Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-08-09
President JaeksoG's neutrality-suspicious..
From the Wash. Globe, Sep. 81, 1888.

t2LSd the TfOcISMauOn, Tor an lntefpretatlOn o.
those points in which it has suffered niscJnstruc-
ton, evnce the just estimation in which they hold
tie character OF the President. Oracular silence
and mystery with regard to his official documents
or bis executive acts form the part of Gen. Jack
sons policy. AS Chief Magistrate he does not en-
terrain doubt which he would hide from the
American people. He who, from youth to age,
has borne his life in his hand, ready to offer it up
at any moment In defence of his country now car
ries his heart as openly towards those in whose
service tits, and has ever been so affectionately
devoted. With him. dignity of station smoothing.
He does not allow the ceremonies of office-the
out-works which are everywhere thrown round the
Chief Maglstracy-to separate him from his Eel
low citizens. With wise man OF another age, he
thinks ''thot plain and round dealing IS tie
HONOR of mans nature''-and the charm of exis-
tence to him is the consciousness Of doing his duty
and the highest distinction is only valued as Il
evinces the public confidence and proper appre-
citation of his motives. Nothing, therefore, has
given him more pain than the misconstruction tc
which the opinions expressed in his proclamation
have been subjected; and nothing, we are sure
will give him more pleasure, than to find, when
properly understood, they meet the appro-
baton of the enlightened Republicans, the
friends of the Union and the State Rights, upon
whose principles he has uniformly acted, through
out his public life.
reply which authorized to G We to the lnqul-
ries of the editor of the Richmond Enquirer and
Petersburg IntelGgencer.
The impression that the President had given
evidence of a 'derekictjon from lis prtnclPIeS IN
hose passages hich relate 10 tie great question Of
tie origin and character Of oar tederoI compact y
would be fully sustained, if those passages war
ranted the Interpretation given by MIR. Cooke, In
the resolution submitted by him in the Senate of
Virginia That resolution assumed that it was
''sET FORTH IN THE LATE PROCLAMATION OF THE
President OF THE UNITED STATES, THAT THE
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION RESULTS FROM THE PEG
PIE IN THE AGGREGATE, AND NOT FROM THE
STATE" DC, DC, and from this assumption the
resolution goes on to infer that ''THIs THEORY OF
OUR GovERNMENT WOULD TEND, IN PRACTICE,
TO MOST DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES, GIVING
a MINORITY OF THE STATES, HAVING A MAJORITY
THE POPULATION, THE CONTROL OVER THE
OTHER STATES" DC, DC. This is the nteTpreta
ton of the expression of the Presidents procama
ton, and the implication of consequences, which
has given the alarm to sincere friends of States
Rights, who have considered the doctrine thus
promulgated, as the doctrine of the old federal
party If the Interpretation was true, we would
not hesitate to admit the justice of the 1t
is precisely the doctrine advanced by Mr.. Webster
in the debate Foote resolutions, but abandoned
by him in the late discussion of the principles of
the PROCLAMATION in the Senate. But we assert
0uthOritotiUely, that the differences made by Mr..
Cooke totally repugnant to the opinions of the
President and the views he meant to inculcate
by the passage in the Proclamation from which
they are drawn and these deductions were repe-
ed in this print, under the direction of the Pres
dent the instant he was apprized they had assum-
ed the shape of resolution in the Senate of Vir-
ginia. The difficulty in the minds of the editors
ofthe Richmond Enquirer and Petersburg Intelli-
gencer, arises from the same passages in the
h " L., l,o,,n Nv
to recur to them, and give the in which they
were intended by the President, to give perfect
satisfaction in relation to the principles he enter
tains.
The first passage to which we are referred
in the articles we quoted from the Richmond
Enquirer and Petersburg Intelgencer, is fol-
lows:
"The people of the United States formed the
Constitution, acting through the State Legislature
in making the compact to meet and discuss its pro-
visions, and acting in separate conventions when
they ratified those provisions; but the terms used
in its construction show it to be a Government in
which the people of all the States collectively are
represented"
This is not theory, it is simple history-but the
phraseology, like that of the Constitution itself,
which it copies verbatim in the leading members OF
the sentence, has been subjected to various inter
pretations. But the President, in saying that
'the people Of the United States tormedUe ConSti-
tution,' although he used the very language oil
the Constitution ITSELF did not leave it open to the
construction which the latitudnarian party have
put upon its terms. He followed up the general
declaration, by particuarzng that the constitution
originated IN a compact-that the compact was the
offspring of the people of the several States acting
through their respective State Legislatures, and
further, that the Constitution or Government fount
in the compact received its sanction from the PEG
pie of the several States, acting thro' Independent
separate State Conventions to ratfy its provisions
With such precise, definite, and positive ptol
of the Constitution in its origin, to a compact a
mong the several States, as the organized agent
of the several communities of people, and again
making the obligatory sanction of the instrument
as derived from the separate act of the same indie
pendent communities, depend on its ratification il
separate conventions, it would seem that the ide;
of its-being the work of the whole people in 18th
Gggregote'' or united IN one body, ABSOLUTELY
precluded. Indeed, as we said before in common
ting on DR.. Cookies resolution, the simple Ian
guage of the constitution in proclaiming It's Origin
IN its first words, ''We the people Of tie Unite
States do Jordan and establish this Constitution
for the United States Of ADaerica,'' does ofitsel
imply what is so precisely specified in the adde's
explanation Of the proclamation. 1t excludes b
its terms, the idea of people embodied in a con
solidated Government, by describing them as com
posing different ''States''-and by speaking of tn
States" as united" it repels the idea that the un
ion intended is that of 1.-The people in the aggre
gate but of States as forming separate commu
mites. The close of the preambleto the Constitu
tuition (Which we have quoted above in connectio
with its first words, preserves the same idea. TIL
Constitution is declared to be established, not 70
an aggregate people, "but for the United States c