The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-01-29

great Inconvenience and stagnatiOn Of
trade will occur. And yet there is little
probability that a change Of constitution
can be made soon enough TO meet the
emergency. Such regulations are the
proper subjects of statute law, which can
readily be made or changed to suit vary
ing occ asions.
F. A nation trammeled with a written
constitution is like a man with his hands
manacled. It's capacity for &C ton is
cramped and diminished.
Onr Oonfederaoy, like all other nations
and oonfederacies, has an unwritten con-
siitution, which consists Of the sympa-
thies, instincts, community of interests
and necessities that brought US together
and will hold us together, and in the in
stitutions and laws which we derived
from England, gradually and insensibly
modified to suit our Republican society.
This unwritten constitution, like all un-
written constitutions, has been the work
Of nature and of time and when closely
analyzed will be found TO be nothing
more than that social status which is as
old as man himself
On the other hand, our written consti-
tuition is one-half mere league or treaty
betWeeH Sovereign States, and the other,
statute law, which will require frequent
change, and yet is so awkwardly con-
trived that timely changes can scarcely
ever be made. We ought to have a con-
vention every two years to modify the
constitution, so as to adapt it 10 new exi-
geucies Aad emergencies. The frequent
changes Of State constitutions show that
they are in truth mere statute laws, which
can seldom provide for the distant future.
AN OF our great statesman and jurists
have been as blind as bats on this sub
jOct, aAd quite overlooked our real, nat
ural, God-given, unwritten constitution,
whilst they perplexsd themselves aud
their readers with learned dsquisitions
en written constitutions which were not
and in the nature Of things never could
be, constitutions st all. Not constitu-
tionS, nor a whit more like constitutions
than horse 10 like an alderman. The
doctor who should mistake the diet and
physic which he administers to his pa
tient for the patients constitution, would
be deemed a great blockhead but pre-
cisely such blockheads are all who mis-
take human regulations of society for
the constitution of society. They are in
truth but its diet and its physic, whilst
real constitutions are the vital principles
imposed on societies and nations at their
birth. .
Written limitations of power are
worthless. institutional limitations are
invaluable. The Confederate government
will be sufficiently checked, limited and
restrained by the institution Of the Sem
ate, the House of Representatives, the
judiciary and the executive, which will
rarely unite it in any act of injustice or
tyranny. IL they should the separate
States are each institutions clothed with
the power Of secession, that will keep
the combined powers of the Confederate
government within proper limits Of ac-
tion.
The checks, balances and limitations
of governmental power are all institu-
tional, none constitutional. Such is the
theory and practicS Of the English Gov
Srnment,sn such is the practice OF all gov
ernments. Among civilized people there
never was pure and simple despotism
or monarchy, beSRuse among such psspls
there are always many institutions that
check, mitigate and limit the power Of
the monarch.
The Confederate Constitution Is mrs tub
t'Tolgn oper 10 tRe ,sBals, No Intelligent man
SEo sUteS Jar IL deemed il ,eoald be perpsa
rz7't; Jut only considered il a temporary erpe-
dent, q giving say for the time, 10 popular
1r9Udice', a bridge or passway between
saobocracy and anarchy, and conserva-
| tive rspublicanism.
We are continually assembling conven~
tions, clothed with sovereign power, 10
remodel our State institutions, and to
establish principles Of universal and
| eternal right. These convention are chos-
| en- by the Same people who elect our
members Of the upper and lower Houses
of the Legislature, our Judiciary and our
Executive, 1t would be a thousand
times more sensible and prudent proce-
dure to invest our ordinary functionaries
OF government, the two Houses Of the
Legislature, the Judiciary and the Gov
ernOr, with sovereign power, than 10 in
vest soyerSisnty in a single body "a con-
| vsntioR) because ia the former case, we
! have checks and balances, aAd in the lat
Ter none. Never, in the history Of the
Caucasian race, has so stupid and inn
practicable a body Of men met together
as the late Virginia Convention, yet they
were clothed with sovereign power,
! whilst our Governor, Senate and our
House Of Delegates and Judiciary, with
ten times their intellect and twenty
times their patriotism, were restricted in
their powers, and liable to be removed
or neutrAliHed by this contemplate con
vsntion. Delegate sovereign power TO
to the combined branches Of our State
| governments and we shall need no more
conyeAtions, no more absurd and rsdicu-
lous written constitutions. Refuse this
sovereign power, and you have but an
imperfect, half made up government
A government just as defective as a man
without eyes or ears, or legs or arms
No people can be well ruled by govern
ment Of limited powers-by constitu-
] tiOnal government