The morning call., 1894-03-20
STANFORD STUDENTS APPLAUD.

To make his proprietary rights in his
lectures uGQuestioned General Harrison
has devised a new plan of cOpyrightng G
each lecture before delivering it.
A neatly printed page preceding the
copy of the third lecture contains the fol-
lowing Inscription:
LEGAL ASPECTS
of the
CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE AMERICAN
COLONIES AND GREAT BRITAIN.
A lecture by
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Copyright, 1894,
BY BENJAMIN HARRISON.
IN Rights Reserved.
As General Harrison desires to publish
his lectures upon the conclusion Of his GU
gagement at Stanford University some such
course seems TO have become absolutely
necessary. as the newsboys on the San
Jose trains wero crying among the wares
they had to sell yesterday, "Harrison's
last lecture"
The lecture delivered yesterday after
noon was upon the legal aspects of the
controversy between the American colo
nies and Great Britain. The chapel where
the lecture was delivered was we'll filed.
At the point in the lecture where General
Harrison quoted the patriotic remark of
an eighteenth century South Carolinian:
Let US not be New EDglandeTs or Vir-
Rinians or Carolinians, but Americans"
the students cheered heartily. General
Harrison was applauded upon the conclu-
sion of his lecture.
The following is the abstract Of the lee
ture authorized by General Harrison:
The confess between the American colonies
and the mother country was 10 large sense
single and common. 1t was one assault break
ing upon different Salieuts OF the fortress of
liberty. As debate il was conducted
on the part of the colOnists with won
derful moderation. with the highest cour-
age and the most conspicuous ability.
Their public papers are not eXcelied by any of
that period The conception of a free repub-
llean state came laie and dOubtingly into the
1BlndS OF lDe most radical OF Tie colonial lead
eTs. They old not desire separation; but would
suffer 20 cuTtailment of their traditional rights
They were loyal TO an English King who ruled
within constitutional limitations and within
Their special charters. The Congress of 1875
said in resolution: But is this traitorousIv or
against The King? We view him as the consIi-
iuIion represents him. That tells US he can DO
no wrong. The cruel and Illegal attacks which
we oppose have no foundation in the royaI
authority. We viii not on our part lose the
distinction between the King and his Minis
ters."
Speaking Of the charge that Independence
was contemplated from the beginning Justice
DraytOn OF South Carolina SAID, IN 1916 that
There was time when the American army,
before Boston had not a thousand weieht of
gunpoWder," and when we took up arms a few
months before, we began with a stock of five
hundred weight" And George Mason said:
The truth is we have been forced into it,"
Inc inherited English love for The king had
strong hold on the colonists. They aid not
complain OF the king. but TO him-as Henry of
Navarro wrote 10 Henry III, "ThanE God /
have beaten your enemies and your army"
But there never time when. presented as
the alternative OF arbitrary rule, they would
not nave embraced independence. In an ad-
dress 10 tie people OF Great Britain in 1774 the
Congress SAID: "Permit US TO be as free as
yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union
with you 10 be our greatest gloIy and our
greatest happiness" They were not pursuing
an altogether fanclful line when they appealed
10 the king against his ministry. II one of the
present English colonies should suffer oppres-
sion It would justly and strictly be chargeable
10 Lord Rosebery and not TO the Queen.
Justice Story satisfactorily refutes the argu-
ment or Mf. Blackstone that England's source
OF dominion In America was by conquest, and
that therefore the common law of England was
not binding there and shows that her claims
were based on discovery. and that discovery
was followed by the planting OF English settle
ments by English subjects. with all The rights
OF English subjects In the realm of England.
Even he conquest of the Dutch settlements in
New York WAS based upon an anIecedenL right
founded upon discovery. The right which
came most TO the front in the debate was that
the colOnSts should be exempt from taxes not
voted by themselves. This it was found in
vcVed the larger question as to the power of
Parliament to Iegislate in any matters affecting
the colonies.
The prevailing English view was that Parlia-
ment had supreme legislative control over the
colonies; but there were not few liberal Eng
iishmen who denied the power OF Parliament TO
tax the colonies. The Marquis OF Halifax said
she could nor agree TO live upder a king who
should have it In his powell 10 take when be
pleased the money which he tHaifax) had in his
pocket" Burke said: Their love of liberty
as with you, is fixed and attached on this spe-
cite polnt OF taxing. Liberty might be safe or
might be endangered in twenty other particu-
lars without their being much pleased or
alarmed. Here they felt its pulse, and as they
found that beat they thought themselves sick
or sound" Pitt SAID: Taxation and repre-
seDtation are inseparable. This position is
founded on the law of nature; it is in itself an
eternal law of nature" And again: LET this
distinction then remain forever ascertained.
Taxation is theirs; commercial regulation Is
ours"
The American view is shown by voice from
New Jersey IN $780, which declared il ga fun