e
proposed under, or the existence of the Constitution endangered by any
extraneous pressure whatever. They wisely provided a way in which
amendments might be proposed, or rather two ways. Under either of
them, due examination and consideration was secured. They would not
have consented to any other way of proposing amendments. The General
Government, on the adoption of the Constitution, for all national
purposes, took the place of the State Governments. The people of the
United States from that time, in the language of a distinguished
Senator from Kentucky, owed a paramount allegiance to the General
Government, and a subordinate allegiance only to the State
Governments. Changes in the Constitution, then, can only be _properly_
made in the manner provided by the Constitution. Propositions for
changes in it must come from the people, or their representatives in
Congress. Any attempt to coerce Congress, or to influence its action
in a manner not provided by the Constitution, is a disregard of the
rights of the people.

Why are we assembled here to urge these amendments upon Congress? to
induce Congress to recommend them to the people for adoption? Are we
the representatives of the people of the United States? Are we acting
for them, and as their authorized agents, in this endeavor to press
amendments upon the attention of Congress? Because, if our action is
to have any effect at all, it must be to induce Congress to conform to
our wishes--to propose the very amendments which we prepare.

The members of the House of Representatives were elected by the
people. They were selected to perform, and they do perform, their
duties and functions under the obligations of their official oaths.
There is no question about their agency, or their right to act in the
premises. The Constitution makes them the agents of the people. The
Legislature of the State of Kentucky, well understanding and
appreciating the only true method in which constitutional amendments
should be proposed, with all the formality of a legislative act
approved by the Executive of that State, has applied to Congress for
the call of a convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution
of the United States, and has requested the President to lay those
resolutions immediately before Congress. She wishes other States to
unite with her in the preparing and proposing of amendments to the
Constitution. This is the correct, the legal, the patriotic course.
This was w