Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-11
A RATIONAL REPUBLICAN ON SUI
FRAGE.


A RATIONAL REPUBLICAN ON SUP
FRAGE.
Senator Trumbull, Of Illinois, has re-
Gently published disquisitiOn on the
power of Congress to confer or regulate
suffrage in the States, in which he takes
the ground that Congress possesses no
such power. The argument is published
in the Adrance, new religious paper
recently established at Chicago. We
mike two or three extracts, which, coming
from Radieal, are worthy Of enduring
record he first assumes that the con-
stitution is the supreme law, saying:
The fundamental law, known as the con-
stitution, emanating from the sovereign peo-
pie, and placing ON theirrepresentatiyes linn
itations in the exercise Of power, can never be
disregsrded without endangering the private
rights and the public liberties Of the peo-
pie, as well as the existence Of the Union
Of which il forms the truest security.
There can be no stability in the govern
ment without a fixed fundamental law.
Hence the first step toward free govern
ment is a written constitution, in which is
expressed the sovereign will of the people
in relation 10 the form and power of gov
eminent, and the extent of authority dele
gated TO their agents. To trust representa-
lives with unlimited discretion, or allow
them to exercise powers not granted, would
be TO make them the masters instead of the
servants Of the people, and such a repre-
sentative government would be little better
than despotism.
He then proceeds to show that this
constitution eonfers no power on Con-
gress to regulate suffrage in the States %
He says tI
The only clause in the constitution on
the subject of the qualification of voters is
10 be found in article l, section 2, as fol-
lows:
"The House Of Representatives. shall be
composed of members chosen every sec
ond year by the people of the several
States, and the electors in each State shall
have the qualifications requisite for cleo
tors Of the most numerous branch of the
State Legislature"
Manifestly this section does not prescribe
the qualifications of voters, nor confer on
Congress the power to do so. So far from
it, it leaves each State to determine for
itself the qualifications of the electors of
the most numerous branch of the Legisla-
ture, and adopts that qualification, what
ever il may be, as the one requisite for the
electors of Representatives to Congress.
The authors of the Federalist, who were
themselves members of the convention
which framed the constitution, and who
did so much by their clear and lucid arti-
Giles TO bring about Its adoption, under
stood IT as leaving the qualifications of
electors to be fixed by the several States,
and all the commentators who have writ
ten on the constitution have so under
stood it,
As to the meaning of the constitution
in reiere nee to this subject, he says
The constitution is to be interpreted as it
was understood by those who made it, and
It will not be denied that at that time suf.
frage was much more restricted in all the
States than it is in any Of them at present
still no one can suppose that the men who
made the constitution intended to declare
all their States Republican, or that the
States themselves would have adopted a
constitution which they supposed snscepti-
bic OF such an Interpretation. The
Republican form of government required
to be guaranteed TO each State as a govern
ment of such a character as existed in the
States when the constitution was framed
and for Congress, under the plea Of regulat-
ing suffrage, to declare such government
nti-Republican, would be the subversion
instead of the guarantee of Republican
forms OF government, and would necessarily
abrogate all existing State governments,
since every one does now and always has
regulated suffrage for itself
viii Senator Trumbull apply his argu-
ment to the Southern excluded States?
1t clearly proves that the attempt of Con
gress to confer the right of suffrage upon
the negroes, and to disfranchise a por-
ton Of the whites, is "subversion in
stead Of guarantee of republican forms
Of government, and is "little better than
a despotism.' We are glad to see such
men as Mr.. Trumbull alligning themselves
on the side Of the constitution, and trust
that on his return to Washington he may
be found in the Senate chamber defend
ing it from its assailants.