Speech Of Hon John Hemphill Of Texas On The State Of The Union Delivered In The Senate Of The United States January 28 1861 Cl

Author : John Hemphill
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330867563
Total Pages : 22 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (675 download)

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Download or read book Speech of Hon. written by John Hemphill and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Speech of Hon.: John Hemphill, of Texas, on the State of the Union, Delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 28, 1861 Journals of tbe Congress. Each delegation presented its credentials from the respective colony or province from which it had been deputed. The vote was by colonies; each colony having but one vote. No question could be determined on the day of its debate if any colony desired its postponement. (Journals of Congress, volume 1, page 7.) Their first declaration was in the name of the good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Ac, enumeraung the thirteen who had, in the languaoe of the declaration, severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet and sit in General Congress, c., and who, in vindication of their rights and liberties, resolved That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council; and as the English colonists aren treprcsenti d, and, from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British Parliaiiient, they are entilied to a free and exclusive power of legislation in the rseveralprorhicia LefjixUttai-es, where their right of representation can alone, bo preserved in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of the sovereign, in such manner as lias been heretofore used and accustomed. Here is an unequivocal declaration that the colonists were entitled to. a free and exclusive power of legislation not in any general Congress or Legislature of the colonies, for there had been no such Legislature, but in their several provincial Legislatures showing that the provinces were, from the beginning, totally distinct aii Socpa, . tft fi-om each other. The styl of tUo prooooJing In Congress was, in some instances, by the title of the United Colonies; in others, by that ot ths United Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, ifec, enumerating the whole these titles being the equivalent of each other. The United Colonies, dissolving all political connection between themselves and Great Britain, declared themselves to be. free and independent States, and not a single free and independent State or nation. This aet, though done by the colonies united in Congress, was in fact the act of each one of the colonies. Each of the colonics had instructed, expressly or virtually, their respective delegates to unite in such declaration. It was ujton the instructions from Virginia that the motion was oftered in convention, and those instructions expressly reserved the right of Belf-government to the States. The several colonies were and had been for some period in a de facto state of independence. Hostilities commencing at Lexington in April, 1775, liad been vigorously prosecuted. Massachusetts, in the same mouth, voted to raise thirteen thousand six hundred men; Rhode Island, fifteen hundred; Connecticut, six regiments; New Hampshire, in May, three regiments. In March, 1776, South Carolina established a constitution; Virginia had her bill of rights and frame of government; the allegiance of the citizens of the different colonies was claimed as due to such colony, and not to Great Britain. Such was the opinion and declaration of Congress on the 24 th June, 1770, to the effect that All persons, members of, or owing allegiance to, any of the United Colonies, who shall levy war against any of the said colonies within the same, or be adherent to the King of Great Britain, or oUier enemies of the said colonies, or any of them, within the same, giving to him or them aid and comfort, are guilty of treaioii against suehcolony. These facts, and others of like character prior to the Declaration of Independence, prove that the colonies, while exerting their joint efforts for the common defence, had each assumed the rights and powers of sovereignty within their own limits. They were substantially independent; and whet.