Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-04-13
state s~OYereignty.

Oenefal Garhelu, IN q recent Speech
commenting upon he message of Goyen-
or Parker, of New Jersey, exploded the
absurd doctrine Of State Sovereignty in as
clear and forcible a style as we have ever
heard:
Mr.. Speaker, this lifts our subject above
corporations and ~monopolies TO the full
hight OF a national question; | might al
most call it a question of loyalty or disloy-
atty. l have only to say in regard to the
language of this proclamation that if His
Excellency had consulted Calhoun and his
resolutions of 1888 he would have found
its doctrines stated much more ably and
elegantly. He calls upon the Legislature
of New Jersey to inquire whether this
bill will take away any of the revenue of
the State, and how it will affect the SOW
ereign rights of New Jersey. He says
New Jersey Is a sovereign State. | pause
there for i moment.
Mr.. Coleridge somewhere says that alb
stract definitions have done more harm in
the world than plague and famine and
war. | believe it. | believe that no man
will ever be able to chronicle all the evils
that have resulted TO this nation from the
abuse of the words sovereign and 'sover-
eighty What is this thing called State
sovereignty
Consult the elementary text books OF
law and refresh your recollection of the
definition of sovereignty Speaking of
the sovereignty of nations, Blackstone
says:
However they began, by what right
soever they subsist, there is and must be
in all of them a supreme, irresistible, ab-
%solute, uncontrolled authority in which
the JTra SUNNI imperii or rights of sover-
eighty reside"
Do these elements belong to any State
of this Republic! Sovereignty has the
right to declare war. Can New Jersey
declare war? 1t has the right to conclude
peace. Can New jersey conclude peace?
Sovereignty has the right to coin money.
If the Legislature of New Jersey should
authorize and command one of its citizens
to coin a half dollar, that man if hemade
it, though it should be of solid silver,
would be locked up in 9 felon's cell for
the crimeof counterfeiting the coin of the
real sovereign. A sovereign has the right
to make treaties with foreign nations
Has New Jersey the right to make treat
les? Sovereignty is clothed with the
right to regulate with foreign
States. New Jersey has no such right
Sovereignty has the right to put ships in
commission upon the high seas. Should a
ship set sail under the authority of New
Jersey it would be seized a. a ~smuggler,
forfeited, and sold. Sovereignty has a flag.
But, thank God, New Jersey has no flag;
Ohio has no flag. Noloyal State fight I'M
der the lone star" The "rattlesnake,"
or the palmetto tree" No loyal State
of this Union has any flag but ''the ban
ner of beauty and glory" the flag of the
81 Union. These are the indispensable ele,
ments of sovereignty. New Jersey has not
one of them. The term cannot be applied
to the separate States except in Il very
limited sense, referring mainly to mum
cipal and police regulations. The right,
of the States should be jealousy guarded
, and defended. But to claim that sover
! eighty in its full sense and meaning be
longs to the States, is nothing better thai
the rsnkest treason.
{ Look again at this document of TIL
r Governor of New Jersey. He tells yor
that the State entered into the '~nationa
i compact" National compact [ haC
q supposed that no Governor of a loya
State would parade this dogma of nullif
/ cation and secession which was killed ant
Q buried by Webster on the 10th of Febru
e ary, 1888. There was no such thing a
sovereign States making a compact callec
the Constitution. The very language o
5 the Constitution is decisive we, tn,
people of the United States, do ordaiI
s and establish this Constitution" TIL,
States did not make a compact TO be bro
r ken when any n pleased, but the peo
pie ordained and established the Consti
4 tuition of a sovereign republic and wo,
be to any corporation OF State that raise
: its hand against the majesty and powe.
! of this great nation.