540 



NEW JERSEY. 



ers to "bear their just share of the burden of govern- 

 ment, and all bonds hereafter issued should be made 

 subject to State and municipal taxation at the same 

 rates as other property. 



Resolved, That the Democrats of New Hampshire 

 hereby pledge their earnest and united efforts to insure 

 the election of the candidates this day nominated. 



The resolutions of the Republican State 

 Convention, convened nearly at the same time, 

 were more full, and decidedly expressed the 

 views of the Republican party in the Eastern 

 States. The total vote for Governor was 

 77,077; of which. Walter Harriman received a 

 majority of 2,523. For President the total vote 

 was 69,426 ; of which the Republican electors 

 received a majority of 6,956. The majority 

 in favor of a constitutional convention was 

 127. In the Legislative body there were nine 

 Republican Senators and three Democratic, 

 also 194 Republican Representatives, and 138 

 Democratic. 



NEW JERSEY. The Legislature of New 

 Jersey assembled at Trenton on the second 

 Tuesday in January, and continued in session 

 until the 17th of April, during which, time no 

 less than 813 bills were disposed of, and sev- 

 eral important joint resolutions adopted. With 

 regard to the general results of this legislation, 

 one of the local newspapers says: "If the 

 Legislature had done nothing more than to re- 

 scind the mischievous legislation of the last 

 two years, and to reinstate the people in the 

 enjoyment of their long-accustomed rights and 

 privileges, it would have deserved the com- 

 mendations of the public ; but besides this, it 

 has settled some of the vexed questions that 

 have always attended the conflicting rights 

 of the State and the people, and left the course 

 of future legislation comparatively unembar- 

 rassed." How all this was accomplished does 

 not distinctly appear. One of the most im- 

 portant acts, rescinding past legislation, was the 

 passage of a joint resolution withdrawing the 

 assent of the State to the Fourteenth Amend- 

 ment of the Federal Constitution. This reso- 

 lution was preceded by a preamble, which set 

 out with the following declaration : 



The Legislature of the State of New Jersey, having 

 seriously and deliberately considered the present 

 situation of the United States, do declare and make 

 ~known^ That the basis of all government is the con- 

 sent ot the governed ; and all constitutions are con- 

 tracts between the parties bound thereby ; that until 

 any proposition to alter the fundamental law, to which 

 all the States have consented, has been ratified by 

 such number of the States as by the Federal Consti- 

 tution makes it binding upon all, any one that has 

 assented is at liberty to withdraw that assent, and it 

 becomes its duty to do so when, upon mature con- 

 sideration, such withdrawal seems to be necessary to 

 the safety and happiness of all. Prudence dictates 

 that a consent once given should not be recalled for 

 light and transient causes ; but the right is a natural 

 right, the exercise of which is accompanied with no 

 injustice to any of the parties ; it has. therefore, been 

 universally recognized as inhering in every party, 

 and has ever been left unimpaired by any positive 

 regulation. 



It then declares that the amendment was not 

 proposed by the requisite two-thirds of both 



Houses of Congress, " at least seventy repre- 

 sentatives from ten States of the Union " be- 

 ing excluded, " upon the pretence that there 

 were no such States in the Union," and New 

 Jersey herself, having been " practically denied 

 its equal suffrage in the Senate ; " and pro- 

 ceeds to arraign the national legislative body 

 for its subsequent " usurpations " in passing 

 "pretended laws for the establishment in ten 

 States of martial law, which is nothing but the 

 will of a military commander, and therefore 

 inconsistent with the very nature of law, for 

 the purpose of reducing to slavery men of 

 their own race in those States ; or, compelling 

 them, contrary to their own convictions, to ex- 

 ercise the elective franchise in obedience to 

 the dictation of a faction in those assemblies " 

 (the two Houses of Congress). This document 

 then contains the following array of objec- 

 tions to the proposed amendment : 



It proposes to make it a part of the Constitution of 

 the United States that naturalized citizens of the 

 United States shall be citizens of the United States ; 

 as if that were not so without such absurd declara- 

 tion. 



It lodges with the legislative branch of the Gov- 

 ernment the power of pardon ; which properly be- 

 longs, by our system, to the Executive. 



It denounces and inflicts punishment for past of- 

 fences by constitutional provision, and thus would 

 make the whole people or this great nation, in their 

 most solemn andT sovereign act, guilty of violating a 

 cardinal principle of American liberty, that no pun- 

 ishment can be inflicted for any^ offence unless it is 

 provided by law before the commission of the offence. 



It usurps the power of punishment, which in any 

 coherent systen of government belongs to the judi- 

 ciary, and commits it to the people in their sovereign 

 capacity. 



It degrades the nation by proclaiming to the world 

 that no confidence can be placed in its honesty or 

 morality. 



It appeals to the fears of the public creditors by 

 publishing a libel on the American people, and fix- 

 ing it forever in the national Constitution as a stigma 



so corrupt as to disregard such an obligation would 

 be bound by any contract, constitutional or other- 

 wise. 



It imposes new prohibitions upon the power of the 

 State to pass la,ws, and interdicts the execution of 

 such parts of the common law as the national judi- 

 ciary may esteem inconsistent with the vague pro- 

 visions of the said amendment, made vague for the 

 purpose of facilitating encroachments upon the lives, 

 liberties, and property ; of the people. 



It enlarges the judicial power of the United States 

 so as to bring every law passed by the State, and 

 every principle of the common law ^relating to life, 

 liberty, or property, within the jurisdiction of the 

 Federal tribunals ; and charges those tribunals with 

 duties to the due performance of which they, from* 

 their nature and organization, and their distance from 

 the people, are unequal. 



It makes a new apportionment of representation in 

 the national councils, for no other reason than there- 

 by to secure to a faction a sufficient number of the 

 votes of a servile and ignorant race to outweigh the 

 intelligent voices of their own. 



It sets up a standard of suffrage dependent entirely 

 upon citizenship, majority, inhabitancy, and man- 

 hood, and any interference whatever by the State, 

 imposing any other reasonable qualification, as time 



