Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-05-04

| despotsm" As our fathers loved liberty ana haVeu
| TYRANNY, they selected that power OF goVernmelu'
which conserves the one, and rejected ina. WHICH,
| sooner or later never fails 20 produce the otneI
| IJnon this principle our State governments were
| formad-each n complete and sovereign repuohc
within itself; and in associating themselves III
Federal Union they did not surrender It LOT suSe
uould have been a surrender OF their right OF SELL
| aovernment This theory of government pre-
| cludes the idea of authority vested IN the leu
eral head to coerce by force of arms, State acting
| in its sovereign capacity.
More explicit evidence of the intent OF the trainers
of the Constitution is furnished by the journals and
proceedings of the Convention. The evidence can
not be kept too prominently in view, illustrates
the character Of our confederacy, and furnishes
safe guide for the performance of public duty.
Two distinct propositions were made in the Con-
vention to confer upon the Federal Government
power to coerce q State.
The first was proposition to confer upon the Ma
tiona Legislature the power to call forth theJorce
of the Union against any member OF the Union Jd.,
ina to perform its duty WHder the articles hereo
The second was in these words: ''f any State
or any body of men an any State, shat oppose or
prerent the carrying into ereert'o" s"eh Gefs or
treaties the federal erecutire shall be authorized TO
call forth the pOcer Of the confederate States or so
much thereof as may be necessary to ENFORCE and CON"
peL an obedience to such acts, or an observance OF
such tredtieS''
All the members who spoke upon these PROPOSE
tons spoke against them, anu III, luSluuiS 'heH
movers voted against them.
The sentiments then expressed by the two lead
ing minds of the Convention, representing the two
opposing classes of political opinions which divided
it leave nothing to doubt to the true interpreta-
ton of its action.
Mr.. Madison observed, "that the more he reflect
ed on the use of force the he doubted the prac
ticabty the justice and the efficacy of it. when ap-
piled to people collectively and not individually
An Union of the States. containing such an lngre-
dent, seemed to provide iOr its own obstruction
The use of force against State would look more
like declaration of war than an intilctlon OF pun
ishment, and would probably be considered by the
party attacked as dissolution of all previous COM
pacts by which it might be bound"
General Hamilton, speaking on the same subject
said: but how can this force be eXerted upon
the States collectively? Ii is impossible. 1t amounts
to a war between the parties. Foreign powers also
will not be idle spectators, They will interpoSe.-
The confusion will increase and dissolution of the
Union will ensue" Again. illustrating, by an his
torcal example, the consequences of an exercise OF
such a power by COnfederated Government, he
said: "Its DEGREES were signals of war;"
The Declaration of Independence had distinctly
declared:
THAT whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, 0he security of their
rights) it is the right Of the people to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new government, lay
ing its foundation such principles and organizing
! its powers in such form to them shall seem most
likely to effect their safety and happiness" And to
/ have given to the Federal government power to
compel the organized communities of States to re-
| main under the Government against their will,
would have been to give to it power which the De-
claraton of independence had declared could not be
be possessed by any Government whatever. Hence
we are not surprised to find that the proposal 10
confer such power had no advocate in the Con-
vention.
After Government had been organized, one of
the earliest as it was undoubtedly of the most
important and delicate duties devOlvng on Congress,
! was to furnish the President with the powers nee
essary to enable him to take that the laws be
faithfully executed" and to pass such laws might
! be necessary to provide for calling forth the mill
tia to execute the laws of the Union suppress insur
! rection and repel invasion"
! Accordingly we find that as early as 1898 law
was passed for the purpose. 1t having been found
defective it suspended by the act of 2Sth Feb
! ruay, 1895, which, without addition amendment,
! has remained the law the subject down to the
| present time; enacted by Congress, which, to a
! large extent was composed of the individuals who
had assisted in framing the Constitution, it is the
best interpreter of the general language used in that
instrument; and from the day of its passage down
! to the 4th of March, of the present year, PreS
! dent has construed it as giving him power to
! use military force except as posse comitatuS, or
otherwise in aid of civil process. Ours being gov
! eminent of law. and not military deSpotism, no
/ other construction could be placed on that act
When in 1885, the State of South Carolina forbade
the execution of the tariff law within her limits the
| act of 1895 was IN force precisely 1t is to-day;
but President Jackson knowing that the act only
thorized the of the military force in aid of civil
process and that there would he no courts in South
Carolina to issue process, cadd upon Congress for ad
! ditiOnal powers, and that body enacted what has
| been Familiarity known the Force Bill" That
act was in my opinion violatve of the Constitutions
but no attempt was ever made to exercise the pow
conferred by it. and it expired by its limita
tion in 1885. The political friends of the present
| administration, well knowing that there no law
the statute book under which the President could
military force in the States, from which the fed
eral Judges, Marshas and other civil officers had
been expelled urged Congress, at its last session, to
| enact laws comforting or him such authority The
journals Of that body will show that bills for the
purpose were pressed with the utmost pertinacity,
I and also that they were not enacted into laws
! Heusurped the coveted powers which Cong.essh had
refused to confer on him. and whilst Commissioners
from the Confederate States at the seat of Gov
eminent, urging peaceful settlement of all queS-
tons in dispute, and striving to avert from the
| try the calamities Of civil war-whSt the people
were being deluded by daily protestations from the
President of his firm purpose to preserve the peace
and we were IN momentary expectation of hearing
! that Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, had been
| evacuated, secret expedition was fitted out and
Steathy dispatched to commence the war, by an at
tempt to throw reinforcements into that fertilization
To high criminalty in involving the Country in civil
war was added base perfidy in exciting hopes and
expectations to be dashed the moment cf fruiton
Having thus commenced the war, the President,
on pretence that the act of 1895 confers on him
power to do so, issued proclamation calling on the
States to furnish seventy-five thousand men for
carrying it on, and the Secretary of War officially
informed me that North Carolina was expected to
furnish two regiments to aid the North in subjugat
ing her sister States-we might with propriety say
of some of them, her daughters-of the South 1
promptly replied to that functionary, that Il
gard levy of troops for the purpose of subugating
the States Of the South in violation of the Con-
stitution, and an usurpation of power. 1 can be
no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the
country, and to this war upon the liberties of