282
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1861
to itself all the powers of Government, which it held in trust for the people. The Executive yielded his views before the wisdom of the Legislature. But may it not well be asked, what object has been accom- plished by the Convention, which could not have been legitimately accomplished by the Legislature, without its aid? If the powers of the Convention were derived from the Legislature, and no one can pretend to deny this fact, or that they received powers from any other source, could not the Legislature have taken action upon the subject, and the same result obtained? It required the action of the Legislature to give force to the acts of the Conven- tion; it required the action of the Legislature to obtain an ex- pression of the people at the ballot box. And though the Legis- lature went this far, it was careful at the last moment to assert the existence and supremacy of the State Government, and to interpose another check against the Convention, by requiring the returns to be made to the office of the Secretary of the State, and to be counted as in other cases made and provided. Whence comes then the claim of sovereignty on the part of this Conven- tion? Two complete sovereignties cannot exist in the same sphere of power. It has been seen that no sovereignty was de- rived from the people for a minority cannot confer sovereignty in a democratic government. The Legislature certainly with- held the attributes of sovereignty, and merely constituted the agent to perform a certain thing. It did not even leave it free to perform that; but after constituting the agent, interposed checks to its actions. The objects of the Convention were alleged to be to restore Texas to the position of a sovereign independent State. Was any power derived from the people to destroy that sovereignty by making Texas a part of the Southern Confederacy? Did the people who voted for the delegates, did the Legislature suppose that they were transferring the whole liberties of the free people of Texas, into the keeping of this Convention, to be bartered away to suit the ambitious schemes of office seekers? Whence then arose the power on the part of the Convention to elect seven delegates, four of whom were its own members, to take part in the formation of a Provisional Government at Montgomery? The Convention did not dare to declare Texas out of the Union; but submitted that question to a vote of the people. It doubted its own powers in this respect; yet it usurped the power to elect delegates to bind the people to a new government before they
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