The Portland daily press., 1879-07-02

ments and all resting finally upon the peoplefof The
States qualified as voters by State constitutions and
| State laws.
Senator Whyte Record, May q, p. 15) says:
| No. Mr.. President, it never was declared that we
| were nation.
In the formation and adoption of the Constitution
| the States were the factors.
These are the declarations of seven distin-
| gushed members of the present Congress. The
doctrines set forth in these quotations may be
| fairly regarded as the doctrines of the Democ-
| cray as represented in this Capitol.
Let me summarize them: First, there are no
| national elections; second, the United States
has no voters; third, the States have the excln-
sive right to control all elections of members of
| Congress; fourth, the Senators and Representa-
| tives in Congress are State officers or
| as they have been called during
| the present session, ''ambaSsadors" or
| agents of the State; fifth, the United States
has no authority to keep the peace anywhere
| within State, and in fact, has no peace to
| keep; sixth, the United States is not q nation
| endowed with sovereign power, but is a confed-
| eracy OF States; seventh, the States are sover-
| eighties possessing inherent supreme powers
| They are older than the Union, and as indie
| pendent sovereignties the State governments
| created the Union and determined and limited
the powers OF the General Government
These declarations embody the sum total of
| the constitutional doctrines which the Democ-
| racy has avowed during this extra session of
| Congress. These propositions form body of
| doctrines which do not hesitate to say are
| more extreme than was ever before held on
| this subject, except perhaps at the very crisis
| of secession and rebellion
And these have not been put forth as alb
| stract theories of government, True to the
| logic of their convictions the majority have
| sought to put them in practice by affirmative
| acts of legislation.
Let me summarize their attempts First,
| they have denounced as unconstitutional all
| attempts of the United States to supervise,
| regulate or protect national elections and have
tried to repeal all laws on the national statute
| book enacted for that purpose. Second, fol-
| lowing the advice given by Calhoun in his
| political testament to his party, they have
tried to repeal all those portions of the vener-
| ated Judiciary act of 1889, the act of 1888
| against nullifcation, and the act of 1861 and
| the acts amendatory thereof, that provide for
J carrying to the Supreme Court of the United
! States all controversies which relate to the
| duties and authority of any officer acting under
| the Constitution and laws of the United
| States.
| Third. They have attempted to prevent the
| President from enforcing the laws of the
| Union, by refusing necessary supplies and by
| forbidding the use of the Army to suppress vio-
| lent resistance to the laws, by which, if they
| had succeeded, they would have left the citi-
| zens and the authorities of the States free to
obey or disobey the laws of the Union as they
| might choose.
| Lhlo DtlltNt, MI. ClldlTluaH, Is q Idlf
| mary both of the principles and the attempted
| practice to which the majority of this House
| has treated the country during the extra ses-
| sion.
Before quitting this topic, it is worth while
| to notice the fact that the attempt made in one
| of the bills now pending in this House to cur
| tail the jurisdiction of the national courts is
| IN the direct line of the teaching Of John G.
Calhoun. In his Discussion ON the Constitu-
| tion and Government of the United States
| published by authority of the Legislature OF
| South Carolina in 1851 he sets forth at great
| length the doctrine that ours is not national
| government, but a confederacy of sovereign
States, and then proceeds to point out what he
| considers the dangerous departure which the
| Government has made from his theory of the
| Constitution.
The first and most dangerous departures he
| declares to be the adoption of the twenty-fifth
| section OF the judiciary act of 1889, by which
| appeals were authorized from the judgments
| OF the supreme courts of the States to the Su-
| preme Court of the United States. He de-
clares that section of the act unconstitutional,
because it makes the supreme court of "sov-
| ereign" State subordinate to the judicial
power of the United States; and he recon-
mends his followers never to rest until they
have repealed not only that section but also
what he calls the still more dangerous law of
1888, which forbids the courts of the States to
slt IN judgment on the acts of an officer of the
United States done in pursuance of national
law. The present Congress has won the unen-
vlable distinction of making the first attempt
since the death of Calhoun to revive and put
in practice his disorganizing and destructive
theory of government.
Firmly believing that these doctrines and
attempted practices of the present Congress
are erroneous and pernicious, will state briefly
| the counter-propositions:
affirm, first, that the Constitution of the
| United States was not created by the govern
ments OF the States, but was ordained and es-
taDllshed by the only sovereign in this country
the common superior of both the States and
the nation-the people themselves; second,
that the United States is nation, having
government whose powers, as defined and
limited by the Constitution, operate upon all
the States in their corporate capacity and upon
all the people; third, that by its legislative,
executive and judicial authority the nation is
armed with adequate power to enforce all the
provisions OF the Constitution against all oppo-
sition of individuals or of States at all times
and all places within the Union.
These are broad propositions, and 1 take the
lew moments left to me to defend them The
constitutional history of this country, or rather
the history of sovereignty and government in
TINS country, is comprised i'll four sharply de-
fined epochs:
First. Prior to the 4th day of July, 1776,
sovereignty, so far as it can be affirmed of this
| country, was lodged in the Crown of Great
Britain. Every member of every colony (the
colonists were not citizens but subiects) drew
his legal rights from the Crown of Great Brit
| etiAis livery VI ldllu III IHlS country was
| then held mediately or Immediately by grants
| from that Crown" and call the civil authority
then existing or exercised here flowed from the
British Empire
Second. On the 4th of July, 1776, the peo-
pie of these colonies asserting their natural in
| herent right as sovereigns, withdrew the
sovereignty from the Crown of Great Britain
and reserved it to themselves. In so far as
| they delegated this national authority at all,
| they delegated it to the continental Congress
| assembled PlIl01nlphia hot IN,r
| general consent, became the supreme govern
| ment OF this country-executive, judicial and
| legislative in one. During the whole of its
existence 1t welded the supreme power of the
new nation.
Third. On the 1st day of March, 1881, the
same sovereign power, the people, withdrew
| the authority from the continental congress
and lodged it, so far as they lodged it at all,
| with the confederation, which was declared to
| be perpetual union.
Fourth: When at last our fathers found the
| confederation too weak and inefficient for the
| purposes OF great nation, they abolished it
| and lodged the national authority, enlarged
anu strengthened by new powers, in the Con-
stltutlon OF the United States, where, in spite
OF all assaults it still remains. All these great
| acts We're done by the only sovereigns in this
Republic, the people themselves.
That no one may charge that pervert his
tory TO sustain my own theories, call atten-
tion to the fact that not one of the colonies de-
clared itself free and independent. Neither
Virginia nor Massachusetts threw off its allie
glance to the British Crown as a colony. The
great declaration was made not even by all the
colonies as colonies, but it was made in the
name and by the authority of ''all the good
people of the colonies as one people.
Let me fortify this position by great name
that will shine forever in the constellation of
our southern sky-the name of Charles Coats
worth Pinckney, of South Carolina. He was
leading member of the constitutional conven-
ton of 1887, and also a member of the conven-
ton OF South Carolina which ratified the Con-
stltution. In that latter convention the doc
trhle of State sovereignty found a few cham
plons; and their attempt to prevent the adop-
ton OF the Constitution because il established
supreme National Government was rebuked
by him in these memorable words. l quote
from his speech as recorded in Elliot's De-
bates:
This admirable manifesto, which for Importance of
matter and elegance of composition stands unri-
vailed sufficiently confutes the honorable gentle
mans doctrine of the individual sovereignty and in
dependence OF the several States In that deelara-
tion the several States not enumerated but
after reciting in nervous language and with con-
v1ncing arguments, right to independence and
the tyranny which compelled to assert it, the dec
laratlon is made in the following words: 1--WE.
therefore, the representatives of the United States