men of whom the President has no doubt said
to himself, as Macbeth said to Banquo :
With bare-faced power sweep him from my
sight,
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose love I may not drop, and thence it is
That I to your assistance do make love,
Masking the business from the common eye
For sundry weighty reasons."
And it was against this very class of men
that resolutions, as I read in the Baltimore
American of yesterday, were directed, caution-
ing the people to keep guard over them in the
Baltimore National convention; and it was
this same gentleman, the chairman of this com-
mittee (Mr. Stirling) who, when be was about
to be appointed a delegate to carry out the
doctrines of the administration, said: " Don't
instruct us, but say that this delegation is re-
quested to go for Abraham Lincoln," But
the voice of the people of Baltimore shouted
out: " We will not permit it to be a request,
but you shall go for him first, last and all the
time." Now let us see how well the gentle-
man will stand up to that.
Mr. STIRLING. I do not see exactly what
that has to do with the matter. It has no
personal application to me, for gentlemen with
me in the last Legislature, know that I was
the first man here who offered a resolution
declaring Mr. Lincoln the choice of the peo-
ple of Maryland; and the gentleman voted
against it.
Mr. CLARKE. I did, and I do not claim to
be a supporter of the administration. But
since then the gentleman who represents the
city of Baltimore in a Congress, has been op-
posing Mr. Lincoln's administration, and
doing all he can to defeat his important meas-
ures in Congress, and the gentleman from
Baltimore city generally acts with him. How-
ever, I pass from these things, and come now
to a discussion of high constitutional princi-
ples.
In order to test the soundness of the propo-
sition embodied in article 4 of the proposed
Declaration of Rights, I shall first inquire
what is meant by the terms " allegiance" and
" paramount allegiance."
"Allegiance is the tie or ligament of fidel-
ity and obedience which binds the subject to
the king, in return for that protection which
the king affords the subject. The thing itself,
or substantial part of it, is founded in reason
and the nature of government." 1 Black. Com.
336. "The idea was taken or borrowed
from the feudal system. The oath of allegi-
ance was taken to the superior lord or sove-
reign. To the inferior lord the vassal took an
oath of fealty. The oath of paramount alle-
giance was considered as overriding all others,
" Contra omnes homines fidelitatem fecit."
There is an implied original, and natural al- |
legiance due and owing from every subject to
his sovereign." 1 Bl. Com 368. Allegiance
is again defined in 1. Burrill's Law Diction-
ary p. —, as " the tie or bond of fidelity and
obedience, by which native born subjects or
citizens are bound to their sovereign, govern-
ment or country, in return for protection af-
forded them. See 2. Hill S. C. R., 1. 2. Kent
Corn. 44., 1. Comstock R. 173. Allegiance
is thus made the correlative of protection ex-
tended or afforded. Allegiance to the Gov-
ernment is measured by the protection given
by the Government. If paramount allegiance
is due to the Federal Government then para-
mount protection must be extended by the
Federal Government Paramount allegiance
involves the idea of liege allegiance; and
when it comes in conflict with any other,
overshadowing and cancelling all other forms
of allegiance, irrespective of the question
whether the government is exercising its
proper powers or its usurped powers. If the
proposition of the report of the majority of
the committee be true, then the citizen must
obey the general government in whatever
and wherever it commands. Contra omnes
civitates fidelitatem fecit.
I put this case to gentlemen. The Consti-
tution expressly provides that every State
shall be entitled to have two Senators. Sup-
pose Congress should pass a law which should
say that Maryland should have only one
Senator; and goes on farther to provide
that in case the members of the Legislature
of Maryland should vote for more than one
Senator to represent the State in the Senate
of the United States—with the Constitution
remaining unchanged—they shall be sub-
jected to pains, and fines and penalties. Will
gentlemen tell me that the members of the
Legislature of Maryland would be hound to
vote for only one Senator, and that the State
of Maryland would be thereby bound to yield
her right to two Senators in Congress? If
she would" not, then you cannot say that
your allegiance to the Federal Government is
so paramount that it shall override all State
action. But if the proposition of the com-
mittee is true, then it follows that the State
must give up her two Senators and take one,
and that the members of her Legislature shall
vote for but one Senator instead of two.
That is what it leads to.
And hence I announce the doctrine to meet
that proposition, that you are bound to obey
the Constitution, and the laws of Congress
passed in pursuance of that Constitution, and
your allegiance is due to that extent; but
that beyond that extent your allegiance is due
to the State. And you are just as much
bound not to obey the Federal Government
when it undertakes to exercise usurped power,
power not given it by the Constitution, as
you are bound, when the State undertakes to
violate its duties and its obligations, to main-
tain the authority of the laws of Congress |
