The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-03-26
The Right Of instruction.

IN this Crisis exercise II IOE the ODctI
Of the reform movement contemplated I
by the Democratic Congress, our able |
A B. c., continues !
to dwell upon it, and to repeat 1t over |
and over again. In vain do we tell HIM
that his 90 practical test" (Which, with
due Difference, does not rise to the dig
nity Of an argument) should not alright
him from the assertion of the principle
of popular presentation, for the reason
that if it were really applied there are
still enough Democratic Legislatures IN
the Northern States, combined with the
sixteen late slave-holding States, to Sc
cure to the Democracy a majority OF the
Senate Nevertheless he refuses to be
comforted, and returns to the standing
interrogatory: ''Have Republican Legls-
latures a right to instruct Democratic
Senators from their respective States
how to VOTE" etc, etc. Why, most
assuredly they have, though there may
be exceptional cases which would justify
a departure from the rule. We might
as well ask our correspondent, in view
of the fact that a majority of the North
ern States have bad habit of electing
a Republican majority to the House of
Representatives who invariably vote to
enact vile measures, and refuse to re-
peal them when enacted, have these
people who thus employ the elective
franchise for wicked purposes, a right
to the franchise at all? And since it is
evident that popular elections give to
Republican voters the power to send
representatives who are intent upon
wickedness, should not the elective
principle be entirely abolished? This
is 1" A. B. C's" logic The Right of In
struction may be employed for evil pur-
poses in certain States, therefore destroy
the representative theory Of our govern
ment, and take it away from all the
States. The right of election may be,
and is, perverted to bad ends in certain
States, therefore take it away from all
the States Deprive Mississippi of the
right to control her own agents because
Massachusetts, wickedly perverts the
same right to the injury of her sisters.
Isn't this beautiful logic?
After twice repeating the argument
upon which we have commented, our
correspondent goes back upon himself,
and SAYS that it is not the right Of the
people to instruct Senators, that he de-
mics, but the right of the Legislatures.
Is not the Legislature the agent and the
mouth-piece Of the people in electing
and dealing with Senators under our
form of government If the Legisla-
ture is competent to reflect the will of
the people in electing the Senator,
surely it is competent to "instruct" him.
A correspondent puts the idea strong
", if somewhat rudely, when he says
that ga man who button-holes mem
bers of the Legislature and impor-
tunes them for their votes is precluded
from throwing himself on his dignity
and asserting independence of the body,
after he has succeeded in obtaining his
seat"
Alb. G. says the Legislature is the or
gan ofthe people for making laws as well
as for making Senators, and it has no more
right to expound the one, than it has
to command the other" Under our
form of government Il wholly different
department is established to "expound'
the laws; but the remark suggests what
its author seems to have forgotten, that
the Legislature has right to ''unmake"
the laws, as it has right to require the
obedience or resignation of Senators who
derive their authority from it.
He asks if the trainers of the Govern
ment did not intend that Senators
should be amenable to the Legislatures,
why didn't they say so in the Constitu-
ton? We will answer in the language
of the resolutions passed by the Legis-
lature of Virginia, one of the States that
formed that Constitution, in 1869:
q Resolred, That this assembly regard the
Right Of Instruction resting the broad basis
ofthe nature Of representation and one of the
vital principles of our free institutions, and
that it is the duty of the Senator to obey the
instructions of his constituents or resign the
trust with which they have clothed him in
order that it may be transferred into the hands
of those who will carry into execution the
wishes and intentions of the constituent body"
Virginia resolutions of 1886. "The Right
OF Instruction is inherent in the free citizen
and as inalienabe as the right to think or to
speaks the essential property Of the representative
principle prior to, and Pres'pposed IN the Costit'-
ton and co-erist IN all the Legislature functions Of
oorsrn,negt
The representative (Senator) dare not CARL at the
mode The wiu Of has constituents is
imperative and must be obeyed." Virginia resoEr
tons 1877
That the trainers of the Constitution
never intended to fasten upon the gov
eminent any such heresy as the ire
sponsibility of the officeholder, to the
people in any of the departments, and
especially the Senatorial branch of the
federal Legislature, is shown by a vote
of the Convention, on a motion to strike
out of an original draught clause that
Senators 'sshould hold offices for a
sufficient time to secure their indie
pendence" The motion to strike out,
was carried without a DISSENTING vote
and so was the proposition embodying
the same despotic principle (of "indepen-
denee1 of the Legislatures that they
should hold their Office for life