The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-07-23

the people would be addressed by the
Hon. ]. j. Davis.
In the, afternoon the crowd was
larger if possible, than Ethst of the
morning, the ladies being largely repre-
scented, as they were in the forenoon.
| Mr.. Davis came forward and deliv-
cred one of the most powerful argu-
ments it has ever been our good fortune
to hear. We are only able to give
the prominent points in his speech.
HON. J. J. DAVIS SPEECH
After discussing the matter of the
Fifteenth Amendment, the power of
Congress to propose an amendment,
and the manner in which it was pro-
posed and adopted, showing that it was
not ratified by the bodies representing
the sovereignty of the people, but by
State Legislatures of limited powers
themselves, having no right to delegate
the sovereignty Of the State to another,
Mr.. Davis, said the Fifth Article of the
Constitution Of the United States means
precisely what it says, that Congress
may propose amendments to this Con-
stitution which, when ratified shall be
the supreme law of the land, but it
never was intended by the trainers of
the Constitution to corporate into it a
provision that would lead to its own de-
struction, or to place the reserved
rights OF Il minority Of the States at the
mercy of a majority of the States. To
admit that under the guise Of an amend
ment to the Constitution ii is in the power
of three.fourths of the States to strip
the remaining fourth of their sovereign
rights and to enlarge the powers
of the Federal Government the agent
created by their joint concessions, is to
sanction the right of despotic MAORI
ty to change the character and form of
Government as often as their caprice
may dictate. or their tyranncal and
partizan purposes may require. 10
:. lat would the 10th Amendment TO the
Constitution amount if the States can
be deprived Of this reserved right of
sovereignty by the will Of dominant
majority? The States are sovereign ex-
cept as to the powers and rights delega-
ted to the Federal head.
70 construe the right to amend the
Constitution, in the mode pointed ont
bv the 9Th article thereof, 10 mean that
the powers of the Federal Government
can be enlarged and new powers be-
slowed upon it in derogation of the re-
served sovereignty of the States 10y the
assent, simply, Of three-fourths OF the
States, so as to bind all the members Of
the Coniederacy, is to say to the world
tIatthe Government ordained by our
fathers is an unlimited dcspotism. LISA
subverson Of the theory upon which the
Government was founded, destructive OF
the equality Of the States, the right of
selfgovernment and the Liberties of the
people.
No one will for moment contend
that, should New York and Pennsylva-
MIA permit women, minors, paupers or
persons of unsound mind to vote, that
they would have the right to require
West Virginia to amend her State con-
stitution so as to extend the same privi-
leges to the same class Of persons, nor
would the assumption of such IA right
on the part of the two States named or
of any other number OF the States he
tolerated for single moment. The
demand would be met 10y an assertion
of the right of West Virginia to regu-
late the elective franchise within her
own borders, in her own way, without
dictation or coercion from other States.
The case Just illustrates the character
of the Fifteenth Amendment. The diff
ference 10 one of mere form and not
of fact. Three-lourths of the States
have done, it is claimed, what a lesser
number could not do-have stripped the
dissenting State Of right that she
could not be deprived of only by her
own voluntary consent. Her sovereign
ty is shorn, but not with the consent Of
the sovereign power. A creature en-
dowed with life by her sovereign will
and invested with delegated powers has
essayed the bold attempt to destroy its
creator by delegating its sovereignty to
another. 1t has attempted to recognize
the formation of ne,c Union, and to
bind its creators toit byits usurpatlons.
1t attempts, said the speaker, to con-
solidate the Government 10y comforting
upon the Federal head the power to
control the right belonging exclusively
to the States, and essential to their eX-
istence and maintenance as political
communities Strip the States OF their
right to regulate suffrage and their ex-
istence as States will only be nominal,
net real.
The speaker argued that the passage
of the Fifteenth Amendment had been
secured not only 10y force and fraud but
also bv the action of bodies who had
not the least constitutional power or
right to dispose of the sovereignty OF
the States affected by it, and asked
what is there in the history OF the
African race to lead any one to believe
that the negro is fit repository Of poll
teal power? 1.-THE white race under all
the advantages which higher intelli-
gence, better capacity for education,
instruction, selfrespect, traditional
memories and mutual example could
inspire, has hardly been able to perfect
the experiment of self:government into
an established fact, does not the induce
ment look small to hope for a happier
result by calling in a race of inferior ca
pacities, sentiments and possibilities OF
progress to share in a task OF such
wei ghty sentiments and responsible
ties ?
The association OF the superior with
the inferior race has rarely, if ever, had
the effect of improving the inferior.
On the contrary, history teaches us
that such association and commingling
of the races has been to degrade the
superior without the elevation Of the in
! cor;or p,t our nnnonents will say they