Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-04-19
which the limitations are expressed.
LOOSE CONSTRUCTION.

every remedial statute is construed literally b.
judges, that the intended remedy may be mad
effectual But when a statute imposes penalty
| it is construed strictly, that the intended iniur
may not be inflicted, if the language of the statut
can afford reasonable doubt of its applicability
A politician, therefore, who views the limitation
Of the Constitution as remedy against the disso
luton of the confederacy-(a and hence as the only
means whereby any political good can be perma
nently accomplished by the confederacy,) will bt
strict constructionst of the powers of the Con
stitution But the politician who looks superb
cially at the limitations, deeming them only un
reasonable Instructions of the power ''to promote
the general welfare" will deem the limitations
as penalties, to be inflicted only where they must
and he will be loose constructionst of the powers
of the Constitution. John Quincy Adams, who
was an open and fearless propounder of a loose
construction, as he was of all opinions which he
honestly entertained, said in his first presidential
message to Congress, ''while dwelling with pleas
ing satisfaction upon the superior excellence OF our
political Institutions, let not be unmindful that
liberty is power that the nation, blessed with the
largest portion of liberty. must, in proportion to
its numbers, be the most powerful naion upon
earth and that the tenure of power by man, is,
in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condi-
ton that it shall be exercised to the ends of bene
fcence, to improve the condition of himself and
his fellow-men. While foreign nations, less bles-
sed than ourselves with that freedom which is
power, are advancing with gigantic strides in the
career OF public improvement; were we to sum-
Der in indoence or fold up arms and proclaim
to the world that palsied by the will of our
constituents, would it not be to cast away the
bountes of Providence, and doom ourselves to
perpetual inferiority?"
All this is thus so we'll and patriotically stated
by Mr. Adams is true, but it is totally inapplcable
to our confederacy, who are nation for only a
limited number Of purposes, and can continue a
nation only by adhering strictly to the limitations ;
as we may be assured by the present agitations,
as well as by several preceding ones which brought
the confederacy to the verge of dissolution The
power to which Mr.. Adams alludes exists in our
States respectively and their people, who, instead
of slumbering in Incidence and folding their arms,
have advanced in the career of public improve
ments canals, railroads, plank roads, electric
teiegraps, steamboat navigation, steamship con-
struction, public education and all the other ele
ments of progress to degree which no other
people ever witnessed; and to degree which the
national government could not have attained had it
been legally invested with the attributes of unre
stricted sovereignty.
orr only alternative Is strict construction or dis
solution.
Seeing then that the loosest construction which
can be imagined will not promote good objects so
as the striccst construction, we need
not regret, that by the laws of nature we possess
no alternative but to be content with the good
which the general government effect within
the sphere of its most restricted powers, or to
weaken the bonds of our Union. Recent events
show that these views are more than theoretical,
and they have painfully forced the perception of
the most obtuse intellect that the loose cOnstruc
ton by which Congress claims the power to cir
domestic slavery in the Territories, in
terferes so sensitvely with our Southern confed-
crates as to Immediately endanger the Union.
Now in relation to the right of a State to secede
from the Union, to redress injuries to her SOW
ereignty by any other means in her power, the
right is not constitutional, any more than orig
nal revolution was loyal, or that our war of 1919
was conformable to the defnitve treaty made
with Great Britain in 1888, and which stipulated
for perpetual peace" The right of secession
is nevertheless perfect, being of the 'inalien
able rights referred to in the Declaration of In
dependence and with which it SAYS, we are en-
dowed by our Creator. Enumerated among these
are ''life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
and whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the
people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new
government
We all feel that secession is practicable, and to
urge discontinuance of further annoyances a
gainst the South, we have lately seen numerously
attended ''Union Meetings. in our large
mercla cities, and their influence will be salutary
but the parties not to have probed to the bot
tom of the difficulty. Indeed, the superficial
views which these meetings take of the difficulty
of our position, is painfully indicative that the
ture of our confederacy is too little understood by
its friends. They see our present danger, and are
desirous of averting it but they seem moved
thereto more by fear of consequences than convic
ton of error, IN the principle from which the dan
ger has arisen. They cry aloud for Union, and
some would fight for it, but these are not the way
Especially the latter of obtaining it and hu-
manity may rejoice that it is not But especially
they not to know that slavery agitation is only
the symptom of disease, not the disease ITSELF
The disease is a loose construction of the Consti-
Slavery is only the symptom of to-day, as pro-
tective tariff was the symptom of 1889, and as a.
great system of internal improvements by the gen.
eral government may be tomorrow. The friends
of Union, therefore, should understand that they
must be strict constructonists of the Constitution
if they would be Union men in an intelligent
pervadng and enduring sense.
Wholesome restriction exceeds the conventional
restrictions
Nor need we fear that the strctest construction
to which we can subject the constitution, will be
preludicial. Our dangers lie not thltherward.-
The abolition of slavery in the District of Colum-
bia is constitutonally within the power of Con-
gress, as was the abolition therein of the slave
trade but who knows not that this legislation is
distasteful to the South and thus conflicts spirit
with the constitutional restrictions which enable