Page:Review of the Proclamation of President Jackson.djvu/85

 Him whose Will is Right. Political power is of human creation; it may be right or not, according to the source from and the means by which it is acquired. If such power is seized by the strong hand of brute force, it is confessedly, power merely. IF it is acquired by consent, although it is acquired of right, it is not right itself; because, the withdrawal of that consent, would make even such power cease to be right; and right being eternal, can no more cease to be, than He whose will it is. I speak not now of faith and truth, or of the obligations which they impose. I will refer to these hereafter. My present purpose is, merely, to shew the distinction between rights and political powers, which, although like sovereignty and governments, sometimes co-existing, and frequently confounded, are nevertheless separable and distinct; and in these very amendments are plainly set in contra-distinction of each other. Applying these several remarks to these amendments any one may see at once, the object and supposed necessity of the first.

The People of the several States, as mere individuals, enjoyed many rights, none of which had the States, who adopted this Constitution, any thoughts of subjecting, to the control of the political powers granted to the government they had thereby created. But as some of these rights had been specially enumerated in various parts of this instrument, and then saved expressly from the action of the powers thereby granted; and as the expression of one thing, is often regarded as the exclusion of all others not expressed, therefore, to guard against such effects to the People, in this case, the ninth amendment provides, that "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the People." Among the rights retained by the People, are the right to bear arms; the right peaceably to assemble and consult together; the right to petition for a redress of their grievances, whether real or imaginary only; and though last, not least, the right to instruct their own Representatives, whose duty it is to observe such instructions, notwithstanding the author of this Proclamation says, that they are not accountable to their particular constituents, for any act done by them, although done in their mere Representative character.