Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1840-07-14
SEylTORIAL RESERVATIONS

RALEIGH, n e., July S.-Ne have been furnished
by Messrs. Brown and Strange with the following CO.
pies of Letters sent to his Excellency the Governor of
this State, 10 be laid before the next General Assembly,
by which these gentlemen resign their seats in the Sc
nate of the L S, TO take effect from and after the meet
ing of that body. Whatever may be the result OF this
step, our Senators have pursued the course OF high
minded and honorable men, and will be still more en-
deared TO the Democratic Republican party ofthis State.
The Rayncr Resolutions will now be fairly before the
people, and their adoption by the last Legislature of
North Carolina, which was the of the
most vindictlve party spirit and the vilest hypocrisy,
will be Judged Of By thcm:-Raicigh Standard.
WAsHISGroS CRY, Both June, 1910.
To the Honorable the General assembly Of the State Of
NORTH Carolina, uhich is TO assemble on TIC third
Monday Of .Norembcr merit.
Gentlemen: In pursuance of the declaration an
nounced by me, when ] submitted 10 the Senate OF the
United States certain Resolutions passed by the Le-
gislature of the State of North Carolina, at its last
session, in relation TO certain measures of the General
Government, | tender TO you my resignation for the re-
sidue ofthe term for which | was elected to the Senate
of the United States; to take effect from and after the
meeting of the next General Assembly.
The reasons which influenced me iii coming to this
determination, were so fully made known by me in the
remarks which | made at the time, when the Rcsolu-
tons were presented to the Senate Of the United States,
that | will not again recapitulate them, more than by
briefly advcrting TO a few ofthe leading considerations
which induced me TO postpone rendering my resIgna-
ton until the present period.
did not believe, after giving to the Resolutions the
most mature delibcration, that they were to be regarded
as Resolutions of instruction; or that those who passed
them intended TO recognise in them that cardinal prln-
ciple in the Republican creed. This conclusion was
forced on me, not merely from tue absence OF any as
sertion of the principle of Instruction, in the Resolu-
tons themselves, hut by the distinct rejection, by the
majority who passed them, of an amendment offered in
both Houses of the General Assembly, proposing 10
make them Resolutions of Instruction. The assertion
Of this principle in the Resolutions themselves, has
been the universal practice among those who acknow-
ledge the right of instructions; not onIy IN our own Lee
gislature, but in the Legislatures of other States of the
Confederacy, whenever they have deemed 1t their
duty to resort. to the exercise of this great right. This
practice is founded on the obvious principle that when
the Legislature, bv Resolutions of Instruction, com.
mand their will to be done, touching public measures,
all further responsibility is removed from the Senator,
and the vote which he gives is the vote of the Legis-
lature.
Acting, therefore, upon the principle that when a
Senator IS elected by The Legislature Of a State, he is
responsible to the people of that State, until the lie.
gislature representing them chooses, by Resolutions Of
instruction, TO take from him that responsibility, and
perceiviny as well from the language of the Resolu-
tons themselves, as from the proceedings which took
place on them when under consideration, that such was
not the intention of the Legislature, did not consider
that was bound either to obey or resign.
In celebrating on the course which it was my duty
to pursue, | anxiously sought 10 adopt that which, in
my Judgment, was best calculated to preserve the
RIGHTS Of the people of the State. IF the Resolutions
IL uSSCltCu Wv ifShs " N
would have been no option, but prompt obedience or
resignation. This, however, not being the case, ei.
ther would have been alike violative of the rights of
the People of the State, with which had been en-
trusted, and subversive of the Right of Instruction.
In thus rendering my resignation, ! feel it my duty to
state that it is not prompted by a belief that the Resolu.
tons passed BY the late General Assembly imposed on
me any such obligation, but from an anxious desire to
submit my public course to the decision of the people of
the State; which would have been done at an earlier
period, if an election had sooner interviewed.
avail myself of this occasion to declare, explicitly,
my belief in The right of a Legislature Of a State TO
instruct their Senators, and of the corresponding duty
which it imposes on them to yield obedience or to re-
turn the political power which has been entrusted to
them TO those from whom they derived it.
cannot conclude this communication without ex-
pressing to the General Assembly, and through them to
the people of the State, my most sincere and grateful
Acknowledgements for the distinguished honors which
they have at different times conferred on me, and the
lively gratitude with which these manifestations Of pub