Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1858-03-31

90 OulSlue oil tne regular IOTinS OF law
and constitutions, 10 seek for the will o.
the people, you are wandering in will.
derness-a wilderness of thorns.
If this was a minority constitution | dc
not know that that would be an objection
10 it. Constitutions are made for minor
tiles. Perhaps minorilies ought TO have
to right 10 make constitutions, for they
are administered by maj"rities. The
Constitution OF this Government was
made by minority, and as late as 1910
a minority had it in their hands, and could
have altered or abolished it; for, in 1910,
six out of the twenty-six States of the
Union held the numerical majority.
The Senator from Illinois has, upon
his view of the Lecompton constitution
and The present situation of affairs in Kan
sas, raised cry of popular sovereign
ty." The Senator from New York Mr..
Seward yesterday made himself face
tious about it, and called it "squatter
sovereignty" There is popular SOW
ereignty which is the basis of our Gov
ernment, and | am unwilling that the
Senator should have the advantage of con-
founding il with ''squatter sovereignty" F."
In all countries and in all time, it is we'll
understood that the numerical majority
of the people could, if they chose, exer.
else the sovereignty of the country; but
| for want of intelligence, and for want OF
leaders, they have never yet been able
successfully to combine and form stable,
popular government. They have often
attempted it, but it has always turned out,
instead of popular sovereignty, pop
ulaes sovereignty; and demagogues, plac-
ing themselves upon the movement, have
invaribly led them into military despo-
tism.
think that the popular sovereignty
which the Senator from Illinois would de-
rive from the acts of his Territorial Leg
islature, and from the information receiv-
ed from parti.ans and partisan presses
wouldlead usdirectly into opopulacs. and not
popular, sovereignty. Genuine popular
sovereignty never existed on firm basis
excepl in this country. The first gun of
the Revolution announced a new organi-
cation of it, which was embodied in the
Declaration of independence, developed.
elaborated, and inaugurated forever in
the Constitution of the United States.-
The two pillars of it were representation
and the ballot-box. In distributing their
sovereign powers among the various de-
parlments of the Government, the people
obtained for themselves the single power
of the b,llot. box; and a great power it
was. Through that they were able TO
control all the departments of the Govern
meni. 1t was not for the people 10 exer-
else political power in detail; it was not
for them to be annoyed with the cares of
Government; but, from time to time,
through the ballot-box, to exert their say-
ereign power and control the whole organ
ization. This is popular sovereignty, the
popular sovereignty of legal constitu-
tional ballot-box; and when spoken
through that box, The ''voice of the peo-
ple," for all political purposes, sis the
voice of God;" but when il is heard out
side of that, il is the voice heard of de-
mon, the tOcsin of the reign of terror.
In passing omitted TO answer a ques-
ton that the Senator from Illinois has, |
believe, repeatedly asked; and that is,
what were the legal powers of the Ter
ritorial Legislature after the formation
aud adoption of the Lecompton constitu-
lion! That had nothing 10 do with the
Territorial Legislature, which was
provisional government almost without
power, appointed and paid bv this Gov
ernment. The Lecompton constitution
was the act of people, and The sover-
reign act of people. They moved in
different spheres and on different planes,
andcould not come in cOntactat all without
usurpaiion on the one part or the other.
|! was not competent for the Lecompton
constitution to overturn the territorial
government and set up government in
place of it, because that constitution, un-
Ill acknowledged by Congress, was moth
ing; it was not in force anywhere. 1t
could well require the people of Kansas
10 pass upon it or any portion of it; it
could do whatever was nesessary TO per-
feet that constitution, but nothing beyond
that, until Congress had agreed to accept
ii. In the mean time the territorial gov
ernment, always government ad interim
was entitled to exercise all the sway over
the Territory that it ever had heen en-
titled to. The error of assuming, as the
Senator did, that the convention was the
creature of the territorial government,
has led him into the difficulty and confu-
sion of connecting these two governments
together. There is no power 10 govern
in the convention until after the adoption
by Congress, of its constitution.
If The Senator from Illinois, whom
regard as the Ajax lebanon of This de-
bate, does not present the question of
frauds, shall have little or nothing to
say about that. The whole history Of
Kansas is disgusting one, from the be-
ginning TO the end. have avoided read
ing it as much as could. Had been
a Senator before, should have felt il my
duty, perhaps, to have done SO; but not
expecting 10 be one, am ignorant, fortu-
nately, in great measure, of details; and
was glad 10 hear the acknowledgment
of the Senator fiom Illinois, since it ex.
ouses me from the duty of examining
them.
| hear, on the other side Of the Cham
Der, great deal said about "giganlio and
stupendous frauds;'' and the Senator from
New York, yesterday, in porlraying the
character of his party and the opposite
one laid the whole of those frauds upon
the pro-slayery party. To listen 10 him,
you would have supposed that lhe regi-
ments of immigrants recruited in the pur-
lieus of the great cities of the North, and
sent out, armed and equipped with
SharPe's rifles and bowie knives and re-