The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-24
HARRIsoN's LAW LECTURES.

The third lecture before the Leland
Stanford University on THE Develop
ment Of the Constitution" was deliv-
cred by ex-President Harrison on
March 18th. Following is a synopsis of
the lecture as furnished to the San
Francisco Examiner:
The contests between the American
Colonies and the mother country were
IN a large sense single and common.
II was one assault breaking upon diff
ferent salients of the fortress of lib
erty. AS a debate it was conducted on
the part of the colonists with wonder
ful moderation. with the highest cour-
age and the most conspicuous ability.
Their public papers are not eXcelled by
any of that period. The conception of
a free republican state came late and
doubtingly into the minds of the most
radical of the Colonial leaders. They
did not desire separation. but would
suffer no curtailment of their tradi-
tiOnal rights. They were loyal to an
English King within their constitu-
tional limitation and within their Spe-
cal charters. The Congress of 1775
said in a resolution:
But is this traitOrously or against
the King? We view him as the con-
stitution represents him. That tells us
he can do no wrong. The cruel and
illegal attacks which we oppose have
their foundation in the royal authority
We viii not on our part lose the dis
tinctton between the King and his
Ministers
Speaking IF the charge that indie
pendencN was contemplated from the
beginning. Justice Drayton, of South
Carolina, said in 17T6 that there was
a time when the American army be-
fore Boston mad not thousand weight
OF gunpowder, and when we took up
arms a few months before we begun
with a stock of five hundred weight;
and George Mason said: The truth
is. we have been forced into it" The
inherited English love for the King
had a strong hold on the colonists.
They did not complain Of the King,
but to him, Henry of Navarro wrote
10 Henry III: Thank God, | have
beaten your enemies and your army.
But there was never a time when, pre-
scented as the alternative of arbitrary
rule. that they would not have en-
braced independence. They were not
pursuing an altogether friendly line
when they appealed TO the King
against his Ministry. If one of the
present English colonies should suffer
oppression if would justify and strictly
be chargeable to the Lord Regency
and not the Queen.
Justice Story satisfactorily refutes
The argument Of Mr.. Blackstone that
Isngland's source of dominion in Amer
lea was by conquest and that there
fore the common law Of England was
not binding there, and shows that her
claims were based on discovery and
that the discovery was followed by
the planting Of English settlements by
English subjects with all the rights of
English subjects in the realm of En-
the af
Dutch settlement in New York was
based upon an antecedent right found
ed upon discovery.
The right which comes most to the
front in the debate was that the COL
onies should be exempt from taxes not
voted b. Themselves. This, it was
found, involved the larger question as
to the power of Parliament to- legis-
late in any matters affecting the coll
ogies The prevailing English view
was that Parliament had supreme leg
islative control oyer the colonies, but
there We're not a few liberal English
men who denied the power of Parlia-
lnent TO tax the colonies.
The Marquis Of Halifax said that "he
could not agree to live under a King
who should have 1t in his power to
take. when hep leased, the money
which he CT1aiifaX had in his pockets Q
Burke said: Their love of liberty
DO VIII you, IL iACo diti on
this specific point of taxation Liberty
might be safe or might be endangered
in twenty other particulars without
their being much pleased or alarmed.
Here they feel the pulse and as they
found that beat they thought them
selves sick or sound
Pitt said: Taxation and represen-
tation are inseparable This position
is founded on tie law OF nature. 1t Is
in itself an eternal law of nature: and
again: Let the distinction then re-