Oregon Republican. [volume] (Dallas, Or.) 1870-1872, 1870-04-09


constantly imposed upon and kept en-
tirely in the dark, by tho untiring eff
forts of those men from whose. bosoms
the above resolution emanated.
| Now to the facts: At the close of
the Revolution. In 1854, the leading
men of the colonies at once divided
into two factions. One advocated the
doctrine in which he had been educat-
ed, thatelnan was not capable of self
government; that the people must al
ways have head, in other words great
leader or king, and that they had
fought the Revolutionary war not for
the purpose of throwing off entirely a
monarchial form Of government, but
because their sacred and equal rights
had been almost totally disregarded by
the rules of the mother country. The
other party believed man competent to
govern himself, or favored a govern
ment by the people. The result was
a government based upon the articles
of confederation, which was considered
a compromise between the two factions.
For about twelve ye,rs the people of
the thirteen colonies lived on and
struggled hard to establish national
reputation, but the experiment was a
failure. Something had to be DONE
Washington expressed his fears that
all the blood and treasure, so freely and
heroirally spilled and spent, had been
poured out in vain. Finally a conven-J
tion was called to revise the articles of
confederation.
When convened, with the father of
our country at its head, they saw at
once the form of government must be
entirely changed, and, as sequence,
| the old articles must be entirely disre>
gardea, and consequently the first reso
luton passed by the convention was
"Resolred, That it is the opinion of
this convention that national govern
ment ought to be established of Su>
preme Legislative, judiciary and Ex>
ecutiye."
4
The convention proceeded to pros
pose that form of government to the
people of all the States, and agreed
upon the present Constitution, upon
| which the new government was to be
based, and if SO ordained by major
ity of all the people of nine of the old
colonies or States, then, the existing
government, formed by the confedera-
ton, was to be abolished and entirely
changed by substituting for it new
government. where The only sovereign
ty shouly rest with the people.
This proposition or constitution was
put out and held up before the people
All could see it; all could read it Its
advocates and its enemies mounted the
rostrum with eagerness and energy
The former, with Washington at their
head, to defend it, and the latter to de
feat it. The contest, taken altogether,
was probably the most spirited and able
of any ever witnessed on the continent
It's defenders and friends succeeded.
The Constitution was ordained aud es
tablished by the people to be the fun
damental law of the land The gov
ernment was changed from confedcr-
alton, existing by contract between SOW
erelgn and independent States, to that
of nationality, with the sovereignty
held by the States as such, surrendered
without reserve to the people in the
aggregate; to be exercised by major
ity of them as they had ordained in
the instrument Just adopted, and as
they should think best for the general
welfare thereafter, for all time.
That this was the object of the
trainers Of that instrument, and the
nature of the changes proposed there.
by is shown by proofs too numerous to
mention here. We give but one
When the Constitution was agreed
upon in convention it was sent to the
Continental Congress accompanied by
letter signed by Washington himself,
an extract from which we reproduce !:
Said. Washington, "It is obviously
impracticable in the Federal Govern
ment Of these States to secure all rights
and independent sovereignty to each
and yet provide for the interests and
safety of all. individuals entering
into q society must give up share of
i I;harty RI iuraserua tho rast Tn all our