The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-08-27
From the old Guard for Nay.
The Fifteenth Amendment"

From the Old Guard for Nay.
The Fifteenth Amendment"
The Providence Journal gives as a rea-
son for the Legislature of Rhode Island
postponing, until the May session, the con-
sideration of the fifteenth proposed amend.
mcnt of the G institution, that the people
of that State are jealous of losing the
sovereignty which the Constitution with
holds from the Federal Government. 1t
says:
That this amendment will not be con-
strued according to their wishes. Then
again they do not feel quite sure that this
will be the last amendment they will be
of the United States. The next they may
be called upon to relinquish, may be their
equal representation in the Senate. And
above all, while the State comedies to the
Federal Government sovereignty as to the
powers delegated to that government, the
people adhere with tenacity TO the sover-
eighty of the State as to the powers not
delegated to the Federal Government. tits
useless to deny this fact. This was the
faith of the grandfathers of the present
generation, and the grand children have
inherited it."
This is a wise, and, we hope, timely eau
ton on the part of the people ofthat State,
for when they have relinquished such a
large piece of sovereignty of the State rs
this amendment calls for, the door is
thrown wide open to strip it of all that re-
mains; although in law and Justice, no
State can be bound by such an amendment
which refused its assent to it, because the
subject matter of the proposed amendment
was never any part Of the Federal Consti-
tuition. 1t is fallacious to suppose that an
instrument can be amended in a thing that
is no part of it. And as this proposed
change would be entirely new matter, no
State can be legally bound by it, except
by its own consent. Suppose the large
States should propose to amend the Con-
stitution in the matter of Senatorial repre-
sentation, so as to allow but one Senator
to each OF the smaller States, thus strip
ping these States of the sovereignty which
is absolutely reserved to them in the Con-
stitution; will any one contend that any
State can be legally so Invested of its
rights except by its own CONSENT Sup
pose three-quarters of the States should
compel every white man to take for con-
cuJine black woman, could any State
which refused to ratify such change IN
the organic law be legally and justly bound
by it f? No And why9 Because no State
in becoming member of the Federal COM
pact, ever delegated to the Federal Gov
ernment and three quarters of the States,
jurisdiction over the subject matter invol-
we'd in such change. And no more did
any State, in ratifying the Constitution,
delegate to the Federal Government and
} three-quarters Of the Safes jurisdiction
! over the subject matter involved in the So
called fifteenth amendment. 1t is new
matter; and therefore it can bind no State
not asserting to it. Long after the Con-
stitution had been ratified by nine States,
little Rhode Island refused to ratify it.
And in relation to all new matter, that is,
matter not delegated in the Constitution,
each State stands as independent and COM
plete in its sovereignty as it did before the
Federal Government was formed. A State
can no more be legally stripped of an atom
of its undclegated powers by a bargain
between Congress and three fourths of the
States, than it can by a bargain between
England and France.
This will not be denied by any respect
able lawyer in America. The principle
is perfectly plain everywhere. No act of
legislation, or resolution of legislative
body, can be "amended" by attaching
new matter to it. Every attempt to do so
is ruled out, as not being in order. And
constitution, which is a compact between
co-equal sovereign communities, binds the
| tinc IN, ~ oil ~,
the instrument. But the Constitution of
the United States especially declares that
"The powers not delegated to the United
States, are reserved to the States respect
lively, or to the people," These powers
can be taken from the States, neither by
the Federal Congress, nor by three-fourths
of the States combined for that purpose.
The consent of each State must be obtain
ed before any of the undelegated powers
can be lawfully exercised by anybody but
itself They are as much part of the
State as the lungs or the heart are parts of
t he human body. They are powers
which cannot be surrendered by State,
without giving up its political being.
Without these powers it would cease to be
State, within the meaning of the consti-
tuition of the United States, or within any
meaning ever attached to the word States.
The power of Congress and three-f ourths
of the States to take away these rights,
under the title of an amendment to the
Constitution, Or under any other title,
would imply a power in three-quarters of
the States to blot the other quarter out of
existence without its consent. The right
of regulating its own franchise is just as
necessary to the political life ola State as