Portland gazette and Maine advertiser., 1816-11-19

- Of he press before any alteration was made.
!. bis form the publication was repeated, ami has
a...ea though the principal papers in the union.
r.,, was he pan--And how many have ever seen
.hs .o,tigcied edition I; or who has dsiin snished
-. d;fereuce between the Del phin re9ant and the
'.;,;naI one The ingredients in both com posi-
,;o9. are precisely the same. here is but one
t,,th in their nostrs ard one spirit between them.
noe character IN COMMON To both Both lead to
.sctlv the same conclusions, and both are in spr-
All The same frantic violent and outrageous prin-
f.ole4. They boiI adopt the appeal from the leg
,la,nre TO Congress aad the very publication OF
an addressing Committee reaeats ia unqualified
,erns. The enara reservation u what the. codren-
tou considers its legal rights fo' ultimate deter
pination.
mo Convention acted ael,bsraiey in this business
That j. their sin. They kaew this construction 20
hs.osouad Were they iIliterate nea, they might
mead their ignorance. Had there not AWAY 8 been
lint one opinion about the provision of The act
thea for the first time drawn Into qiestion.--
hev might have sheltered themselves under th.
p,eense of an ambiguity Of the act which had
rroJuced confusion in Practice. But
mhsre was the pretense OF that klnd! None could
onsibly be urged. There had been ~ saisappre-
beuson ON the subject Ii-,e had etsn but one
spopular construction of tue act" Upon that very
prjncp,e therefore which tue convention express
II aad implicitly adults, no othes Construction
sugLt Is Rave been applied to the provision. That
,royiiou was framed and intended fJr rule Of
eVndacffor the people, 10 be observed on particu
lar OCCASION. 1t the people ed upon that rule,
then by their understanding OF ,has rule is the re-
sIt to be Tested. To apply any other principle to
the proceeding is to try man by law, which
does not apply to bis case. Justly might the peo-
pIe complain Of being required TO act upon prin-
tiple SO loosely defined artfcially expressed,
IS 10 lead them into an error on a matter ofimpor-
pecially where the object of the act was to
obtain expression OF opinion,by Which to ascer-
tain their sense OF their own interests. Whatever
was the popular construction therefore Of the act,
by that principle should the rule lie tried; and il
The people should be found in fact TO have acted
upon an erroneous constructions, certainly in the
tnt place no conclusion al all is to be drawn from
their thus acting, at all events, none that shall
be considered as establishing any decisive result.
l. this ground is not correct, it will seem 10 follow,
that conclusion may be drawn from an EXPIRE sion
ofthe public sentiment altogether contrary TO tie
pubic SENSE; AID that the people may have beer
called upont to aetuooa proposition, The meaning
(Which is liable to be mistaken, and the mistaken
meaning being adopted, the result shall he ccnsid-
cred as applying 10 the true one--lhe Application
10 the present case is obvious The convention adj
mUs, tnht tue popular CoUstTuCtIoh W auc dCt was
ha! FIVE nn.hs OF the votes returned were necessa-
uto effect separation. II that then was not The
ssrrect consiruc ion, upon ,ohaf principle were the
people acting, or INSTRUMENTATION can be applied
tothe provisions, without producing an altogether
faiteus expression If the publcw!l !.
But the committee say in their REPORT, that they
pprebend The popular construction to have " pre-
vlled rather from the use Of an expression not
nntsincd in the act, than from necessary import
dhe words themselses." Whit is the necessary
Import Of the words themselves shall be Considered
Fssent,y. La the mean time, it may be observed,
Aal it's Sf no consequence how the construction
happened to prevail, provided It is agreed, that
here was but construction aeiich preraiied For
upon that construction the people acted, or they
acted upon noue at all. Neither is it Of any inn
pogtauce, that the constructo ion CHANGED to prevail
from the use Of an expression not contained ia the
ac provided il was an expression OF the true con-
xfurtion IL may also be natural q iestion, whetlt
Nthe construction was occasioned Dy the expires,
SON. or the expression arose tom the construction.
There are many principles, which prevail from the
sm Of terms ideas naturally get into use from
words and nntyNe pressions are employed to sig
Nifty ideas Substantially the same Many of the most
important doctrines in theology are expressed in
terms not contained in the sacred scriptures. So
inpolitical affairs The phrase free government"
bpot employed in the Constitution of the United
States vet is the less free government Ia
The same manner on moral and scientific subjects.
Arilhmetical proportions are expressed sometimes
Ia one fora - some times 10 another. Two to four
ihslf oflour Five and four are nine, five out
Of nine is FIVE maths and that is correct express
son CT the ratio OF % five TO four" III the ratio o!
Eve to four signifies The five ain,hs II is i'm
material which expression Is employed by the ie-
gsiature. The idea is lhe same aud the same i'm
presonis communicated TO the understanding, II
the principle which is important, and not the
2Taa. Suppose the act had simply required, that
thepeople shouddecide the question in the att rma-
tive, without saying "by majority could any
one doubt, that the idea OF majority was intended
and implied One would imagine, that the commit
tee we're opinion with Mirabeau, that WORDS WERE
THINGS Yet what is the construction adopted by
The committee after all, but a constructions Of five
anths' An unjust and iniquitous construction to
hemfe, but conclusion from the language of the
law, that five ninths Of the corporate majorties Of
The several towns in the district were necessary 10
SEPARATION. What is the difference betw cen that
expression in relation to their principle, and the
ratio Of % requiredin the act And is not their
construction therefore liable to the same query,
which they suggest with regard to the true one
whether itdid not arise from the use Of an express
son rot contained in the act ?-Let us inquire then
~ the FIRST place. what is "the necessary import of
aewords' OF the act and see how far the constrnc-
l'n Of The committee COMFORTS with it.--To arrive
atlas import and ascertain Il precisely, il is neces
tay 10 look into the language Of the act of the ieg