The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-01-15
WRITTEN CONSTITUTIONS POPULAR sovER

All governments ON the lace OF the earth may be
resolved into one or the other of two classes viz
those which respect and guaranty the rights of cti
zens, and those which proceed by the mere arbi-
trary will of the governing power 1t matters little
in practice TO the citizen whether his rights depend
upon the within and caprice of one man, or of num-
Der of men, of monarch or a mob If they are not
secured by guarantees, and not protected by laws,
superior to the arbitrary will of the ruling power it
matters little in result whether that will be singular
or plural of one man or of many men.
1t is needless to argue that tho governments Of this
confederacy, well State federal all found
cd upon principles looking TO the establishment of
justice and equality between citizens and framed
with the express aim of protecting and maintaining
the rights of the governed. To this great object
may be referred all that is peculiar and all that is
admirable and excellent in system of govern
ment. The people are recognised as the source Of
all political power, because they considered
safer depository of sovereignty than any single in
dividual whether endowed with the prerogatves of
an autocrat, or invested with the limited powers of
constitutional monarch. But when the trainers of
our government had thus reposed the sovereignty
of the State in the people, they did not stop here,
and consider their work finished. They did not
conclude that they had fortified the rights of citi-
zens from danger, and planted the government upon
a secure and permanent basis, when they had inau-
gurated the rule of the masses. On the contrary,
every subsequent step that they took in organizing
our system of government, designed to protect
the rights of individuals and minority classes from
the arbitrary power of the popular viii. After
reposng the sovereignty of the State in the people,
the trainers of governments then bent all their
thoughts and directed all their cares to deysing the
most udicous and effective means of restraining the
excuses Of the populace. 1t in this view That
they invented that most admirable and distinguish
ing feature in our American system of government
the wrdten constitution.
The written constitution was designed as chart
and rule limiting and restraining not only the egis
lature, tho executive, and the Judiciary in the exer-
else of their functions by its supreme mandates aud
inhibitions, but putting bit and rein upon the peo
pie also II acknowledged the sovereignty of the
people but it reduced the sovereign people them
selves to meet proper and dutiful subordination to
the higher authority of law. Indeed it may be said
without exaggeratoni that the express object of our
written constitutions to repudate the pet dog
ma of modern times which is usually expressed by
the phrase popular sovereignty by which it is
meant to assert the license of maorities to trampe
laws and constitutions under foo-the right of the
people in mass to commit any wrong upon individu-
ais or minorities-and to invoke in their iustica-
lion, against all constitutional and legal restraints
which may stand in their way, the ''higher law of
Gods will he uvsiII ia;
poptdi may best suit their argument.
In pursuance Of the effort to restrain popular ex-
cesses legislature, Judiciary, an executive were
established organs for the legal expression of the
popular viii but their functions were all subor
dinaed to the restraining provisions of written
constitutions. The people were recognised as the
original source of sovereign authority but they
were themselves subjected, not only to the provis-
ions of the written constitutions but to the laws en-
acted by their creature the legislature, as admins
tered by their agents, the courts, and as executed
by their servants the ministerial officers of the gov
eminent. Each citizen a constituent Of the SOW
ereigny of the State but yet, if any one of them
committed capital crime, mere sheriff or his
deputy was authorized, upon due conviction, to
hang him, sovereign as he The written con-
stution was, in its every line and letter, denial of
the dogma that the people,, either individually or
collectively, could do no wrong" 1t was be-
cause the people were known to be capable col
lcctivoly, of gross and grievous wrong when ex-
cited and mised, that the written constitution itself
was framed. 1t was because ii was known that they
liable, individually, TO sad delinquencies that
the legislature was empowered to enact penal codes
for Furnishing individuals of the sovereign constitu-
ency, and that ministerial police was empowered,
by warrant from the courts, to inect condign pun
ishment upon the bodies Of delinquent members of
the sovereign power.
The federal constitution differed little in the tieo,
ry upon which it framed from the State consti-
tqtions to which we have been referring. 1t was
designed to protect the rights of sections, States
and individuals from the arbitrary caprice the wan
ton aggression or the fanatica madness of pre-
dominating popular power distinguished in
stance Of its design in this regard is to be found in
its provision concerning ugitves from labor II is
notorious that at that day the great majority of the
leading men Of country were opposed to
the institution Of African slavery, and doubted its
righteousness in the eye Of religion or morals
They were establishing the federal constitution,
however, for the primary purpose of protecting
individual rights from arbitrary aggression or ca