Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1848-02-18

process OF time lnCSe kniEWS anu UnTueSScs as
sumcd more and more popular character and
became the guardians OF popular nights. Ihe
people through them obtained protection against
the cncroachmcnts ofthc croaIiand the aristoc
racy. till in our day they arc understood to be
the Representatives of the people, charged win
the protection ofthc rights ofthc people. With
us it was always just so. Representation has
always been this The power is with the pco-
pie but they cannot exercise it in masses or
per capaa; they can only cxVcsc it by their
Representatives. The whole system with us has
been popular from the beginning.
Well the basis of this reprcfen,ion is suffrage.
The right to choose representatives is every
mans part in the exercise OF sovereign power
to have voice in it, fhc has the proper quati-
cations. that is the fundamental exercise Of po-
nolitical power BY every clcctor. Tisa. is the
BEGINNING That is the nsdv in which power
cmanatcs from its source and gets into ttciands
Of the Conventions, Legislatures, and Courts OF
law. and the chair Of the Executive. 1t begins
in suffrage. Suffrage is the delegation of the
power of an individual 10 some agent.
Irthis BE- so. then follow two other great prin-
ciples Of the American SYSTEM
|. The first is that the right OF suffrage shall
be guarded, protected, secured against force and
and against fraud: and,
.. The second is, that its exercise slrll be
prescribed by previous law; lis qualifications
Shall bo prescribed by previous law the time
and place of lis exercise shall be prescribed by
previous law: the manner of its eXercisc,--un-
der whose supervision, always sworn officers of
the laws to be prescribed And then again
the results are to be certified TO the central pow
or by some certain rule, by some known public
officers. in some clear and definite form. TO the
end that two things may be done first, that
every man. entitled to vote. may vote; scc0''d
tia, his vote may be sent forward and counted
so he NAV exercise his part of sovereignty, in
common with his fellow men.
In the exercise of political power through rep
rescntativcs we know nothing we never have
known any thing. but such an exercise as shoud
be carried through the prescribed forms Of law !;
and when we depart from that we shall wander
AS widely from the American track as the pole
is from the track Of the sun.
| have said that it is one principle of the
American system. that the people limit their
government-naonal and state. They do so !;
but it is another principle, equally true and
certain, and according to my Judgment of things
equally important, that the people often HmH
themselves. They set bounds to their own pow
err. They have chosen to secure the institutions
they establish against the sudden impulses of
mere maioritics. All our institutions teen with
instances of this. 1t was their great conserva-
tive principle. in constituting forms Of govern
ment, that they should secure what they had es-
fablished against sudden changes of the MAORI
tiles.
BY the fifth article of the constitution Of the
United States Congress, two thirds of both
houses concurring. may propose amendments to
the constitutions or on the application OF the
Legislature ct '.vo thirds 81 81 ssra,c1 'nC--ai
a convention, and amendments proposed in either
of these forms must be ratified by the Legsla.
lures or conventions of three loluths of the
states. That fifth article of the constitution, il
it was made topic forJhose who framed the
Peoples Constitution Of Rhole Island, could
only have been made n topic Of denunciaiion
1t gives no countenance to any of their proceed
inds or to anything like them---On the contra
~, it is one remarkable instance. of the enact
rnent and application of that great American
principle that the constitution of Government
should be cautiously and prudently interrered
with, and that changes should not ordinarily be
begun and carried through by mere maiorilies.
But the people limit themselves also in other
ways. They limit themselves in this first exer.
else of their political rights. They limit them
selves, by all their constitutions, in two impor'
tant respects that is to say, in regard to the
qualifications Of electors, and in regard to the
qualifications of the eiectcd In every state and
in all the states, the people have precluded
themselves from voting for anybody they may
choose they have limited their own right OF
choosing. They have said, we will elect nc
man who has not such and such qualifications
We will not vote ourselves. unless we nave suc'
and such qualifications. They have also limiicc
themselves to certain prescribed forms for the
conduct of elections. They must vote at a par
ticular placc,-at particular time, and under
particular conditions or not at all. 1t is in these
modes that we are to ascertain the will OF the
American people; and our constitution and laws
know no other mode.
We are not to take the will OF the people from
pablo meetings, nor from tumul'uous Assem-
blics nor from those assemblies of the people b,
which the timid are terrified by which the pru
dent are alarmed, and by which society is dis
; turbcd. These are not American modes of sig
niying the will of the people, and they neyc
; were. II anything in the county, not ascertain
cd by a regular vote, by regular returns and b.
, regular representation, has been established, i
, is an exception and not the rule,-t is an anon
, ally which, believe, cannot he found. 1t is tru
that at the Revolution, when all the government
was Immediately dissolved, the psor'e sot tose-i,
err and what did they do Did mey exercise soy
eie,gn power? They began auisceptive orga.
= izaton, the object of which was to get toet-,,e
; representatives of the people, who should form
=. government. This was the mode of proceedin.
III those states where their legislatures were dis
, solved. 1t was much like that had in Englan
f on the abdication of James the Second. lie RAJ
: away-abdicatcd. lie threw the great seal int
/, the Thames. am not aware that on the 18th 6
. May, 1872, any great seal was thrown int
9 Providence river! But James abdicated, an
A; King William took the government and hoy
: did he proceed Why he at once requested al
= who had been members of the old Parliament @
5 any regular Parliament in the time of CAarls
the Second, to assemble.
5 The Peers, being standing body, could G
r course assemble and all they did was to recon
G mend the calling of a convention, to be chose
1 by the same electors, and composed OF the sam
5 numbers as composed a parliament. And tn
= convention assembled, and, us al know, wa
: turned into a Parliament. This was a case c
= necessity-a revolution. Don't we call it so
t and why Not merely because a new soycreg
1 then assembled the throne OF the Stuarts but b.
' cause there was change in the organization O
G the government. The succession of law wa
!, broken. The convention did not assemble IN
: der any preceding law. There was Aiaius,
e syncope, in the action Of the body polite. hi
! was revolution, and the parliamenls that Assem-
e blcd afterwards dated their legal origin to tina
t revolution.
o Is it not obvious enough that men cannot ge
It together, and count themselves, and say they ar
so many hundreds and so many thousands an