The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1866-06-02
sTATE sovERE1GNTY.

show below what the very men who ara fore
most IN this declaration said on the subject
a few years ago.
Senator Henry Wilson'S record on this
subject is clear and emphatic. In. letter
which he wrote February 10, 1865, TO Yes
pasian Ellis, ho said
| fully recognize the doctrine of State
Rights in its application to slavery as well
as to any other matter of public concern
The Virginia ana Kentucky Resolutions of
iI9S, in the main, rs | think, correctly set
forth that doctrine
In debate in the United States Senate on
a bill to protect officers acting under author
ity of the United States, February 23, 1865.
tsee app. Globe, vol. 81. I'd scss., SO Con
gress, page 233, Dir. Wilson said:
! recognize the doctrine Of State Rights
in its application to slavery as well rs toI
other matters of public concern. | will
stand side by side with my Democratic
friends in vindication of the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions of I798-'99, which
they have indorsed.
Senator Ben Wade, of Ohio, in tho same
debate {see same book, page 213l said:
am one of those who at all times believe
in the wisdom, the constitutionality, and the
propriety Of The Virginia ard Kentucky
Resolutions of lT9a-'99. / ground myself
upoa these resolutions, and standing upon
them fzssnounce this bill as violation not
only Of the spirit of these resolutions, but as
an attempt to trample upon the rights of the
States.
Again, at page PA he says;
Who is TO be the Judge of the violations Of
the Constitution of the United States by the
enactment of , law? Who is the final arbi-
ter, the General Government or the States in
their sos reignty? Why, sirs, to yield that
point is TO yield up ell the rights of the
States and to consolidate this Government
into general despotism.
Again, one of these Senators said:
Legislatures everywhere are preparing for
legal and constitutional resistance Ave,
sirs, the State of Wisconsin has taught you
lesson, and it is only an incipient one.
| tell the Senator that ny State
believed it unconstitutional, and that under
the old Virginia and Kentucky reaolutionsa
State must not only be a Judge of that, but
of the remedy in such case.
In the subsequent Congress Senator Ben
Wade made another well-studied and care
fully prepared speech, in the course of which
be said:
But Southern gentlemen stand here, and,
in almost all of their speeches, speak of the
dissolution of the Union as an element Of
every argument, as though it were peculiar
condescension on their part that they pers
sttofl f(to fs.r IL ~
not feel interested IN uusfeidirg this Unloa
If itreally trenches on their rights-if it
endaneers their institutions to such an ex-
tent that they cannot feel secure under it,
if their interests are violently assailed by
means of the Union-I am not one of those
who expect that they viii long continue nm
der it. / am not one of those who would
ask them to continue in such Union. 1t
would bs doing violence to the platform Of
the party to which ! belong. We have
adopted the old Declaration Of independence
as the basis of our political movement,
which declares that any people, when their
Government ceases to protect their rights,
when it is SO sGbverted from the true pur-
| poses of government az to oppress them,
| have the right to recur to fundamental prin-
ciples, and, if need be, to odestrey the Gov
ernment under which they live, and to erect
on its ruins another more conducive to their
welfare. hold that they have this right.
| will not blame any people for exercising
it, whenever they think the contingency has
come. certainly shall be the advocate of
that same doctrine whenever | find that the
principles of this Government have become
/ go oppressive to the section to which be-
long, that free people ought not longer to
endure it. You will not then find me back.
that contingency never having come, ] have
never yet opened my mouth in opposition to
the Union. | never entertained thought
disloyal TO this Union. But | say, for
/ Heavens sake, act, not talk. am tired OF
this eternal din of dissolution of the Union
which is brought up on all occasions, and
thrust into our faces, as though we, of the
North, had some peculiar reasons for main
tanning the Union that the Southern States
have not. / hope the Union will continue
forever. believe it may continue forever.
| see nothing ut present which | think
should dissolve it; but if the gentlemen see
it, say again that they have the same in
tcrest in maintaining this Union, in my
Judgment, th6t we of the North have. Il
they think they hare not, be it so. You can
not forcibly hold men in this Union for the
attempt to do SO, it seems to me, would sub
vert the principles of the Government under
which we live.
An examination Of the Congressional de-
bates during that period, as well as the
political history of the New England and
and some of the Northwestern States, vii
show that not only Mr.. Chase, but Sumner,
and other prominent leaders Of the present
Republican party, were advocates of tht
right and duty Of State resistance, claiming
the right of State to judge of tho constitu
(tionality Of Federal laws, and if they be
llieyed them to be unconstitutional, the duty
of resisting their execution in whatever mod,
the State in its Judgment might decide upon
Mr.. Seward was too cunning to put his opin
ions in too plain language, but the debates
of Congress show that he gave aid and en-
Ecouragement to the Stats-resistance senti
ments of Wade, Wilson and Chase in th,
J debates referred to. Wilson and the Massa
chusetts Legislature, and all the Northerr
legislatures, then under Abolition influence
advocated and accomplished notification
while Ben Wade, by speech and otherwise
endeayored to organize armed resistance tt
Federal authority IN the State Of Ohio.
i These men now, for base party ends
would, in the language of Ben Wade 'stram
! pie upon the rights Of the Stases."
/" Yield up al the rights Of the States, an,
consolidate this Government into a genera
4 ldespotism.
1 &
II Sometimes society gets tired Of q mai
land hangs him, Sometimes man get
i tired Of Society and hangs himself. Ba,
4ruleth don't work both ways. y