The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-08

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That voice, Mr.. Chairman, is still spared 10 IT'S
owner; and as it spoke SO emPhaticany, wnen
merely representation In single congress was
| AZ issue. shall look to hear the solemn pledge
which ihave quoted most eloquently redeemed
| when John B. Weller, from the facihc coast,
lifts his voice in vindication Of 3the cause OF an
outraged and insulted people, and condemns, In
| lie severe Language which be so well knows
how TO use, and will use If he is faithful to his
VOW. the imposition of an odious Constitution
mon protesting and indignant community !
Virginia, too, in that day, spoke in different
tone from her Representatives of 1858, but in
striking accordance with the fearless declara-
tons Of her present Chief Magistrate George
@. Dromgoole--and l. need not state here what
rank he held among the statesmen of the Old
Dominion-uttered Language which was both
truthful and prophetic. Listen to his words OF
warning: ~ sesss,s Flssaaos r
you establish the principle that he credentials given
by the State authorities matter hog no maj
how much raranee s0i he t7ia q te pecpk ae
popular voice, $50 strike Le srssferef OF NE aseIre
franchise, ana destroy every principle inst MAKES Dc
mocracy both lovely and practicable Page u.s.
And vet the successors of Dromgoole tell US
that we cannot 20 behind the official certificate
of John Calhoun, to ascertain whether the instru-
ment he bears is or is not at variance with the
will of the people" To them comes the stern
cond emnation from their eloquent predecessor,
who, though dead, yet speaketh-" Y GU strike at
the existence of the elective franchise, and de-
stroy every principle that makes Democracy both
lovely and practicable"
Time will not permit more copious quotations,
but | must call yet another witness upon the
stand who "still lives" in his own State Of South
Carolina allude to Francis w. Pickens, to
whom the President not long since rendered one
of his most important foreign missions, and who
should therefore be good authority at the White
House, as well as with his successors here Mr..
Pickens thus spoke in the same debate, says the
Globe: .4 ia
Gle asserted he psrer The House te take what course
Stale Of Mio Jersey as insS0eisnt erdenee and it
counable nobody but its own constituenis"-Page 10
And it cannot be denied that our obligation to
admit Representatives here is more imperative
than to admit new States. We must do the
former; but the Constitution declares that we
may do the latter; and if we may, we certainly
also may not A rightfui Representative we are
bound to admit without compromise or stipula-
ton. Even legal State we may admit or reject,
as we see proper; and if we admit, can do it with
or without conditions.
But the warning of this eminent State-rights
Democrat was still more impressive than Mr..
Dromgoole's. Let it ring in the ears of those
who now spurn the will of the majority, for its
truthfulness has lost nothing by age:
"Hc called.n the C0pgyesS0rol CIooe upon gem
llemen hoc they set al defiance the OiH Of the
people clearly oppressed He did not desire TO preach
revolutionary doeIlIe but ne was ready 10 g,ea
thunder of Heaven might sometimes be heard TO roll
in ne i"dsnen, 'n.'s q an outraged d sa ss psop
question, they will tear of aud fyanp W ne dust ne tech
aiies Of special county court PLEADING which are thrown
around us here for party purposes or 10
/ cannot dismiss this retrospect of what used
to be Democratic argument in the olden time,
Of tha
torials of the Lecompton organ here, the Wash
ington Union, but a fortnight since, and the en-
phatic and truthful reply to it from the lips of
one of the Democratic champions of the debate
of 1899. Says the Union, in article showing
the perfect indifference it exhibited to what was
the desire of the majority of the people of Kan
sas:
do not care rhe people like dislike the Con-
st,,tiOn. We unwilling to take any more testimony
The has been closed the judgment entered up; and
the execution is in the hands of the officers"
Said John B. Weller in the famous New Jer-
sey debate prophetically and justly characteri-
zing such sentiments as these:
"They This opponenis] had al pracced upon the
prime ple of apacuy of the people govern them
selvesai the minority should rude Thai
STONE OF FEDERALISM Page 10
How appropriately, too, does the language of
Governor Weller reply to the bold avowal of
champion of the Lecompton Constitution in the
OLutT vi SOuSIcsSy MI nAMAOND, Ol
South Carolina, who in that famous speech of
his justified 81 the rule of the minority" as fol-
lows:
"fthis was minority Constitution do not know that
that would be objection it, Constitutions made
for minores. Perhaps iodes ought 10 haze ne night
make Constitutions they administered by MAORI
ties"
he then proceeds to various olher parts OF
the argument, and at last reaches the question,
is the Lecompton Constitution republican in
Form?l
Is 1T REPUBLICAN?
The next question which confronts us In the
discussion of this question is, whether the Con-
stitution is republican in form" The report of
the Senate's Committee on Territories, on page
10, after discussing the Slavery clause, says:
"No real valid exception be taken to any other
OF the Constitution. On this subject Preside M
Buchanan has well said, in his message:
In fact the general provisions OF State
Constitutions after experience of eighty years are
similar and excellent that would be difficult 10 60
far wrong at The present day in framing Consu-
tom"
Yes, Mr.. Buchanan; but if there is one pro-
vision more than another, in our recent State
Constitutions, in which there has been a univer-
sal concurrence of sentiment it has been in their
submission to the people. All parties, all sec
tons, all States, have agreed upon this eek
cellent" provision. Though in the earlier days
of the Republic, when the public sentiment was
unequivocal, State Constitutions were allowed to
go into operation by general consent and uni
versal acquiescence, yet for over twenty years
no Constitution has gone into operation, in any
new State or old, without having been submit
ted TO the ordeal of popular ratification or re-
lection. This forms the only exception during
the present generation; and the following rea-
son, very frankly given by the President, on page
/ OF his LecOmpton message, does not strike me
as either excellent" or truly Democratic
" Had the tohois Lecompton Constitution been submit
ted 10 the people the adherens of this Topeka organ
Kauon would doubtless have voted against it.n
But, sir, besides the fact that the Constitution
IS not really republican, because it does not rep
resent the actual and well-known will of the
people, | dissent from the Senatorial report. in
It's assumption that no real or valid exception
can be taken to any other part of the Constitu-
ton, besides It's provisions in favor of perpetual
and Irrepealable Slavery.
And .trst, the Constitution fatty contradicts
itself on most essential point In section one.
OF article seven, it is declared tbas the right Of
property Is before and higher than apy constitu-
tlonal sanction "a new higher law-while sec
ton two, article twelve, authorizes even a souI-
less corporation to take and nav for nrivata
property, even against the consent of the owner
If jury, which is usually rather inferior in power
TO Constitution, only consents
And secondly these sagacious Constitution
| makers, in their deep interest for the people
enact, in section five of article twelve, that no
bank bill shall go into force unless it is submit
ted to a vote of the people, after its passage by
the Legislature and shall be approved by ma
jority of the electors voting at such elections
while they themselves refuse to submit their own
work, binding up though it does all the institu-
tons, the legislation, and the interests of the
people, to this test, which they command here.
after, on a single question. Such gross and
shameless inconsistency cannot receive the sane
ton of my vote. To be consistent with Their