Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-10-03

70 a Convention TO amend the Const
tuition OF Tennessee?
This must depend upon the
answer whether such delegate
is civil officer under the
State of TENNESSEE To solve this
I Question it Is necessary to inquire
how the Constitution may be amend
ed, by what agency. and how that
| agency shall be appointed?
In the present Constitution of Ten
nessee, adopted in 1884, there is no
express provision for calling a Con-
vention TO amend the Constitution.
The only mode expressly provided in
the-faee of the instrument itself will
be found in section third of article
nine.
That section provides that the Sem
ate and House Of Representatives
s saaS Rs0pG and iM If b. Tried HE ! G 3a-
jOrity of each House, shall DC IhIIered
on the Journal; shall be referred to
the next succeeding General Assem-
bly,; and If agreed to by a vote of two
thirds of each House, shall be submit
ted to the people in such manner as
the Legislature may prescribe, and
TIA Al q AA1DO4AtE vi ~ NOlCA0 NOlsLH
for Representatives shall approve and
ratify such amendments, they~Shall
become a part of the Constitution.
Ii this express mode of amending
the Constitution of the State ex-
cludes all others, then no Con-
vention "a be called, and a del
egate to such a body which could
not be legally called would not be a
civil officer under the State. But does
the express mode provided for amend
mentS to that instrument exclude eY-
cry other?
ii is provided In the first section of
Article first of the Constitution of
tennessee, in what is called the de-
claratiOn of rights that "all power is
inherent in the people, that tall free
governments are founded on their
authority" and that they have ian
inalienable right TO alter or abolish
their government in such manner rs
they may think proper" This is
sometimes said To be the revolutiona-
ry right reserved III the people OF a
State TO alter or abolish their govern
ment. But it can scarcely be called
revolutionary since it is expressly re-
served and declared rs Inherent in the
people by the Constitution itself. Its
exercise is restrained, however, by the
Constitution of the United States, the
supreme law of the land, in 50 far as
it requires each State Government to
be "RepublieIn in ITS form" Within
this restriction the people especially
through their representatives in the
Legislature have the right to call 4
Convention to amend the. Constitution
of the State.
This right, reserved to the people of
Tennessee in The declaration of rights,
has its foundation In that principle of
American political and domestic econ
Omy, that the present generation, with
the experience of a century more than
that OF the generation which lived q
century before it, ought not to be COM
PEELED to surrender its Judgment and
Intellectual independence absolutely
to those forms of government estab-
lished by men who had a century's
less experience, as a claim to wisdom.
Those who framed the Constitution of.
Tennessee, however anxious for the
happiness of their posterity, were I'M
willing to attempt to tie up their
bonds to the end of time; but seemed
wisely and generously to think that
the living generations of future centu-
ries should be allowed to determine
their own duties, rights and destinies,
in place of the dead generations OF the
centuries that had gone before. And
this Is extremely cOnSonant to reason.
For the supreme and sovereign
power of the people is necessarily
ever in the firing and not in the dead;
and every living people on earth do
or ought TO possess the ultimate, SUI
preme and sovereign power Over their
own liberties, happiness and fortunes.
Our experience has been very full
in every State in America that the
sovereign people of a State or nation
can do, whether lriSe{y or lnwiSeEy,
whatever they deemed proper aud
necessary, Notwithstanding another
generation, long dead and buried,
might have declared that it should
not be 30. While the dead generation
was alice, it was, in the sense of its
own self-government, Omnipotent; |
but the moment it passed from the
earth, to be numbered among the citi-
ems of the dead, the new and living
generation succeeding it was 90 iR-
stdnti, or Omnipotent as its predeces-
sor. The dead may have LEFT on rec
ord their "advice and counsel"
but they cannot issue their COM
mands to the living, or enforce
obedience to their authority. There
tore no law or constitution made
by one generation a be said to
be irrevocable by another, that lives
after it; for this would be TO make the
GGt of the dead OmnipOtent-the tciU
OF the living powerless forever. But
while the living people OF the States
must necessarily ever have the sover-
eign right to do what they please for
themselves, and to alter and modify
the institutions OF their dead ances-
tors who have gone before, wisdom
and prudence s0lemnly demand that
laws and constitutions which have
been saiutary in their effectA and DOW
erfUlly conducive 10 the good OF the
dead and living, ought to be ap-
preached with profound discretion
and prudence, and altered, modified
or overturned, hut with the greatest
possible caution and deliberation.
And all enlightene men must agree |
that none should be allowed to Law !
hands on the fundamental conditions |
of the State, or delegates TO q cOnyen-
ton, except those WHO ms be adj |
judged by intelligent citizens 10 have
some claims 10 wisdom, virtue and
patriotism.
When / speak of the living people
Of the State possessing the sovereign
10 alter or modify the institu-
tons of their ancestors, l mean the
tchtte rae who have formed, founded
and administered them, and not the
lGelG Ofthe wooly-haired type, who |
in gross Ignorance of all government
and amid the commissions OF war, have
been recently and violently injected
into the body polite by force of arms.
Before they are qualified To exercise
the function Of reforming and admin
governments, their Ignorance
requires that they should pass through
that state of pupilage in the schools OF
experience and political economy nee
psSary to qualify them, if ever they
can be, for an intelligent discharge of
such duties. To act otherwise, it
to the writer Of this article,
would be To act merely upon the mill
progress of the age" and to
rebel against the teachings OF history
and the eason of the best thinkers OF
every country.
If the African race is to be perma-
apI pofffnffOpol1x afoool -, !