The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-01-31
IsRAfuICATION NECEssARY3

One Of the provisions OF the bill call.
ing . constitutional convention, was
that Il should be submitted to the peo-
PIE for ratification by ballot In Novem-
bee next. We are aware that the
action OF . convention IL usually sub
mitted to the voters for confirmation or
rejection; but would not an organic
law passed by delegates elected by the
people expressly for that purpose be
equally binding upon them, without
the sanction Of an additional vote to
make It the supreme law Of the State.
We make this inquiry, because we
are sAtished that . herculean effort will
State bondholdeFs, incumbents Of OFF,
ces with fat salaries, and the Republic
can party. This f. no small combine
tio0 and is calculated to excite grave
appeehensions a. to Its final adoption
when nneoaced by 20 many open and
covert enemies. II defeated by such q
Conspiracy, the time and expense Of q
conventlon will have been lost, and the
State viii necessarily fall back into the
ravenow clutches of the " old l,yena"
Of 1868.
We copy the above from our able
and respected contemporary the Opel
osasas Courier. The question pro-
pounded might properly be answered,
In q legal sense, In the negative.
Ifa Convention, being the only legis-
lative body at the time In existence
its creation and assembling abolishing
the leSfslature-refuses to submit its
acts for ratification, and ordains that
tho Constitution by It framed shall
at once take effect, where rests the
power to say an election shall be held
for the ratification or rejection OF the
new Constitution Not in the Cover
nor, because he has no such power even
under the pre-existent Constitution !;
and If not In the Chief Magistrate, then
In whom does such power reside :?
Certainly In no one, except the people
who can proceed only by revolution.
A Convention of the delegates OF the
people, legally called together to per-
form q sovereign act, Is itself sovereign.
1t may, we think, remain in session,
requiring the oficlals In power to obey
Its ordinances, for sixty days or for three
times sixty days, or even until the
new government is fully and complete
ly organized and the old officials dis
placed from Office.
The act OF the legislature In requir.
ing the Convention to submit its acts
to the people, and In limiting the dura.
ton OF the Convention to sixty days,
was OF course intended only as an ex.
preston Of opinion. It Is we'll known
that one legislature cannot bind oven
It's successor. How much more absurd
for . legislature to dictate to o consti-
tutional convention what It shall or
shall not do.
AS to whether ratification be essen
tial, or not, we have precedent in the
Secession Convention Of 1861. That
body, composed OF many of the ablest
men In the State, declared that Louisi-
ana's allegiance to the Union was abro-
gated, aud that tremendous exercise of
sovereignty was carried into effect
without the submission of the Conven-
TONS act to the people at a formal cleo
ton. And It may be we'll to remember
though that is not a precedent for US
that the present Constitution, so-called,
was never ratified. 1t was submitted,
we agree, but only to invited guests.
The large number of electors who were
disfranchised at the time, together with
the all.powerful aid of Federal soldiers,
rendered it's ratification a certainty at
the beginning, and the forms OF SUBJ
mission were mere mockeries and a
fraud upon the State.
The TELEGRAPH has already
announced its willingness to accept
the new Constitution as it comes from
the Convention. The men who will
compose that body cannot be any
worse men than those who framed the
present infamous instrument, In the
framing of which we had no voice,
but will have In the new one, and we
have a solid faith that we can safely
accept the change, as young robin
does its meat, with eyes closed and
mouth wide open.
We do not, however, propose to
aSatate this question in the pending
CDnYAee. We hrinc ~ mn, hore, for