Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1867-09-19

ing the Constitution Of much of the odium
that had been cngcndcrcd in the public
s understanding against it
TIE SUFFRAGE QrEsTloN.- Senator
Tr;1mbull Of Illinois, hns recently pub
li,hed in the 1d,onr", a new religious
PAPER. devoted to poJ'ti"s, recently start
'cdsin Chicago, a very remarkable. contrl-
button, coming trou a radical, on the sub
ic.t of the power Of Congress over the
question of suffrage in the States. 1t Is
the doctrine of Sumner, Stevens, Crcsswcll,
Thomas, and our Border State Loyalists,
generally, that Congress has right, UNI
DIR the article Of the Constitution guar
, nntecina to every state republican
form Of Government, to enter INTO a
State and upset It's government II 1t
.Aall discover that said State IN Its
election laws limits the franchise of vo-
stng to whit. men Mr.. Trnmbuli takes
issue upon this point, and declares;
The Government ofthc United States,
is one of lcrivative and not of inherent
powers. 1t possesses such powers as are
conferred upon it by the Constitution
and no others :; and that there may be
no misapprchension about this, the m
strSment itself declares in 70 many words
that The powers not delegated to
Il United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are re-
Sc h. States respectfully or to the
p!t,S The Constitution contains not
, SYLLABLE in regard to the regulation Of
suffrage i'll II state"
From these premises. which are also
democratic premises, Senator Trumbull
argues the argument is both logical
and dcmocratic- Chat Congress has ne
warrant in the absence of authority con-
lcrcd upon it by the Constitution under
v!aclr it acts, to say who shall or who
rhall not vote in State" But if Con-
grcss has no authority to decide who shall
or Shall not vote iii State, how is I'M
partial suffrage t. he obtained through
out the Union In one Of two ways, an
swcrs Mr. .Trumhul Either hy the
State. themselves adopting it or hy passing
m amendment to the Constitution Of the
United States. recognizing this feature,
With, to become effective. must be ratI-
fed hv thrcc-iourths of the State. The
denibtratic doctrine again lsnot Trum-
bull nt last ON the road to truth ? BE
this 10 it may, however, is it not slgnlh-
can't, that Senator Trumbull, tue leader Of
the Western radicals. should take occas
ION to ayow such ralpablc coppcrh,ad
doctrines as we have quoted above so close
upon the rcaSScmhling of Congress The
reason given ;hy HIM for making this
announcement looks As If there was trou-
bio IN store fer the faithful III the coming
Congress It is, THAT bill has been
introduced in the present Congress pur-
p0sln y ia ItcSNii'o wv I""''"'" Va
voters in the States" and that 1.-The zeal
with which the measure was pressed, and
the dsugcr lest, because the objects to be
attained is believed by many to be Just
and right. it may receive their support
without sufficiently looking To the want
.ofauth.Iity III Congress to pass such law
make Unnecessary to cail attention to 1t.
Their, is 10 mistaking this or the meaning
of Senator Trumhull's present position
1t is opposition Of antasoni~m TO Eastern
and Border State radicalism. Any at
tempt Of Congress 10 intcrposc IN the do
mcstic affairs of MARYLAND or any other
State to obtain impartial suffrage will
find Trumhull and other Western radical
senators in the breach to resist IT NJ
least We count on TrumEull, because he
has authorized us to do so IN the commu
nieu,ion under notice. We rely chiefly.
however. in any difficulty between our
selves and Congress in this business, upon
ourselves people Of our own po-
lttical faith upon the high State pride of
our peoplc--in short, upon democrats
and democratic Maryanisrs, including