engender in them. 
The conditions in the convention of 1787 are now 
hard to realize. We cannot imagine the state of Mis- 
souri or Nebraska in the attitude of encroaching upon 
Iowa, seeking to annex her territory, erecting tariff walls 
against her, subjugating and making of her a depend- 
ency, or exercising any authority over her. Our century- 
and-a-quarter of constitutional history have completely 
extirpated all that old thirst for dominion of one state 
over another from among us. But the thirteen colonies 
were still less able to realize any such condition as we 
have happily arrived at. Their view of history disclosed 
little but a succession of struggles between states for 
supremacy over one another. The view then current as 
