PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

318 Duty of Submission explained.
gation~ a plletis, the original convention is appeaoled
to anJ trl.'ateQ of as a reality. ':Vhenever the dis.
ciplc~ of this system peak of the constitution; of
the fun(Jamental article~ of the constitution; of laws
bci!lg cO~1stitutionaI or unconstitutional; of inherent,
unalienable, inexringuishable right~, either in
the prince, or in the people; or indeed of any laws,
usages, or civil right-·~ as transcending the authority
of the subsi.)ting legi~lafure, or possessing a force and
sanction superior to \vhat belong to the modem
acts and edicts of the legislature, they secretly refer
us to what passed at the original convention. They
would teach us to believe that c(rcain rules and ordinances
were established by the people, at the same
time that they settled the charter of government,
and the powers as well as the form of the future Ie.
gislature ; that this legi"Iature consequently, deriving
its commission and existence from the consent and
act of the ~rimitive assembly (of wl1ich· indeed it is
only the standing deputation) continues subject in
the exercise of its offices, and as to the extent of itspower,
to the ru!es, reservations, and limitations
which the same ~ssembly then made and prescribed
•
to It.
" As the first members of the stat~ \vere bound bv
express stipulation to obey the government which
they h~d erected, so the suceeding inhabitants of
the saIl1e country are understood to promise allegi,,­
ance to the constitutioll and government tiley find
established, by acce, ting its protectioll, claiming its
pri,rileges, and acquiescillg in its laws; more espec ...
ially, by the purchase or inheritance of lands, to
the possession of which, allegiance to the state is an~
nexed, as the very service and condition of the teu­
\.ln~." Smoothly as this train of argument proceeds,
little of it wiil endure examination. rrhe native sub ..
iects of modern states are not conscious of any stipu ..
htion \vith their sovereigns, of ever exercising an
elt:ctit)!1 \,,911ctller tIley \\'ill l)e l)OUlld or not by tIle acts
of the legislature, of allY alternative being proposed
~'-J theIr ch()ice~ of a pl'omise either required or giv ..