force of law, except in the case of Revolution, where necessity becomes the law. Necessitas non habet legem, perhaps, should read habet legem, for, after all, necessity seems to be the basis of all law, and of all social duties and political rights, for if it has no law itself, it gives law to everything else. It really means that necessity is above all law, and, therefore, makes a law for itself. In no country have the people the right to take the laws into their own hands, except in those parts, as we have said, where Lynch is said to be chief justice, and his code, or the Higher Law, supercedes all others. Being assembled in their sovereign capacity, at least pro rata, according to Rousseau, but each in his full sovereignty, according to Chief Justice Jay and Judge Gantt, all government and all laws are suspended, and then steps in Chief Justice Lynch, with his gallows and rope and such constables as Wendell Philips, Theodore Parker and Charles Sumner, or others a little more brave, and the victim is done for, and the slow steps of the vulgar common law is anticipated or defeated, as the fancy of the hour may dictate. If some little mistake is made, and the wrong man hung, shot or stabbed, still it is all in the way of the Higher Law, and of the rights and liberties of a free country, where "all are born equal, free and independent."

Like the

In England, a convention is considered but as an unlimited legislature. But according to our system, the political power can never be absolute because it is entirely representative, and the constituent is never present, except at the ballot-box. Such has always been the practice as to Conventions with us. legislature, they are assembled by the law, are elected in the same manner, by the same electors voting in the same way, in the same precincts, and the districts having exactly the same proportionate representation. The people are no more present in it, than in the legislature no more present than they are at the execution of any function of government, civil or military, legislative or executive. In England, a convention is an extra-constitutional, revolutionary measure. A falling back to a primative measure or remedy, justified by urgent and extraordinary necessity. With us it is a constitutional and ordinary process, legally performed,

and by no means revolutionary. It should be equally governed by reason, truth and justice, as the Legislature. Like the Legislature, it is only one of the recognised organic modes of the Government, and is used principally to remodel or amend the Constitution, where the Legislature has not been vested with a process for that purpose, as in South Carolina. Its session has no effect on the existing Government, which goes on quietly as if only a county court was in session. The political vessel still remains in the hands of officers, and is not thereby remitted to the care of the crew. The Legislatures of the States, or Congress, can alone propose amendments, because the will of the commonwealth can only be known through those channels. Moreover, two-thirds of both houses of Congress, or the Legislatures of twothirds of the States, can alone propose amendments, and a convention of the United States can only be called on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States. So much for the sovereignty of the people, or the numerical principle! The United States cannot call a convention at their own will as a people or unit, not even by its government, as can be done in the States. To call a convention does not constitute one of its "ordinary legislative powers." It has no powers not expressly given, and this power is expressly reserved to the Legislatures of twothirds of the States! Their permission first obtained, Congress, as the common officer to collect the necessary evidence of assent, may call the convention. This proves, first, that sovereignty is not in the elements of government, but in government itself; and, secondly, that the people of the United States are not one people, but the people of many or several States, for a convention especially designed to represent the people, can only be called at the instance of the States, and amendments or alterations can only be ratified by the Legislatures of the States, and not even then by a simple majority, but by nothing less than three-fourths of the States, or by conventions of three-fourths of the States, which can only be called by the Legislatures of the States. The only proviso against the power of amendment is rather remarkable at this time, when persons deny property in slaves, and denounce slavery as incompatible with our Declaration of Independence,

viz: That before 1808, no amendment should be admissible to repeal the first clause in the ninth section of the first article of the Constitution, allowing the importation of slaves from Africa, or to prohibit the same, though a duty, not exceeding ten dollars, might be imposed on each. The Eastern States, Mr. Gorham said at the time, had no motive to union but a commercial one; and Governor Morris said, they insisted on a navigation law to protect their shipping and fisheries, and that power given to Congress, and this extension and peculiar protection of the slave trade, constituted at the time the consideration of the bargain between the Northern and Southern States. (Mad. Papers, 1396.) On a motion to strike out the year 1800, to insert that of 1808, which was adopted; the motion was made by Gen. Pinckney and seconded by Gorham, of Massachusetts, and the vote stood seven to four. New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut voting in the affirmative, with Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. (Ibidem, 1427.)

By the fourth clause in the same section, no capitation or other direct tax can be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration directed in the third clause of the second section of the first article--that is, by adding to the whole number of free persons three-fifths of the slaves, and each State is allowed one member, no matter how small her population may be. The writ of habeas corpus is secured to freemen only; it is denied by the Constitution to the fugitive slave, who must be delivered up on demand. By these provisions, it is clear that whatever may be said by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution does not acknowledge, but on the contrary asserts, that men are neither created or remain equal and independent, and that property may be held in men, and that property protected and taxed for the benefit of the whole; and that this understanding was come to after mature deliberation, and for a full and valuable consideration.

Moreover, when vacancies occur in the representation from any State, the executive of the State, and not of the United States, issues writs of election to fill such vacancies. The Senate of the United States is composed of two Senators from each State, cho

sen, not by the people, but by the legislatures thereof. And in the Senate the smallest State in the Union has an equal vote with the largest-that is, 87,000 people in Florida and 91,000 in Delaware have the same numerical right, in one branch of the legislature, in making laws, and in the other in voting for a President of the United States, as New York with her 3,000,000 and Virginia with her million and a half. Is this an acknowledgment of the numerical principle of the equality of man or of the unity of our people, even for the purposes of the union? The States are the great barriers against assaults upon the liberties of the people, and we believe our safety lies in numerous small States!

The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives are to be prescribed by the State Legislatures, and although Congress may make changes in some respects, it cannot change the place of choosing Senators. Congress can exercise exclusive jurisdiction only in certain places by consent of the Legislatures of the States. On no other condition did it gain jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. No preference can be given to the ports of one State over the ports of another. The States, with the consent of Congress, that is by mutual consent, may lay imposts or duties on exports as well as imports, which is more than Congress can do; and even without the assent of Congress, when absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws. With such assent, they may also keep troops or ships of war, enter into any agreement or compact with another or with a foreign power, or even engage in war. Electors of the President and Vice-President are appointed, not elected, in each State, as the Legislatures may direct; and the Legislature may appoint itself, as in every State was done for many years after the Constitution was adopted, and as South Carolina now does, and we hope will long continue to do. The Legislature may grant the right to the people, to the Governor, or to any other functionary whom she may chose to direct in the performance of this duty.

These electors, then, were never designed to be appointed or apportioned according to the numerical but the federal principle, and upon the principle of the sovereignty of the Legislatures. How can they be regarded as one people, when even the President

and Vice-President cannot be elected from the same State? In defining treason against the United States, it does not say that it shall consist in levying war against it, but against them, or in adhering to their enemies. Full credit, as in the first union, is to be given in each to the public acts, &c., of the others, and without this provision the framers must have supposed that these acts would be considered otherwise as acts of a foreign power, and to be proved as such. Citizens of one State are granted privileges in another; persons charged with crimes, who fly from one State to another, are to be delivered up, and slaves escaping into another State are to be delivered up on claim of the party, in defiance of any law or regulation of the State to the contrary. All these were objects and purposes for which the Union was adopted, but they neither constitute nor prove us to be a consolidated people-a unit. No new State can be erected within the limits of another, nor any State formed by the junction of two or more, or parts thereof, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned. Of course, it can be done with their assent, which proves that the Legislatures are considered as the constituents of the General Government, representing their State. This does not admit either of the unity or numerical principle, and though it may seem a paradox, yet, in this case, the principle of unity and the numerical principle becomes the same; thus proving that extremes often do meet, as we now see in the case of Louis Napoleon.

The powers not delegated to the United States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. If reserved to the people collectively, as one people, then it could not be synonymous with the respective States; but the people of the several States are synonymous with the several States, and the people here meant must be the people of the respective States.

Finally, requiring the ratification of nine States, not a majority but three-fourths excludes all idea of unity or of the numerical principle.

If the sovereignty of the people and the equality of men is admitted, then we see no reason why it should not embrace all mankind-black or white, male or female.