But parallel with the labor agitation, and in communication with it, there were radical reform movements of a type unknown before.

There was now to arise a socialistic movement opposed to traditional constitutionalism, and therefore viewed with alarm in many parts of the country.

Veneration of the Constitution of 1787 was practically a national sentiment which had lasted from the time the Union was successfully established until the Cleveland era.

However violent political differences in regard to public policy might be, it was the invariable rule that proposals must claim a constitutional sanction.

In the Civil War, both sides felt themselves to be fighting in defense of the traditional Constitution.
The appeal to antiquity--even such a moderate degree of antiquity as may be claimed for American institutions--has always been the staple argument in American political controversy.