The people of the District of Columbia have no representative in congress, and cannot have; they have no participation in the choice of the officers of the federal government, and cannot have; they have no delegate, and in this respect they are not so favored as are the people of the territories; they have no absolute or controlling influence or voice over the laws, or the lawmaker to which they are subject. The right of suffrage, except in reference to their municipal officers, has not been conceded to them, and beyond such limit the right cannot be conceded. The denial of these political rights extends only to the permanent residents within the district. The members of congress and the executive officers of the national government are citizens of the several states from which they are temporarily sent by their constituents, and they severally retain their rights of citizenship. Those who are deprived of these rights by a voluntary adoption of the district as a place of residence, are compensated by the supposed advantages of a residence near the government. I have endeavored to present to your minds the different relations growing out of and existing under our system. The details may, perhaps, be considered complex; the principle by which these details are regulated and made available to the purpose contemplated, cannot be so regarded. If I have succeeded in my effort, even partially, you will perceive, that the two sovereignties of which I have spoken, the state and the federal, considered separately, are imperfect; neither is adequate, as now constituted, by its own power to accomplish all the purposes for which government is essential. Each has its own appropriate trusts and duties defined in its charter or constitution ; each is supreme and independent of the other as a general proposition.

A merchant or other individual may employ one per

son to act as agent in the disposition of a house, he may employ another to manage a commercial operation. Upon the same principle, the people of the United States may employ, and they have employed, two agents or sovereignties, each intrusted with certain duties, by the separate and harmonious action of which all the trusts of government are performed, and the union, known as the United States, so long as its citizens are faithful to themselves, will have no political compeer.

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LECTURE XI.

REVOLUTION. - AMENDMENT. - INSTRUCTION. — NULLIFICATION.

STATE RIGHTS.

-SECESSION.

In political discussions, in discussions which appertain to the conduct and acts of government, it is common to refer to a supposed right of revolution, meaning thereby a right to resist; and, if essential to the views and purposes of those who set up such right, to subvert, to put down the constituted authorities. In relation to every government, the presumption, in the first instance, is in favor of its legality; the presumption is, that it originated in the consent, express or implied, of those subject to its jurisdiction, and that its conduct is in conformity with the law of its creation. The legal presumption, in the absence of proof to the contrary, in relation to the deportment of public and of private individuals, is, that they perform their duty. Fraud, wrong, and oppression are not to be assumed; those who aver their existence are bound to show it. It is reasonable to presume the existence of integrity, unless some fact can be adduced, having a reasonable tendency to show, in a particular transaction or matter, that it has no existence. The American colonies admitted and acted upon the correctness of this suggestion. The declaration of indepen

dence, which was made by them, wherein they declared themselves absolved from the British crown, enumerated with precision and distinctness the wrongs and injuries which had been imposed upon them. It was assumed, that a decent respect to the opinions of mankind required an exhibition of the causes of discontent.

Whenever a government is established by the consent of the people, it is in the nature of a contract or obligation, voluntarily assumed between the government and those by whom it was established. In such case, good faith requires that the duties and trusts of the government, on the one side, should be performed, and an obedience on the other, to the obligation assumed, should be conceded. If this be not so, as a primary proposition, civil society cannot be progressive; its objects cannot be attained; but a general state of anarchy and confusion must exist. This theory assumes that government will perform its duty, will discharge its trusts. A slight survey of history will exhibit evidence sufficient to authorize the declaration, that governments have not always performed their obligations; it will also show, in many instances, that government has been the instrument of gross oppression and injustice; it has enslaved its own people, and sought to enslave others. The people have often submitted patiently to wrong and oppression, forgetful of their condition, heeding only the external power and dignity which appertained, as they supposed, to their country and its leaders. In such instances of oppression, you will ordinarily perceive, in the character of the people, a want of intelligence, of education, of moral power. No law, human or divine, can require a community to submit to continued wrong and degradation; to see, day after day, their earnings seized by government, and applied to sustain its ambition, to enlarge its power, regardless of the rights and immunities of the people. It must, therefore,