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

The Right of Instructions.
EDITORS CLARION: With no desire to ire,
pass upon your columns or TO prolone tn
discussion between u / wish briefly to motto
some Of the points in your comments on m
last article.
1t You complain that / misrepresent vo
in saying that you had asserted the right q
Republican Legislatures to reduce Democrat
Senators to mere puppets or force them +
resign their seats.
l certainly had no intention Of misrepre
santing YOU and honestly so understood YOU
To put the issue so plainly that there can n,
longer be any doubt about it. / now propounc
to you the following explicit heterogeneous
Have Republican Legislatures the right t.
instruct the Democratic Senators from theil
respective States how To- vote on the PROPOSE
tions now pending in the United States Senate
Tor the repeal Of the test oath and Of the
Federal supervision of Congressional elections
Ii they do instruct said Senators to vote
against the repeal of those laws, will it be the
Constitutional duty of the Senators 40 instruct
ed to obey their commands or failing therein,
TO resign their seats? Please give me an ex-
plicit answer.
ID You think it strange that | should ask
you 10 remember that We are not discussing
the accountability Of Senators to the people or
their duty OF obeying the well known wishes
Of their constituents and you ask, what then
Is all this discussion about?7 | answer, that
II is about the right OF Legislature instructions,
rs was certainly manifest from the language
OF my first communication as it was in my
second one.
Your position ia that Legislatures may
command, and Senators must obey | say that
Legislatures elect Senators, but do not com
mand them / hold that Legislature has no
more right TO instruct a Senator than Senator
10 instruct Legislature Both are account
able to the people, and neither is accountable
10 the other. The Legislature Is the organ of
the State for making laws a. well as for max
ing Senators, but IL has no more power to com
mand the one than it has to expound or ex-
ecHte the other. Its members have the same
right to express their views and wishes on fed
eral questions that any equal number Of other
citizens have. but they have no more authority
to command Senators or to require their res
ignaton than the Grand Juries or Boards of
Supervisors have.
Under my theory the masters OF the Senators
are the people at the ballot boy, speaking, thei.
will in the mode appointed by the Constitution.
Under yours the Legislature is the sovereign
and their will omnipotcut. Ny theory is con
stitutional representative Democracy Yours
Is oligarchy, the unauthorized assumption by
Legislative assembly that they are the peo-
pie, and the usurpation of power for which
no letter or line Of the Constitution gives the
slightest pretext. Let me ask your serious at
80 I H., fra, 4
the government intended that Senators should
be -ubservient to Legislative control and
should hold their Offices by the tenure OF ODE
dience to Legislative instructions, why is there
no hint OF such intent in the organic law, and
why IS tt that no provision was made Tor the
summary election OF unruly and disobedient
Senators? You say that Senators must obey
or resign. But numbers OF them have refused
TO do either, and not only does the Constitution
fail to supply any remedy, but no human be-
ing has ever thought of proposing Constltu-
tional amendment whereby such recreant Sen
ators might be elected from office. Would you
favor such amendment If 1t were proposed?
81. Nou say that / started out with the adj
mission that a majority OF the old Democratic
partv ALWAYS held to the doctrine OF legisIa-
tive Instructions, but that now seem disposed
to deny it. BY no means. | adhere to my
ORIGINAL admission but / say that II Is ques-
ton upon which the most loyal Democrats
have ever differed-that il vas never consId-
erred a test of party fdelitv-and that IN my
opinion the able and powerful minority who
denied the doctrine were right L say that
majority Of the old Wing party always denied
ii and deem 1t worse than folly TO undertake
tomake it "A test of party fealty in the present
Democratic party OF the South, large maJorly
of whom never had the slightest connection
with date-belIuH Democracy, and numbers OF
whom were Its bitter opponents
4th With all due Difference l submit that
the fact that Legislatures have repeat
,edly instructed Senators, and that the
ment whatever Tor the rightfulness OF
the doctr me unless it can be shown that the
Senator's a tered in opinion with the Legls-
lature and viei ted obedience because convinced
Of their Constitut 'onal duty to do so. " here
this can be shown it proves that the particular
Senator 50 understood he Constitution.
1t then forms a precedent IN your favor
lust as the instances in which obedience was
refused precedents in mine, ana holhihS
more.
5th The fact that Thos H. Bcuton was
defeated after refusing to obey instructions,
proves nothing except that he happened 10
live in slave State where majority OF the
voters opposed to the Wlmot ProViso'
He defeated not because he refused To
obey instructions, but because he had voted
Tor unpopular measure. Gen1 Cass DISC
beyed instructions in voting for the Kansas
Nebraska bill. The people OF Michigan were
Overwhelmingly against MIN, anu tHOuSH ne
had been their political idol for quarter OF
century he never reelected and the State
Sas been Republican ever since. Shall we
saw that he was right in disobeving instrue-
tions tNecause he happened to vote on our side
and that Benton wrong because he was
against us5 What sort of consistency or
political mora ity would that be?
You saw that . ~treme cases may occur which
will justify Senate" IN dlsooeylng Instrue-
tions.
Well, if this Is true and the Senator is to be
the judge of the extremity We are no! praeti-
cally very far apart after all, bus when one
has yielded the argument / shall not say
A. s. G.
P. S. You say that under my theory Sena-
tors would be practically accountable to no
body since they are not subject to impeaeh-
structions. How do they differ in this respect
from members of the lower house?
You admit that the Legislature cannot in
s1ruct the representatives in the lower branch
Of Congress. But they are not subject to i'm
parchment and can no more be reached by
Instructions from the people at large than the
Senators. Can they not also Ito quote your
language) "look with contemptuous scorn upon
the people, wrapt In the solitude of their own
plenipotencep
How are they under your theory less ounip-
.otent than Senators under mine? Why should
they be more so? A. b. 6.
The women in Kansas vote at the school
elections. At recent election at Usage City
one woman went mp 10 vote, but before she got
through telling the judges what a time her
Willie had with the scarlet fever when be was