Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-11-22
rzn rRuE DOCTRINE OF STATE
- RIGHTS.

T. Mixed up WITH e'SiJ .,
,oooof,l" settlement of the national
a;RcuIt;es, comes the everlasting question
&c :. s,ate Rights" That term, as under
stood by the Southern disunionists, means
the sovereign right of each State to do
whatsoever pleases itself, without regard
TO the wishes or consent of the other
States of the Union, and to stay in or
secede from the Union according to its
own sovereign pleasure. 1t is unneces-
sary to say that that doctrine is exploded
and will not be listened to in any "peace
negotiations" The best article we have
seen upon the subject of State Rights, "
and the only view of the question that
will ever be admitted by the people of the
United States is from the pen of Professor
Taylor Lewis, and from which the follow
ing is an extract:
This transcending right of each part in the
whole and in every other part; this precious
right of intercitiZenship, as we have called it,
| is too much overlooked in discussing the
question of this rebellion, and the relative
attitudes of the parties. There is an error
here, an oversight, on the part of'the most
loyal Even whilst firmly maintaining that
the South is wrong, that she has broken the
national compact, we still, somehow, con-
cede to them position of self-defense, locally
if not politically-in re if not IN JaHe-in fact
if not in right. They are fighting pro G,1s ct
f0cis, they say, "fOr their affairs and their
lhearths for their own homes, their own
soil. We concede this relatively, and to a
certain extent, whilst, at the same time, say
ing that they had no business to be thus fight
ing for separation; no one had any thought
of harming them, or Of taking what belonged
to them. Now BY such appearance of self.
defense even though it be a wrongful one,
they get vantage ground in feeling, senti-
mental prestige, to which they have no right.
It is not on our part, mere claim for the
fulfllment of contract. This is only apart,
and the smallest part, OF the argument.
They have not only unlawfully separated
from US, but they have taken what belongs to
us as well as to themselves. 1t was oar are
ct foci, even as the homes and hearthS Of the
| North were theirs. 1t is on their part, not a
war of self-defense, but of spoliation. It is
the nation THAT is defending itself against
them. 1t is the loyal parts that are kept out
of their own, out Of their estate rights, I"
their most valuable State rights, and they are
fighting to get them back from the robbers
who have seized them as their lawless prey.
| The man of Massachusetts, had 4 right of
citizenship in Virginia, and that right he
esteems of great value. He never got 1t from
Virginia, he never got it even from the Fed
erai Constitution. 1t is confirmed, indeed,
by compact, but that is only collateral secu-
rity. II is older than any such compact. 1t
| gave rise to that compact. The Federal Con-
| stitution would never have been, had il not
been for this previous inter-citizenship con-
| stituting this previous nationality. II ante
| dates the separation from Great Britain. The
\ men who took part in that struggle never
| meant to lose by il so valuable right as this
| They never intended that the severance from
the distant motherland should make US aliens
to each other, or shut up by themselves, the
inhabitants of each petty colonial district,
with such vast diminution Of the rights,
which before came from the one common
| British citizenship.
Ifthe letter of the constitution is against
such a doctrine, history is tar more. The
man OF Plymouth has the same right IN Viz
| sinia as the man Of jamestown. He has
the same right to buy lands there, to hold
them as resident or nonresident owner, to
settle on them when he pleases, TO reserve
them for his children, and TO make such
children, if he pleaSes, future inhabitants Of
that State. For this he is justified in fighting.
For this original Estate right" he is now
fighting Every Northern soldier now in
Virginia has right to be there, even If the
necessity of war did not send them there.
ANY conditions, or notifications, that Vir-
GINA might claim to impose on such rights
of soil and citizenship, are only by compact,
| and that, too, ever with this restriction, that
no terms can be imposed on persons out of
| her bounds, to prevent them from coming
within and exercising all such rights, that
are not equally imposed upon those already
| there The owners of these franchises have
a right to contend, even unto blood, against
their ever passing under the power of a
strictly foreign government, which may deny
or change them as it pleaseS.
It is astonishing how this idea Of inter-
citizenshipis lost sight OF, though the right
| of the war is strenuously maintained by US
on other and tenable grounds. We, OF the
| North, it must be repeated, are fighting not
| only Justly, as for the enforcement OF Vlo-
lated contract, but in actual self-defence, to
prevent an custer from 4 long and acknow-
| lodged possession. Let us keep the great
truth steadily before the mind: The right OF
these States in each other-the right Of each
| State, and of the people of each State, IN
| every other State-their right to all the bene-
| fits which flow from their common nationall-
ty, created by history and confirmed BY con-
vention-this is the great and invaluable
State right f" Every individual holds 1t,
not from any grant or purchase made By the
| State in which he liyeS-not from any con-
cession from the States collectively, or any
| thing representing them, not by any reserva-
| ton made on his behalf-but from that ORR
ginal birthriSh. citizenship which made the
States, the nation, and the Union, as all
alike one harmonious indivisible work, pro-
| ceeding from one and the same working
power. eve, the people OF the United
| States, do ordain and establish this conSti-
| tuition for ourselves and our posterity.
| There spoke this one ancient indiyisible soy
ereiSnty in peaceful convention it is the
same voice that is now uttered on the battle
| field, amid :" confused noise, and garments
rolled in blood"
This vital, fundamental idea cannot be too
often repeated, or too strongly enforced. 1t
was this original inter. citizenship that made
the nation. 1t was the seed from which it
grew it was the law, idea, or formal cause,
shaping the outer growth, and giving it just
such form as it in time assumed. 1t made
the early Congresses; it was the bond and
strength oil the hevolutson tnat severed our
new Anglo-Saxonism from the old; it gave
rise to the Articles of Confederation (; it de-
manded, for its more adult vigor, and its just
development, the later stronger constitution
commencing, "We, the people"-and SO
that constitution was born as its legitimate
historical offspring. 1t has ever since, for
nearly eighty years, been giving consistency
to all the national acts. II has made history
for US it has made war and peace; it has
been acknowledged by foreign nationalities
to the ignoring Of any other citizenship, or
any other nationality, in this Sast territory.
It has settled the prairie and the wilderness;
it has built great works Of national defense,
and national utility, that without it never
would have been in existence. In all this,
the outward action, the mere mode Of doing,
may have been guided by conventional forms.
but these give It not its sanction. It had
life in itself-life coming from an older and