duty? How shall we oppose the evil? How do the American people
deal with evils when they deal with them at all? When Great Britain
went a little too far in "taxation without representation," what course
did the American Colonies adopt in remedying the evil? Their chief
men said, "These Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent States." The popular voice of the people decided it.
When the British Government unduly impressed American seamen,
how was the difficulty settled? The representatives of the people,
their lawmakers, declared war against the opposing nation, and
forced her to cease her oppression. The popular vote decided it. When
Negro slavery darkened the entire sky of our country, and caused our
leading men to realize that we could not long exist half-slave and
half-free, how was the dark cloud dispelled? The representatives of
our people, the lawmakers of the land, in letters of blood wrote the
immortal Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution:
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment
for crime, whereof the person shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
When we wanted to increase our territory in 1803, and in 1845, and in
1867, how did we go about it? The representatives of the people, the
lawmakers of the land, voted to make the purchases, and they were
made. When a Territory is organized, or a State comes into the Union,
what is done? The representatives of the people, the lawmakers of the
land, vote upon it, and it is done. When treaties are to be made with
foreign countries; when immigration of foreigners is to be regulated;
when money is to be borrowed or coined; when post-offices and
post-roads are to be established; when counterfeiting is to be punished,
and public abuses are to be reformed, whose business is it? The
Constitution of the United States says the representatives of the people,
the lawmakers of the land, have this power. When will the drink evil