The Progress of Uniform Legislation with candor the objections brought against it, and to give their hearty aid in bringing about amendment when changed social conditions make amend ment imperative. The patriotic wis dom of the people's representatives has enabled us to survive the trials of the past, and we may well believe that they will correct existing evils without sur rendering any one of the principles upon which our democratic republic is founded. These observations upon political and social conditions may not be out of place to a body composed of commis sioners from all of the states and posses sions of the Union met to perfect uniform legislation, which will have no greater sanction than as it appeals to the sense of justice and expediency of those sepa rate political entities. Not the least, nay probably the great est, of the acknowledged abuses of power have had their root in the differing laws, especially the corporation laws, of the states, and the obvious remedy in the minds of superficial thinkers is to acceler ate the centralizing tendency and to minimize still further the dwindling importance of the states themselves. The business world is wearied with the harassing taxation of different jurisdictions upon the same subjects; the con flict of jurisdiction has become accen tuated in many directions; and unless the people can be convinced that the breaking down of our theory of state and federal legislation will in the end prove disastrous to well ordered liberty, the end of state jurisdiction on many matters of social and business impor tance will not be long delayed. In surrendering the dignity of Presi
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dent of the Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and taking place for a further time among the ranks, I feel no discouragement either because of the work done or the pros pects for the future. To my mind, it is remarkable that so much has been ac complished with so little means to work with. The spirit of devotion to the best interests of the community, of sacrifice of personal ease and well earned leisure during the vacation months of the year by busy lawyers and judges, ought to be, and no doubt is, to the members of our profession and to at least some observant members of the legislatures, a spectacle of high patriot ism. For myself, I shall always retain it among the privileges of my life that your confidence has found expression in thinking me in some sort worthy to preside at your conferences. A long, nay unending, vista of beneficent work stretches before us and our successors. In the language of an admired American poet and philosopher,31 as we look about on existing tendencies and deplore their possible consequences,— Let us be of good cheer . . . remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come. The world has outlived much, and will outlive a great deal more, and men have continued to be happy in it. It has shown the strength of its constitution in nothing more than in surviving the quack medicines it has tried. In the scales of the destinies brawn will never weigh so much as brain. Our healing is not in the storm or in the whirlwind, it is not in monarchies, or aristocracies, or democracies, but will be revealed by the still, small voice that speaks to the conscience and the heart, prompt ing us to a wider and wiser humanity. "James Russell Lowell. "Democracy."
