Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-26


seen in their visible State governments,
might be rendered imperative; but the
State in its highest and real sense is the
people. These would exist, and would,
when permitted, resurrect their inactive
government and put it into motion. If, as
has been done, they are required 10 give q |
new expression, it would be substantially |
the same; there would not be new .ele- |
ment in it; some limitations might be re-
moved and some of its rights and privi !
leges might be extended. The govern |
mem would be precisely the same unless |
a tyranny were exercised thatshOuld crush |
out the very soul OF the people; unless a !
despodsm as remorseless and cruel as that |
which daily and hourly, by slow torture,
draws out the heart of Poland, were to eX-
ercise its unrighteous power.
If the Yirtuous people of Virginia and
Massachusetts, the most renowned repub-
lies on the globe, were to-day called upon
to frame each constitution there would
be but little difference in their forms. Ii
one were more liberal in some of its pro
visions, the other would be administered
with more tenderness. will not recur
to the history of either of these people
to uncover their wounds and set them to
bleeding afresh, but call attention to their
virtuous and enlightened principles. All
the discoveries of humanity in the affairs
of free governments belong to each.
They are impressed on the minds of both
with equal permanency. The great
''Magna Charta" of American liberty,
not by any means thing that any man
or people could claim an exclusive right
to, still did receive its form from the
great Virginian. admit it to its place
in the Government of our country as the
basis of all our institutions. | would
with equal pleasure point to the inaugural
address of the same great mind, when he
took his seat for his first Presidential
term, as. not less valuable, but even of
higher and purer origin, and more bind
| ing upon the patriot and the Christian, In
which the reign of reason is preferred to
| bigotry or the sword.
1t is not important to-day what should
| have been done at the close OF the war,
since it was moi DONE The State govern
ments were declared ''swept way" with
| out law or reason of fact to sustain it. A
new expression was taken at the point OF
the bayonet. These in turn were again
| set aside, and new rule applied under
the same power. A solemn promise was
made to admit the Senators and Represen-
tatives upon complying with expressed
| conditions. These conditions were faith
| fully complied with, and new conditions
were imposed, which have likewise been
met. All this neither made new States
nor unmade the old States.
Under the first essay the thirteenth
amendment was carried by States, of
course, for nothing but a State could
| ratify a constitutional amendment, and
a State entitled to representation. 30
they will be regarded. They bave never
been ANYTHING less than equal, independ-
ent States. Mr.. Lincoln so regarded
them when he authorised his Secretary Of
State to declare this principle to the
French government during the most
violent period of the war.
The Supreme Court, in a recent dcCis-
| ion, have held them as States under all
| the varied expressions that the people
! have made. Our greatest living states
| man declared in one of the ablest speeches
ever made in this body, on the admission
| of California:
California is already a State-a com
plete and fully appointed State. She
| never again can be less than that. She
can never again be a province ora colony;
nor can she be made to shrink and shTivel
into the proportions of a Federal depend
| ent territory. California, then, henCsfOrth
and forever, must be what she is now, a
State
| So Virginia when she ceased to be a
| colony was State, and sovereign State
until she surrendered portion of her
sovereignty to the Union. do not mean
sovereignty in its European sense. No
| process Of sweating can reduce her from
an equal, independent State.
| Nor was it in the power of any portion
of her people to deprive her and her loyal
people of their just, vested rights in the
| Union. The war, by a solemn declaration
| of Congress, was undertaken for the pre-
| servation of the Union, and consequently
! of the rights of the States in the Union.
| The war was not made to destroy but to
| preserve; it was waged against Rebels,
| not against States When the Rebel
1 DOhGI W dS NuG4lCNl, TIC Lights VI tAlI III
| Zens in the States and in the Union sprung
TO life. They come full grown, crowned
| with mature years. They could be no
less. Every hour that they have been I'M
necessarily withheld has been treason
against Justice. Ii may be affirmed that
this pupilage of States was for the prOtec-
ton of those who required it. The mo-
tive was good one, but the policy bad
one. Restore to all their rights and then
| protect them in their enjoyment.
! The Government is one of law and not
| of force. 1t acts upon citizens, not upon
incorporated States, by force. Mr.. John
son, in convention of the people of Con
necticut for the ratification of the Con
stitutlon, said:
"The force which is to be employed is
the energy of law, and this force is to
operate only on individuals who fail in
their duty to their country"
Says Mr. Ellsworth
81 am for coercion by law; that coer-
ciOn which acts only upon delinquent in
dividuals. This Constitution does not at
tempt to coerce sovereign bodies, States
in their political capacity"
The Union is . Union of States by the
people forming a government designed to
act on them as individuals.
But, if it were possible, greater, Mr..
Webster. has said, after quoting from the
| F6derdLiSt:
"The fabric of American empire Ough
to rest on the solid basis of the consent of
| the people. The
Constitution, sir, regards itself as perpet-
Ual and immortal, 1t declares that new
| States may come into the Union, but It
| does not declare that old States may go
out. The Union is not atemporary part
nership of States" ~
What is that Union9 I viii let Mr..
Pinckney, the most brilliant and accom-
plished lawyer Of the golden era that he
graced, say:
ErWhat is the Union? A confederation
of States equal in sovereignty, capable of
| everything which the Constitution does
not forbid or authorize Congress to for
bid. It is an equal Union between par
ties equally sovereign. They were SOW
| ereign, independently of the Union. The
| object of the Union was common prOtCC-
ton for the exercise of already existing
sovereignty. The parties gave up a pOr
| ton of that sovereignty to insure the re-
mainder. As far as they gave it up by
the common compact, they have ceased to
be sovereign. The Union provides the
means of defending the residue, and it is
into that Union that q new State is to
| come. By acceding to it the new State
| :, ,,Iooo1 on tho Game fOOtiur with the