The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-09-08

would De one LnaC SECURES 10 all clLlZenS
of full age the crowning jewels of citi-
zenship-the right to vote as funda-
mental right, inalienable, inherent, and
upon which the Constitution rests.
A late writer upon our political sys-
tenn says that ''at the base of the Repub-
lican idea of government will be found
the Golden Rule" He might have been
more specific and shown the author of
the Golden Rule directing his followers
as to the ordering of their government
| in these words: "Ye know that the
Prince of the Gentiles exercises domin-
ion over them, and their great ones ex-
ercise authority upon them. But it
shall not be so among you. But who
ever will be great among you, let him
be your minister. And whoever will be
chief among you, let him be your SER
want" This is Republicanism most
comprehensive. Thus spoke Jesus
Christ, the "wonderful counselor" the
"Prince of Peace" A. D., 1920,
small band of his followers, English
Colonists, about to land in America
from the deck of the "Mawfower," drew
up for their better enduring and preser-
vation the first written constitution, or
foundatson to just and equal laws,
which they lived up to and amended as
the obscure light and erroneous preju
dices of their times and circumstances
would permit One hundred and fifty
four years later the descendants of these
| Colonists, by the pen of Thos. Jefferson,
whose mind had studied and endorsed
the Christian theory of government,
published to the world the glorious dec
| laration that Governments derive
their just powers from the consent of
the governed" To vote is the Ameri
can mode of giving consent to the
power of the government, and the right
to do so is as plainly inherent in the free
citizen as that the citizen, by the exer-
else of it, renders himself or herself
a subject of the government so in
stituted.
That the right is inherent in the citi-
zen, usage, if not law independent of
any State power to control, bears wit
ness. By its exercise, as citizens of the
United States, the people have estab-
lished law, and organized government
over almost the entire domain of the
United States outside the limits of the
original thirteen States, district now
embracing some twenty-three States
and nine organized Territories. a few
officers were appointed by the national
government, aud the citizens of the
United States did the work. The right
of suffrage exercised as an inherent
right was the potent agency by which
these states were created, and a stream
cannot rise higher than its fountain.
Oregon affords good illustration of the
sovereignty of citizenship by the estab-
lishmeut of a provisional government
before the national government had set
tied its claims of eminent domain,
the occupation of the country by cit
izens giving it the chief title. The case
of California was another and different
illustration. The energetic action of
the people in that case demanded and
received admission into the Union as a
State without the so-called probationary
stage of territorial government. The
case of West Virginia affords a case
still different. Her citizens very cor
rectly resolved that State authority
should not transfer them from where
! their chief fealty was due. Red tape
was nonplussed, but the sovereignty OF
citizenship was endorsed, and justly.
These illustrations are given to show
that, if the judgment of the Supreme
Court in the case of Mrs. MinOr-thaI
the right of suffrage is not conferred by
: the Constitution of the United States
be correct, it only proves, so far as the
law is concerned, that the treest anC
} most energetic portion of American
citizens have been "making brick with
out straw" these many years, as they
z have added State after State to the
( nation.
OSH NbJ S1hS BCASOh 3A'O - ASSSSi
, why an American citizen should be les
citizen because of being engaged il
creating additional States, rather thar
e remaining stationary citizen of an ClC
s community, subject to the local preju
: dices and narrow views of citizenship
q that have prevailed in the South
e That the former class live and labo
, more nearly the spirit of American lib
| erty, few words of proof are offered
Compare, if you please, the constitution
= of Rhode Island, which makes discrim
e ination against a citizen of foreig
o birth, with that of Minnesota, whicl
: secures universal manhood suffrage
I Compare, if you please, any of the oil
y States with Wyoming Territory, wher
t universal suffrage without regard to tn
e sex of the citizen obtains. Especiall
= compare the just and equal rights c
s women citizens in Wyoming with th
d same class in Connecticut or Massachu
: sets, where men citizens now enjoy a
e unjust measure Of representation in Con
}. gress under the three-fifths rule, by rea
s son of the predominatiug numbers {
j women in those States, operating t
o some extent as the slave populatio