Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-03-31
WASHINGTON, D. C.
FRIDAY, MARCH 81, 1854.
cEsrRALlsM VS.. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY.

CENTRALISM VS.. POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY.
The American People are so well satisfied
with the personal freedom they enjoy, that they
do not often trouble themselves with questions
concerning the great power they have intrust-
cd to the President and the Senate, and the
manner in which these agents shield themselves
from proper responsibility. They boast of
their devotion to the principle Of Self Govern
ment, and congratulate themselves for having
embodied it in their institutions, when pract-
cally they have deprived themselves Of q large
share Of the governing power.
Some Of the most important acts Of the Gov
eminent, marking indeed epochs in our his
tory, have been undertaken and carried
through without instruction or intimation from
the People Witness tho purchase of Louisi-
ana and Florida, the annexation of Texas the
war with Mexico, and the acquisition Of New
Mexico and California---acts not dictated or
suggested by the People, or tho Peoples Rep
resentatives, but initiated and consummated
by Executive Power, acting for the most part
secretly and irresponsibly
1t is because we are so accustomed to this
policy, that we read without surprise the cor
respondence in relation to Cuba, submitted to
Congress at its last session, disclosing the
fact that President of the United States, on
his own responsibility, without instruction or
suggestion from the People or their Repre-
sentatives, without the slightest intimation Of his
purpose or motive, had offered to purchase that
island from Spain, for sum not less than one
hundred millions Of dollars--in other words
to pledge the money of the People and of the
States for the purchase Of vast foreign terri
tory, to be introduced into their Union on On
equal footing with them, and all this without
saying, by your leave, 0 Sovereign People
Nor did it strike any one as unusual, when
it was announced, last summer, that the qnes-
tions of Reciprocal Trade with Canada, the
Fisheries, West India Commerce, and Central
| American relations, were subjects of negotia-
ton between Mr.. Champion and Secretary
Marcy, who would probably agree upon some
general scheme of settlement True, it might
be supposed that some Of these questions be-
long properly to the Legislative Department of
the Government but our People seem to admit
that there is NO limit to the Treaty making
Power.
There is now under consideration in the
Senate, Treaty, by which certain claims Of
citizens of the United States on Mexico
are to be assumed by our Government by
which the boundaries Of the country are to be
changed, and large tract Of foreign Territory
added, by which certain facilities for con-
structipg a railway by a. Southern route from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, are to be secured,
and by which twenty or twenty-five millions
Of dollars are TO be taken from the Treasury
and handed to Santa Anna By some means
unknown, against the will Of the Senate, the
plan Of the Treaty leaked out but all the COR
respondence in connection with it, and the
proceedings Of the Senate and President in re-
lation to it. are carefully concealed from the
People. They are not to know what causes
led to its formation what circumstances trans
were chiefly intended to b, promoted by it,
what are the reasons assigned for and against
it. To fact, they are to be kept in the dark
concerning its causes, nature and consequent
ces, until the Treaty shall have been ratified,
and they be called upon to pay the twenty
millions, which the President and Senate, act
ing secretly, are about to bind them to pay
And yet, the People who are so Indifferent
to the exercise Of these tremendous powers by
on Executive aud Senate, shielding themselves,
meanwhile, from all responsibility to them, are
full Of admiration at the zeal Of Representa-
tives, who, to save the Treasury and preserve
the Constitution, scrutiniz, every proposition
to vote money, whether to satisfy petty claim
Of 81, 900, or the claim Of the empire West for
half million to improve its great rivers and
harbors We, the People, under our boasted
system Of selfgovernment, through our appro-
pirate representatives, pass laws in relation to
mint and rue and anise," but "weightier
matters" involving Questions Of Peace and
War, Questions of Boundary and Empire, Cues
tons affecting the Perpetuity Of our Union, we
consign to the irresponsible action Of the
President and Senate, acting in secret con.
clave
Not much s said about the Gadsden Treaty in
the newspapers The Northern press knows
little about it. and seems to care less. The
Southern papers, that notice it at all, are ear
nestly in favor of iton avowed sectional grounds.
In the Senate, we learn that it has given rise to
protracted and warm debates, even some Ad-
ministration Senators feeling constrained to
oppose it and it is minated that this opposi-
ton has been provoked, not so much by the
particular provisions Of the Treaty, but by GER
tain Interior scheme, Of notification or dis
union, supposed to be favored, If not aimed at,
by that part Of il which secures facilities for a
great railway across the continent by the
Southern route, from Charleston on the At
| lautic. to San Diego on the Pacific with Mem-