Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-04
The state Rights Theory the Offspring
..L.-... Ehn.iEn

The State Rights Theory the OFFSPRING
of Partizan strife.
The administration of George Washing
ton before its close in 1897, was fercely
assailed by the opposition party, with !
Thomas Jefferson as its acknowledged
leader. This party accused the Nesident
of enmity toward France and undue SYM
pathy with Great Britain. Mr.. Jefferson
had iustbeen beaten in the Presidential race
bv John Adams, and, smarting under po-
litieal defeat, he transferred all his parti-
zau hatred to the incoming administration,
with which he was identified as Vice Pres
ident. The exciting scenes of the French
Revolution produced at this time undue
commotion in American politics. Presi-
dent Adams sought to stem the tide OF
popular excitement and so guide the ship
of State as to escape the dangerous waves
| of Old World revolutions. Mr.. Jeffer-
son sympathized with the revOlutionists
abroad, and thought the United States
should become the champion of republl-
canism across the ocean. The action OF
the Government called forth bitter op-
position, not only from portion oil It's
own subiects. but from motley herd ol
c,r.io,n mercenaries in this country, who
abused the privileges granted them by the
American government by making msldi-
ous attacks upon our institutions. Theseaets
called forth retalitory legislation on the
mart of Congress, in the form of the Alien
and Sedition laws The opponents OF the
administration in turn assailed these laws as
an unwarrantable exercise of power. In
this hour of partisan bitterness, Mr.. Jeifer-
erson secretly drafted and procured the
subsequent adoption by the Kentucky
! I LEGISLATURE of the famous Kentucky Reso-
( | mtIonsOI 1870. mat AIr. Jener5on-N Ice
! President of the United States and citi-
Y zen of Virginia-did not regard his course
e in thus influencing the action Of Ken
|, lucky as statesman-like and proper, Is ev-
4 idenced by the fact that his connection
e with the measure was kept profound Sc
i cret until after his death. Mr. Jefferson
$ also induced James Madison to draft and
: present to the Legislature of Virginia
# a series of resolutions of similar 'pur-
e port; bnt that gentleman less excita-
Bile. and not sharing all the partisan spirit
t of his co-worker, did not make the Nir-
n ginia resolutions so strongly to favor null
4. Tfcation as did those of Kentucky. The
l. Virginia Resolutions do not hold that the
e States are the proper judges of "the mode
II of redress for alleged grievances, whilst
,. that doctrine is proclaimed in the first Of
E those adopted by Kentucky. These reso-
:. Iutions were introduced for II merely par
: tisan purpose, and it would not be charita-
HE to -uppose that their authors antici-
pated the fatal uses to which they would
be put in after years. As a party measure,
: they at the time utterly failed of their pur-
r pose. They were repudiated by e'ery
Y other State of the Republic. The Legisla-
d lures of the New England States, New
l York and Delaware sent to the Virginia
s Legislature replies condemning their whole
r spirit and doctrine The Kentucky Teso-
} lutions aimed at immediate notification,
: and it was a part of the plan to appoint
! committees of correspondence with other
States to secure cooperation in carrying
the doctrine into practical effect. But even
J the Legislature of Kentucky, after adopt
ing the resolutions, failed to carry out the
programme of consultation. The Virginia
Resolutions, more modest in tone, were
offered to the other States, with the result
named. At the next session of these Legis-
latures, the subject again came up. The
Kentucky Legislature adopted a resolu-
ton, reaffirming the doctrine of the reso-
lutions fl79s, and declaring qualification
by the State Sovereignties' to be the
''rightful remedy In this resolution we
have, if it were needed, an Interpretation
of the resolutions of 1898. John Quincy
Adams, in his aLife of James Madison"
speaking of the alien and sedition laws,
and the partizan war waged upon them,
said: "The acts themselves, and the reso-
lutions of the Legislatures concerning
them may now be considered merely as
adversary party measures.
Mr.. Madison, in after years, spoke of
the alien and sedition laws rather as unad-
vised acts, in contrayention to the opinions
and feelings of community, than as un-
constitutional measures, thus virtually
Withdrawing his countenance from the
resolutions he had drafted with his own
hand and introduced into the Legislature
of Virginia; but which, be it remember
ed, he did at the instigation of Mr.. Jeffer-
son in moment of intense partisan ex-
| element Mr. Jefferson, in his address
upon the occasion of his Inauguration as
President of the United States in 1901
the most serious and responsible move
ment of his life-receded from the ultra
doctrines of the Kentucky resolutions of
1898.
Thus, it viii be seen, this heresy
owed its origin to an unusually bitter par
tisan- strife, and was repudfated by its
authors in the calmer days of after times |
Under ordinary circumstances, repudia-
tion by its authors would have been the
death-knell of any political dogma of like
character but, unfortunately for the coun-
trv this first seed of nullification fell upon |
soil favorable for its growth. From time
to time the monster would rear its head, |
first in one and then in another of the |
Slave States, until in 1892 it arrayed the
State of South Carolina in actual opposi-
ton to the Federal Government. That |
State, being dissatisfied with the Tariff
laws. met in Convention on the 10Th of |
November, 1882, and on the oath of the
same month passed an ordinance of nulli-
fcation, which was to take effect February
lst, 1888, when the State would, as de-
clared by the Convention, consider itself
absolved from further allegiance TO the
Union, and proceed to organize an
independent government. This scheme
L I !