Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-14
Ben. Wade on the Resolutions of 'ss

Ben. wade on the Resolutions of 'os,
From the Cincinnati CommerciaIl
Senator Wade's emphatic reputation Of
the heresy of State sovereignty the other
day, when Reverdy johnson referred tc
his a%ntecedents in that regard, is hardly
substantiated by his record. The editor
of the Nashville HteLiigeaeer has been
digging with malicious industry into the
| Congressional Globe of 1855, and quotes
from the Honorable Senator of the great
sovereign State of Ohio as follows :-TSee
Appendix to Congressional GLOBE, Second
Session, Thirty-third Congress, PIP. 2l5,
2I4, 2I5]
al am one of those who not only when
an election is pending, but at all times, be-
lieve in the wisdom, the cOnstitutionality,
and the prOpriety of the Virginia resolu-
tions of 1898 and 1893. / ground myself
upon those resolutions. . Who is to
be the Judge, in the last resort, of the VIC
lation of the Constitution of the United
States by the enactment of a law Who
is the final arbiter2 The general govern
ment, or the States in their sovereignty ?
Why, sir, to yield that points to yield up
all the rights of the States TO protect their
own citizens, and to consolidate this gov
eminent into a miserable despotism. =
| stated tina. this bill was intended to pro-
mote and help the execution of the fugi-
tive bill. The Senator does not deny it. 1
sad there were States in this Union where
the highest tribunals had adjudged that
bill to be unconstitutional, and that 1 was
one of those who believed it Uneonstitu-
tional; and that under the old resolutions
of 1898 and 1899, a State must not only
be the judge of that, but of the remedy in
such a case. =
There is enc sovereign State
which has asserted the great doctrine
which your State, sir, Mr.. Mason in the
chair, invoked in 1898 to free yourselves
from the exercise of power that threatened
to reduce you to slavery. Your great an
cestOrs rose against it, and made the dec
~laration of the platform on which l stand
to-day, and on which you who are honest
Democrats stand, and from which you
will not shrink in the day Of trial, unless
you mean to indorse them at Baltimore
and deny them at Washington. Laugh
ter. Then l am not to be condemned as
a nulliiier, or as a di~sunionist. unless 1 fall
with the great Democratic party upon the
plahA III Int last pAdllOIm WHICH
erected"
The Hatelligsncsr also finds the follow
ing gem in a speech of Wade's, made in
1855, page 1913 Appendix to Congressional
Globe, Second Session, Thirty-third Con-
gress:
q know that she (the North has been
charged with aggression by my friend from
Louisiana, Mr.. Benjamin. for, as he said
Of me, l will call him a friend l have no
-eason to call him anything else, for l
have received nothing but Kindness and
at his hands. He being a South
I'm man, I am the last one to assail him
for defending his institutions. l have no
iOubt that ifmy habits and education had
1een like his, our positions would have
been reversed to-day. l can understand
hat very well, and make all allowances
or it."
Perhaps it would be well if our emf
lent Senator, who gives the world the
most positive assurances that he is sus-
by the arm of the Almighty, would
present his revised opinion of Senator
Benjamin and also to inform the country
whether he still understands makingallow-
lnces for habits and education.
" /