ln himself. In a speech made in the House of
Representatives January 12, 1848, on "The War with Mexico," he said:

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the
_right_ to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new
one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred
right--a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor
is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing
government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that
_can may_ revolutionize, and make their _own_ of so much of the
territory as they inhabit. More than this, a _majority_ of any portion
of such people may revolutionize, putting down a _minority_,
intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movements.
Such minority was precisely the case of the Tories of our own
Revolution."[191]

This was quoted in defense of the right of secession by Alexander H.
Stephens in his "Constitutional View of the Late War between the
States."[192]

The chief remaining obstacles to popular legislation are the Senate and
the Supreme Court. Some means must be found to make these two branches
of the government responsible to the majority before the government as a
whole can be depended upon to give prompt and effective expression to
public opinion. The Senate presents the most difficult problem for
democracy to solve. The present method of choosing senators is
altogether unsatisfactory. It has resulted in making the upper house of
our Federal legislature representative of those special interests over
which there is urgent need of effective public control. It has also had
the effect of subordinating the making of laws in our state legislatures
to that purely extraneous function--the election of United States
senators. The exercise of the latter function has done more than
anything else to confuse state politics by making it necessary for those
interests that would control the United States Senate to secure the
nomination and election of such men to the state legislatures as can be
relied upon to choose senators who will not be too much in sympathy with
anti-corporation sentiments.

The Senate has fulfilled in larger measure than any other branch of the
government the expectation of the founders. It was intended to be
representative of conservatism and wealth and a solid and enduring
bulwark against democracy. That it has accomplished this purpose of