Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-05-04

many Carols, he, the richest man Tn America, might escape, added descrip- tion and Identification with ''of Carroll ton" Benjamin Harrison, delegate from Virginia, the ancestor of the dis tinguished statesman and soldier who today so worthily fills the chair of Wash ingtou. voiced the unalterable deter imitation and defiance of the Congress He seized John Hancock, upon whose head price was set, in his arms, and placing him in the Presidential Chair, said: We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her by making our President a Massachusetts man, whom she has excluded from pardon by public proclamation" and when they were signing the Declaration, and the slender Elbridge Gerry uttered the grim pleas antry, We must hang together or surely We will hang separately, the portly Harrison responded with the more dar ing humor, 1t will be all over with me in moment, but you will be kicking in the air half an hour after l am gone" Thus flashed athwart the great Charter, which was to be for its signers death
 warrant or diploma of immortality, as with firm hand, high purpose and un- daunted resolution, they subscribed their names, this mockery of fear and the penalties of treason.
 The grand central idea of the Declar
 ation of Independence was the sOver
 eighty of the People. It relied for orig inal power, not upon States, or Colonies, or their citizens as such, but recognized as the authority for nationality the revo- lutionary rights of the people of the c+n+al with ,eaa rx-aln1 c clearness the encroachments upon hber- ties which threatened their suppression and justified revolt, but it was inspired by the very genius of freedom, and the prophetic possibilities of united common wealths covering the Continent m one harmonious Republic, when it made the people of the thirteen Colonies all Am ericans, and deyolved upon them to ad- minister by themselves, and for them selves, the prerOgatives and powers wrested from Crown and Parliament. It condensed Magma Charter, the Petition of Rights, the great body of English llb- critics embodied in the common law and accumulated in the decisions of the Courts, the Statutes of the realm, and an
 undisputed though unwritten Constitu- ton; but this original principle and dynamic force of the peoples power sprang from these old seeds planted in
 the virgin soil of the New World.
 More clearly than any statesman of
 the period. did Thomas Jefferson grasp and divine the possibilities of Popular Government, He caught and crystallzed the spirit of free institutions. His phil
 osophical mind was singularly free from
 the power of precedents or the chains of
 prejudice. He had an unquestioning and abiding faith in the people, which
 was accepted by but few of his com
 patriots Upon this famous axiom, of the equality of all men before the law. | he constructed his system. It was the
 trip hammer essential to the emergency
 to break the links binding the Colonies | to imperial authority, and to pulyerlZe the privileges of caste. It inspired him | to write the Declaration of lndepend- | ence. and persuaded him to doubt the | wisdom of the powers concentrated in l the Constitution. In his passionate love | of liberty he became intensely jealous Oi authority. He destroyed the substance | of royal prerogative. but never emerged
 from its shadow. He would have the States as the guardians of popular rights | and the barriers against capitalization
 and he saw in the growing power of the nation ever-increasing encroachments
 upon the rights of the people. For the
 success of the pure democracy which
 must precede Presidents and Cabinets
 and Congresses. it was perhaps prOvi- dential that Its apostle never believed a
 great people could grant and still retain could give and at will reclaim, could l delegate and yet firmly hold the author | ity which ultimately created the power of their Republic and enlarged the scope
 of their own liberty.
 1 Where this master-mind halted, al
 stood still. The necessity for perman
 ent Union was apparent, but each State
 must have hold upon the bow string which encircled its throat. It was ad mitted that Union gave the machinery | required to successfully fight the com mon enemy. but yet there was fear that | it might become a Frankenstein, anC | destroy its creators. Thus patriotism
 and fear, difficulties of communica | tion between distant communities, anC | the intense growth of provincial
 pride and interests, led this Congress tC | frame the Articles of Confederation. hap | pily termed the League of Friendship | lU6 I65ulD N6 llOI OuJ | ghost. By this scheme the American people were ignored and the Declaration | of Independence reversed. The States l by their legislatures, elected delegates tC | Congress, and the delegate represented
 the sovereignty of his commonwealth | All the States had an equal voice with out regard to their size or populations | It required the vote of nine States tC
 pass any bill, and five could block tht | wheels of Government. Congress haC
 none of the powers essential to sovereign | ty. It could neither levy taxes nor i'm | pose duties nor collect excise. For the support of the army and navy, for the purposes of war, for the preservation o l its own functions, it could only call up on the States. but 1t possessed no power to enforce its demands. It had no Pre- | sident or executive authority mo Suprem, | Court with general jurisdiction, and nc national power. Each of the thirteeI
 States had seaports and levied discrimi mating duties against the others, anC | could also tax and thus prohibit inter | State commerce across its Territory | Had the Confederation been Union in stead of d League. 1t could have raised
 and equipped three times the number o men contributed by reluctant States, anC conquered independence without foreign
 assistance. This paralyzed Government
 without strength, because it could not
 enforce its decrees; without credit, be
 cause it could pledge nothing for the
 payment of its debts; without respect because without inherent authority | would. by its feeble life and early death
 have added another to the historic tra
 gedies which have in many lands mark
 ed the suppression of freedom, had it not
 been saved by the intelligent, inherited and invincible understanding of liberty
 by the people, and the genius and pa | triotism Of their leaders.
 But, while the perils of war had giver
 temporary strength to the Confederation
 peace developed its fatal weakness. Ii
 derived no authority from the people
 and could not appeal to them. Anarchy | threatened its existence at home, anC
 contempt met its representatives abroad
 Gan you fulfil or enforce the obliga