Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-02-25

Ma CLEMENS. beg leave to ask the unan-
nous consent of the House to finish what
have to say.
Several MEMBERS Go on, no objection.
Ms JONES, of Tennessee. insist on the OBJ
servance of the rule.
Nix STANTON move that the gentleman
from Virginia have leave to publish his re-
marks.
Mr. CLEMENS Iappeal to the gentleman from
Tennessee to let me have five minutes longer
My argument is incomplete, and it is bat an act
of justice that l should be allowed to complete
it.
Mr. JONES, of Tennessee. The committee
has no right to suspend the rules.
The CHAIRMAN. The chair has so decided.
Mr.. BoRRoUGHs | ain entirely willing that
the gentleman shall be allowed to finish his
speech out of my time.
Mr.. CLEMENS. 1 thank the gentleman from
New York; and l will remember his courtesy
another time.
In Pennsylvania, by act of the 29th March
1886, n convention was called To propose amend
ments to the constitution, to be submitted to
the people thereof for their ratification or
lection. Wisconsin, by an net calling conven-
ton, january 81, 1916, required the constItu-
ton to be submitted; and Congress carried out
this fundamental condition. in admitting. the
State into the Union, by exacting the assent of
the qualified electors, as prescribed By the or
ganic law of the Territorial Legislature This
was not, therefore, a precedent on the part of
Congress, but simple atfirmance of the res
traintS imposed on the convention by the repre-
sentatives of the people. Iowa presents
precisely similar. BY the act of the Territorial
Legislature, uassed january II, 1916, the CON
vcntion were authorized to submit the cOnstitu-
ton to the qualified vote of the Territory; and
Congress, in the act admitting Iowa, required
compliance with this cardinal provision. In
Virginia, by an act of March, Is, 1850, it was
made the duty of the president of the convcn-
ton 10 certify cOnv nf tho constitution IN fh,
General Assembly, that law might be passed
for taking the sense of the good people of the
Commonwealth thereon. The act in regard to
MinncSota-passed February 90, 1857, under
the patronage Ofa prominent Republican, and
present member of this Housewives the first in
stance in tile history of the Government where
Congress required a constitution to be submit
ted to the people of proposed State, where
they, through their Territorial Legislature, did
not themselves exact it.
The act in question was passed by the Repub
lican party, and was violation of the established
principle of leaving the people ola Territory
perfectly free to form their government in
their own way, because they might have prefer
red to vest that power in delegates or represent
atiyes. But they were deprived Of that liberty,
and compelled to test the constitution by a vote
at the polls The result has BEEN that we have
had two separate conventions in Minnesota, and
each one endeavOred to Outstrip the other in the
radicaliSm of its enactments, with view TO Il
popular triumph. Here, then, we find the true
line of demarkation between RepublicaniSm of
the Revolution and that of our day; and instead
of forming, by high-nindcd men, stable govern
ments for poSterity, we have had constitutions
changed like the horns of the moon, and whole
States gravcly proposing to determine, by the
vote of a mere majority at the polls, whether
white man was not in every respect equal to an
African negro. Sir, we are verging every hour
into the excuses of an unbridled popular licen-
tiouSness, which, in the halIowed name of the
people, is repudating the judgments Of the high
est courts in the land; breaking through all con-
StitutOnal restraints, and destrOyin all the checks
and balances our fathers formed, and which
they presumed would be sufficient to protect the
rights of every citizen. When the greatest city
on the American continent can be convuISed
with the cry Of starving people for bread lift
ing up to the dull skies for life and nOurShment
how far are we off from that Partisan liberty
which takes blood when il cannot find bone?
Sir, in this respect, the people act in mass,
and in such cases they always act from their
worst instincts and passion. The law is the
barrier which keeps both back and the Rresi-
dent has occupied, in this respect, n position
witch has tested the Spartan herOiSm of his char
acter If for one single day he had faltercd in
the stern discharge of his duty; if he had for a
single day countenanced the violence AID out
rage and anarchy of those who set every duty of
the good citizen at defiance, TO attain their reck-
less ends, we should at this hnur have been at
the mercy oil promIScuOuS mob, headed bY a
lawless, proigate militia general in buckram,
with all the temerity Of Bob Acres, without any
OF his convenient virtues
But to drop this DEPRESSION, and to resume the
argument. In all those cases where constitu-
tons have not been submitted, the organic act,
authorizing the election of delegates and def.
ming their powers, did not require it. The same
feeling, however, which has been displayed in
favor of popular submission. has found vent in
another direction, aud a few years ago came
very near transforming State Legislatures into
mere tIihunes to propose laws, instead of bod
les to make and enforce them. The theory that
it was necessary to give validity to State laws
by submitting them to the people at the polls,
was at one time so popular that it became part
of the policy of a score of States in this
Union. 1t was at its fullness about the time the
temperance reform first became a poIitical
question The first case have found is that of
Rice vs.. Foster, a HalringtOn's Delaware Re-
ports, 479) full abstract of which will be
found in Appendix No. 6. The case arose nm
der a law of Delaware authorizing the people to
decide by ballot whether. license to retail LIQUORS
shall be permitted among them. The court de-
cided that the law was Unconstitutional; that. as
the legislative power was vested in General AZ
Scmbly, the people had diyeStad thor,soI,-,- oe