Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-09-14
.T|MEfLO CK OF
OUR CONSTITUTION
Senator Gordon Discusses Some
Proposed Amendments before
Wash. Co. Bar Assoc n.
Continued f-Om pnSe o.

constitution can only he amended py tho
method prescribed by that instrument we
recall tho great and fundamental changes
| that the admission 10 tho Union eHecteo'
Before the admission our people were an
! swerabl ONLY To tribunals created by and
established within the state; after, they
could be summoned before tribunals set
| ting In other States, and supJectN 10
| laws, In the enactment or whlch our
/ state Legislature had had no part. be
/ fore, our state alone coud conpei our
| citizens to do military service; after, they
| might be drafted into the service or the
| | Mon. Before, they might levy duties
| upon exports and Imports AFTER, they
could not. Before. they might coin mon
! cy but not afterwards. In other words.
before. they could do all those matters
! and things that pertain to sovereignty,
and afterwards they could only exercise
those functions and privileges that mad
I not been delegated by the people. without
! regard to any local constitutional provi-
! sions To the federal government. Ger
| tainly all these changes materially al
! tered, modified. or amended our organic
law, but none OF them were initiated and
/ carried out by any method then pre-
scribed by our constitution.
Why not? Because sovereignty i-nues
in the people and they retain the right
! to change or modify the constitution,
| that they had ordained themselves with
| out intcrpositon of Legislator con-
stitution which preceded the Legislature
! and by which the LEGISLATURE was Itself
created. In our theory OF government II
| IS the people themselves who declare
rights and ordatn constitutions. When
dealing with their own constitutions they
are no more bound by It's provisions than
is Legislature by Its own enactments
or those of its predecessors. Suppose the
Legislature of 1910 had passed a law con-
tanning a provision that It should not be
amended or changed except at every
tenth session thereafter. no one would
claim that the Legislature of 1912. or any
other, might not amend or repeal 1t with
out regard to thu, attempted restriction.
II one Legislature cannot bind another,
or even itself, how can one generation
bind its successor When the people are
framing a constitution they are legislat-
ing in their sovereign capacity. When
the General Assembly is enact
ing law it is legisating In
its constitutional capacity. The Leris-
lature is not bound in its action by
any restriction that predecessor has at
tempted to lay upon it. 1t is true that II
must conform it's action to the constitu-
ton by which 1t was Great ted and by which
1t receives its power to act. but no one
Legislature has the power to govern and
control the action of another. When the
people themselves meet and frame or
amend their own constitution there is no
constitution aboye their constitution to
which they must conform except in those
instances where tho federal constitution
applies. If there is. such a super constitu-
ton where is 1t to be found? When was
it ordained? Is Ii not moro OF a myth
If that were possible, than the tablets o,
Joseph Smith?
TO say that the people cannot amend
their state constitution except in the
mode that a by-Eone generation has pre-
sCrihed is to deny the theory OF American
sovere gnity. When the IL colonies de-
( clared their Independence It was on tn,
theory that ultimate sovereignty resided
In the people and not in a king and par
lament according to the English theory
on the 4th day Of July, 116. there ex
listed no king and parliament from New
Hampshire TO Georgia that could scrv.
as an ark of the covenant for the OLD
constitutional theory The hat upon tn,
head of an American citizen was the arb
If the new sovereignty; that depositarl
may seem less elegant than the box OF
acasia wood overlaid with gold that w
call a king and paliament. but it Is tho
depositary in which, rightly or wrongly
the American people lave entrusted theft
| a