The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-07-24
~% uS'"Hn STATES.

Slavery within the States, by every principle
that enteo InIo lneir political union, pNl quite
out of the reach of legislation by Congress and
of Federal interference generally. There is not
only no right of intermeddliDg but this is so we'll
understood and secured that there is no danger
to be apprehended in this quarter. Our system
is somewhat complex, but it is nowhere confused.
The Union is founded in the true philosophy of
human societies Ii is not sheer invention
expediency it is true principle, capable of the
largest application and is in fact the only scheme
Of Government in existence by which the nations
Of the earth can be organized into harmony 1t
is the policy by which the liberty independence
and individuality of a State may be perfectly
preserved, while all the relations of which it is
capable with adjacent States are fully provided
for. 1t is, in a word, the socetary principle in
humanity extended from the life of individuals
to the concerns of nations.
Accidental difference of institutions and nat
ural diversity of conditions require compromises
in minor matters, but peoples, near enough to
each other in position and character to enter into
buCu BlllduCco, tuo HcCooSdFy Htucsn lUT
union, and their wisdom and virtue may easily
make an eyen-hsnded partnership and fair par
ticipation of advantages attainsble, in spite Of
considerable differences of sentiment and policy.
The terms of union are such mutual kindness Of
consideration and forbearance as supreme princi-
pie will allow and such justice as will permit the
spirit of the times and the tendency Of things to
have their natural operation without involving
each other in idle aud prohtless conflict.
The maintenance of particular ecclesastical
form and order against the idea Of the age, or
resistance to changes in the system Of property
and the policy Of business, which discoveries in
science and advancement in morals impel, are un-
reasonable and unavailing No member of such
a compact can sustain the strife single-handed
in fact, not all the powers that be- can long
resist the destiny of the world which they affect
to control, and no one can be bound by any con-
tract to make foolish sacrifices for another the
relation is one Of mutual advantage, not of injury
to some for supposed general benefit.
States 80 related are specially bound to respect
each others reserved rights just as friends, more
than enemies, should abstain from using their
privileges for offensive and injurious purposes
Considerations of States and nations, like the
friendships of individual men, are essential to the
welbeing Of all parties and just as perfect iden-
tity Of character and taste are never found even
among the truest friends, 80 a complete conform-
ty of opinion, policy, and interests is not to be
expected among those communities which resem-
BILE each other most 1t is Of necessity, therefore,
that associations Of all kinds have their limits,
beyond which oil mutual responsibility ceases
and all interference is forbidden. IL lis not in
the nature of things that any man shall be held
to answer on all points even for the friend Of his
bosom; neither can any State be justly held &C
countable at the bar Of opinion, for all the insti
tutions of her sister States
The kind of Union under consideration looks
to certain great ends, which ought to be provided
for; but the specific points in the agreement are
not always all which might contribute to those
ends, but such only as cannot any way be man.
aged by the members or parties to the compact in
their several and separate capacities; for if all
the means to those ends are construed to be ne
cessarily within the power of such Union, then
consolidation, and not confederation, results and
all the differences which nature and circum-
stances have imposed are put under violent re-
straint, or crushed into an absurd and unnatural
uniformity But the several States neither ought
nor can be supposed to intend the surrender of
their political existence They never meant to
merge themselves in q monster mass in the hope
that mere mixture shall accomplish an identity,
and that where all differences are brought into
the directest conflict, artificial and conventional
arrangements can secure harmony. Very differ
ent are the principles and policy Of the American
system only such functions Of Government as
could not be so WELL or at all, exercised by the
several States for the good Of each and all, we're
conferred upon the Federal authorities; and "all
the powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people,
The several States therefore have no right, in
virtue Of the Confederation, to interfere with
each other beyond what is written On the con-
trary, as independent communities and separate
bodies polite, they are foreign States to each
otuof-oo muOu ~ no 'houkh 'hcT oniy ties were
the ordinary treaties between distant nations.
Their relations to each other are thus limited
defined, and restrained, as much by the reason of
the thing as by express stipulation, and their
rights and responsibilities are measured and
bounded correspondently.
We repeat, 1t is not anything or all things,
which one State might possibly do in the affairs
of another, either in help or hindrsnce Of par
ticular policy, which settles her duty toward that
other but 1t is only such things as the one can
not, or should not, do without the concurrence Of
the other, that determines the propriety and OBJ
legation Of interference. We say this is the true
philosophy Of confederation between independent
States, and We speak Of the right and the reason
able Is identical with the constitutional, because,
II seems to Us, that the organic law Of our Fsds-