Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-08-08


bic, to bring odium on the primitive doc
trine of our Government---State Rights
ana State Sovereignty. In order to make
it disyeputsble with the people, it con
meets II with secession, in the relation OF
cause and effect. We know OF no better
or more conclusive answer TO the Jour
nails twaddle than the following extract
from speech by Webster, in lS4O, ten
years before he began to incur the NAL
edictious OF the Abolitionists:
"And now, fellow-citzens, | ask you only
to do me one favor. | ask you TO carry that
paper home read it read il 10 your neigh
bors and when you hear the cry, shall Mr..
Webster, the aboliiionist, be allowed 10 pro-
fame the soil Of Virginia. that you will tell
| them that in connection with the doctrine in
that speech, held that there are two govern
ments over us, each possessing its own dis
tinct authority, with which the other may not
interfere | may differ from you in some
things but will here say that, as to the
doctrine Of State Rights, as held by Mr. Mad
ison 10 his last days, ! do not know that wa
foremost, TO hold that it is indispensable TO
the prosperity Of these governments to pre-
serve and that he is no true friend to either
who does not labor TO preserve, true distlnc'
ton between both
I'VE may not all sse the line which divides
them alike but all honest men know that
there s line, and they fear TO go on ono
or the other side Of It. IL il this balance
~ 81 nA
ments which has preserved the country in
uuexsmpled prosperity for fifty years and
the destruction Of this Just balance will bs tho
destruction of our Government What |
believe to bs the doctrine Of State Rights
hold ns firmly as any man. Do not bslorg
to State2 and may | not say, 10 Il State
which has done something to give herself
renown, and to her cons some little shure OF
participated dstinction2 say ngain, that
the upholdng of State Rights, on the one
hand, and of the Just powers of Congress-, on
the other, is indispensable 10 the preservation
of our free Republican Government
The great expounder Of the Constitu-
ton proclaimed the true Democratic prn-
ciple, and endorsed the State Rights doe
trine as declared by Madison, who, in his
Administration regarded it patriotism ''to
respect the rights and authorities reserved
to the States and to the people, as equally
incorporated with aud essential to the
success of the general system" of govern
ment.
And so, too, with jefferson, the De-
mocracy regard "the support of the State
Governments, in all their rights, as the
most competent administration for our do
mestic concerns, and the surest bulwark
against anti-republican tendencies" to-
gether with "the preservation of the Gen
eral Government in its whole Constitu-
tionsl vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our
peace at home and our safety abroad"
That the journal should quote from
! General Jackson-s most earnest advo-
cate of State Rights-in order to find
| some "aid and comfort" in its very un-
comfortable position, is certainly amusing.
In his inaugural address, March 4, 1929,
he says: "In such measures as | may be
called upon to pursue in regard to thu
rights of the separate States, l hope to be
animated by proper respect for those
sovereign members of our Union, taking
care not to confound the powers they have
reserVed with those they have granted to
the Confederacy," In his celebrated proc
lamation to the nullifiers of South Caro-
lima, he defines more particularly the au.
thority Of the General Government, the
reserved rights of the States and the peo
pie, aud showed wherein they were acting
without authority, much of which il
equally applicable to the party in power
But the Constitution itself defines tn,
powers of the general Government, anC
the rights of the States and the people
with sufficient cleaness to place all ques
tions Of this kind beyond dispute, when
says "The powers not delegated to tn
United States by the Constitution. no
prohibited to it by the States, are reserve,
to the States respectively, or to tn
people"
i Judge Story, in his commentary on thi
amendment, says "This amendment is
mere affirmation of what, upon amy JUS
reasoning, is necessary rule of interpre
ting the Constitution. Being an instru
ment of limited aud enumerated powers
it follows, irresistibly, that whatever j