Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-12-19
Res>Euation of Governor walker.

Grafton Of my duty 10 my country-io the people
of Kanzas-to the President OF the United States,
anti to myself.
The grounds that are assumed by the Presi-
dent in his late message to Congress, and in re.
cent ms tructiors in connection with events now
Transporting here and in KanzaS, admOnished me
that, as governor of that territory, it will no
longer be in my power to preserve the peace or
promote the public welfare
At the earnest solicitation of the President,
nfter repeated refusas--rhe lasl being in writing
Il formally accepted this Office upon his letter
showing the dangers and difficulties Of the Kan
zas question. and the necessity fmy undertaking
the task of adjustment. Under these circum-
stances, notwithstanding the great sacrifices to
my personal, political and pecuniary interests,
l felt that l could no longer refuse such call
from my country, through her chief magistrate,
more than soldier in battle who is ordered 20 the
command of iorlorn hope.
accepted, however, on the express condition
that should advocate the submission Of the con-
sttution Co a vote for ratification or rejection.-
These views were clearly understood by the Pres.
ident and all his cabinet. They were distinctly
set forth in nv letter on my acceptance of this
office the 18th Of March last, and reiterated in
my inaugural address of the 9th of May last,
as follows Indeed l cannot doubt that the
convention, after having framed State constitu-
ton, will submit it for ratification or rejection by
a majority of the then actual bona tide resident
settlers OF Kanzas''
With these views well known to the President
and the cabinet, and approved by them, accept
ed the appointment of governor of Kanzas. My
instructions from the President. though the Sc
cretary of State under date Of Both of March last
sustain the regular Legislature of the territory in
assembling a convention to form a constitution,
and they express the opinion of the President,
that when such constitution shall be submitted
to the people Of the territory, they must be pro.
tected in the exercise of their right of voting for
or against that instrument. and the fair express
sion of the popular will must not be interrupted
by fraud or violence"
II repeat. then, as my clear conviction, that,
unless the convention submitted the constitution
to the vote of all the actual resident settlers Of
Kanzas and the election be fairly aud justly con.
Quoted, the constitution will be, and ought TO be,
rejected by Congress" This inaugural most dis
tnctly asserted that it was not question Of
slavery merely, which I believed to be of little
practical importance then in its application to
Kanzas, but of the entire constitution, which
should be submitted to the people of Kanzas for
ratification or rejection.
These my words on that subject, in my in.
augural-'It is not merely, shall slavery exist in
or disappear from Kanzas but shall the great
principles of self government and state sovereign
ty be maintained or subverted," In that inaugu-
raj proceed further to say, the people "may, by
subsequent vote, defeat the ratification of the
constitution" | designate this "a great consti-
tutional right" and add "that the convention is
the servant and not the master Of the people. -
In my official despatch TO you, of the I'd Of June
last, copy of that inaugural address was trans.
mitted to you, for the further information Of the
President and the cabinet. No exception was
ever taken to any portion of that address. On the
contrary, it was distinctly admitted by the Presl
dent in his message, with commendabe frank.
ness, that my instructions in favor Of submis-
sion Of the constitution to vote OF the people
were general and unqualified.
BY that inaugural and subsequent addresses
was pledged to the people of Kanzas 10 oppose
by all lawful measures the adoption OF any con-
stituion which was not fairly and fully submitted
to their vote for ratification or rejection. These
pledges cannot recall or violate without person.
al dishonoI and the abandonment OF fundamental
principles, and therefore it is impossible for me
to support what is called the Lecompton consti-
tuition, because it is not submitted to vote of
the people for ratification or rejection.
have ever maintained the principle that SOW
ereignty is vested exclusively in the people of
each State, and that it performs its first and high
est function in forming State government and
State constitution. This highest act Of sovereign
ty, in my Judgment, can only be performed by the
people themselves, and cannot be delegated to
conventions or other intermediate bodies. In
deed, the whole doctrine Of the sovereignty OF
conventions, as distinct from that of the people
or conventional or delegated sovereignty as con-
tradistinguShed from State or popular sovereign
ty, has ever been discarded by me, and was never
heard of to my knowledge during the great cam
yass of 1856. Indeed this is the great principle
of State sovereignty maintained by the Virginia
and Kentucky resolutions of 1888, sustained
by the people in the great political revolution OF
1900, and embraced in that amendment to the
federal constitution adopted under the auspices OF
Mr. Jefferson, declaring that the powers not del
egated to the United States by the constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved TO
the States respectively, and to tie people.
The reservation to the States is as separate
States exercising the powers granted by the State
constitution, the reservation the people of the
several States, admitted inchoate, exercise
ing their sovereign right of framing or amending
their State constitutions. This view was set forth
in my printed address, delivered in Natchez,
Miss, in January. 1868. against the notification,
which speech received the complimentary sane
ton of the great and good Madison, the princi-
pal founder Of our constitution, as shown by the
letter of the Hon. Charles J. Ingersoll, of Phla-
delphia, as published in the Globe, at Washing
ton, in 1896. By this clause OF federal constitu-
lional sovereignty of the people,, each State is
clearly reserved, and especially their own exclus-
i've right to form in its entirety their own State
constitution.
l shall not enter into the argument of this
question, but viii assert that this is the position
have ever occupied, and my reasons for enter.
forth in printed pamphlet published over my
signature on the 18th OF june, 1856, and then ex-
tensively circulated, from which ! quote as fol-
lows;
under our confederate system, sovereignty is
that highest political power which at its pleasure
creates governments and delegates authority to
them. Sovereignty grants powers but not soyer-
eign powers otherwise it might extingulsh itself
by making the creatureIof its will the equal or
superior to its creator. Sovereignty makes con-
situations, and through them establishes govern
ments. 1t delegates certain powers, distributing
the exercise Of the granted power among the leg
islative. executive, and judicial departments.
The constitution is not sovereign because it is
created by sovereignty, The government is not
sovereign for the same reason-much less de-
partment Of that government"
Having defined sovereignty, l must not CON
found the power with its source or its exercise
that is, sovereignty is one thing, and where it
resides, or how it is TO be exercised, is another
Under the system Of European despotisms, SOW
ereignty was claimed by reside in kings and EN-.
perOrs, under the sacrilegious idea of the @ d.
vine right Of kings" and the blasphemous doc.
trine was that sovereigns in legitimate succession
although stained with crimes and blaekened with
infamy, we're clothed by the Deity with absolute
power TO rule their subjects, who held nothing
but the privileges granted by the crown. Such
were the absurd and impious dogmas to which the
people OF Europe, with few exceptions, have been
compelled to submit by the bayonet, supported
by the more potent authority of ignorance and
superstition. Under this theory the people were
ciphers, and crowned heads sub .deities, the sole
representatives on earth Of the governing power
Of the Almighty.
Our doctrine is just the reverse, making the
people the only source of sovereign power. But
what peoplei With US sovereignty rests exclu.
siVely with the people of each State. BY the
revolution each colony acting for Itself alone
separated from Great Britain, and sanctioned the
Declaration Of independence Each colony 'hay
ing thus become State, and each adopting it,