We might continue somewhat indefinitely the story of Senate Joint Resolution 17 in the House of Representatives on that December day of its passage therein. We would find, however, what we have already seen of Webb and his colleagues there to be typical of all they have said and all that they knew of basic American law. We cannot leave that House on that day, however, without some comment upon the final eloquent appeal made by Webb at the close of his arduous labor to secure the passage of the Resolution.

To those, who have any knowledge in the matter, it is well known that Christ preached the doctrine of free will and temperance, while Mohammed laid down the law of prohibition. With great curiosity, therefore, we have listened for years and still listen to the ceaseless tirade coming from Christian churches where men style themselves American “Crusaders” and denounce, in no temperate language, all Americans who do not align themselves under the “Crescent” flag of Mohammed and respect his Mohammedan command embodied in the First Section of the Eighteenth Amendment. Our curiosity is not lessened by the fact that their denunciation of those, who flatly deny that the command itself is Christian, is always accompanied with an equally temperate denunciation of those who dare to question their Tory concept that governments in America can constitute new government of men.

We have seen Webb, with a candor only equalled by ignorance, frankly array himself with those who believe the Tory concept, that the legislatures of the state citizens are “the only tribunal” in which the national part of the Constitution of the American citizens can be changed. To his credit, therefore, we find it a matter of record that, with equal candor, he frankly arrays himself under the “Crescent” flag of Mohammed and eloquently appeals to all other devotees “of the great Mohammed” in support of the Mohammedan and un-Christian precept embodied in the Eighteenth Amendment. That full justice may be done his eloquence and his candor, these are his own words on his immortal December 17, 1917: “During one of the great battles fought by Mohammed, the flag was shot from the ramparts. A daring and devoted soldier immediately seized it with his right hand and held it back on the rampart. Immediately his right arm was shot off, but, never faltering, he seized the flag with his left hand and that, too, was instantly shot away whereupon with his bleeding stubs he held the emblem in its place until victory came.

“With a zeal and a determination akin to that which animated this devotee of the great Mahomet, let us wage a ceaseless battle and never sheathe our swords until our constitutional amendment is firmly adopted and the white banner of real effective prohibition proudly floats over every courthouse and city hall throughout this, the greatest nation upon earth.” (Congressional Record, Vol. 56, p. 469.)

CHAPTER XVIII
THE TORY IN THE SENATE

When our present Constitution was before the people of America, waiting their approval or rejection, Madison and Hamilton published their series of essays, now known as The Federalist. It is not our intent to dwell upon the knowledge of American basic law shown by these two men. Elsewhere our Supreme Court has paid its deserved tribute to The Federalist as an authority of the greatest weight in the meaning of our Constitution. At this moment, we desire to mention one remarkable quality which makes those essays unique among arguments written in the heat of a great political controversy. They were written to urge that human beings create a great nation and grant some enumerated powers to interfere with their own freedom. They were written when other great leaders were opposing that project with the utmost ability and eloquence. These opponents, as is the custom with men in any heated controversy, denounced the project and its advocates. The abuse of both project and advocates has probably never been exceeded in America. Yet it is one remarkable quality of the arguments of Madison and Hamilton, in The Federalist, that they themselves never leave the realm of reason and fact and law, or descend to irrelevant abuse of those who differ in opinion with them.

We, who have lived through the last five years in America, can truthfully say that the advocates of the new constitution of government, the Eighteenth Amendment, have made their essays and speeches and arguments notable for the same quality, by its utter absence.

Because fact would interfere with the making of their new Constitution, they have changed fact. Because law meant that government could not constitute their government of the people, they have stated law which has never been law in America since 1776. Because reason would prevent the achievement of their purpose, they have appealed to irrelevant abuse of those who dared to differ in opinion with them.

In view of these known facts, we average Americans shall not be surprised when we read the record of the Senate on its own proposal that government should exercise a power not delegated to interfere with individual freedom. Fresh from the reading of the record in the House, we shall not be surprised to find that the Senate also ignored the most important factors in the Tenth Amendment and the Fifth Article, “the people” in the one, and the mention of the people’s exclusive ability to make national Articles in the other.

When his proposing Resolution came before the Senate on July 30, 1917, Senator Sheppard quickly made clear his mental attitude on the relation of government to human beings. Whenever a sincere Tory has voiced himself on that matter, it has always been inevitable that he betray the thought that human beings are the assets of the State and not its constituent members. As Madison said, “We have all known the impious doctrine of the Old World, that people were made for kings and not kings for the people.” In the country or in the mind where that doctrine prevails, it is held to be the right and the privilege of government to see that the people, like the other assets of the State, are kept in good condition so that all property of the State may have its greatest economic value in the market of the world.