ying it when necessary.

Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence a denunciation of
slavery, and called it an "execrable commerce." It was stricken out at
the request of Georgia and South Carolina, and years afterward slavery
was recognized in our Constitution.

But slavery was opposed to the spirit of our institutions, and while
legalized by our Constitution and defended by armies as brave as ever
marched to battle, constitutional slavery went down before
institutional liberty; and Appomattox was the capitulation of the word
of death in our Constitution to the spirit of life in our
institutions. Every amendment of our Constitution marks the progress
of our institutions.

The Constitution contemplated and provided for the election of
Presidents by electors, who should select the best man to preside over
the Republic, irrespective of the people's choice. That was the
intention of the fathers. But in that they did not correctly interpret
the spirit and tendency of our institutions, which is toward getting
the Government as close to the people as possible.

And so, in spite of the Constitution, in spite of the intention of the
fathers, in spite of the fact that this plan was pursued for several
elections, the spirit of our institutions prevailed over our
Constitution, and no presidential elector now dare cast his ballot
against the candidate for whom the people instruct him to vote.

Even outside of the doctrine of implied powers by which our written
Constitution has been made to meet many of the emergencies of our
history, there are important things in our National life that have all
the force of organic law which are unprovided for by the Constitution.
For example, the Constitution does not say that a congressman must
live in the district which he represents. So far as constitutional
law is concerned, he might live anywhere. But no matter--our
institutional law settles that. The theory of local self-government
requires the representative of a locality to live in that locality.

Wherever our Constitution has been weak and insufficient in its
apparent expressed powers, the spirit of our institutions has given it
life. Read Marshall's opinions; read most of our great constitutional
decisions; read the whole history of American constitutional progress,
if you would know the beneficent influence of our institutions on our
Constitution.

Thus we see that our institutions are the preservers of our
Constitutio