The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-04-03
For tho Rock Island Argus.
The Right Of the People to Govern Them


The Right Of the People to Govern Them
selves.
The reader will bear in mind that the ex-
usct, from President johnson, given in my
LAST number, denies in toto that the federal
government possesses one iota OF sovereign |
81. Mr.. johnson held that sovereignty was
-innereht in the people, and that it was In.
aiehable. This is the doctrine of the DEM
ocratic party from its organization to the |
present day. The very reverse is the doc
trine of the federal party, now reinstated In
power under the name of republican,
When it assumed this name In 1896, 1t
claimed to be "a reorganization OF the re-
publican party of 1898, founded by Mr. def
ferson,n and this false claim deceived thous-
ands of democrats. Mr.. jefferson, and his
republican friends, held that the states were
sovereign parties to the compact OF which
the federal constitution was the bond. They
denied that the preamble to the constitution
was a part of it, any more than the title of
a law is a part of the law. General Hamil
ton and his federal friends, then as now,
asserted that the statesmerged their separate
sovereignty into one sovereign nation, and
transferred the allegiance of their citizens to
| the government created by the constitution.
They denied that the constitution formed
compact between the states, and refer to the
preamble to prove that the phrase "We, the
| people of the United States" means zone
| people"-"one sovereign nation" 1t this
| theory of our system of government be true,
| then of necessity, its counterpart, the theory
! of the democratic party must be false. "a
sovereign nation" is nothing more moth
| ing less than "a sovereign state )" and no
| body of people is state-a nation unless 1t
| is sovereign. And for this obvious reason,
| that sovereignty, which is paramount author
ity or power, is the very quintescence OF
nationality--of statehood. 1t is this irrefntu
table position of the inherent and inalena-
BILE sovereignty of the people which led Judge
Douglas TO his impregnable proposition OF
"squatter sovereignty" He took precisely
the ground of Algernon Sidney, and failed
only because he was fearful of the unpopu-
larity of carving it out to its legitimate re-
sults-the utter unconstitutionahty OF any
attempt of the federal government to govern
in any respect the people removing to ter
| ritory. The people removing from Illinois
to 8. territory expatriate themselves,an car
~ with them their inherent and inalienable
sovereignty, out of which naturally grows the
right of selfgovernment.
1t is true that they cannot set up in the
| limits of Illinois another sovereign state be-
cause two sovereignties cannot e3i1b on the
same space of land, but when, to use the
, | words of Argernon Sidney, stem men or ter
million of men expatriate themselves they
carry with them the right to join together
and to establish such laws as they shall OBJ
, | lige themselves to observe; ;" or as John Mil
ton says: "The liberty and right of free borr
, men to be governed as seems TO them best
Out of this absurd nay, despotic claim o
: congress to governthe people who emigrat'
4 | to the territories, because they purchase the
lands for which congress has the delegated
. ''power to make needful rules and regula
5 tionsn as property, has grown the claim t
= govern the seeded states as territories. II
A as President johnson says, congress has nj
| sovereign power" then it is clear that mel
3 Their the President nor the Judiciary posses
s ses any sovereign power. All the powers o
the federal government are "derlvative," ant
! hence every attempt, since the close of thu
war, to govern the seeded states provision
i ally has been unconstitutional and void
save as conquered provinces. Professo
> Lewis (of Union College. New York; in hi
photograph" says: ave, the people of tn
United States, do ordain and establish thi
. constitution for ourselves and our pesterity
: There spoke this one ancient sovereignty i
p peaceful convention. The shallo,
DISCLAIMERS at Chicago tell ms that the state
% made the constitution" But "Mr. Lii
3 coin will be long remembered for hi
= terse declaration of this great truth
g 1T was the nation that made the constitu
ton, and not the constitution the nation
. saws he, with a concise sagacity worthy {
8 Aristotle. The nation was before the const
- tuition and without the formers pre-existenc
s the latter never would have been. 1t wa
the constitution of a nation, made by a ns
6 ton for nation" The italics are Professo
Lewis. In note he says "The mode c
y ratification by states does not at all interior
t | with this view. That I.aero matter .
, convenience, and the convention might jus
:. as well have provided general popular vot'
;. or any other mode. The true mind OF tn
II nation having been, in any way, sufficient
e ascertained, refusing sections might an
e should have been compelled to come in, o
O the same ground of national necessity thf
! now iustifies the compelling of them to sta
in" w-
e Professor Lewis is an able writer, but h
photograph" is decidedly sophistical-na,,
, worse, it is in several instances untrue, b,
written in style and with an earnestnes
well calculated to mislead unsuspecting ell
quirers. propose to examine 1t in te
letters to the ARGUS.