The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1869-03-19

Amendment to The Federal Constitution
to a rote Of the People.
TO the Senate of Pennsylvania
The minority Of your Committee on
Federal Relations, to which joint res0-
luton for the ratification of the amend
ment to the Constitution of the United
States, to be known as article fifteen
(15), was referred for consideration, can
not agree with the conclusions arrived
at by the majority of the committee
and respectfully report that, in their
opinion, the question of the ratification
orrejection of the said idamendments should
not now be acted upon by the legisla-
ture, but should be submitted to the
people in order that their desires upon
the subject may be known and their in
structions obeyed.
We will not enter into d iscussion of
the propriety of the amendment itself,
but waiving that, will confine ourselves
to what, in our opinion, is of infinitely
more importance-the right of the peo-
pie to determine for themselves who
shall, and who shall not, vote.
That governments derive their Just
powers from the consent Of the govern
ed, is maxim as old AS our institu-
tions, and the violation of the principle
embodied in it was, more than any
other, the cause of the Revolution and
the establishment of our independence.
If ig = lrun IN Ia oc wa, IL, r--n tloA
the people are to be consulted when
any of their rights or privileges are
about to be affected or taken from
them.
Sovereignty is in the people; not in
the sense in which this assertion is of.
ten lightly made, but in that substan-
tial and important sense which makes
it the very basis Of our system of gov
ernment. Our own constitution expli-
city provides in the second section of
the declaration of rights, "that all pow
er is inherent in the people," 1t was
well said by Judge Wilson in the con-
vention held in this State to ratify the
Federal Constitution: "that the SUI
preme absolute and uncomfortable pow
er is in the people before they make a
constitution, and remains in them after
it is made. To control the power and
conduct of the legislature by an over
ruling constitution was an improve
ment in the science and practice Of gov
ernment reserved to the American
States. When they have made State
constitution, they have bestowed on the
government created by IL certain por-
tion of their power; but the fee.simple
of their power remains in themselves.
1t resides in the people as the fountain
of government; the people have not
the people meant not-and the people
ought MOTTO part with it to any gov
ernment whatsoever. In their honds
it remains secure. They can de-
legate it in such proportio ons, to such
bodies, on such terms, and under such
limitations as they think proper"
This great power is not vested in the
State, nor in the United States. Neither
a legislature nor convention can pos
sess it. Perhaps some politician, who
has not considered with sufficient accu-
racy our political systems, would ans
wer that, in our governments, the su-
preme power was vested in the consti-
tutions. This opinion approaches step
nearer to the truth but does not reach it.
The truth is, that in our governments,
the supreme, absolute, and uncontrolla-
BILE power remains in the people. As
our constitutions are superior to our
legislatures, so the people are superior
to our constitutions. Indeed, the supe-
riority in this last instance, is much
greater; for the people possess over our
constitutions control in act, as well as
right"
Under our system the work of con-
vention specially delegated to form "A
constitution is imperative until it is
passed upon by the people, and receives
from their hands its vitality. The Con-
stitution of the United States and that
of our own State both passed the ordeal
OF the people and became operative only
under their approval. The tendency of
public opinion is more and more in this
direction, for of the constitutions adopt
ed in the United States, upwards of
eighty have thus been submitted and
approved.
Having thus seen that the consent of
the people is matter of theory of right
and of practice, we now come to consid-
er the application of these principles to
the question before us.
The proposition contained in the
amendment is a fundamental one. BY
this we mean that it was one of those
vital and important rights that entered
deeply into the compromises of the Con-
stitution and that power over il Vas
giren neither TO the Federal nor the State
government, but that the right to declare
who should exercise the power Of elec.
tion in the State was reserved to the
people and remains with them.
Judge Wilson, before referred to, in
commenting upon the character of this
right, ,says:"All authority, ofevery kind,
is derived By yREPREsE. .,TATIoN from The
PEOPLE, and The DEMOCRATIC principle
Is carried into every part Of the gorern-
ment. IL secures, in tie strongest man
ner, the right Of suffrage. Montesquieu,
book I'd, chap. I'd, speaking of the laws
relative to democracy, says:
"In democracy the people are in
some respects the sovereign, and in
Others the subject"