The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-31
the Friends of american Liberty /:


IMPAIRING THE OBLIGATION OF CONTRACTS.
[coNcLuDKDl
To the Friends Of american Liberty:
VIII. GUARANTY OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.
"The United States SHALL GUARANTY to every
State in this Union republican form of gov
ernment."-Ayt. az, Sec. 4.
l. The import of the word guaranty" is sta
ted and illustrated in Noah Webster unabridg-
ed Dictionary at some length, and this very
clause of the Federal Constitution is cited as
an instance Of the use of it, according to the
definition that is there given.
| Guarantee Tor guaranty. III. To warrant,
to make sure, to undertake, or engage that
another person shall perform what he has stip-
ulated to obGge ones self to see that another 8
engagements are performed; to secure the per-
Torrance of, as, to guarantee the execution of
a treaty."-Madison, Hamilton.
az. To undertake to secure to another, at all
events, as claims, rights, or possessions. Thus,
in the treaty of 1878, France guaranteed to the
United States their liberty, sovereignty, and in
dependence, and their possessions and the
United States gslQranteed to France its posses
sions in America. The United States shall
| guaranty to every State in this Union a repub-
| lican form of government '"-Const ofhe Uni
ted States.
"3. To indemnify; to save harmless
| Webster
| The United States then, warrants makes
| sure, engages, and promises that every State in
this Union shall have a republican form of gov
| eminent. 1t is the Government of the United
States that, in the Constitution, is charged with
this duty. The United States, "the people OF
the United States" in adopting the Constitution,
| puts this work into their hands. 1t is the prom
Use of the people and Government of all the
States collectively promise made "to every
State in this Union TO the people of each
State-for the State is nothing distinct from the
people. The people are to be Unidentified
saved harmless-secured from damage, if any
State, or if any person or persons in any State
sets up an antirepublican government. This
promise is sacred stipulation, binding com.
pact, of the same nature as that contained in a
| treaty between two nations. 1t is vital part OF
our Irrational compact the only one in the
whole instrument that is dignifed with the ap
pellation of a "guaranty."
Our fathers had the sagacity to foresee that
without this precaution, the attempt to estab
lish republican Government for the United
States might prove a miserable failure. And
we, their sons, ought to have learned by this
! time, that If do not mnnfully insist on the
faithful ful6lment Of this guaranty, our repub
hcan experiment CERTAINLY WILL be failure
In no possible way could the republican char
acter of the National Government be maintain
ed, if the State Governments should put on ar
anti-republican character. The object of the
people, in establishing National Republican
Government, was the security of their liberties
This they stated in their preamble" But il
this National Government should have allowed
the State Governments to subvert the liberties
of the people, or of any portion of the people
the object they had in view would not have been
| fho cd
in the very fact of allowing the liberties of any
portion of the people to be subverted, would
have become anti-repubican government
itself. A National Government that could per
NIT any of the State Governments to subvert
liberty, would, of necessity, become the tool and
vassal of that State Government, even if there
were but one such State in the Union. Govern
ments, like individuals, become servile by the
process of Witnessing, in silence, the degrade
ton of any portion of the body polite to which
they belong. And a Government becoming
servile, becomes of necessity despotic, within
the range of its activities. 1t was as necessary
therefore, that the United States, through their
Government should guarantee republican insti
tutions to the States, as it was that the United
States Government itself should be neither des-
potic nor servile. The words of the instrument
the intention as discovered by the words, and
the declared objects, spirit, and general scope
Of the Constitution, are all at one, here.
And what IS I" a republican form of govern
ment?" What is the import of the words I
What is the Intention as revealed by them
And what does the spirit, object, and scope Of
the Constitution, with the contemporary litera
ture and history, respond to the question?
If we would have an exact definition of The
cords, as used by the founders of our Republic
we must take their o,cn definition of them, ii
| Al Iocr 1l 4
intentions, we may learn them in this manner
If we would enter into the true spirit, object
scope, and design of the provision, as connected
with the whole Of the instrument we could dc
no better than to take their own account of the
matter.
Mr.. Jefferson had said:
"The true foundation of republican govern
ment is the equal rights of erery citizen in his
person and property, and in their management
And the same renowned expoundar of repub
licanism had repeatedly denominated the Stare.
"citizens."*
While the question Of adopting the Constitu
ton was pending, and while many were Jealous
lest its features should not be sufficiently repub
lican, Messrs. Madison, Jay, and Hamilton
wrote a series of essays known as the FEEDER
alist," in its defence. No. 80 of the Federalist
written by Mr.. Madison, in answer to that par
tcular objection, contains the following
"The first question that offers itselfis, whethe,
the general form and aspect of the Government
be strictly republican 2 1t is evident that nc
other form would be reconcabe with the gen
Jus of the people OK America, with the Gxndn
mental principles o. the Revolution, or with tina,
honorable determination which animates every
votary of Freedom, to rest all our political ex
periments on the capacity of MANKIND TO,
self goreynment. If the plan of the Convention
therefore, be found to depart from the republi
can character, its advocates must abandon il A,
no longer defensible. What, then, are the dis
J tinctive characters of the republican form
We're an answer to this question to be souobt
not by recurring to principles but in the appli
| cation of the term, by political writer's. to In,
Constitutions of different States, no satisfaction,
t one could be found"
Mr.. Madison proceeds to observe that Hol
I land, Venice, Poland, and England, had fire
quently been placed, by writers, on the list @
republics, but that they had no claim to the an
pellation. He then proceeds:
1t we resort, for criterion, to the different
principles on which different forms of govern
ment are established, we may define republit
to be, or at least we may bestow that name or
, government wAich derives all its powers direct
: ly or indirectly from the great bodv of the neo
Pile, and is administered by persons holdins
their offices during pleasure, for limited peri
with what execraton should the statesman be loaded
who permitting half OF the citizens thus To tramp
upon the nights of the Other transforms those into dsspot
and these into enemies, &e.-Neiss E1ginSa.