1870.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 715'

sovereign and co-equal States, the purposes thereof being "to-
form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to insure do-
mestic tranquility, to provide for the common defense, to pro-
mote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of lib-
erty to ourselves and our posterity;" and,

Whereas, The said Constitution contains certain provisions
and conditions, which, being perpetual in their nature and
design, cannot be destroyed without the sanction and appro-
val of all the States contracting to the same; and,

Whereas, The amending power contained in the Fifth Ar-
ticle thereof is qualified, and not absolute, and cannot be
exercised except in the mode and manner therein prescribed;
and,

Whereas, No power exists, under this Constitution, for any
number of States less than the whole of them, in general con-
vention, to nullify, expunge, make void or destroy any part
or portion thereof; and as each State in such a Convention
would be the equal of every other State—free, independent and
sovereign, to all intents and purposes, and as such could not
be held to accept or submit to any organic law obnoxious to
itself, but could accept or reject as it might please to elect ;
and,

Whereas, The XIII., XIV., and XV., amendments to the
Federal Constitution, so-called, are not amendatory thereto,
but do oppose, annul, expunge, vacate, make void and de-
stroy certain perpetual, unalterable and unamendable Ar-
ticles and provisions of the same, which Articles and pro-
visions form the basis of our federative system, and which
are absolutely essential to the preservation of liberty and the
existence of the Federal Union, under the Constitution; and,

Whereas, It is manifest that these so-called "amendments"
are designed, by their authors, to crush the sovereignty of
the several States, and to blot out their individual existence,
to destroy the liberties of the people and to establish a des-
potism ; and

Whereas, The said so-called "amendments" have not been
proposed or ratified even in conformity with the forms of the
5th Atlicie of the Constitution, much less with the positive
requirements thereof, but have been proposed and declared
established by Congress in direct violation of the same, the
said Congress being only a co-ordinate branch of the govern-
ment appointed by the States, and not empowered by any in-
herent authority to act outside of the Constitution under any
circumstances whatever ; and

Whereas, That portion of the Constitution which provides
that ''the powers not delegated to the federal copartnership
by the Articles of Agrpement thereof, nor prohibited by them
to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to
the people," is not subject to amendment, it containing the