ich would have surprised
the Fathers to whom they are imputed. Those who examine the records of
the formative period of American institutions, not to obtain material
for a case but simply to ascertain the facts, will readily observe that
what is known as the principle of strict construction dates only from
the organization of national parties under the Constitution. It was an
invention of the opposition to Federalist rule and was not held by the
makers of the Constitution themselves. The main concern of the framers
was to get power for the National Government, and they went as far as
they could with such success that striking instances may be culled from
the writings of the Fathers showing that the scope they contemplated has
yet to be attained. Strict construction affords a short and easy way
of avoiding troublesome issues--always involved in unforeseen national
developments--by substituting the question of constitutional power for a
question of public propriety. But this method has the disadvantage,
that it belittles the Constitution by making it an obstacle to progress.
Running through much political controversy in the United States is the
argument that, even granting that a proposal has all the merit claimed
for it, nevertheless it cannot be adopted because the Constitution is
against it. By strict logical inference the rejoinder then comes
that, if so, the Constitution is no longer an instrument of national
advantage. The traditional attachment of the American people to the
Constitution has indeed been so strong that they have been loath to
accept the inference that the Constitution is out of date, although the
quality of legislation at Washington kept persistently suggesting that
view of the case.

The failures and disappointments resulting from the series of national
elections from 1874 to 1884, at last, made an opening for party
movements voicing the popular discontent and openly antagonistic to
the traditional Constitution. The Socialist Labor party held its first
national convention in 1877. Its membership was mostly foreign; of
twenty-four periodical publications then carried on in the party
interest, only eight were in the English language; and this polyglot
press gave justification to the remark that the movement was in the
hands of people who proposed to remodel the institutions of the country
before they had acquired its language. The alien origin of the movement
was emphasized by the appearance of two So