Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1861-1862, 1861-12-27
Constitutional Amendm me nts

Constitutional Amendments.
We may fatigue the reader-we may weary ourselves
-we may outrage good distaste by the frequency OF
repetition but the subject is too Important to stand up
tr IS. We seek the restoration Of our old Republic
the Republic Of 70 which, resting upon the broad ba
sis Of law and the distribution Of power could not be sub
verted by any man. While our institutions are de-
pendent for their existence upon single man, call them
Republican,, or Democratic, or what you will, they are IL
able at any moment to be converted into despotism,
aud cannot satisfy the man, who likes TO feel that his
freedom Is based upon a rock. We Of those, who
embraced separation from the Yankees with Joy, not
simply for the sake Of separation but for the higher and
holier end Of securing liberties. We have been
vnced for many yeas that the Federal Government.
than falure-that it little else than vast
machine scattering corruption broadcast the land
aud that its continuance dependent the accident
OF election, the caprice of an individual 1t the
qiintessence of democracy lin the Aristotle SENSITIVE
use it in any other e. corrupt Republic, with
the sembance of freedom and the substance Of servtude
Government Of 1.-THE greatest good to the greatest
number" he maory,) and consequently an intcerabe
tyranny TO the minority. Is downfall has come-soon.
than most persons eIpscted-but not moment soon
er than It deserved We of the South BY our timely
cassion saved liberties from the general ruin. But
the great problem of their preservation is still unsolved.
We have started experiment with almost identi-
csly the system, which has just met with disas
trous a failure, and from which we escaped only by
miracle II escape again. 1t will only be BY another
miracle.
Biologists tell us Of great food sweeping this
continent from Northwest to Southeast at some remote
4 A ,ho Ia.j A 4.
vastatng food Of political nature has for the last As
years. been drifting our land from the Eortheast-
II swept away all the landmarks Of genuine Republican
ism, which our forefahers established They the wisest
men the world has seen, based free Government
both Federato aad State upon equal laws, and upon
such distribution and limitation Of power in the hands
of agents. that one, any possible pumber of them
combining could subver the public liberty. This North
food reached It's elimination about the year 1850
when the last vestgo Of Revolutionary Republcanism
superseded in this Commonwealth BY Yankee De.
mocracy. The great principle inaugurated that not
dog.catcher should be chosen without formal appeal
the whole body of the people in it's sovereign capacity
make the selection. Daily elections Of everything
free suffrage free speech free press free schools-nc.
thing wanting but free labor to complete the cycle
of freeaiy At that We paused, and are again fighting
the fight Of freedom.
There many contradictions in nature, and results
the most probable are often blied by mysterious and
unknown agencies. Two and two not unfrequently
make fve-to the confusion Of human computation
The elements which enter into the composition of pound
cake-Hour, suRar, butter, eggs and milk, are each
separately heahfu aud nutritious I'd yet In the co.,
CRETE they constitute compound, dgestibe by no "a
tioual beings truant school boys Slcous .sheed
apimalcule are composed entirely Of slex and have
their being in the ocean and yet the element in which
they exist and from which they appear to derive all
their substances. upon analysis is found destitute Of i
lea Astronomers tell u.s. that 1t is highly probable
that the central body Of the universe (25O times the
diameter Of our SUM- is the principle of gravation
and the theory Of emsnaton rendered invisible BY the
immensely Of its volume and the intensity of its light
This illustration s rather hghAown for terrestrial sub.
ject But it will p,ss. An excess Of light produces
darkness, so too much liberty engenders despotsm.
Since separation from the Yankees, and especially
from the Yankesizsd portion Of the stite--the North
west-to conciliate which have for the last forty
years sacrificed the true interests and endangered the
best institutions Of the Commonwealth feel that the
letters falling from limbs gentleman can ones
mOre HOil up us uehu ia O4u anu NslOn5 OF
settled liberty and law, Of the good old times and good
old Jamaica, once more people our slumbers Blu; we
are not yet on solid ground. While We retain that
prominent Yankee feature insour system of Chief
Magistrate elected by the people, and swollen With the
lea that he Is the embodiment ct the sovsr.ign p.opls
b, Is omnpolent any sovereign in Europe aud we
hold freedom by the frai tenure Of msns caprice
That mode Of election and the idea Of popular embod
msnt invests the indivd ial with sort Of sanctity tan
tamount to divine right and clothes him with ten times
the power conferred by the constitution and the laws
Louis Napoleon Is the elect Of universal suffrage Abro.
han Lincoln Ia the boosted embodiment Of Democratic
sovereignty. Such free government is mockery; 1t
is unworthy Of the name; It is unworthy Of freemen il
Is unworthy Of aspiring to be statesmen-it is I'M
worthy Of the compatriots of Washington aud Mason.
Give back tbs old Rtpsbc-the old Articles Of Con-
fedsraiion-modHed II you choose to suit our altered
condition; but deliver US from an Elective King,
and give as to knov that hold rights uujsc. TO
mans Vih.
The Governor Of South Carolina has called for volun
teer force equal to twohrd Of the militis force cipi
BILE Of bearing arms, and in the event Of this number not
being forthcoming at oncs, he has issued orders for