Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-05-22

| CONSTITUTIONAL ElW lnaC no OD)CCtlon snOulu
he made on tho presentation of credentials
[ therefore bring these facts to the notice OF
the Senate but shall make no motion my
self.
Mr.. TOOMBS. L have no comment what
ever to make on this extraordinary proceed
ing of the Senator from Iowa. The credcn-
tials of the Senator from Minnesota having
been produced, l have moved that he be
sworn in, and admitted to his seat.
Mr.. BROWN. Mr.. President
The VICE PRESIDENT. Will the Sen
ator from Mississippi pause for moment
The Chair has just come in, and does not eX-
actly understand the posture OF the question.
Have the credentials been presented !
Mr.. BROWN and others. Yes sir.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Has objection
been made to swearing in the member.
L. Oh, no."l
Mr.. BROWN. Then, to make a point for
the moment, will object myself, SO that
may have an opportunity of saying what l
desire to say. So far as these allegations are
concerned, will remark at the outset that
it would take vast amount OF testimony
to make me believe that they arc true, or
that they have any reasonable semblance OF
truth [ know HENRY NJ. RICE: ] have
known him for years; and, inmy judgment, if
there be on earth true and honorable man,
he is one, wholly incapable of doing dis
honorable act aud in the course which l am
about to pursue, want the Senate, and all
who shall read this days proceedings, to I'M
derStand that am not in the slightest posi-
BILE degree, in the action which | am about
| to take, influenced by these charges. If they
had any influence on me, it would be to in
duce me to withdraw all possible objection to
the swearing in of Mr.. RICE, for l think this
| is fragrant outrage, and am sure, upon in
vestigaton, it will turn out 20 be without
cause, and without the slightest possible
| foundation Of truth. Now, my life upon it,
| If The rouckers f1r this statement be entitled TO
the least possible credit, Mr.. Rice, as soon as he
is srora Ia, a1M demand an Investigation.
| object to the swearing in of the new
Senators from Minnesota upon other and al
together different grounds. | object to it
upon the ground that, under the written Con-
stltuton of the United States, States may
elect Senators and in that instrument there
is nothing which authorizes a Territory to
exercise that high prerogative of sovereignty.
Until within the last hour, Minnesota was a
Territory, and not State. Congress, at its
! last session, authorized Minnesota to form a
State constitution but that did not const
tutc her State. The Senate, some weeks
ago, passed a bill, so far as this branch of the
national Legislature was concerned, to admit
her. The House Of Representatives yester-
day passed that bill; and to-day, the President
has notified you that he has signed it. All
this concurrent action of the two Houses Of
Congress, and of the President was neces-
sary to constitute Minnesota a State She
was not a State, in my judgment, until you
were officially notified by the President that
he had approved the bill admitting her into
the Union as State on footing Of equality
with the other States. The language of the
Constitution, in the third section of the first
article is, the Senate of the United States
shall be composed Of two Senators from each
State, chosen by the Legislatures thereof for
six years and each Senator shall have one
vote" There is nowhere in the Constitution
any warrant for Territorial Legislature to
choose a Senator of the United States. G uld
you have a State Legislature in Minnesota
could you have. III The language OF the Con-
sttution, "a Legislature thereof" meaning
of a State until Minnesota was State? l
know that, in the California case, it was
argued by the then great Senator from Ken
lucky that California yesterday was State
out of tie Union, ard to-day she is q State
i'll the Union but | never understood that
sort Of argument. A State is State; no
more and no less. The Constitution recog-
nizcs States in the Union, and not States ont
of the Union. This talking about States
out of the Union entitled to exercise the high
prcrogaivcs Of sovereignty, is but branch
Of that odious and despicablc doctrine OF
souatter sovereignty.
Was Minnesota q State when she chose
Mcssrs. RICE and SHIELDS to represent her
in this body. We should deny our very ex-
istencc we should belle every particle Of
intelligence we possess, to say that she was.
If she was not State, then / want to know
by what warrant she elected Senators to this
body, seeing That the Constitution has said
that each State shall be entitled to two Sem
ators, to be "chosen by the Legislature
thereof the Legislature Of q State, not Of
Territory. know very we'll that the Con-
vention which framed the Constitution of
this incipient State provided for the election
of Legislature, and a Legislature was cho-
sen but it was no State Legislature until
tic State was admitted, and the laws which
they pass are not in force. Nobody pretcnds
to try TO enforce; they are dead letters on
the statute-book until such time as the State
is admitted. They had the sense to know
that they had no power to pass laws as
State Legislature until they were State !;
I but following the example first set in the
case of Ohio ] think, and which was followed
up in several cases afterwards, and finally in
/ the case OF California: they chose Senators
/ to this body.
/ have no expectation that these gentlemen
will be excluded and, since others have been
admitted on the same terms, | cannot say
that L am particularly anxious that they
shall be excluded. They are my personal
and political friends. | am proud to call
! them SO, and to feel that they are so; that
they stand in that relation to me- and | to
them; and | am glad to enter my protest
against parties occupying that personal and
political relation to myself so that shall not
be suspected Of acting from any partisan mo-
tive in this matter. Still, the obligation is
upon me, and will discharge it, to eater my
solemn protest, and put it upon the record,
against gentlemen coming here and taking
seats as Senators who are not accredited bv
a.iy sovereignty, who do not come from any
State of the Union. Such proceeding is
wrong. TWAS wrong in the beginning and
tn ugh it may have boon repeated fifty, or a
hundred. or a thousand times over you can
never make it right. Go bacl. to original
principles look to the Constitutions and if
you find your warrant there, admit these
gentlemen; but if you do not find it there,
then act upon the great principle that you
are as wise as those VITO went before you !;
and as they did not swear to support the
Constitution for you, but as you swore to
support it for yourselves, then act in obedi-
cnce to your convictions of duty to that Con-
stitution. | care not if every Senate which
has sat from the foundation of the Govern
mcnt up to this hour had said otherwise; the
conviction is firmly, fxedly, fastened on my
mind that nothing but a State, one of the
sovercignties that make up this great Con.
.cdeIacy, has any power to elect a Senator
and though they came from southern State.