Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-04-05
TIE PRESIDENTS passcy

4bon Senator from Tennessee, delivered a
remarkable speech, sustaining the President |
and denouncng the rebellion. After demon
s,rotino that the issue of civil war was forced |
7,non the Government by the Incorporate and |
;I-advised action Of a portion Of the Southern |
,aonIc, led astray by wicked and designing |
men. and adverting to the political course he |
had taken in the then recent Presidential cam
paign of 1850, he proceeded to lay down his
platform Of principles with the emphatic
dcclaration-"l was Union man them was
q Union man in 1851 am Union man
now That simple text of devotion TO the
Union involves the whole political creed OF
Andrew johnson, and furnishes the key to
the Presidential policy of reconstruction, as
distinguished from the Congressional policy of
negation and obstructiOn-a wretched, short
sighted dog-in-the-manger policy, which will
neither let the States in nor give any reason
for keeping them out-a selfish, partisan and
sectional policy, founded in the criminal de-
sign of pcrpetuating faction upon the ruins
of the nation, and exchanging for the Govern
ment of the Republic of the United States the
consolidated despotsm of party, republican
in name only. To understand the Presidents
policy, therefore, and to rightly estimate the
motives which have governed him in adopting
It, we must comprehend his idea of the Union,
and catch. if possible, some of the enthusias-
tic fervor with which he worships at its altar.
What then is the Union? 1t has been repre-
sented by some as mere confederacy of States.
IL +nr Of
social and political intercourse, and defence
against the common enemy. Its component
Darts. originally sovereign and independent.
feeling their weakness as individuals, and
recognizing the necessity of combination for
certain ends, otherwise unattainable surren
dered up certain powers to a common agent
called the Government of the United States
these powers being limited and prescribed bY
a written Constitution. When the PRINCIPALS
became dissatisfied with their agent, il was
onlyncccssary to revoke the agency, and there
was an end Of it. That was one idea Of the
Union 1t eliminated in secession and civil
war. and has persisted forever with the rebel,
lion 1t has been held by others, that the
powers surrendered up by the States were TO
be construed with such Hberalitv in favor Of
the General Government, as to practically
ignore the States themselves, and absorb their
individuality in the vast and overshad0wig
power at Washington. One theory caascn-
lated the General Government Of all Of it,
power-the other LEFT The States powerless in
the hands OF the General Government. One
we said fell with the rcbcliion-Gen. Lee sur
rendered it with his army at Appomattox Court
House. The other however, sI,rrug upon the
country. not as the harmless dogma Of politi-
cal writers. but as the watchword of a large
and influential party, with majority in both
houses of Congress, determined to push it to
dangerous and disastrous extremes, is now
forced upon the people, as an issue TO be tried
at the bar Of public opinion, where we trust it
may be decided, and without resort second
time to the bloody arbtrament of arms. 1t
is scarcely necessary to say that the true idea
of the Union is TO be found in neither of these
theories. There was a period when the
Union did not exist. 1t had its origin in
the weakness Of the Confederacy. There wa
period when the Conlederacy did not exist
1t originated in the weakness Of the colonies
unable to resist without united effort the eli
croachments Of the mother country The
States ante-date the Union and the Confedcr-
acy. They constitute the original sources Of
power, and whatever power the General Gov
eminent has, is derived from them. But the
Government which they have created. for the
purposes for which ii was created, as defined
in the Constitution, is just as absolutely and
and independently 4 Government as any State
Government. 4 State can no more break it
up by an ordinance Of secession than it can
abrogate its own existence. Nothing less than
the power which n dc it can destroy it. The
doctrine of State sovereignty therefore, as in
dependent of federal sovereignty, is absurd
But the doctrine of State rights. within the
sphere and jurisdiction reserved at the time
the powers Of the General Government were
delegated, is an eminently sound doctrine and
the Union, the Constitutional American Union,
as illustrated by the wise and comprehensive
designs Of its founders, as understood and IN
terpreted by the second generation Of Ameri-
can statesmen, as expounded and defended by
jackson, Webster and Clay, as died for by the
martyred Lincoln, and as sternly upheld By
johnson in harder and deadlier fight, than
any or all OF them were called upon TO make
this kind of Union, and not the sectional
abortion of the Congressional Jacobns of our
day, has its surest and only guaranty in the
proper development of Constitutional State
rights. The States in all matters Of purely
domestic concern, the control Of which has
not been vested in the United States, arc SUI
preme, and the General Government has no
more right to annpl State law. than the State
has to annul a law of the United States. Each
has Its own orbit to reyOlve in, and each It's
appointed course to run. To secede is to
rush out of that orbit into everlasting darkness
and ruin: to consolidate, is to fuse AN barmo-
NOUS and well-balalaed system into an i'll
regulated, disproportioned and chaotic mass.
as despotic as it is unwieldy. The Union,
therefore, is a beautiful adjustment Of politi.
cal power made up of what has been delega-
ted to the United States, and of what has been
held in reserve by the States, operating rccip-
rocally as centripetal and centrifugal forces,
and resulting i'll an equipoise, which, now that
the distracting element Of slavery is gone, may
be hoped will be permanent The States have
no glory by themselves Whatever they have
achieved has been as United States The
Union Is nothing without the States, because
the States form the Union-not some of them.
but all OF them. 1t is idle to talk about
Union IN which eleven Of them have No ,,ort
You may call it anything else, you NAV call
it a Government; which has asserted its m
thority over our end of the North American
Continent-you may call it a vast military
power resistless as destiny, but it is an idle
and cruel mockery, to call that Union, one
third of whose members you now force into
practical disunion. No one would question
mans right of property in his own legs or
arms after they have been shot off, but he Is,
nevertheless dismembered man, and though
these di$jecta 1RemJra OF the South may be
called ours, they are certainly in no Union
with us. They never can be until the Con-
gress of the United States learns the lesson
which the President is attempting to teach