The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-04


idea of some gentlemen, if it ever existed in TINS
country. had been in a state of catalepsy, until
the Nebraska bill brought it into life nave
seen some specimens which thought were gen
uine popular sovereignty, and some that thought
were spurious. viii tell you one. In January;
l775, the people Of that little State, OF wnicn
have the honor to be one OF the REPRESENTATIVES
an this foor met toeetber--not in private par
| Tor but in a public hall-and they inaueurated
liberty and law in the shape of a written Const-
1 tntion. in which they ignored the existence OF
| the King of Great Britain and his Parliament,
and formed Constitution for that State, in de-
fance of legal authority, eighteen months before
| the Declaration of American Independence, and
before any other State on this continent had q
| Constitution. 1 have heard that honor claimed
| for Virginia. / have heard it claimed for South
| Carolina. Anybody who will read the history
of the times will find, that in January, 1873,
eighteen months before the Declaration OF lnde-
pendence, the people of the State of New Hamp-
shire, in the exercise of real, genuine, unadul-
terated popular sovereignty, came together, ig-
nored both the King and the Parliament, and
spoke out, in the form of written Constitution,
the great doctrines of popular liberty regulated
by written Constitution. That call Of the
genuine kind.
Again, when the delegates Of these thirteen
| old States met together in conclave, and on the
4th of July published their ever-memorable and
| immortal Declaration, in which they avowed that
| they held the people of Great Britain, as they
| held the rest of mankind, "enemies in war, and
| in peace friends" there was popular sovereignty
! of the genuine and the real kind. 1t was pop
ular sovereignty to which those men pledged
| their lives, their fortunes, and their honor, to
sustain and for the sincerity of their convictions
| and the intensity of their devotion, they shed
their blood like water, and never gave over until
| that great doctrine was embodied and made per-
petual in the organized form of written Consti-
| tuition.
There is another instance of popular sover-
eighty in the history of the country from which
come that have always looked upon with
| admiration the most profound. / refer to the
revolution which brought Charles to the block.
| The Commons of England, by a resolution, blot
ted out the House of Lords, and resolved that the
Commons of England had the right of sovereignty
| in them, Kings and Lords to the contrary not
| outstanding; and they determined to bring
/ Charles to trial. Passing by all the organized
| forms of law, ignoring the House of Lords, g-
noring all the organized forms in which justice
had been accustomed to speak in her established
| tribunals, the old Commons of England came to-
gether, and resolved that they, and they only,
were the sovereigns of England that the House
of Lords was a useless appendage; that the
| machinery of their judicial tribunals was not
made for such an occasion, nor fitted for such an
emergency, and they resolved themselves into a
great high court and they determined, in the
| exercise of that sovereignty thus organized, to
summon before their bar the King on his throne
Yes, sir, they said that the King on his throne
should come down from his high estate, from his
elevation of regal sovereignty, and face to face
before the assembled Commons of England, he
should plead like criminal to the popular SOW
ereignty of England. / have here sketch of
the address that the old President read to the
King when he came in They were assembled
in the great hall. Old President Bradshaw
with his crimson robes sat on his high seat and
around him were the Commons. At last the
great doors of the hall were thrown open and in
marched the King of England. No hat was ia
ken from the head no man rose to do him rev.
erence. There was no indication that anything
but common criminal stood before high court
The old President rose and said:
Charles Stuart, King of England, the Commons of
England, assembled in Parliament being deeply sens
BILE of the caamiies that have been brought upon this
nation (which is liked upon you the principal author
according debt and duty which they owe to JUS
tee, to God, the Kingdom and themselves, and accord
ing fund amenal power that rests in themselves
they have resolved to bring you to trial and Judgment
and for that purpose have constituted this high Of
justice before which you are brought"
Oh, sir, that was Judgment; there was nothing
semi about that. The King undertook to cavl
with them, and ask them by what authority they
tried him; and the President replied, "By the
authority of the people of England" The King
cavilled for several days. He undertook to play
the king; he undertook to set off regal sover-
eighty against popular sovereignty; and anybody
that reads Humes History of England, and takes
! it for the TRUTH will read that the King main
| tanned that to the last. 1t was not So When
regal sovereignty and popular sovereignty thus
| came in conflict in England, the King endeavored
to play the king for little while, but at last he
covered and quaied, and became poor sup
plant criminal before the Commons of England.
They tried him; and at last they came to con-
clusion, and pronounced sentence on him, which
will read, for it is very brief. After reciting the
charges that the people of England had brought
against him, the President said:
"Fo- all which lreasons aud crimes this court doth adj
judge that he the said Charles Stuart tyran traitor
and murderer and public enemy shall be put death
by the severng of his head from his bodyn
And they carried it out. They carried it out
right speedily, too; for 1 think in about three
days the proud King of England, the successor
of the imperious Elizabeth of the bloody Mary
of the cruel and tyrannical Henry VIII, of the
on-hearted Richard, of the Norman conqueror
William, the descendant of that long line of
Kings, bowed his head upon the scaffold and it
severed from his body in vindication of the
great doctrine of popular sovereignty in England.
The shadow of that great event has rested upon
the British throne ever since. God bless those
old Commons for 1t. Liberty is safer to-day in
the country from which we came, and the coun-
try in which we are, on account of the fidelity
with which those old Commoners maintained,
carried out, indicated, and executed, the great
doctrine of popular sovereignty. Sir, they wrote
it in the blood of Kings on the eternal page of
history, where all nations may read it; and as
long as English history lasts, all time will not
efface it.
When contemplate that sublime exhibition
of popular sovereignty, and compare it with
your poor, pitiful bantling, the Kansas-Nebras-
Ia act, the only object of which was to Cypress
| the weak and hold the humble in subsection to
| their masters, | confess sir, Young America
not outstanding, prefer that old popular SOW
| erepntv or 'he Commons of England, two hun
dred years old. to Tho modern specimen which
you are TODAY illustrating ~ Kansas. Let Inc
hear no more of popular sovereignty until we
| get something of the genuine about it.
IL was not my fortune to be in the Senate the
| other day, when the honorable Senator from CAL
norma Mr. BRoDERIcK1 spoke. believe he
JOINS with me in repudiating this attempt
tnink that ne Is In error in thing, and he will
pardon me for telling him so. He lays it to Mr.
Buchanan, and he says Mr. Buchanan is the guilty
| cause of it. Sir, speak of Mr. Buchanan, as /
am going to do, under sense of duty / have
| no unkind feelings towards him, certainly. In
the course of my duty, as performed it accord
ing to my convictions, had occasion in the last
Congress to say something of General Pierce
not unkindly hope. 1 told him what he did
not believe at the time, but what he has since
| found out to be true. l told him that you were
using him, and that when you had used him, you
would throw him away; that you had no more
idea of again making President of him, than
! you had of one of those pages. He did not be-
| lieve me- think he does now. thought you
would be little more generous to him than you
were. | thought you would 60 to the Conven-
ton, and resolve to have majority of two thirds
to x,ofo xLox -