The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-05-08

are best performed by the local action of each
member, while Others are fulfilled only through
their union and inter-dependency; life and
complete manhood being maintained SO long as.
the whole and the parts sustain the relation. of
unity in diversity. Hence the Confederation
found it, to use Washington's words, "isnprac-
~ticable to provide for the interest and safety
/" of all, and yet to secure oil rights of indie
pendent sovereignty to EACH" Coming to-
gether as a collection Of peoples, segregated
into independent political units, the head
would not please the arms, the heart would
not nourish the limbs, till weary of strife, they
returned to the truth they were one, instinct
with one viii and purpose, most formidable,
most happy, best governed while the whole
and the parts were acting simultaneously as
one body without schism. And SO the con-
tracing inhabitants of separate soveregnties,
having outlined frame Of government in the
Articles of Confederation which failed because
one people cannot enter into a league and
treaty with itself, righted themselves by ac-
cepting the fact that they were one peo-
pie, and as people made the Constitution,
expressing the undivided will OF the great
political unit, and thus having taken care to
provide sovereignty adequate to the general
good, separated into independent commune
ties to employ the remaining elements of SOW
ereignty in such manner as the requirements
of their particular welfare should dictate.
As consequence, the sovereignty of the
United States added to that of State, con-
stitutes all the sovereignty which can be con-
ceived to attach to a supreme power, and
supplies an unfailing test of the accuracy Of
the doctrine preached by the supporters Of
Estate Rights"
Did ever Virginia. or Massachusetts, either
in theory or in practice, exercise the sove-
reignty inherent in an Independent nation?
At any time since the discovery of the CONT
nent, did ambassadors from Russia reside at
the capital of the nation of Delaware? Did
that nation ever enter into a defensive alliance
or establish commerce with Spain? Did that
nation ever dispatch a Minister plenipotentia-
ry to the Tycoon of Japan in a national frig-
ate, bearing aloft the gay banner of "the blue
hen and chicken" Did she ever think of do
ing it? or seriously claim that she could if she
would? And yet all this must have been done
or claimed before that independent nation
could agree with twelve other independent ma
tons, to yield a portion of sovereignty, and
out of the lump construct fourteenth. The
historical is the true explanation: that the
people, united at the outset in their allegiance
to the crown and to its sovereignty in war,
,l:..lu taI In,
ssting royal aggressions; that the inhabitants
of each colony, who thus far had looked to the
King, now began to look to themselves as the
source OF the powers necessary to the regula-
tion of their internal policy; that these pow
ers were sovereign in this sphere only, and
did not conflict with the sovereignty of the
united nation; that government created by
a compact of States, at one time regarded as
independent of each other, was inadvertently
supposed to comport with the necessities of
an independent people; that the error was
soon discovered and rectifed by substituting
a government erected by "a union of the peo-
pie" with authority in its sphere to act as di-
rectly on individuals, as the State govern
ments in theirs; that this form Of government
was established by the will and act of the
united nation, in the same way that State
government or constitution is established by
the will and act of the citizens of State, and
not through the medium of a treaty between
isolated sovereignties. Rhode Island surren-
dered nothing to New York, Georgia gave
up nothing to Virginia; but the people,
uniting into the American nation, remained at
the same time separated for all remaining pur-
poses of sovereignty, into Massachusetts, Con-
necticut and the other States, in this sense
and aspect alone, being sovereign, free and in
dependent of each other.