The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1841-01-13

| a
persons, now large, and hhely to become larger
Ia class comprising as well the tillers of tho
| soil as men in commercial business,-and 1t is
| whether the General Government has power to
say whether these persons ever shall be freemOn
Of the United States? Where, l ask, is this
powers Where does the Senator look for such
a righta Is at in the Constitution l have
amined that instrument carefully with reference
to this question, and the only word | can discov
er that can at all affect il is, almost the first in
the instruments s'The House of Representa-
tlves shall be composed Of members chosen eve
ry seSond yearly the people of the several States
And we know that no Others have any power in
the choice of members eff that House Those
residing within the Territories have quasi-mem-
bers in the shape of delegates, but who not
in any constitutional sense members the House
of Representatives There is enc other clause
which declares that fSthe electors in each State
shall possess the qualifications requisite fol the
choice of members of the most numerous branch
of the State Legislature" That is all the Con-
stitution contains about the matter. And who
prescribes these qualifications? The Congress
| of the United Statess The President of the
United Statess Any body connected with the
General Government? No. 1t is the People of
the States, whose representatives they are. How
are these qualifications usually declared? In
the Constitutions of the several States-the
States organic law. And who will say that the
! People OF sovereign State, forming for them
!
ed by this body in specifying who may be elect
ed to their own Legislature?
! For it goes to that's believe that it is an un-
considered doctrine. The States, it is true, have
usually confined the right OF voting to the pos
session of citizenship, but are they compelled to
do thiss Where is -the compulsons Suppose
they do not choose to connect voting and citizen
ship together-suppose they say that an alien,
after a residence Of but an hour, may vote for
members of their Legislature-who is to correct
their decision' Where is the high court of APP
peals which shall say that their Constitution is
unconstitutional? do not believe that it exists.
believe that the People of State its sove-
reigns, and that they are, in legal sense, with
out Government till they make one for them
selves.
1 think we have had recent example of this
in the case OF the Constitution of the State of
| Michigan. Such was the condition of that
State, and the free white men who formed that
Constitution and elected their delegates to the
convention which assembled for that purpose,
prescribed, in that instrument, limitation to
who shall be voters; and did declare that all who
were at that time free white inhabitants of the
State were eligible to its Legislature, without
regard to our laws of naturalization. Has any
body in this country a right to say that that Con-
stitution is void? Or does it conflict with any
power given to this Federal Government
Let us now lock at theeondition in which the
States might be placed, and would have been,
had this power been placed by the Constitution
| in Congress, and the federal voice had been au-
thorized to control the qualifications OF voters
under State Government We have seen at
one time a President of the United States en-
powered to remove aliens and transport them
without the bounds of the Union We have seen
at another period, instead of five years residence
as required by the naturalization law of 1875,
that the law Of 1898, passed during that period
which once heard a distinguished individual
| in the other House pronounce to be fFhard uncon-
stltutional times" exacted from the foreigner a
probationary residence of fourteen years. Such
has been the practical exercise of the power of
| the Federal Government over the subject of cit
| izensbip in the States. But this faint exer
else of that power in its plentitude The Cen
eral Government may repeal all naturalization
| laws, and thus exclude all foreigners from ever
/ voting in any one of the States.
Can it be true that the Constitution ever in
| tended to confer on the Federal Government
such power as this over the States Of this
Coniedsracy' And cannot State, for all prac-
| teal purposes, prescribe how smigrant shall
hold real estate within its limits, and establish
| the right of freeman to vote for those who are
to govern him? What is TO prevent it' know
| of no power, and do not believe that it exists
Look at it. Look at those complaints against
I the expressions of the British Crown which oc-
casioned the existence of our free Government.
| What was stated among the list of grievances
enumerated in our Declaration of Independence?
| Was it not that the Government OF Great Brit
ala restricted emigration, and that proper natu-
ralization laws were refused us3 Such was the
complaint Of our fathers, and when they obtain
ed the Government did they themselves fall into
lust the same error? Did the sticklers for State
sovereignty place in this Federal Government
that power which the King had before possessed
and which he abused? If they did, l call for the
record of the grant: for do not forget that we
are here with delegated, and not with original
powers CT legislation.
But this argument of the honorable Senator
seems to me to be one of convenience or oil ne
cessity. His feelings seem quite Mortified at the
idea that man, ewing allegiance to a foreign
Power should be permitted to come over here
and by his vote, to govern our institutions. But
: suppose that the evil does exist, and that the
danger is lust what he has such power to por-
4 tray, where, ask, does the danger fall? Can it
be that the serfs OF the Russian Autocrat are to
be placed in one of our free States for the pur-
pose OF controlling its affairs, with its approba
(; ton, and by its own permission,) and yet shall
3 thus destroy this free Government and happy
Union7 If there be such danger, it will first
r be felt within the State where it exists. And
then where is the remedy? In the sovereign peo-
pie of that State. We are not to presume they
= will encourage policy which is destructive to
their own institutions But if it be so, then are
our Institutions gone: for they rest for their ex-
istence on the power and will Of the People; and
not on any inherent strength Of their own. The
evil, if it occurs, will first be felt in the very
seat and heartof their sovereignty, and there 1t
will first be rcnedied: there, where it should be,
: by the will of the People themselves, who alone
have the right to prescribe in this matter.
The Senator opened another topic by calling
lis for up course not that we have pursued, but
which be apprehends we may. He says that
when the election was decided which brought
Gen. Jackson into power, the Senate refused
to act on the nominations of the passing of
President do not sayit was cot so: the Sena-
tor says it was Sc; and he was certainly in a
position to know. "A Taught Not that men
voted against the principles they had avowed;
bnt in that case the Administration fell into a
minority, not in the last moments of its exis-
tence, but two years before it went out of of