Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-03-01

IN which they a Deen constantly ust
from the time when the Confederate
: and Union were first formed. Such
the rule as TO the words Union Cor
stitution' and 'Governnfent." All hs
been constantly used, for six years, /
90 certain senses, and as applicable to tn
Articles OF Confederation and the gov
eminent established by them. 1t Is nj
IN permissible to suppose that they WeT
So used, BIZ the am man, in new an
% strange senses in the constitution VIII
- out explanation. That would have bee
q fraud on the people, or on the states.
es Mr.. Webster criticised he phras
constitutional compact declaring IL
new term, invented by the grammarian
ss Of the school of notification and tina
that one might as well speak of q consti
n tutisnal deed or Bill Of Exchange as Q
a constitutional compact between sover
eign powers. He was unfortunate Oh
: both points. The phrase was not new
Ii was used deliberately, and more thai
81 once, in the same sense in which Mi
n Calhoun used it, in the celebrated re
port of the year 1893, written by Mr.
. Madison. As to the meaning OF tn
4 word constitution he was wholly
r at sea. He said that a constitution
5 and a compact are things TGdlcGth
y different. On the contrary, they ar
things radically the same. II is true tina
q the word fcOHsfitHiOHes wa generally
e used, under the later Emperors, in ths
sense of Imperial tG0s; but the Tddtc0i
meaning of the verb cOHStitnege II, ID
D accord. agree UpOn, concert q thing
D t0qether: constitution is often used by
=, Cicero to mean agreement or compact
and Quintiliian the grammarian says
CONSTITUTE est ilalege, more, Indicate,
PACTo." "A Constitution consists in law,
custom, judgment, or COMPACT
The radical vice of Mr.. WebsterS
whole argument was disclosed most
plainly, when ne said that the States, by
the Constitution, promise nothing, and
engage themselves to nothing. He
relied on that, as proving that the Con-
stitution was not a confederaey or COM
pact, between the States. 1t was plausi-
ble, to common minds. 10 argue thus (:
by the Constitution, no State says, in
50 many words, Il promise TO do this or
that; no State, in sOCnany words, en-
cages itself to anything; therefore, 7DordS
Of promise and engagement being want
ing, they promise nothing, and engage
themselves to nothing; and, therefore,
there is no compact between them but
the Constitution is a law and govern
ment over States and people; an enact
ment by the people, made by the people
Of all Ia States as Il people" The
vice of this argument is that it begs the
whole question at issue. 1t is a COM
piete pcfitiO priRciPa.
If the constitution IS a compact be-
tween the States, then necessarily, hav-
{ ing no superior to command them, they
I do promise and engage themselves to
every thing In that instrument. A
1 charter Of Incorporation has the form Of
a law, and is a law, and yet it contains
the promises and engagements Of the
corporators, made by one to each aud all.
Therefore Mr.. Webster should first have
inquired who were, ia point Of fact, the
real parties to the constitution, and, that
asceFtained. the questions whether it was
q law OFer the States or q compact De-
fUesR them, and whether II really con-
tanned any promises and engagements,
or only mandates and regulations, prOhi-
billions and restrictions, would have set
tied themselves.
The argument of Mr.. Webster is, in
deed, an admirable study, for those who
wish to see combined In n great effort,
all the arts and resources of fraudulent
logic and legal and dialeetic de&terity.
1t is unfair from the beginning, radically
and essentially. He set it up as the doc
trine to be combatsd, that the political
l1AGAn lnFA EAA9AAAS vs. nv sofEAAH
ment,' and the United States not for any
purposes a Nation - in order that he
might deliver his blows against it, and
SEEM, by Hs demolition, 10 over
turn the true theory of the
government. 1t can hardly be SON
ueived that an old and able lawyer
and an eminent statesman, should have
been ignorant Of the facts that the states
msu Of the South, Madison, Pinckney,
Monroe, Randolph, -. George Tucker
aud others, had always admitted thai
the Articles Of Confederation created q
{ government that the Congress of
I7S7, adopting the resolution offered by
the Delegates from Massachusetts, had
styled thSt government q national
government, ald tAe Articles Of COnied-
Grafton a Federal Constitution : ap4
that in ITS3, Congress, through It's Presi-
dent. addressing General Washington,
called the United States "a free
and independent nation . and in 17S2,
adopting = rlpett Eregented by Hamil-
ton. Madison aid F~jtssimiDQas, SPOKE OF
a. aasioBaI Character tE&t IN lfs5,
the report Of q committee Of which Mon I
roe, King and SDaight were members,
spoke of the States acting as a nati7n,'
b. tie revenue system which they pro-
posed, and Of '~seBltaflHg the Union n
promoting its strength and gTandFar,i by
the same amendment Of the articles of
Confederation that in ITSG, the COM
missioners who met at Annapolis,
among whom were Benson and Hamil-
ton of New York, Coke Of Pennsylvania,
John Dickinson OF Delaware, and Ran
dolph, Madison and Tucker Of Virginia,
often using the term Federal govern
meHt,' and ones the term Constitution
Of the Federal government, and speak
ing OF the interests of the Bnlon,l the
exigencies Of the UniOn,i and the Con-
federacy,' also spoke of 'the national
circumstances requiring a further con-
vention with enlarged powers; that
Virginia, IN f7S6, spoke in a legislative
act OF that Union which ne ggqd peop6c
Of Americd have cemented with SO much
Of their common blOOd that New
Jersey, in her acts, spoke Of the Consti-
tuition Of the Federal Government
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Della
ware, Georgia, New york, South Caro-
Ina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Mary
land and New Hampshire, of the
Federal Constitution - New Hampshire
also, Of the Federal compact, as syn
ouymous with the Federal COnstitu-
ton and as the bond Of Union of the
American States , and that New York,
in 1857, proposed to sender the Federal
constitution adequate to the eXigencies
Of -0oserRment and the preservation Of
the URiou.'
That memorable league Of the Conti-
nent in iT74,f said JOHN ADAMS, Presi-
dent of the United States, addressing the
Senate in 1893, IN the occasion OF the
death Of Washington, " which first ex-
pressed akC S9vereigR gW Of @ free ma
ton in America"
-. H--=AoA. - III TTr-,aan I
WASHINGTON to Congress, in 1888, to
contribute my best endeavors towards
the establishment Of he Nutignm SecU-
ritz. in whatever n me Sovereign
P0Ber may think proper to direct" In
~resigning his commission as Commander
in Chief, be spoke OF the support he had
received from the supreme power Of the
Union.' And, in his farewell address, he
said that the people had adopted "a
Constitution Of Government" better
calculated than their fGrB1er oae for an
intimate Union.
In 1850, Congress, in a resolution con-
corning the claims of the States TO va
cant lands, spoke Of the Federal Union
as having made the United States a free,
sovereign and Independent people, and
vet as "A Federal alliance
The evidence, therefore, Is ample and
conclusive, Llhb LuD new 1ohohituAfoA was
not considered by those who made it, as
q thing of a new kind, with no prototype;
or that a general and national govern
ment, a government proper, was then
for the first time established or that a
union Of different parties from those to the
existing union, was created or that
the new instrument was not a compact,
because 10 was a Constitution. The anne
men who had so often used the words,
4 Constitution Federal Constitution
Government UniOn,' n the like, as
s~UpIicable under the Articles Of Confed-
Grafton, were members Of the convention
/ Of l7S7 that framed the new instrument
johnson and Ellsworth Of Connecticut,
/ Rufus King Of Massachusetts, P~inckney
/ OF South Carolina, Hamilton of New
/ York, Few and Houston of Georgia,
Read and Dickinson of Delaware,
gnaight Of North Carolina, Fitzsimmons
q Pennsylvania, and Madison and Ran
doIph 4 Virginia, with others too many
to mention.
Yet Mr.. Webster COMPOUNDED two dis
tinct questions, and also reversed their
proper order. He did not first inquire
who, what parties, made the Constitu-
ton, and from that proceed TO inquire
what relations and what Of
government we're thus created, and what