Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-28

lf clared object of every State, to effe
10 which the convention was empowers
to assemble, the preservation of Il
p eristi1q Union Of The States, was abal
3 doned without a syllable of regret or
~ word of kind remembrance; mol
!, that the Union was no longer
II chain of many links, but a col
glomerate of individuals, composing OF
l. people; that people, and not the Stat'
o the makers of the constitution. II
e States safe in the convention and eae
= State ratified the constitution Tor ltsel
8 No vote Of the whole people OF all wa
so taken that the majority OF the whol
f could be aseertained, nor was It sOugh
z to ascertain it. All that was asked wa
} a ratification by each State. How the
r did the one people make it? Clearly,
: it even made them one people, so 500
as it was in operation, it was made D.
| | the States for the States alone, a
T States. acted in drafting 1t, in agreein
; to it in Congress, in confirming it b,
J convention. So il is expressly declared
He who Tatifes the act of an agent, II
} law does il. 1t is, in law, his act, from
the beginning. Until the ratification
the Constitution was like a deed drafted
by a serivener, but not signed or sealed
The ratification was the signature apt
sealing; and by it tho States made tn
| constitution. Such is the undeniablI
prinSple of law. The constitution was
in L. a. made by the States, on the 2ls
of June, I7SS, when New Hampshire
--tsss..si 81 ,s--l II zVss correct 10 say, a
was very singularly SAID IN the course y
an argument to prove that the constitu
tion was not compact between th'
States, {" that the constitution began Il
speak, only after its adoption. Until i
was ratified by nine States, it was but {
proposal, the mere draft of an instru
mentu This was to eoncede away The
advocates case.
IT. therefore, the pretended change
radical and complete, was made, the
evidence is exclusively TO be found in the
constitution itself. The eXtrinsic evi
dence is all to the contrary, and so strong
that the instrument must speak in un'
nIistskable terms, to overcome it.
But, when we read the constitution
from beginning to end, we do not fine
any such intention and purpose distinctly
announced in it dn2RUtere. If the change
is made, it is by implication only; and
the intention is proven by the nature
and teach of his subs tantive provisions
and the changes and alterations made,
not by any words expressly to that
effect. Did it mean fraud on the
| States
The only direct expression, from which
so vast n change can DE even argued, Is,
/ that which occurs at the veIy COM
mencement of the instrument. " We
! the people Of the United StdteS,n it de-
| clares, "in order to form a more perfect
| Union, establish Justice, insure domestic
tranquility, etc, do oIdain and establish
this Constitution for the United States Of
America"
What people of the United States e?
of fuhdt United States If Scotland
and England became one people by the
Union between them, that one people
did not exist as such, until the Union
was consummated. The acts Of Union
which made them 50, were the separate
acts of the two nations. If both had
executed single instrument OF Union,
declaring the people Of the two realms
thenceforward one people, the instrument
would nevertheless have been the act,
not of the one people created 10y it, but
of the two realms as sovereign States, or
OF the people Of each, acting separately.
SO, the people of the United States who
made the constitution, were not one
people, even if the instrument which
they executed made them one. Until
that instrument DaS made, and began to
operate, the people Of Virginia and the
people of New York were not one people,
but as separate and distinct peoples as
those of England and Russia. Nor could
the people of Virginia do any political
act, except by means of their State or
CARNATIONS The Whole could only act
politically as q State; parts, only as
towns, counties and the like Or, II
/, ha We m
the constitution as a part or fraction of
the one people Of all the States,
thev did not do so, nor was Il
attempted to have them do so.
The phrase, therefore, or its face,
must betaken distribuGvely, aud means,
1--WE the people of each OF the States
now united by articles OF Confederation -
and we need not argue to show that the
people of the State aud the Statei are
synonymous terms. Nhs did, in point
Of fact, fordain and establish the con-
stitation? The States which ratified it;
for they alone, and zach as State, acted
on It. Then the phrase is simply reit-
Grafton Of tie principle that he People
of q State are the state, principle care
fully asserted from the 4th day of July,
1876. 1t was the people of the United
States y as 81 the United States existed
before the Constitution took effect, and
acting under the existing political organ
izarions, Vb made the constitution.
ConsequeE ~ they acted as States, and
the StateS made it, 1t is hardly TO be
believed that u lawyer of respectable
standing, would nave argued, 10 an in
telligent Court, that this expression,
' We, the people of the United States,H
necessarily meant the one people of all
the States; since that construction is no
more necessary, legitimate or reasonable
than the other, at least. The words may
with quite as mech reason be taken dis
tributively as collectively, if there were
nothing elsewhere TO control the con-
structiOn.
Nor were they then used for the first
time. The Congress Of delegates which
assembled ID IVA called themselves, in
their more formal acts, "ThR delegates
appointed by the good people of these
colonies" Yet no one pretended that
the colonies had been amalgamated into
one people. The word "peOple" was of
course used distyihltively, a. meaning
the people of each separate colony. The
plural Of the word, though legitimate, is
rarely used; and il is not incorrect to
say "the people of Austria and Prussia"
though these are separate kingdoms.
By the Declaration of Independence,
made by 3 Congress of the several
distinct and separate colonies, "the
Representatives Of the United States of
America, in general Congress assembled, y
did, "in the name and by the authority Of
the good people Of these colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, that these united
colonies are, and of right ought to be,
Free and Iupependent States" The act
= Il el.f - Nv a resta ire,
in 1887, appointing q commissioner to
the convention, speaks of the United
States as a free and Independent people. :"
The like act of Virginia, in l7SG, uses
the phrase, The good people of Amer
ica.' The report of a committee of
| Congress, in regard to a system of reve-
nue., made in February, 1855, uses the
very phrase, the people of these United
States > and an address to the States by
Congress, made by Madison, Ellsworth
and Hamilton, and reported in l7S3,
uses the words the citizens of the United
| States; sand the constitution provides
/ that Representatives shall bs elected by
the people OF the several States
The constitution was established, in
| order to form a more perfect Union.
| The word 'uniOn, we have seen, had
/ been constantly applied to the confede.
ration of the States. The presumption
is conclusive, in the absence Of any de-
claration to the contrary, and as all the
States had insisted on the 'preserva-
ton of that Union, that the union
spoken of in the preamble was the SANE
union, made only more perfect.
But the Constitution itself declares who
made it, in the most unmistakeablt
terms. 1t is not only declared to be
"done in convention by the unsnimou:
consent of the States present ~ but il
provides that The ratification of the
conventions of nine States shall lie SUI
ticient for the establishment of this con
stitution, betlgesB the STATES so rdtify
iay the same. u No argument can add
to the Ciistinctness and force of thest
words. The constitution is established
6etlpseu the States Is it not then ;
compact between them?
Moreover, amendments 30 the eOnsti
tuition are 90 be ratified, that is, made
by the Legislatures of three-fourshs o
the States, or by conventions of three
fourths Of them. As the States med
the constitution, therefore, so they alon
can amead it. The popular majorit.
does not rule in that Small and new
States, three-fourths in number of tn
whole, could amend the constitution,
their population did not equal that c
two Of the great States.
q New States - tbe constitution DrC