but also to modify the principles upon which our government is based and
the institutions of government designed for the application of those
principles to the affairs of life. Upon this question it is of the utmost
importance that we proceed with considerate wisdom.

By institutions of government I mean the established rule or order of
action through which the sovereign (in our case the sovereign people)
attains the ends of government. The governmental institutions of Great
Britain have been established by the growth through many centuries of a
great body of accepted rules and customs which, taken together, are
called the British Constitution. In this country we have set forth in the
Declaration of Independence the principles which we consider to lie at
the basis of civil society "that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed."

In our Federal and State Constitutions we have established the institutions
through which these rights are to be secured. We have declared what
officers shall make the laws, what officers shall execute them, what
officers shall sit in judgment upon claims of right under them. We have
prescribed how these officers shall be selected and the tenure by which
they shall hold their offices. We have limited them in the powers which
they are to exercise, and, where it has been deemed necessary, we have
imposed specific duties upon them. The body of rules thus prescribed
constitute the governmental institutions of the United States.

When proposals are made to change these institutions there are certain
general considerations which should be observed.