Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-06-14


be the measures Of each other.
In limiting the numbers Of the Sem
ate to twenty-four members, and leav-
ing the House of Delegates to be aug
mented, from time to time, by the sub
division of counties, and the erection
of new boroughs, the just equilibrium
between the two branches Of the LIE.
gislature was exposed to gradual, tho
certain arrangement, if not to ultimate
destruction.
An unfounded jealousy denied to the
Senate, not only the power ofamending
a money bill, but that of originating
any measure, however insignificant, and
while it greatly retarded the business of
both branches Of the Legislature, con-
signed one to absolute inaction for very
near half of every annual session of the
General Assembly.
BY resting the right of suffrage on
the possession of a freehold estate in
determinate quantity of land, without
regard to the actual duration or value
Of the estate itself, the constitution
stood condemned by the bill of rights
prefxed to it, which assured to every
man, otherwise qualified, the privilege
of voting, who could furnish sufficient
evidence of "permanent common inter-
est with, and attachment to, the COM
munity." Unless, indeed, it be con-
tended, that a term Of ninety-nine, or OF
a thousand years, is worth less than an
estate for single life; or twenty-four
acres of the best. improved land, than
FIVE and twenty ofthe most barren.
All judicial power had been taken
from the General Assembly very near
a century before, and the new constitu-
ton Invested the Governor and Royal
Council of all Legislative power. But,
in retaining that council, when no long
err necessary, and subjecting the Gov
ernor to their absolute control, it charg
ed an useless burthen upon the Trea-
sury, while it impaired the response
bility, by destroying the unity Of the
Executive.
In defining the qualifications of the
constituent and his representative, the
constitution is loose where it is the
aim of all constitutions to be precise:
it is on the contrary, fixed and immuta-
bic in the allotment Of representation,
, to corporate bodies, where it should
have provided for the subdivision Of
counties and the growth or declension
of numbers. In emitting TO provide
for its future amendment, it carries on
its features the stamp Of the peculiar
circumstances under which it was
made, and which offer in truth the best
apology for its defects.
To suppose that the founders Of
such constitution designed it to be i'm
mutable, is to question irreverently
the wisdom which they subsequently
displayed throughout the glorious re-
volution which succeeded its promul-
cation.
For that inequality Of representation
of which your memorialists have ust
cause to complain, there existed the
excuse that provision had then been
made for periodical census OF the
people, and that, compared with the
monstrous disparity of representation
in the Brisish House Of Commons, its
model in fact as in terms, it merited
commentator rather than censure.
However excusable its authors UNI
questionably were, the defects Of the
Constitution must be tried, not by
their own merits but by its own. 1t
is readily conceded, that any practical
BILE appointment of representation to
numbers, its only proper basis, will
fall short of absolute perfection. But
it is an insult to the meanest capacity
on either side of the Atlantic, to plead
this unavoidable necessity as an apol-
ogy for sustaining defects as remedial
BILE as they are obvious, and which
time m ust aggravate.
Is the Constitution defective? Can
il be amended? Is this a proper peri
cd for its amendment? These are the
questions which your memorialists ask
their representatives 10 submit 10 the
people of Virginia, by means which
the constituted authorities Of the pre-
sent government can most convenient
ly supply.
If all, or any considerable part Of
the defects of their present Constitu-
ton, to which your memorialists have
asked your attention, are ever to be
amended the ycon6dently believe, PEE
Rod better suited to that purpose than
the present, cannotb be hereafter expect
ed.
The Federal Constitution, to which
the political. parties in America owed
their name and origin, has been recon-
mended by its propitious operation,
and has now the sanction of almost uni
versal acquiescence. Even the domes-
tic and foreign policy of the United
States, which SO long embittered the
dissentions ofthose parties, has settled