Mobile daily commercial register and patriot., 1841-09-06


 usel fiji Is silent. what use is nl How can the abuses of majority, the deSigns oi tyrant against the liberties of people be exposed in de- Lucrative body, If the minority is gagsedf Is ihe wont of the majority ambitious pretender to Fay bare before the eyes of the people the true character o helr measures, do they noi rather seek 10 eo- mend them by all the arts and sophislres thai mem tai ingenuity can devsel To do wrong is the great Nlhcuty. To give il the appearance of right, with the powers belonging tn US, s easily accomplished To destroy silence minority, m popular repre- sentative government, IS to destroy liberty ltseii'- The minority is the great check, the sole restraint a majority, and if a majority is unresiralned, what IS il bat despotism! Can there be better dehnl- ton of despotism than unrestrained power!
 And then, have you thought at all, Tn connection with this subject, of the people, these members or congress composing the minority, represent How came they in the capitoll They stand the enosd'ed political power of fifty thousand penple. In theil- selves, as men, they are comparatively nothing; hut representatives, they may wield powe " as Ter ribIe an army with banners" When you silence them, you silence the people they represent. For what purpose were they sent to congressF Nas II not by speech, and by speech only to endeavor to pre- serve the consttution-to protect the people they re- present from oppression and injustice, and promote equal liberty alll Why should they stay, if speech is denied thenl Why should the mockery Of repre- sentatiOn be preserved, when all It's DO fer its vital ity is destroyed? Why should the people send them, merely to subserye the purposes of majority, and give the air of authority to edicts which they are the dumb instruments of registering! With such power in majority, exercised only it has been when not three months old the very object of representation destroyed. The people represented by the minority do not rule themselves. They are ruled absolutely, without the poor privilege of remonstrance or com plaint through their representatives, agalnst laws passed for their governance m their opnion uncon- slitutional in prncIpe, and if unrepeaed, fatal to their liberties.
 have no doubt you have been astonlshed at the patience with which the minority in congress have submitted to this state of things. tell you 1t were easier to have deuged the hall of representatives in blood than to have submitted this impositon. It not difficult to have stopped utterly all egisla- tion until that rule rescnded. But after due de- liberation it determined to submit at least for the time because we believed that the people would come to the rescue. We looked over the whole scope of the policy of the party in power-thelr tyrannicai proceedings here-their unconstitutional and corrupt legislation for the country-and have not doubted their speedy overthrow Our policy, therefore, has been, with calmness and dignity to await the coming of the people-that people whose rights through us have been invaded and insuted-to whom the constl- | tuition and the government belongs-whose we are l and whom we serve. They sufficient for them selves; and if they not, who be sufficient for l theml Who but the people can make the people | free?
 Should the people and representatives both submit to such egslation it needs prophet to foreel the consummation Let no man suppose that good can result from the practice of evi to those who practice it. The Almighty often scOurges nation for its of fences, and he may permit the utmost crlminaty in | the instrument of his chastsement; but in the end the instrument and the chastised suffer both alike.- Suppose the minority in congress so debased as to submit entirely and forever to the tyranny of the ma jorty and the people they represent, abect as them selves, acquiesce in mere nominal representation, meek. sla wish for recording the mandates of majority, matched in whispers and en- gendered in corners, will the matter end here l Can pure and free aorty-adnltting them to be pure and free whilst practising oppression-coexist with debased mnorityl Will not the corruptors soon become cUrrupted-the enslavers ensaved!- Do you not that al every turn of public affairs new parties formed, new combinations from the old parties created! And how long do you think that corrupt majority, under the continual shifting of parties. will remain so! Do deprayed adhere | to principle and avoid powerl Will they not seize upon the differences of the majority to elevate them selves! And when the power of the state is in their hands, how will t-how must it necessarily be used? Self-respect will be gone; respect and reverence for the people will be g0ne With the absence of rep resentative responsibility, destroyed in the useless ness of representatlon-a moral responsibility will be merged in numbers; the love of self and the lust for power will prevail. Combinations w be made to subserve the objects of each, and mutual sons, at the expense of all principle, for mutual n terests. Then, when tue harvest of corruption is rpe and universal distrust exists amid general de- pravity, a Cromwell or a Caesar will be hailed as deverer. If every other maxim in government shall fail, this remain forever true-to be free selves, we must permit others to be free.
 "If it done, when 'tis done,
 Then twere well it were done quickly"
 This Is the motto by which the majority In gross have driven through their the present session-but remember, these were the words of a murderer, who, whilst stealing to his fell purpose, could whisper
 Thou and firm set earth,
 Hear not my steps which way they walk for fear
 The very stones prate of my whereabout."
 The constitution may be murdered at this session. murdered in your distribution bill-twice murdered in your bank bills but the people may yet arise with e twenty mortal murders on their crowns, and push us from our stools" He who thinks that by multiply ing wrongs resistance to them will be weakened that by haste in execution guilt can be disgused- has but the wretched morals and the poor policy of cowardy robber.
 In mighty country like like ours, whose step is the advance retrogression of natons whose every deed should look to the ages of fuurty-to eternity itself so far as this world is concerned, when they are to be developed in their consequences-to sup pose that such people, with such destnies are to be caught in trap of accidents, or tied up by the willow withs of precpitate legislation, gagged by rules, is too ridiculous to be contemptble, it not that all wckedness be pitied or despised | We are great-and to be made far greater-mighti- CT than thoughts grasp, if true to our desti- nes, weighing cooly and cautiously every act of le gslation by faithful observance of the constitution, and by holding fast to the guarantee of liberty trans mitted to by our ancestors, discovered in the course of our experence. Ours will then be the greatness ofjustice, truth and liberty, combined.