The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-07-14

s indiyiduality and equality of States. The
ldiminutive State of Delaware, with its popu-
4 lation of 120, 900, is the equal of the power
q full State of New York with her 100000 OF
people and boundless wealth; and tins not
1 upon the idea of q checking power OF one
upon the other but because the little or man,
Delaware, is a sovereign, and therefore the
equal of the great State or man, New York
This contrast between the two govern
ments affords strong argument for the IN
dividual political equality of men, as basis
of representation.
Upon what principle of the crudest form
of q republican government is it, that twen-
ty-siX senators represent a white population
of 1 90 900, while twenty-four Senators repre-
sent a population of 10000 Why is it
that SO, 900 elect one-half the Senators, while
100000 are not represented at all, and are
constitutionally DISTINGUISHED?
If the ordinance abolishing slavery should
have the effect claimed for it, of transferring
the taxable basis, westward, as it will to some
extent do, the injustice of the rule would
still remain If it should ultimately remove
property and representation to the West and
leave the Eastern counties DISTINGUISHED as
the Western counties now are, it would only
make the natural and radical injustice of the
property basis the more apparent. There
would then be a cry from another quarter
for a change of the basis, and with justice.
| For fifty years before the Convention OF 30.
each county alike was represented by one
Senator and two members of the House OF
Commons That inequality became such
grievance, that the Convention of 1885 was
called mainly to equalize it. Yet. that body
met with its hands tied to one remedy only,
| that of taxation as the basis of the Senate,
and federal population, of the House. Was
that a remedy2 Is not the inequality great
er now than before the amendment of 1885
This Convention would approach nearer
political equality by undoing the work OF
| 1885 and restoring to each county one Sena-
| tor and two Commoners
The ground of complaint will never be re-
moved or harmony restored, but in one way
and that is by making population the basis
of representation in both houses. Establish
that rule and let it work out its own results
| All will submit to it, because it recognizes
the equality of men; because it embOdies
two great ideas of modern thought the first,
that equality in representation, if attainable,
is matter of right, of justice. of humanity, of
the higher morals, and not of caprice or con-
venience only. And the second, that one
great view of true reform, and real pro-
gress, is peacebly and gradually to remove
the artificial inequalities which history has
produced; to cause the law ever to tend to-
wards the perfectly humane and the perfect
ly just; and to bring political and civil
rights nearer and nearer to the rights OF ma
ture. The representation of land ormoney."
said Sir James Mcintosh, echoing the senti-
ments of Edmund Burke, ''is a monstrous
relic of ancient prejudice; men only can be
represented, and population alone, ought to
regulate the number of representatives which
any district delegates
What then, is the proposed advantage OF
property as basis, to population a basis
of representation (? The electors are the same,
the qualifications of Senators are the same,
the composition of the body, itself, is sub
sentative element, or q checking power to
the coordinate branch-the House of Com.
mons-but the distribution of Senators is I'M
equal and obnoxious.
Why, then, obstinately cling to this odious
and useless relic of an lent prejudice? Why
persist in thrusting into the faces of the peo-
pie this defiance to all the maxims of re.
preventative republic? If the accident C
peace, or fortune, should bestow wealth upon
one community, shall the absence of the
same accident or fortune to another sister
community, consign her to infamy and po-
litical disfranchiscmcnt9 In q nation o
equals, shall the organic law measure mans
legal privileges by the length of his purse
If the people are alive and sensitive to any
one political grievance above all Others, it
to this denial of the sum and consumation o.
all their warnings and struggles, for past
ages-egud{ity. The history of all civiliza-
tions-from the Roman secession to Mons
lSacra down to the American revolution-is
but the recorded struggle of right against
might, of the people to tear from the hand
of power and prejudice, that equality which
God has engraved upon their hearts and con-
sciences.
I will now, Mr.. President, briefly sum up
the results at which have arrived, and re-
lieve the patience ofthe Conventions
1. have endeavored to show that much
less than one-half the white population o.
%l,o +Io,
in the House of Commons, while in the Sen
ate, one-third of the people have the control
ling power over the other two-thirds, and
that the Legislature, in neither branch, nor
in both together represents majority of
the people, and is, therefore, anti-republican
in character.
2. have intimated that wise political
forecast would require of us, that we should
give restricted right of suffrage to all the
citizens of the State, as the surest foundation
for the peace, security and stability of our
government.
3. have shown that, without the right of
suffrage, there is no pretense of reason or
policy, for making the negro basis of rep
resentation in the House of Commons.
4. Assuming that the negro, not having
the right of voting, and not bearing the re-
lation of constituent to representative, will,
at once, cease to be basis of superintendent,
1 endeavored to show that white population
Is the natural, just and equal basis, for the
House of Commons
g. undertook to establish that taxation
of property as basis for the Senate, is con-
trary to the maxims of republics, invidious
and unequal in application, that, in the
words of John Milton, there can be no fun
damental law which is not grounded on
right reason, in justice, and in moral right"
That the right of suffrage is a right dear to
the people, but of what value is that right,
when you say that 500 men in one district
shall elect one Senator, and 5000 men in
another district shall elect one, and that they
both shall have equal voice. It is true,
you give to every man an equal right to vote,
but, when you say that the vote of every
man shall not have an equal weight in the
government, you destroy the whole value of
that right. Suppose you were to declare that
five hundred voters in Hertford-that county
having that number of voters-should elect
one Senator, and that in Haywood district,