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Georgia ffi Statesman. TERMS, —$3 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE,] BY BURR ITT & M EACH AM THE GEORGIA STATESMAN Is published weekly at the Seat of Govern ment, opposite the State-House Square, at I'hree i 'ars per ann. in advance, or Four Dollars i! not paid in ait months. H. B. Sales of laud and negroes, by Ad ministrators, Executors, or Guardians, are required by law, io be held on the first Tues day in the month, between the hours of ten in the forenoon, and three in the afternoon, at the court house of the county in which tin property is situate. Notice of these sales must be given in a public Gazette SIXTY days previous to the day of sale. Notice of the sale of personal property must be give n in like manner, FORTY days previous to tha day of sale. Notice to the debtors and creditors of an is tat must be published for FORTY days. Notice that application v ifi he made to the. Court of Ordinary for It ave to sell land, must be published for NINI MONTHS. An. Letters must bf POST PAID. In- senate of the U States. January 11), 1826. Mr. Benton, from the select Commit tee, to which was referred the severa-l Resolutions proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United State?, Reported, in part: {Concluded from our last.) But the objection goes to the root of all republican Governments. For, if the people are incapable of electing their own Chief Magistrate —if they arc too ignorant, iiictious, and corrupt, to make this choice for themselves, it results as «.n inevita ble consequence, that there is no oth er alternative but to take refuge un der that Providence which is suppos ed, by the friends of the hereditary principle, to provide good Kings for had people. That there is any reason to appre hend violence in the popular election of President, cannot be admitted. The examples quoted from foreign countries have no foundation in any thing analagons in our own, and the idea itself is contradicted by the his tory of all elections among ourselves. Every foreign example which can he adduced, combines two great causes of excitementT (to say noth ing of minor ones,) the union ot which is indispensible for the pro duction of violence, and neither of which can exist in our Presidential election: the first, deri-ed from a personal intercourse between the can didate and the oters ; and the second, from the assembi. voe of all the voters at one single election ground, on the day of election. -Examine the insta; res so often referred to, the I ction of a Roman Consul, fa Polish King, ■ r even of a overeign Pont f—each tt ill lie found to combine these two •rreat causes of e- fftement, and no others can ho adduced in which the same principle of action do not ex ist. Com-.-re one of these elections, that of a Roman Consul as rite fair est and most apposite, with the plan of election for the American Presi dent, which the committee recom mend, and observe how completely < vic includes, and the other excludes he tw o great causes of exciti ment mentioned, and a number of minor ones which inflame their operation. Th candidate for the Roman Con sulship was bound by a custom, in the early ages of the Republic, and by law m the later, to appear in per son, and canvass ;or the office, face t< face, with all the voters. Treats . ->d entertainment’s w . < ri ff only a lowed, hut expected and required. Be. des standing, on public days, up on the highest places in ti>" forum .nil the marl:ot, he was humid, at certain inter\ ■ , to ffrciimm lbulate tiie city, in dl the forms of a reg;. canvass. The pomp nd circum stance of this display were eminently calc I ' and to act upon the imagina tions . dto inflame the pas ions of the people. Every circum?. a nee, calculati 1 to prt 'nee effect, was carefully select and, and skillfully ar ranged, b“f "chand. The day was chosen with careful regard to the state of the weather and the conven ience ol the public. On the morning ofthat day, an immense ero'.v.i as sembled at tlm house of the candi date, made him their salutations, and condu ted him to the Capitol, amidst the loudest acclamations. There th procession was formed, and the canvass regularly opened. The candidate, on focL arrayed in in the 7Vigu Candida, commenced his < irciiinaiobulation of the city, follow ed by his Sectato ret, Xohicndatorcsju ■ crpreteres, Drntores, Seijvestrcs, & all ihccrowd besides, which interest and curiosity could collect in the metro polis of the world. An open t’-es allowedliim to display the scars ol wounds which he had received in battle T the manners of the ago per mitted hint to recount the exploit* which himself and his ancestors had performed, and to point out the ser vices which they had rendered to the State. In ibis form, ov , street, and square, and suburb of tie city, was visited ; every citizen was sail mod by name, and every one hum bly solicited for his vote. The Sec tatorrs extended the length, asul swelled the ranks, of the procession : the JVotnenclcUores whispered in the candidate's ear, the name of everv citizen that was met : the Interpretes made bargains for votes : the Uivis orcs distributed the price : and the Sequcstres received the portions of those whose sensibility shrunk from the public reception of a bribe. The candidate who did all this, was often a Senator of princely fortune, posses sed of all the family influence which hereditary wealth confers ; hut more frequently a victorious General, load ed with the spoil of plundered pr vinces and conquered kingdoms. The voters to whom he Idressed himself were wAr-hke young men, veteran soldiers, and the dregs of an overgrown and corrupted city. Thus inflamed and prepared, the candi date and the voters meet again on the day of election, in the place, of all others, best calculated to produce excitement,with the means in their -hands of shedding blood, and an ain } Ie fluid for action : they met in the Campus .Martins, armed as ff for bat tle, separated into odious and rival divisions of c'asses and centuries, and iree from all control from the civil magistrates. A single tent contain ed the candidates and the judges, a narrow bridge let in the voters, and a vast field held the assembled, armed, and agitated multitude. That vio lence ix bloodshed should attend such elections, was natural and inevitable. But what points of resemblance can bo found between those and ours 1 The candiate for the American Presidency is dostitute of hereditary wealth, and frequently impoverished by a previous service in ihc puldi affairs; he is unable, if'he should be be willing, to establish a personal in tercourse with the voters, by circum ambulating the territories of the Un ion—nothing hut his reputation to rely upon ; the mode of acting upon tiie public mind reversed by the pow er of the press, which gives to in ellcct that range over a Nation, which, in the Rotmn times, was con fined to the city . the people to le aded upon, a body of tranquil citi zens and cultivators, scattered ov r an immense surface, and voting in small bodies, in the absence o -m- didates, without arms or odious Unctions, and at several thousand different places.—The means of preserving tranquility in those elec tions, are just ns certain of theii feet, as those for producing violence were certain of theirs in the election of the Roman Consuls. Th ;re is nothing in one which can serve for anexample in the other; and, ac cordingly, our elections l av e been as marked for order and tranquiifi , as those of the Romans w for vio lence an-' bloodshed. The idea of violence, in a popular election for President, A considered by the committee as an appreh ision w-tho. ‘ foundation in reason, unsup ported by examples from abroad, and contradicted by all th and can he found at home. For fifty years the peo ple of the United States have been engaged in electfi is. They vot< in every State, for Representatives in Congress, in many for their own C ivornors, and in all for a less or greater number of the civil and mil iturv officers. The dangcr-of blood -l ed is much great r in these elec tions where all the candidates are known, have a personal intercourse with the ffers, and are frequently present with their friends end rela- t'.an in election :.-t Vesi dent, where the several candidates, by their remoteness from the scene, and general want of personal ae rmaintmcc, amount to li tie more than bject of abstract contempla tion. Vet in these domestic and State elections, no scenes of blood shed have been witnessed,no recourse to arms has ever ensued the most animated contents So far from dreading violence at onr Presiden tial elections, the reverse ot t( it danger, in the opinion of the com mittee, is the one to be apprehended: apathy ! indifference ! a neglect of the elective franchise, of more por tentous import to the cause of liber ty, than the greatest excess of vio lence ! Already we have cause to feel alarm at the progress o r this new and unexpected danger, which is ms king it s silent and fat a I approach es upon one side, while we are discus sing the possibility of its approaching upon another; and,upon every princi ple of human action, ti.isprc ei . Jan gc r should bo repelled before an absent one is hunted up. To trace bis new evil to its source, to display its pre sent magnitude, and to calculate it* inevitable effect, would be matter of useful and curious speculation, wor thy of public attention, but not cum ... within the range of a report, drawn up upon the instant, and want ed for an immediate occasion. But, without going further back than to the '* • t election, the most ample proof of the main proposition can be Ha- tibi crunt artes, pacisque inipaixnTs uiorem, panvre subjects ct debollare snpeibos.—Virgil. MILLEDGEVILLE, TU readily found ; for it was one emi nently calculated to excite the fccl ings and to bring forth the passions of the people. The candidates were numerous, popular, personally known to many, through fame known to all, stationed in the three great sections o> the country, each supported L\ zealous friends, and determined par tizans, opposed by others equally zealous and preserving, and the can vass prolonged through the unexam pled period of four year®. Yet, wiial was the result ?—an election ot violence and bloodshed ?—On the contrary, an alarming neglect of the elective franchise! The people with difficulty were got to the polls ! In a few States, where the coni st was warmest, about one half gave in their votes; in many, not a fourth ; in some not an eighth ! —Such was the conclusion of an election, in which sc much violence had been appre hended and in which so many causes conspired to produc it. If called upon to point out the cause of this . mazing apathy, it w ould he shew n to arise from the interposition ofelet tors between the people and the ob ject ol their choice. This intermedi ate institution, intended to break the force, and to soften the action of the democratic element, has been successful in the first forty years of its existence in destroying the life of the election it. If-—that adding another to the many proofs already e listing, of the truth of the grout maxim, That liberty is ruined BY PROVIDING ANY KIND OF SUBSTI TUTE FOR POPULAR ELECTIONS..” The machinery ofelectors,placed bet ween ttie people and the President, and, above all, the imposition of the gen eral ticke, has paralysed the spirit of the voters, and made them look with indifference upon a scene in w hich they can act no really efficient or independent part Os the few votes actually given, in the election referred to, large proportion cam. from the least estimable desription of voters—tbe interested and unpro ductive classes —while the real peo ple, they whose industty constitutes the wealth of; lie country .whose purs es pay the taxes of the Government, am’ whose arms fight ts battle, took Je; interest in the result of this great election than they would have fei nt orditi -y canvass for county oilii urs. S c.ng tl is to be the state of things at present, and supposing the evil of it to go on increasing, the re and prop! 1 ’ • onfing more indiffer ent to the election of ’’resident, ami the interested elapses? more anima ted, s the game is more and more abandoned *e their piKsnit, what else can be the result hut that the election ofthisofficer, who w ields the efficient power us the Federal Government, must eventually fall into the hands of those who want that power wield ed to the single object of personal -proportion and in individual aggran dizement 1 But, what is this objection, this ::s y of violence which is raised against the people ! l? it any thing more than heated discussion, boldness in speaking ..ml writing, cas sinil affrays between individuals, such a: every other election produces ? Is noi this the idea of popular vio lence among us ! And shall this wholesome animation be checked, under tbe notion of preventing civil wars and | 'malar sedition? ! Is ex citement of this kind dangerous to Republics } On contrary, is it not necc.--.-ary to their existence! Are not talents developed, new ideas -truck out, useful designs conceived, great enterprizes achieved, and lib erty it soil’ pro; erved.by the agitation, the colli ion, the active rivalry, and a Imated competitions of the whole body of the citizens ! The sleep of the spirits is as dangerous to Re publics . it is auspicious to Mon archies, and it is only in the latter that it should be the policy of the jovernment to reduce the people to the quietude of machines. Instead, then, of yielding to the force of this objection, this supposed excitement < 1 the people, it should he hailed as mo of the chief advantages to be derived from the exercise of the di rect vote. It should be looked to as tbe identical circumstance which is to infuse new life into the election, reanimate the voters, and encourage the real people to attend the polls, and to discharge, with becoming I pride, that exalted privilege of free men, which is now so much neg! ct • :d. Finally, who arc this people who are not to be trusted with a direct vote ; whose ignorance violence and corruption, are so much dreaded? Wherein h> they differ from those who make the objection 1 Are they not ol the same order of beings, pos sessed of the same capacities, nearly >r unite as well informed, moo deeply interested in the welfare of their GOUDtry, and infinitely further ! removed from il > operation of rodi- 3D AY, FEBRUARY 23, 1320 rect causes ! Are they not, in fact, the identical persons who are greet ed with the appellation of Sovereign, whose will is admitted to be the source of all power, and whose hap piness is proclaimed to he the end of al' overnment! Then, with what face can we turn upon these people, and tell them they arc incapable of excrci; ing ti e only attribute of sov ereignty which they have ever claim ed—that of election ! The existence of slavery in some parts of the confederation is suppos ml, by some, to present an insupera ble obstacle to the plan -f amend ment proposed by thu committee. In the opinion of these persons, the operation-est the direct vote w ill in volve the loss (: the qualified votes which they now give fie; t! ir black population.—Such would undoubted ly he the effect it' the pianos the committee was tiie same which it was understood by many to he, a plan of consolidation, in which all the votes of!all the States were to be collected into one general return, and the election decreed to him who had a majority of the whole. Such a plan would work an injury not only to tiie slave holding States, hut in a greater or less degree, to al: : t eve ry State in the Union—for tiie quali fications of the voters differing in each, some prescribing a freehold possession, some the payment of a tax, some a residence of a few month*, olhoun ol’ t» your, mid others again the privilege of universal suf frage —would thence result that the same mass of population would yield, in different State, a very une qual number of votes. But (he plan of Committee is not one cf consoli dation ; it disturbs no principle o relative weight >mong the State iow fixed in the Constitution—each will give the same number of Prc-i dnntial votes with, or w ithout the amendment.—The States will be divided into districts, in the same manner as if for the choice, of elec tors. The qualified voters w ii! then vote for a President and Vic ’■•esi uent, instead of voting for an elec tor, awd the persons having tl > highest number of votes for these o - rices, respective!”, w ill be consider ed as elected in the district, and i n tilled to , ,unt one vote. To the ult, il will lie wholly immaterial whether a district containing a given number of souls, say 40,1100, shall posses 1000 ur*fJoo qualified voters. The Slate, wifi have its number of Presidential votes, and (h : people of each district will give each void .ccording to their own sense of their ow n interest. The formation of the districts, and the qualifications of the voteis and tin regulations of the elections, pow, rs of essential importance to the States, and most capable of being properly exercised by them, arc left to (lie States re spectively Thus, the plan of the Committee avoids all questions growing out of the existence of slave ry in some States, the various quali fications of Voters in others, and pre sents not a single objection, w hich would not apply with equal force to (he choice qf electors by districts. Considering these several objcc •ons as effectually disposed of, there - r i remains an argument to be an ered, which demands from all the friends of our present forms of Gov ernment, the moss respectfi l ai de liberate consul' ration. it is one w, ich ileriv s itself from a saerr ! re gard ibr tin rights of the Stales, and horn an apprehension that th? Com mittee’s | .an of amendment will tend to produce that consolidation of this league of Republics which every friend of liberty must deprecate and oppose. If such was indeed to be tne effect of their amendment, and the Committee could be made sen sible of it, they would he the first to oppose that plan of election which they arc no" recommending with so much earnestness. Far from looking with i..difference upon that jcalou spir’ of State rights, which feels alarm at the slightest noise of en croachment, they regard it as a spirit ot' happiest omen, worthy of being respectfully treated, generously cher ished, and care ft ißy kept alive Ihe preservation of the State Govern ments, such as they left tliemselves when they gave up a part ot th ;r powers to compose this 1 ederal Gov ernment, is not only necessary to the well-being of the people within those States, but is indispensible to the cont mention of the Federal Govern ment itself. If they are broken down or materially weakened, the Federal Government must cease to he what it is, must he broken down also, and recomposed under some new and in finitely stronger form. In all its op erations in defence of liberty, and in all its route Is with Foreign powers, the Governments of the {states can ive Ihe most efficient aid to the Government of the Confederation i and if this latter should undertake any thing against the lives, liberties, or property of individuals, the State Governments alone are competent to chock the encroachment and give protection to the rights of the citi zen. Tt-.cy arc the best directors of all the powers which were reserved to the States in the Convention of 1787, and if the time shall ever come when these reserved powers shall fall into the hands of the Federal Gov r; nent, and be exercised by members of Congress, drawn from all the States, the tide of the weaker members and smaller sections of the Confederation may he read in the hi-fory of all tiie Confederacies which ancient or modern times have pro duced : tyranny and oppression on the pan of the itrong: misery and degradation on the part of the weak; burthens unequally imposed, benefits unequally divided ; and the r. > t un just decrees enforced with anus and penalties! Such is the frightful pic ture w hich the history of all such Confederacies present, and from which this, in its turn, could expect no exemption. The dread of these evils should alone be sufficient w make us guard the rights of the States with jealous care, and main tain with inflexible firmness that equilibrium of power which was ad justed hetw, on them and ihc Federal Government, the cst .Mi-'incut of tbe pro cut Constitution. But a con sideration of -'till higher and more inipuiious import, demands the same policy. That consideration is this, that liberty itself, will live longer in a league of Brpub'ics, than in a lie public one and iNDivistii. i;. I' a son and history support this pi po -ition. In the first place, it i cer tainly more difficult to oveicomc many Governments, acting together for a common c.iu m, than it would fie to oveifarn a single <• comment, possessed of their n ifed territories, strength and resources. T. ■ history f our own revolution is a pregnant . xamplc of this truth. In the next ; iace, the conduct of the capital, in a great nation, often decides the fate of the nation itself. Titus we have con in history, that whoever had Rome had the empire, and, in our own day, that whoever had Paris had Fr. nee. But in a league of Rcpub «, the corruption, cowardice, • r roa on of the Metropolitan City, couid not affect the safety of the re moter members of the Confedera ion. The mother capital might open her gates to a Foreign enemy, or bend her ucck to tiie yoke of a domestic master, but other cities would remain, capitals of powerful States, the seats of organised Gov ernments, mistresses of armies, forts and arsenals, and deriving supplies from; regular system of revenue To these the friends of liberty could resort, a :d arm again for the renew al of the contest, instead of flying to a Foreign shore io die in despair. Brut ns and Cato need not to have fall en upon their sword if they had had such points of retreat ; the revolu tions in Paris might not have lost the Repul ,c, nor its capture, the em pire, if the GW. wu/ts-is in ’Off, and the wrecks of the armies in 181-1, coiff 1 have sou id in thee partnients of tie 111* i c and Loire, Virginia or New-York, to have r< ived at; named the Caitiff' friends ot I since ’Hus deeply impr< sed with tin cv Is of consolidation, and looking to die preservation of the State Governments as eqw iiy ne cessary to tne well-being of their own citizens, and to the perpetuation of the general libe , it cannot bo supposed that t'i Committee have, wittingly p r <1 any thing which tends to produce the evil which they depr- with so much z .al and ; in ce- Still, it is the i pinion of some, that the fights of the States will be endangered y ihc adoption of the Committee’s plan of amend ment : the Committee think other wise ; here non is a difference be tween those who have a common ob ject in view, and to decide it, the points in issue must he fairly stated unde nffidlv examined. These points are : Ist. The supposed diminution of power in the Stare, to choose between the Legislative, the general ticket, and the district inodes of election. ffil. In the supposed diminution ol the power of the St 'tc in concen trating her strength in those elec tions. 3d. In the supposed tendency of the direct vote towards the consoli dation of all the States. These being the. points c r injec tion, thequestion is plainly p ented whether they amount, in i ;ality, to any encroachment upon the rights of the States, or contain any of those tendencies towards consolidation, which have been imputed to them. But, before proceeding to answer this question, it is necessary to fix precise ideas fro several terms which arc the very Linges of the Question IOR SI IF NOT I’AID IN SIX MONTHS [NO. XI — VOL. I. itself. “State rights—sovereignty of tiie states,” are the terms re ferred to. By some, who use these terms, the General Assembly of the State is considered as the State itself, possessed of all its rights and sovereign powers; hv others, the executive officers of the State Got - erutment are held to be the Slate, and to have the possession, during their continuance in office, of tin rights and sovereignty of the State by others again, the Senators and Represent; fives in Congress from a State, are supposed to represent the sovereignty of the State itself; and to hold in their hands, for the time being, the same high rights and sove reign powers. All these opinions are held to he erroneous, and with out accumulating authorities and quotations, it may be laid down in brief and plain language, that the quAi.ii t ed. voters of a State, to the exclusion of the General Assembly, lie executive officers and the mem bers of Congress, constitute the sovereignty of the state, and holds its rights in th ir hands. Who these qualified voters shall l>e, de pet- upon themselves, through their Representatives in convention or General Assembly, to say ; hut whosoever they may be, whether freeholders householders or holders of no property at all; they hold in their hands the rights and sove reignty ot’ the State, and all the public officers arc nothing inure than their servants. The members of the General Assembly, the members ot C- ..-rest*, and the executive officers, m>' nothing but agents for the real sovereigns, confined to the exercise of delegated powers, and become ore usurpers; if they presume to . i rcise the powers of sovereignty. From these positions, it results that these agents may loose a part ot heir powers, not only without di minishing the s; vercignty of a State, but, in reality, to produce the effect of increasing that sovereignty by so much as is taken from the servants and restored to the master. This is believed to he the exact case which is now presented for decision in the point of objection first luted. The Stale Legislatures now possess the riglit to say whether electors shall he chosen by districts, or by a gen eral ticket ; and some of them with out establishing a clear right, exer cise the privilege of choosing the electors thorns; h- s. By the propo sed amendment, it is admitted, as objected, that these several powers will be taken from tho Legislature, and that a uniform mode of voting by districts will be substituted, which they cannot change. But, so far from admitting that, the sovereignly of the State loses any thing by this operation, the direct reverse is main tained; the servants only being the losers, while the real sovereigns gain. For it is not to be questioned, but that the district system gives the fairest play to every voter, and the fullest effect to every vote; nor can it be denied that it conforms to the intention of the present Constitution, which, in giving an independent vote to every elector, instead f u consoli dated vote to the c<.. go of electors, goverm,,y a majority, manifestly ...ed that each mass of citizens, entitled to choose one elector, should have the right of disposing of one vote according to thoir own sense of their own inti rest. It is a fact of his torical notriotv, that the general ticket plan of election has been adopted in some States for the avow ed purpose of controling this inten tion of the Constitution ; and for the purpose of subjecting the weaker section : ' the State to the policy ■f the ■ ■ •nger; thus giving, on a smaller sea' . and in reference to Counties a ! State divisions, an ex ample of that tendency of the strong oppress the weak, which is one of the main objections to the consoli dation of these Confederated States. The objection, that the establish ment i a uniform mode of election by districts, will trench upon the rights of the States, cannot be admit ted. Uniformity, as such, cannot be an evil; and, if it was, the infliction of it could not be avoided by reject ing the Committee’s plan of amend ment For, if uniformity by districts is not established by the tree consent of*the States, uniformity by general ticket or Legislative ballot must be imposed by necessity. For, when he large' States consolidate their votes to overwhelm the small ones, those, in tin it turn, roust concen trate their own strength to resist them. A few States may persevere for some time, in what they believe to be tiuc fairest system; but, when they see the unity ol action which others derive from the general ticket and Legislative modes of election, they wifi not, and, w;th due regard to their own safety, they cannot, resist the temptation of following the same few Hence, uniformity will be im-