Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1856-01-03

direct access, in some respects, to tho people of
the states, instead of continuing it to action ON
the States as such. they proceeded to frame the
existing Constitution, adheling steadily to one
guiding thought, which Was, 70 delegate onlY
such power rs was necessary and proper to the
execution Of specific purposes OF, In Other
words, to retain rs much as possible consist
entlysNith those purposes, Of tie independent
powers of the individual States, For objects of
common defence and security, they entrusted
t0the general government certain carefully de-
fined functions, leaving all others as the undel-
aesated rights OF the Of the separate indepens
dent soyereignties,
Such is the constitutional theory Of our gov
,ernment, the practical observance which has
carried us, and us alone, among modern repub-
lies through nearly three generations of time
without the cost of one drop of blood shed in
civil war With freedom and concert of action,
it has enabled us to contend successfully on the
battlefield against foreign foes has elevated the.
feeble colonies into powerful States, and has
raised our industrial productions, and our COM
merce which transports them, to the level Of
the richest and the greatest nations of Europe.
And the admirable adaptation Of our political
institutions to their objects, combining local
selt-government with aggregate strength, has.
established the practicability of a government
like ours to cover a continent with confederate
States.
The Congress of the United States is, in eff
feet, that congress of sovereignties, which good
in the Old World have sought for, but could
never attain, and which impart to America an
exemption from the mutable leagues for COM
mon action, from the wars, the mutual inyas-
ions, the vague aspirations after the balance of
power, which convulse from time to time the
governments of Europe. Our cooperative ac-
ton rests in the conditions of permanent con-
federation prescribed by the constitution. Our
balance of power is in the separate reserved
rights Of the States, and their equal representa-
ton in. the Senate That independent soYer-
eighty in every one of the States with Its re-
served rights of local self-goyernment assured
to each by the co-equal powerin the Senate, was
Without it the Union would never have existed.
However desirous the larger States might be to
re-organize the government so as tog give their
population its proportionate weight in the COM
mon councils, then knew it was impossible, un-
less they conceded to the smaller ones authority
to exercise at least n negative influence on all
the measures of the government, whether legis-
latiye or executive, through their equal repre-
sentation in the Senate. Indeed, the larger
States themselves could not have failed to per-
ceive, that the same power was equally necessa-
~ to them, for the security of their own domes-
tic interest against the aggregate force
of the general government. In a word, the
original States went into this permanent league
on the agreed premises, of exerting their COM
mon strength for the defence of the whole, and
of all its parts; but of utterly excluding all ca
pability of reciprocal aggression. Each sol
emily bound itself to all the others, neither to
undertake, nor permit, any encroachment upon,
or intermeddling with, anether's reserved
rights.
Where it was deemed expedient, particular
rights Of the States were expressly guaranteed
by the cons titution; but, in all things beside,
these rights were guarded by the limitation of
the powers granted, and by express reservation
of all powers not granted, in the compact of
union Thus, the great power of taxation was
limited to purposes of common defenceand gen
eral welfare, excluding objects appertaining to
the local legislation of the several States; and
those purposes of general welfare and common
defence were afterwards defined by specific emu
meratiOn, as being matters only of correlation
between the States themselves, or between them
and foreign governments, which, because of
their common and general nature, could not be
left to the separate control of each State.
OF the circumstances of local condition inter
est, and rights in which portion of the States
constituting one great section of the Union diff
fered from the rest, and from another section the
most important was the peculiarity of a larger
relative colored population in Jile southern than
in the northern States
Apopulation of this class held IN subsection,
existed in n0aryt all the States, but was more nrl
merous and of a moro Government in the South
than in the North, on account of the natural diff
ferences of climate and productions; and it was
foreseen that, for the same reasons, while this
population would diminish, and sooner or later,
cease to exist in some State IL IIirhf increase
in others. Thepeculiar cflaf and moglittidt
of this question of local ris Is not iIl W ill l
latiOns only but still moro in-soela| ONES. ci
tito enter into the special stipulations OF "a
stitution.
Hence whilst the general government, as iwell
by the enumerated powers granted to it, as by
those not enumerated, and therefore refused to
1t, was forbidden to touch this matter in the
sense of attack or offence, it was placed under
the general safeguard of the Union, in the sense
of all other local interests of the several States
Each State expressly stipulated, as well for it.
self as for each and all ofits citizens, and every
citizen of each state became sOlemnly bound by
his allegiance to the constitution, that any per
son. held to service OF labor in one State escaping
into another, should not, in consequence of any
law or regulation thereof, be discharged from
such service or labor, but should be dcliyercdup
on claim of the party to whom such service or
lapVr ullSnG ne uue ny INC AaWsOI MS foClte,
Thus, and thus only, by the reciprocal guaranty
of all the rights Of every State against interfer-
ence on tho part of another, was the present form
of government established By our fathers and
transmitted to us; and by no other means is it
possible forit to exist, If one State ceases to
respect the rights of another, and Obtrnsiyely.
intermediates with its local interests-if portion
of the States assume to- impose their institutions
the others, OF refuse to fulfill their obligations
to thcm-we are no longer united friendly States,
but distracted hostile ones, with little capacity
left of common advantage, but abundact means Of
reciprocal injury and mischief.
Practically, it is immaterial whether aggressive
interference between the States, or deliberate re-
fusal on the part of any one of tlem to comply
with constitutional obligations, arise from CHROME
Gus conviction or blind prejudice, whether it {be
perpetrated by direction or Indigestion. In either
case it is full of threat and of danger to tho du-
,rability to the Union
CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS OF SLAVERY.
{ Placed in the Office of Chief Magistrate, as the
executive agent Of the whole country, bound to
tax that the laws he faithfully exe6nta1 and