The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1865-12-09

the sheet anchor of our peace at home
and safety abroad" The Constitu-
ton is the work of ''the people of the
United States" and it should be as
indestructible as the people.
1t is not strange that the trainers of
the Constitution, which had no
model in the past, should not have
fully comprehended the excellence of
their own work. Fresh from a
struggle against arbitrary power,
many patriots suffered from harass-
ing fears of an absorption of the
State Governments by the General
Government, and many from dread
that the States would break away
from their orbits. But the very
greatness of our country should allay
apprehension of fencroachments by the
General Government. The subjects
that come unquestionably within it's
jurisdiction are so numerous that it
must ever naturally refuse to be en-
barrassed by questions that lie beyond
1t. We're it otherwise, the Executive
would sink beneath the burden, the
channels of justice would be choked;
legislation would be obstructed by
excess; so that there is a greater
temptation to exercise some of the
functions of the General Government
through the States than to trespass on
their rightful sphere. "The absolute
acqulescence in the decisions of the
majority was, at the beginning of the
century, enforced by Jefferson cas- the
vital principle of republics" and the
events of the last four years have es-
tablished, we will hope forever, that
there lies no appeal to force.
The maintenance of the Union
brings with it ''the support of the
State Government in all their
rights but it is not. one of the rights
OF any State Government to renounce
It's own place in the Union, or to null
lily theA laws of the Union. The
largest liberty is to be maintained in
the discussion of the acts of the Fed
eral Government; but there is no ap
peal from its laws, except to the yari-
GUS branches of that Government
itself, or to the people, who grant to
the members of the legislative and of
the executive departments no tenure
but limited one, and in that manner
always retain the power of redress.
'The sovereignty of the States,' is
the language of the Confederacy, and
not the language of the Constitution.
The latter contains the emphatic
words: ''The Constitution, and the
laws Of the United States which shall
be made in pursuance thereof. and all
treaties made or which shall be made
under the authority of the United
States, shall be the supreme law of
the land; and the judg ges in every
State shall be bound thereby, any
thing In the Constitution Or laws Of
any State to the contrary notwith
standing"
Certainly the Government of the
United States is a limited govern
ment; and so is every State govern
ment q limited government. With
us, this idea of limitation spreads
through every form of administra-
tlon, general, State and municipal,
and rests on the great distinguishing
principle Of the recognition of the
rights of man. The ancient repub-
lies absorbed the individual in the
State, prescribed his religion and
controlled his activity. The Ameri-
can system rests on the assertion of
the equal right of every man to life.
liberty and the pursuit of happiness:
to freedom of conscience, to the cul-
ture and exercise of all his faculties
AS consequence, the State govern
ment is limited, as to the General
Government in the interest of Union.
as to the individual citizen in the in.
terest of freedom.
States, with proper limitations of power
are essential to the existence of the Con,
stitution Of the United States. At the
very commencement, when we assumed a
place among the powers of the earth the
Declaration of Independence was adopted
by States; so also were the Articles of Con-
Ieuer&tlOn, ana when the people of tho