Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1864-04-14

care exercised by the several colonies in
asserting their Individual sovereignty and in
guarding it against cncroachment. Thus
in the action of the various independent
political communities in appointing dele
gates to the Continental Congress, the
sole and exclusive regulation Of their own
internal government, police, and concerns
was explicitly reserved The States consen-
ted to surrender only very partia. control
over the subject of hode. The Congress
was invested by the articles with no control
whatever over ndtrdiudis.
| Under these articles the United States
! were enabled to close the war Of the Revo
luton, and secure our independence But,
as requisition for delinqucncies in raising
revenue could only be made against the
States in their corporate capacities, there
was no remedy when these were withheld
! by the States eXcepta resort to civil war. -
This was the defect of the old Confedera-
ton, as it had been of all similar establish
ments Of ancient and modern times-of the
Grecian republics, the Germanc, Hansaatic,
the Dutch and the Helvetian. The mme-
dlate and pressing grievances which par
alyzed the energies of the Confederate Gov
crnment was the numerous, diverse, and
conflicting interests andrcgulations in regard
to trade.
In order to secure the fruits of the Rev
olution it was necessary that the commerce
of the country should be freed from the
disadvantages under which it was placed by
the Determinations imposed upon it by for
eign Governments by the navigation laws
which their own interests and cupidity had
induced those Governments to adopt. 1t
was not less necessary that the public faith
should be preserved that the debts con-
tracted during the Revolution should be
liquidated, and the treaty stipulations into
which we had entered with European Gov
ernments strictly complied with. 1t was
also necessary, TO provide for the common
defense: " These were the great and pres
sing inducements to the formation of new
compact of Union. In it remedy was
, sought also for the weakness and incilicien-
cy of the Confederation by comforting upon
the central Government still larger and het-
ter defined powers and, by distributing
them through well-balanced legislative, .iu-
dicial, and executive departments to bring
down those powers to operate upon individ
+ uals. In these three particulars in the
t greater extent and more precise definition
| of the powers conveyed in surrenderinl
the control OF the several States over the
. control of commercial regulations and il
$ the distribution of the powers through
+ well organized system, so as to act upon in
t dividuals within the sphere of those powers
= consists of the great and material ditferenc,
= of the Constitution of 1889 from the Arti
cles of Confederation. 1t was these chan
ges which converted the Government of tho
5 United States from a specious but lifeles
G and inefficient organization to one of vita
5 and energetic power for great and beneficial
C ends. 1t was and is still not less Feciuo
$ Government. Neither in the circumstances
c which attended its formation and adoption
= nor in the instrument itself, nor vet in the
V expositions of its founders, is there appa
z rent any intention to substitute a consolida
ted Government in lieu of that of the com
" pact Of the States.
II The Convention of 1857, which frame
+ the Constitution, was composedof delegate
t from the several States, and not from tn
st people at large. Propositions in that Cor
e vention were voted upon by the delegates
: not majority Of the delegates, but IN;
A. .ority Of the .Stotes by which each prop,
in sition was rejected or became part of tn
he Constitution. As the people did not act q
i'll a whole in appointing Convention to torl
Is Constitution, neither did they in ratifyin
,fI it; but the ratification was by convention
T. appointed by the people Of the seyeri
e States. This ratification was also made Il
h different times; for while the Constitution
sc was adopted September Is, 1877, the con
" sent of Virginia, which as that of tn
: ninth State was necessary to put it in opera
e ton, was not obtained until june 26, 17SS
e And thus, as accepted by nine States, tn
l. new Government went into operation tn
}? 4th of March. l7S9; North Carolina d.
L not accedc until the 2lst of November fol
l. lowing more than two years after its adop
" ton by the Convention nor Rhode Islam
IS till May 26, 1890, nearly three years afte
IF that event; and those States, during tn
v period of their hesitation, were treated b
F. the legislation of the United States as fol
l. eign countries. By the seventh article {
G. the Constitution it is declared that the raj
4 iication Of the conventions Of nine State
.e shall be sufficient for the establishment
ar this Constitution between the States S
le ratifying the same" The tenth article ais
ID declares that the ''powers not delegated t
A. the United States by the Constitution, nc
prohibited by it to the States, are reserve
t, to the States respectively or to the people.
sc 1t thus appears, from consideration
le the circumstances under which the Const
of tuition was produced, and from the provi
Iy ions of the instrument itself, that our Gov
c. elnment is a compact between sovereign an
T. coequal communities, the States composin
ly it. Gouyerneur Morris, who was the il
c. dividual in the Convention upon whom d'
Wy volved the task Of revising the language
" the instrument before its adoption by tn;
IN body, also declared that the Constitutio
ar was compact, not between solitary ind
ne viduals, but between political societies.
4, have thus REQUIRED to what are seen
es be leading facts and principles in the form
I'd alton Of our Government. This retrospe
II, must convince us that it is historically trr
ne that our Government was formed by II
he States as parties, and not by individu
al citizens as members OF one community,
f. hold it at the same time true that this Go
et ernment which is one oflimited and specia
1t ly defined powers, is Of the same obligato
it authority within the sphere Of the reserv,
he powers. | see not how this can be othe
We wise, since both were created by the san
of authority-that Of the individual citizens
as the several State organizations. The Go
AK erment of the United States and those
ea the States are therefore equally soverei!
~ in their respective sphere, | therefore fiji
ir- no difficulty in divided allegiance, and
To- hold that allegiance to bind the citizen
ng equal degree to the government of the Sta
is, and to that of the nation, both proceedil
he from the same source-the people of t
he several States. In case of irreconcilal
for difference between the Federal and Sta
nat Governments, there is no necessity tn
re- the parties to the compact should each
by itself, decide the dispute; for in the We
rn- instrument Of the compact they appoint
les an an arbiter, the judiciary, by whose d
a.. hox RI