The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1862-11-01
States Rights ut the Nor tli-- Pol ical Anatomy
By GEO. fITZHU6H.
From al article written fer De Bow.

2iO!A all aitlS-S "ttticIA OC DOW
Tie North is irterposing, through her Govern
ois, just as Virginia and Kentucky did N 1882
to restrict and coasro! the action of the Federal
Government. They have not IS yet like those two
s.ases, studiously elaborated string of arbore
scsntly absurd ard exuberantly fallscious reasops
fer their conduct They have scLed naturally and
gensibly, a.li, like s individuals and communitlss
v no act, are wholly unconscious OF the motives
which impei them. The Governors are the repre-
sentatives, The impersoQete1 soverslgntes OF dis
tinot and perfect na.ionslios Each State ls
perfect nation, because it has within Itself all the
Parts CT institutions that constitute distinct and
fall political severe gnty. Political soye.e!guty.
separate Nationality, Or State sovereignty, ia a
physical anatomical fact, Eot q metaphysical DE-
duciop; thing not Tesegred by compact, bu. inhe
ren. and natural; thing which all the compacts,
con9sitntions. and written parchnents in the world
neither give CT take away a State IL as purely
a physical fact or being as q horse, and q much
mere CON. lex one. It would te quite as easy to
MIKE horse by iogeaious wording on psper IS ~
make State Chic s perfect nation, nation St all
points just AZ Rozinaa.s ga5 perfe.t horse and
when provoked to 1t, she viii act nation, be-
cause l. IS psTt Of her nature aGd SIZE cant help It.
Let's anato,ni2s her she has large and fertile
tsrrito-y,a people numbering millions, distinct
aud peculiar cHmIGol Law and ststu.e law, judi
ciary OF her own militia or army, legislature,
apA sovereign ruler-cailed Governor, G1beraa
tor, HoiLnsmRn much more comprehensive
and significant term than King, Czar, or Emperor.
Virginia ana Kentucky, in 93 anu 99, broke
their haiters, and neShed and kicked up their heels
in "A most defiant aud sovereign way. Nothing
wiser Oh more Estural than the action Of those
States; nothing more absurd than the reasons ss
signed for 1t. We repeat, "Our ancestors never
did weak thing and nevsr said s. wise one"
In 1856 Gov. Wise had called on the other South
cTn EiecnIl7es .nd was prepared, IL event OF Ere
monss election. TO assert and maintain In the most
practical manner Imaginable the Inherent natural,
physical sovereignty of Virginia. TIE Governor
was prOosby the first TO discover that States-isight
il . physical fsat rot a metaphysical abstracton
E3 never did he!ong to the metaphysical States
Fights school that of Madison Jsfe soa. ani Cal
hounbu,, In 1856, and again after tie John Brown
raid led the physical school ia an astoIshingly
earnest fashion. We ought to have In all our Col
legas and Universities Professor OF Political Ana
tony. Such q chair, well flied, would prevent the
repetition Of such absurdies rs the Declaration OF
Independence, the Constitution Of the United
States the Virginia Bill of Rights and the resolu-
tions Of 'eS'99.
it would teach that Legislators and statesmen
mus. take States nations and institutions es God
as;i Nature had formed them as they had grown
up, and not attempt to creste them. Dose, and
tinker and mend and revise their institutions as
Hoses and CONTIGUOUS, Lycurgns and Bngish AL.
fred did; but not profsneiy attempt like Locke snd
JeffsI son. and Able Sierges 70 make them out and
out.
EtatesRights are never In danger so long as State
political Organization remain With adequate mill
tsy strength to defend and maintain that organza-
tions-ere the only checks and balances of power,
the guarantees of right and the defences of liberty
There can be no such thing as consolidation; no
great or dangerous Federal Confederate Gov.
eEnnent, until the present separate political organ
1ation of the States is destroyed. and they become
fused into one homogeneous whole.
We have often attempted to show in the pages of
this Reriep that States Rights il physical fact and
necessity, resulting from the political anatomy Of
each State, and embrace the occasion of the up
rising OF tho Northern Governors to exemplify, IL
| lstrate, and establish our theory. Had Lincoln
learned political anatomy he would have under
stood the great difference between counties and
States Like the comparative anatOmiSt natu-
ralist, he would have seen at glance that a coun-
ty Or city corporation was but q part, limb or
was like the arms and legs OF man, dependent and
subservient, and not sovereign.
Had II o old Federalists modern National Re
publcans understood political anatomy, they never
would have mistaken the United States for peo-
pls or nstion for the Federal Government had
neither opls nor territory the most essential
elements or constituents OF nationality.
Had the Southern States Rights School under
stood IT, they would have relied on the structure,
institutions and anatomy Of the States to prove
the structure and anatomy cf the Federal Govern
msnt TO show that u was mere league. and that
no form OF words whatever could divest the Etatea
OF their sovereignty 10 long their institutions
political organization remained In tact and NO form
Of words could mako the Union nation, because q
nation & 3 physical social being, having and 70.
ouiring physical limbs and members. Just e. aui
mals have and must have limbs and msmbsrA
To organise Q nation, one must drst have pe0
pls and . territory. The most cunning and inge-
nious writings, chaztsrs and paper constitutions
cannot copjurs nation Into sxi.tenes A eonfsd
eraey ID athat can bsade ont Of sovereign RtaasA
word your eoustltution. league, of asFsemsnt q
you VIII.