The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-12-25
soyrnrloNfY- cxsi N 81 DELEGATED,

unit" indivisiblc," and incapable Of partition
because there be only sovereign in and over
one and the same domain. That sovereignty is a
unit and ndivisbe, and that sovereignty resides in
the people of State, or of Territory that has the
necessary prerequisites for becoming State cannot
be doubted but il does not therefore, follow that
sovereignty cannot be delegated. is delegated
every day. in every government ON the face of the
earth-the most despotc as well as the most free-and
in thousand different ways. No king and no State
can exercise sovereignty without deegatng It, when
ever circumstances require the employment Of sub
sttute The very fact that in own country, both
in our federal and State governments sovereignty is
distributed into three departments, conducted by
three different agencies Legislative, executive, and
judciaisa proof that sovereignty is delegated and
properly 3d. These three departments of govern
ment, under representative system, embrace the
whole of sovereignty, and the unity Of sovereign
ty is not destroyed, but maintained, by being SO
distributed. Each Of these elements is essential,
and each equally essential, to the unity of SOW
ereignty. If we take any of them away, its unity
is lost-just as light, heat, and rays constitute the
unity of the sun and if we take away any one of
them, we efectually destroy that luminary. Sover-
eighty is trinity in untyat least as IT exists in
this country, and, equally so, in Great Britain The
whole of the three departments Of sovereignty exist
primarily in tho people Of each State. The supreme
power resides in the people Of q State, which is
unit But sovereignty is exercised, and necessarily
exercised by and through agents, representatives
and delegates and the act of the agent is the act of
the principal if the principal has authorized the
act. Qui fact per alum, ae per Sc This is the doc
trinc Of the common law, and of common sense.
Every one understands it. Nobody is ignorant that
he employ agent to act for him, and that when
the agent has 80 acted, he is himself bound by the
acts of his agent, who effectualy carries out his
will as if he had acted himself This is the univer
sally-recognised principle Of representative gov
eminent as it exists in this country. The peo-
Pile may act by and through agents, delegates
and representatives and the acts of the agents
become their acts, and they are bound by them
No government could be carried on without re-
sorting to this acknowledgements principle of
representation The people of no State in the Union
are called together to endorse every act OF its legs
lature by submitting it to popular vote. If every
act of the United States government were required
to be submitted to the people to be voted before
it became law, no law could ever be passed at all
No government, under such circumstances, could
exist. Constitution making, and even ordinary legs
lation are very nice matters, of which every is
not fitted to be Judge and they arc, therefore, by
universal consent, submitted to the wsest and best
men in the community, and they derive their power
and authority, as Mr.. Jefferson has well said, from
this universal consent. If people accordingly,
through their legislature, call convention to const
tute republican form of government for Them and
the convention, acting in good faith executes the
trust committed to them the people do by this very
delegation of their power to such convention, be-
entirely responsible for it's acts if they
had acted, for the same ends, in great democratic
mass meeting including the whole of the citi-
IONS Of the State or of the Territory. The act
is, to all ntents and purposes, theirs, and they
not gainsay tcannot say it was not their act, but
the act of their agents representatives in conven
ton assembled /; for tho acts of their agents are
their acts and are so known and acknowledged to be
by the laws of the land and by universal usage
Does Governor Walker, by insisting that sover-
eighty is unit and ndivisble, mean to imply that
the people, in whom the sovereign power resides, may
not employ as many agencies as they think proper
to carry out their sovereign will without destroying
their unity and indvsibility and without losing the
smallest particle Of their sovereignty? Is the unity of
the soul lost by its sometimes acting through the
eye, sometimes through the tongue, sometimes
through the hand, and sometimes through the foot
all of which agents, to speak, by and through
which it acts when it acts at all May not States
act, and act more conveniently, summariy, and
effectually, through representative bodies-such as
conventions, legislatures, and sometimes by and
through single individual, as commissioner or
plenipotenary--tha by meeting together in tu-
multuous manner, throughout the whole length and
breadth of the land and giving their several votes
under the influence Of this oligarchy that,
measure ofpublic policy? Undoubtedly they may
act, without parting with any portion Of their free
will, but maintaining it to the utmost.
The argument of Gov. Walker seems to be intend
ed to assa the doctrine Of popular representation
and if it have any force at ALL it limits popular
creignty by depriving the people Of one essential
privilege which they have always cnjoyed-viz that
of acting by and through their agents and rep
resentatives. 1t carries us back to the idea of a
pure and utterly impracticable democracy in which
the people govern themselves by majority vote Of
the entire mass in which the millions, tossed hither