The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1841-12-31
UNITED STATES SENATORS FROM
TESNESSLE.


The following from the Boston Post, will give
our readers correct view Of what has set the ci-
dercra'ic papers to running over their old vocabu,
Jury Of 81 loco locoism!" " agriasm" Sc. See
last Burlington Free Press, and Clayrmom Eagle
In the Senate Of Tennessee there is a democratic
majority OF one, and in the liouse II wing ma ori-
~ Of two There Is nothing in the constitution nor
in the laws Of that state which requires that the
two houses shall meet in convention to elect L.
States Senators, The legislature has never pas
Sed Il law on this subject The democrats contend
that the election ought TO be made by the concur
renee OF both branches, aud not on Joint commit
tee, The wings, having Il majority Of one if both
houses united, have lahoed TO secure the election
of their candidates by taking from tie Senate its
constitutional right To concurrent vote, and bring
ing both nodcs together, Either house, therefore
may, under the constitutions and laws Of the l.
States and Tennessee, refuse to make the election
joint act, Under these circumstances, the demo.
cratic members of the Senate have declined to act
in convention Of both bodies They absent them
selves as from an Illegal assembly.
Political power, granted, or not restrained bv
the constitution, is political right. Either house of
the Tennessee Legislature, having the power To
resist JOINT election, have the political right to do
sos and this right the democratic Senators Of Ten
nGsscc have exercised. They are denounced for
Il, with rlbad fury, by the Boston .4tIas and its
kindred prints And yet the Tennessee Senators
have only done what the wing Senators of Mdssa-
chnsettS have done and would do again, under the
like circumstance. Suppose the Massachusetts
House were democratic and the Senate whig
and United States Senators were to be c!ec-
ted; and suppose it was proposed 10 elect Scna-
tors in convention ofboih bodies, where The demo-
Gratis would have a majority Of one. Would the
wing Senators consent to it Never. And if, by
the dcsertlon Of one of their number, the Senate
voted TO 90 into convention, would the whig Sena-
tors act in that convention, and allow democrats
10 be chosen; Never.
John Davis was elected L. S. Senator, in 1895.
on the same GROUND which the .aiias condemns IN
the Tennessee Senate There is no law i'm Mnssn.
chusetis which points ou how L. $. Senators shall
be chosen. 1t has always been done without any
law prescribing the manner, by the two houses,
acting separately. When Mr. Davis was chosen,
the House three times chose him. and the Senate
three times chose John Quincy Adams, and there
was no choice until the Senate finally elected
John Davis Why did not the two house 20 into
convention
When Mr. Webster was first chosen L. s. Sena-
tween the Two houses, which divided on diiierea,
candidates, but no convention was held, though an
election would Lave followed in that event on the
first ballot, and Mr. Webster would have been
,hosen
And yet the Massachusetts Legislature is as much
bound to elect Senator in convention MS is the
Legislature of Tennessee. Neither are bonnd un-
less ther, Is Standing law to that effect.
In fact, the choice Of L. s. Senators Of Nfassa-
chusetls has always been made IN disregard Of the
original design Of the constitution, that a standing
law of the legislature, and not the act Of part Of
the legislature, or of IGNITION, should pre-
scribe the manner Of the election. The fourth Sec
ton of the first article of the United States Consti-
tuition declares that the 90 times, places and man
pcr of holding elections for Senators and Rapres-
entalives shall be prescribed in each state by the
Legislature thereof"
Massachusetts has complied with this INDUCTION
ms TO Representatives but never as to Senators
One house chooses a Senator, and sends TO the
other, which concurs or chooses another. or NAV
refuse TO choose at all. The constitution con,eui
plates n standing provision, by Processing law.
passed in the usual form, and this Requirement, the
legislature Of Massachusetts have never COMPLIED
with. II i'll becomes Massachusetts whir 10 rail
a, Tennessee document for claiming the same
distinct power in each branch of the legislature
there. which is uniformly exercised here But,
with the .fiids, every thing done by its own party
Is right, and every thing by its opponents wrong.
The course adopted in Tennessee hy the demo-
cratic Senators, which the Alias and its compeers
denounce as specially destructive and disorganiz-
ing, happens 10 be fully sanctioned by a very high
irhc authority. that of CHANcELLoR KENT, in
his Commentaries on the Constitution, vol. i,page
225 He says
"There were difficulties some years ago as to
the true construction Of the i,h section Ia, article