Mobile daily commercial register and patriot., 1841-07-28
For the Register.

|
 THos. Mccoy, HENRY MILLER.
 For the Register. 1 NO. III.
 Ifthey command things reasonable is just to obey them they require things unreasonable 1t Is an act ofpiety to suffer it, lest something worse ensue"
 Such was the time-serving policy of Erasmus, du- ring the great struggle for ascendancy between the Lutherans and the Romsh church; and it corres- bonded admirably with the answer which he gave to | Bohemian nobleman, who desired to fr his princi- pies. eff things come to extremties," said he, and the church totiers both sides, will fix my self upon the solid rock, until it be apparent 'ohch IS the church." [Jortin's life of Erasmus, vol. l.
 This is the very quintessence and origin of rail-r- ding-t is the prototype of that spirit of timorous resistance which pervaded the tories of the rev. oluton, and which in modified form has taken pos- session of few-thank God, vgy yfeW-representa- tves of the Southern States, the aabsorbing to- pic which rumbling from end of this conteder- acy the other, and whose warnings but the fore runners of that mighty and overwhelming convulsion which is about to cover the land in ruin and desola ton.
 If this subject is not manfully met, and on the hreshold-if the sentinels have placed on the watchtower of our constitutional liberties not ev vigant, unyelding and true, tell the people of the Southern States emphatically, that her days are | numbered.
 | It is fuule-it is yatorous--to tamper such subject-to "pater in a double sense," when we are required throw aside all abstract specultions all metaphysical philanthropy, all pharasaica mon grel humanity It is suicidal to close eyes and | shut our ears to the more immediate and surrounding dangers which growing about us, and which, if | ever they do mature, concern life blood and the life blood of those who demand protection at our hands by every law of God and man. In the lan- | puage of fearless patriot, 's owe 1t to cestors to preserve entire those rights which they have delivered to our We h 10 posferi- ty not to suffer their dearest inheritance be desroyed" "
 We now proceed to the cardinal point upon which the Editor of the Advertiser conceves the Hon. Mir. Bolts to stand intangible and invulnerable-the righ
 For the sake of brevity, therefore, and give him the benefit ofas much as he has right to demand, admit with him, unqualifedly he has expressed it, that the right of petition is sacred and nviolabe rght but at these points we separate His corolla- res require some scrutiny before they can be admit ted. For instance, this " sacred and inyiolable | right" he says, " has been denied in Eng and (whence we derive all our parliamentary usa- ges) by the sovereign to the subject; and then he adds, " much less can it be denied in this country, by the representatives to the constituent body" | It. has hitherto been believed, that while we re- ained and derived all that valuable in the mon law for purposes of civil and criminal jursdic- ton, we certainly held no essential affinity with Eng land as regards constitutional, Mir. Botts calls it, ' parliamentary" rules of guidance. What could not be denied by the sovereign to the subject, is guaranteed to the latter by the magma ciarta as safety to shield privilege against prerogative to keep the crown from following the fatal footsteps of precedent and thus reducing conditional despotsm to limited monarchy. Hence, it obvious there was but step for petition from the subject to the crown. If evils existed they proceeded from one or two sources-ether from the king or his ministers in either case the supreme po,o could alone redress- and whyl Because having been the cause of suffer- | ing, or impOsitons, oppression, he is applied to with this alternative left him-redress reroluaion.- He, the monarch, they the subjects. He profess sing to reign over consolidated government l" by the grace of God" assuming to himself the title of " defender of the faith" they, knowing no separate political rights, having no powers reserved, tradstinguished from those delegated. But how is it with usf In. ,ttl.t.
 Stated originally free, sovereign and independent, into league for purposes of mutual and general bene6t-at the same time binding themselves by the articles of agreement to give up certain privileges not incompatible with their sovereignty, but taking ample and security to retain all powers unsub- ected to any extrnsc influence, which they peremp- | tory refused to renqush. Hence, the adoption of the tenth article to the amendment to the constit,- tion The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution prohibited by it to the States, are reserved the States respectively to the peo- pie.
 Now, in the case of England, it would be impossi- ble to deny the right of petition, whether real or I fcfOiutiOn-DecauSe there either does exist grievance e subject tnks there does and he has other resource. Whereas, with us by what process of reasoning can one state | faithess to that bond on which has fixed it's ocu,n nge, earnest of its honesty, dare to interfere with the first and cardinal element of that bond by petiioning s congress to iegislate property out of our pockets into theirs any body's else? By what obliquity of morals can it presume to annihate our sacred brthright by attempting to legisate for us on our o,cn local concerns, while they know that in so doing they build their only hope of success upon the | righ of migM and not of justice!
 have asserted that although the common ia,U is n- debed to English precedent, claim for our political creed right opatsnt, the faults merits of which we are neither anxious nor willing to share It was ems phatcaly styled an "ExPERIMENT," and it has so far remained s,a geners, in spite of predictions from abroad and erotons at home.
 the proceedings of the federal convention t has been the frequent boast of country that by the nven- ton of written constitutions in this age of civil ber- ty, in which the fundamental principles of govern | ment are embodied and recorded in known and fam- liar language and by the organization of the Repre- sentative system and the fair extension of the elective ranclise had discop~sd the best possible mode of securing the enjoyment of free institutions and of perpetuatng the blessings 10 indefinite poserity; ,ve had nn)oidsd the mystery hitherto hidden from ihe ,Uorld by which the rights of could be eectually secured and system of rational government esta- blshed and maintained"
 Does this look like dependence on precedent? But let US proceed. Mir. Bolts concludes his analogy by saying ssmuch less can it be denied this country by the representative to the constituent body So say and so will every one-but It must be said cum grano saiis Where the constituent body masse, m other worlds congress, unmndful of its delegated capacity oversteps the precincts marked out by the constitution, and is tse gully c any iraction upon the reserved rights of any of the sovereign states, whose accredited but conditional agent t is, then would the question of Mir. Bolts be legitimate, when the rereseatatipe ef such sovereignty seeks redress from the "constituent body," assembled as the bodied guardianship of the written compact, which compact, boldly and distinctly defining the limits of authority, shalf compel grievances and infactions to be remedied and so failing, it becomes the duty of the aggrieved party to establish its mode and manner of redress ;otherwise, in the language of Col Dray ton ssow independence is but phanfOmthen have the patriots of the revolution toied and bled in vain then would it be better for to return to colonial bondage, ,-when V oppressed, our cppvess0rs wsve not