Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-05-28


handed as to the opinion of the people,
what is our plan? We send Delegates
TO Stanton not to change the Constitu-
ton, as has been strangely argued, but
to form a meeting of the friends OF re-
form from different quarters, that we
NAV consult each other, and once more
throw ourselves upon the justice OF the
Legislature for aid, in great work,
which we believe to be intimately al
lied with the best interests Of the State.
If the Legislature authorize the Con-
vention, that bodywill prepare amend
ments, and submit them to the people
in their sovereign capacity We ask
the candid to say, if we are Justly
chargeable with temerity! or with tam
pering with those institutions which
we have been taught to reverence!-
with the happiness of that society dear
to our memories, dearer to our hopes!
But we must wait for the developc-
ment of popular opinion. Is II not SUI
fciently marked? Are we not seeking
its fair expression? Suppose the Le-
gislature so constituted, in the equal
apportionment of power which now ex-
lists, as that the will of the people shall
be forever resisted by majority OF one
or two in the Senate, shall we, forever,
submit? May we not hope, that by
operating the perfect conviction that
the people demand it, that every con-
sideration of justice and policy seconds
the demand, we may prevail OH the
agents of the people to yield their as
sent? Is it unfair, unmanly, un wise, to
persevere in the work? Let us sup
pose again that a vast ma ority OF the
people desire any change. VIII any
gentleman inform US how they are to
communicate their wishes to the go
venment without peaceably assem-
bling for that purpose9 Can they be
heard without speaking? Can they
move without rising up?
But impurities float in the political
atmosphere, and We must wait little
longer Til. they disappear. What IS
the point Of this allusion? Surely we
are not TO lie by till vice shall have
been extirpateG, and folly known no
more; till the moral millennium shall ar
rive, on which we are to found the po-
Iitical. Unfortunately for such an idea
the sun shines, and the grave closes up
on the just and the unjust. The Lou
doun Committee is not willing to "a
wait the arrival of period so blissful
and so distant. We know that some
gentlemen think the atmosphere trou-
bled by the protracted existence OF an
illustrious sage, who gives the evening
of his day to the superiptendence of
the education of the youth of his native
State. The Loudoun Committee be-
lieve, that the opinions OF no indivi-
dual, whether of 40 or 80, can essen
TALLY affect the destiny of the Common
wealth. They have too much faith in
the sense and patriotism of the State,
to allow its worst enemies to maintain
that its limits encompass but one
man."
1t is now half a century since the in
strument which we would revise &C
ouired its existence amidst the din of
arms. It's principles are consecrated,
its defects are obvious. In removing
the latter, and, in fitting the constitu-
ton itself to the altered state OF the
community, it is our firm purpose to
use our best efforts to perpetuate its
glorious spirit.
1t is said put off your experiment to
a more convenient season." Does not
every man Of discernment see that the
people Of the state will, and before long
too, have Convention? If so, is not
this concession of the entire question?
Time, the best teacher Of political
science, has made the defects OF which
we complain, apparent TO all; our OPP
ponents admit them, and agree that
they must be changed. AT present war
has ceased to rage upon our confines,
faction has yielded to the benign in
fluence the spirit of political brother
hood, and the public mind is perfectly
tranquil. This then is the time, the
happy era for a work SO interesting.
Postpone the subject till the sleeping
q. ...J al ;oJ;o-n, t;o, eh a II