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law tyov I rL A .m .o- -, TE TRWNEK _ By Gaillard & Aesportes]PR , 1886. y1 C.s Skr-r. Notes on the Constitution of the -United States. BY D, B. M'CRiGIT. No. 2. a Constitution ? A Constitution of a Government may be defined to be TILE ESTABLIH1D CON DITLON OF LAW. It is the written will of the sovereign, and the nature of that will is, that it shall remain as it is writ tenl, until the willof the sovercign changes. A Constitution is a compromise be. tweon sovereign and subject, and the grand difference between monarchy or aristocracy and democracy, is, that in the l.tter this [compromise is reflexive, and in the former it is not. In other words, the sovereign in democracy is also the subject. He creates Govern ment, and lie is amenable to Govern ment, What is the Constitution of the Unital States. The Constitution of the United Stqtes is the established condition of Jaw -the written will of the sovereian the compromise between sovereign and subject, of the United States,-that is of the sovereignty of States united and forming one sovereignty. What is Sovereignty I If there be a Herculean task in the p>litics of our country, it is the effort to define sovereignty. ' The discussion of this very question has evolved princi ples of sufficient importance to precipi tate a civil war. That the late war is due to misapprehension on this subject, no careful dispassionate and sober judg. ment can controvert. At the risk of the charge of novelty, insanity or any other thing, an attempt will be made ibl these notes to explain "sovereignty,' and that explanation will be left to the candid and calm reason of the reader. State -States--United States-are three titles as distinct as red, white and blue. Popular Sovereignty--State Sover eignty--United Sovereignty, are three other cognomens as distinct as the form ar. The whole difficulty the writer appre hends, which has attached to the politi cal term "sovereign." has grown out of the viewing "sovereignty." as an indi visible and incommunicable power. That this is a false premise will appear from the following. To say that "sovereignty" in man is incommunicable, is to assnme that man's sovereignty is created by himself. But whatever rights. powers and privileges are inherent in man (and it is these which constitute his political sovereign ty) are the concomitants of his natpre and condition. Who gave him these .? Omniscienee and Omnipotence, the Su preme Sovereign of the Universe. Are the attributes of that Being communica. ble ? By no nieans. Why ? Bie cause they are essential to His very be ing.a Now are.the attributes of man's political sovereignty essential to his be * ing?. Not at all. These are accident,~ al properties. Trie, they are within 1his control, and therefore he has the power to give or with~hold them, to utse or abuse them, and this power extends to his divorcing one or more of those at * tributes. The theory then of an indi., visible political sovereignty is fallacious. Bitt to return to the three -kin4. of sovereignty notigcd. Popular Sovereigaty is a oondition of .organized society in which, while each individual sovereign acts upon his own ]judgment, and is so far a supreme judge, yet he aclknowledges, and is morally and legally liound to acknowledge, respect and,obey, the Metas of the majority of individual soernia nsant.in& from, their will as expressed and contained in the Constitution of their adoption. He may or may not bo in that majority, and yet in either case he is ' a constitu ent element in a production that. is sa. preme in relation to his individual su. premac y, and ,tat "supreme production" is the Constitution of the body politic. That "body politic" is what we call a "State." State Sovereignty then is supERioR to popular sovei eignty in its constituent elemecnts.. But State Sovereignty is iNFnIOn to popular sovereignty in its component pa)-ts. Hence the St-ite and the people, each, relatively, is a sovereign, accbrd ing as the one or the other dictates. NoTE.-State Sovereignty is used synon ymously with Constitution. State Sovereignty is the creature of popular sovereignty. United Sovereignty is the creature of State Sovereignty. And State Sovereignty is both supe. rior and inferior to Popular Sovereign. ty ; so United Sovereignty is both su perior and inferior to State Sovereign ty. After writing the above, the author full accidentally upon the following para graph which accords so harmoniously with his view of the creation of State and' United (which is preferable to "Federal") Sovereignty, that it is herewith submitted. A most important argument, cover ing eighty printed pages, has been re. ceived by the President from London' in which are set forth the reasons why Davis cannot be convicted in any court of the crime of treason. The ground gone o.ver dates from the foundation of the Government--inchtdes the "Rights of the States," as then understood-ihe action of New York, Pennsy vania, Vir ginia, Massachusetts, and the States in accepting the Constitution, and the opinions of Washington, Fisher, :Ames, Hamilton, Webster, Ellsworth, Rufus King, Davie, Sptncer, Madison, Jay, Randolph, Franklin, Tench Cox, Jas. Wilson and Chief Justice McKean, of Pennsylvania. - The purport of the opinions of these honored dead, as showing the sovereignty of the States, and which the barrister who sends to the President the argument gives in. de tail, may be summed up in the remark of Wilson in the Pennsylvania Conven tion '87: - "Upon the existence of the State Gov ernments depends the existence of the Federal plan. The supreme, absolute and uncontrollablt power is in the reo ple before they make a Constitution, and remains bi them after it is made. * * * My position is, that the ab solute sovereignty never gocs froni the people." In view of these definitions then it is plain that "Sovereignty" is the relative powers of the people of the respective. States, of the Constitutions of the States, ahd of the Constitution of the -United States. From these too it is plain how ab surd it is to talk of the Constitution of the State, or the Constatution of the United States,. as a creature, and not at, the same time ascribe to 'thema some attributes of sovereignty. When a citiden of S3outh Carolina as sonts to the Constitution of his State, he as really and absolutely yields, imparts and communicates some o,f his attrib~utes of sovereignty to that Constittion as when ho submit. to t,be arbitrament in a personal dispute. Individuality or incomnmunicab!ili then is. not an essential attribute of -"Sovereignty." Take usw the preamble to the Con. stitetion, and apply to it these princi ples. It begin. and closes thus : ' "We Che People 9f the T-$nitedl States * do ordai& and. es. tablish thisO C sI,rrt!rpxfor the. tni ted States." Or as paraphrased aooordlng- to the a.bove principles r - We the Savar4ian.a tke rs Sovereigntio *, * * do ordain and establish this SOVERICIGNTY for the United Sovereigntles,-that is for the yovernment of thep,-for the 'established condition of law to them. But why "ordain and establish this Constitution." ' . "In order to form a more perfect Union." "A more perfect 'Union" implies that one Union had bi4n tried and failed. And snch was thV fact. The bonA of that Union was .h "Articles of Con. federatiun and Porpptual Union," but so inadequate was It.*.. he exigencies of the Union, that a Convention of.all the States was called "to devise such further provisions as shall appear to thoni no. cessary to render "the Constitution of the Federal GoveA)ment adequate to the exigencies of the Unieo" 2. *"Establish Justice." The Con. vention had been painfullyimpreFied with the neceabity of ipserting this second object in the ordaining and establishing of a Constitution for the 8upreme gov. ernment of the Uh ited States. The greatest act of irijnstice perhaps that could be conceived, as the root of all others, would be thefailure on the part of a Government to nkeet its debts con tracted in -good faith. -And yet the Congress of the Confederation could never meet its liabipities because ther States declined or neglected to give it the means, and thore was no power ven Congress to collect them from the tates. The President has restored the su premacy of the law and dwarfed the military power of (he Republic to its proper and very modest proAortions. rho Supreme Court has ust prononc. ad against the legalitf of the trial of civilians by a Mihtary Commission, and three persons who Are .sentenced "to death by one of their lawless tribunals have just been released from confine ment. As the angry, tuibid flood of civil war subsides, the right of the citizen to a speedy trial by jury is again declared by the Supreme Court of the nation as the inalienable right of the humblest man in this Republic. In his course towaids the mass 'of those who supported the Southern Con. federacy, the President has been singu larly, magnanimously and wisely let. ent. Nine-tenths f those who for four ears, with unparalleled gallaptry, up Keld the Confederacy, have long since been unconditionally pardoned. The Cabinet officers who counselled the President of the Confederacy, the Con gressmen who enacted those stringent conscript and impressment laws which kept up our armies, and many distin guished Generals of the Confederate armies have either been - formally par doned, or have been released upon parole, and no one dreams that they will ever be molested in person or estAte. The military bastiles of the country, with one exception, have long since been thrown open, and the distinguish'ed Confederate officers who were confped in them have been restored to teir friends and families. Of the two State prisonera'at Fortress Monroe only 90e still endures all the rigorM 9f cp "in fimement. For nearly a year the Presidet of the late Confederate States hs !A guished in prison. Feeble in .hal~th,. and bejond any distinguished! states-. marn of our acquaiptance wed4pt e gentle pleasures of the family cop , ~a gloomy ceT has been uncheered I~ ~j presence of a faitlhful, noble vsa beloved children. Guardpd 'like tlee noat dangerous criminal upon ,wb'm thie entence of deeth lhas been pronounced, he has had not one niomnent of exernyption from the presence of an armed gqrd,-' since that hideous day when. ,chaiina. were temnporarily rivetted' upgn his The ceaseless trambp of tle tpra, the'! heerio.. wraste of wateru Whieh dre aone 'visible through the graVnugi of his| cl, the agony of protiectEdaspargion from wife and children, have nia.de ter-i rible havoo with tieO wasted. ut.iWh of this unfbrtunat gentleina#. ter.4 urd of long conhepuent, with hi oed qe.reduced to poverty and lan 'sih mg in eile, muay kill Kir-. eTEeion Dawis; but it doe. net'a ."'1 in the eye. of Chritendon tid bit siiethigs kh d nobli fortitude in adversity have-lon* sinbe extiigulshed ini be brmqxa of We people of the Sguth thos jter prejud1icits,f q aUry feelings whii his ergersof ment ap before the colla0se' orhConfederacy Of the t%6tshAde whdi might still have nourished those biiAer 'feeise, had the late President of the Confedertte Stteq escaped, not one rem4in. Ais mi4for tunes have mnelted every hqart, and wh en a blow was struck at the reppta. tion of the imprisoned sta tesmr n by an unworthy hand through the colvmit or a leading Northern, joIrnal, the unman. ly assailant was denounced by the en. tire people of the South. The tini has arrived, and the public sentiment of Christendom demarde, that the ]resident shsl crown hisnoble poli cy ot paciecation by the pardon of ef ferson Davis. The charges that he encouraged the assassins of President Lincoln, and was the cause'of the suter. ings of the Federal prisonerv, are believ. ed neither by friend nor foe. We are not blind to the faults of Mr. Davis' charac ter. His imperious will, ignorance of character, blind devotion to persobal friends, strong prejudicm and want of wisdom in the selection of proper agents to execute his wishes, were serious faults. But a more humane and (oftentimes unwisely) Iinq.hearted statesman was never entrusted with the destinies of a people striving to achieve a distinct nationality. He was morbidly averse to inflicting punishment, and shrunk from taking human life with the humani ty of a woman, His errors were always uponthe side of mercy wben the exi gencies o6a desperate cause called for extreme severity. The' true character of.this eminent man can never be. blackened by foul accusations of gomplicity with assasmini and tortures of prisoners of war. Fgis humanity, his Christian virtuea, his personal integrity and lofty courage ire .qualities which 'can never be truthfully qxwtagned. The Southern Confedeeiy might have had a, fpr more judicique President, but it possessed no distinguioh. ed man of purer chpracter than Mr. Da vis. Except, therefore, that he was the Peaident of the short-lived Confederacy, lie has committed no offence. Thou sands who have been pardonqd were his egVals in what is called "treason" by the North. So far as the acts were concerned which precipitated civil war upon the nation, there were hundreds of our people who were more determ'n ed and violent in s6cession than Mr. Davis. If the prayers of Christendom for the pardon of Jefferson Davis are of no avail, let us at least no longer witness the spectacle of an illustrious.State prisoner immured in a fortress, without a warrant of commitment from a civil tribunal of competent jurisdiction, or the pro'oet of a fair and speedy trial by aj4ry of his countrymen. Since the late decision of the Supreme Court,. the imprisonment of any civilian by order of the War" Department is a most fiagi, tious contempt dithe authority of the judicial dipartment of the Government. "-Richmond 'Iime. A WARNING.---Not many montbs since there was wedded to a fair,. bu,' &Was ' too conVing, daughter of a highly esteemedand repected citizen of on'e of Dur intetior towns, a Northern man7 who Dlamed o heo' been an officer in the FeOel a 'rmy The narried life of the, happy pair appears to hve glidqd along mmothJy and pleasantly until at an in auspieoba moaient a third priety steps. mino the stage and' innsediately trans lordis qilet bud bliss to discontent arid bitternss The perfidious and brutal hubaiha ya cpnfrontod by another wife, w~e.havh hepro of his infamous con4weg divq frorp) e1 North Ao' metitItdelK2r and" satis herself as to the ti'wtty A?shy of the sse, which reacheS JMr. To her angu' and obr row she feal that . statemient was. ndeed, truasi .Thpa&ir hay exated wrill end'vaisto b'se...-/M At, e $ o ~ old lady~ tai4 W .o e'$len who wes , og ., t4 00Qp3aup.a hbl.se Nmna Ma I,' php eotn4a't tel wa,"aaj smonga ok. charloIqtte, N. IV. 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