The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1851-07-02
Has South Carolina ever been an Inde
pendent State ?

thit: !ls.ga CEANI answers III the re.
= 'a.is-a'ss <e saAa ..sitae, c.Sio,yr .s5s ;g'Rc
'hcn she was lrerfcc,lY independent soy
crcign State;" that, even if it be conce,lcJ!
that, after she threw off ff'allcgiancc to Grea,
Britain, she had any of the powers of !.
sovereignty. she transferred them all to the
Congress of The Confederation. Mr.
CRANCH docs not tell rs who broke up the
old Confederation and formed the presen,
Constitution, whether it was the Confedcra-
ton that thus committed suicide, with The
secret intention of rising, PhGnix-likc,
from its own ashes, glorious in removed
youth and increased powers, or whether the
STATES cNerled their own sovereign pow
crs III the act. The Convention which
adopted the Constitution represented the
several States, and the certificate OF adop
ton aledges tia, it was by The aunani,nnus
consent Of the SAFES present" The Dep
ut!es subscribed tho Constitution in the
name of tnc STATES by whom they were
d .legaicd. BY the eth Article the ra,ifca.
i"n OF the CONVENTIONS of nine STATES
was To- he sufficient for the establishment
OF the Constitution between the States so
raiyying a. After its ratification by nnc
States, and v athercforc il was fully es-
tabl!shed between the States so having
ratified it, were the other four subject to it,,
or had they the power to continue as indc
pendent sovercisntcs or to form alliances
and unite together upon other terms than
those laid down in the Constitution WHY
does each State now pass its own laws and
regulate all It's internal affairs TO the entire
exclusion OF dIcta,ion from any other State
or from the General Government? Whv
docs the Constitution guaranty TO every
State republican form OF government? Re-
public and government, are these two terms,
conjoncd. associated with the idea of pro.
vince OF an empire! What is meant, in
the Constitution, by the declaration thai,
the powers not delegated by the Constitu
ton to the United States, nor prohibited by
il to the States, are rcserred to the States
respectively, or to the people Who del
cga'ed those powers, if not the States p
II they delegated them cannot they revoke
them
|Vo might wonder at the ignorance of
the Constitution displayed by this judicial
dignity, for so many years CHEF magistrate
oln ten miles square District, but when il,
is rccollcctcd that he is "a Federal ctIiccr.
resident or citizen Of no State, all SURPRISE
should cease. 10 him State Riphls arc
nothing; where the necessity or propric,v
then o! ~ study Of that instrument which
shows what rights the States reserved TO
themselves when they formed the Union +!
He brcatles Federal air, he walks on Fed
cral soil, he receives Fc'eral snarv. his
whole existence is Federal and il is there
fore not surprising that he deprcciatcs all
that is not Federal. But we have been led
on 10 say more than we at first intended
We had designed merely to express the
opinion that Judge CRANGH must have forg-
cd this illumination against State Rights
during some one ofMr. WEBsTERs absen-
ces from Washington. Even TINT grea,
ConsoiidalIonalist does not deny that at one