New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-08-31
Thu AMERICAN BOURBONS.

election lot congress anu I-tRiSia-
ture, as they carried it for Seymour and Blair
in 1868. If they can succeed Gas they did them
in coerciug some thousands of Blacks to vote
with them on penalty of election from their
cabins and privations of work and wages,
while thrice as many are terrified into staying
away from the polls, they will, of course, have
a large majority. 1t is, therefore, desirable
that the whole people should know on what
principle they resume the control of their
State and they have not disdained to satisfy
the rational interest felt in their attitude.
State Rights, as maintained prior TO Secession,
is their creed, and the whole of it, They say:
That the Democratic party Of the State Of Georgis
stand upon the principles of the Democratic party of the
Union, bringing into special prominence "a applicable
the present extraordinary condition Of the country,
the d1changeabe determination that this is Union OF
States and the indesructbity of the States and OF
their rights and of their equality with each other Is an
indispensable part of our political system
Now, there are nearly as many exp0sitions
as expositOrs of State Rights; but, happily, we
are not left in doubt as to the Georgia
exegesis. The Hon. A. H. Stephens has just
completed an elaborate and able defense of the
late Rebellion under the title of "The War
between the States" wherein the Georgia.,
conception of State Rights is unhesitatingly
set forth in all its native deformity, and COM
menGed to general acceptance as the true
American doctrine embodied in the preamble
to the Federal Constitution. Nay: Mr. Stephens
is not satisfied with this, but insists that it is
identical with the doctrine originally held by
the Republican leaders, of whom lie instances
Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Z. Wade. and
Horace Greeley.
Mr.. Stephens, it ia well known, was an
original, fOrcible, influential opponent of Sc
cessiOn, deeming it uncalled for 10y any exist
ing exigency and unjustifed by any alleged
wrong inflicted on the South by the North !;
but, when majority of the Georgia COnven-
ton had voted to secede, MIR. Stephens went
over to Secession, and was thereafter its Jealous
champion. There was submission of that
mOmentOus Ordinance" to q popular vote,
whether in Georgia OF in her five sisters who
formed with her the original Southern Con-
federacy, and Mr.. Stephens never demanded
any. In each case, delegates were chosen who
assembled in Convention and voted their State
out of the Union, in defiance of known pop
ular majority in most of them; and this (Nr.
Stephens maintains) released him and his
fellow members of Congress from their
oath of fidelity to the Federal Constitution,
justified those Southern officers of the Army
and Navy who held with Gen. Lee that
there was no sufficient reason for Secession,
in turning their swords against the Govern
ment which had educated, subsisted and hon
ored Them and in fact dissolved all the Obliga-
lions whereby the citizens and functionaries of
the seeded States had previously been bound
Il. .1a r,,,, - 4hn
Union.
Mr. Stephens is very acute and subtle
logician, and has probably convinced himself
that this is at least the doctrine of the South,
and was held by him while Wing, before he
took the downward road through Sham
Democracy into treason and overt rebellion.
In reply to our statement that he accords to
100000 persons, composing the governing ma
jority of the people of Delaware right to
dissolve the Union which he denies to ten
times that number forming like majority of
the people of Southern NewYOrk, he says,
(VOl H., p. 12):
"My conception involves no such nonsense az that ok
hbited in his statement of it, touching the relative pop
uations of the whole State of Delaware and portion
only beng large minority, however, OF the population
Of the State Of York. Populations in this respect
character The doctrine advocated by me, with all its
coroares rests upon the Ja that Delaware, however
small her population, is perfectly organized 5tateis
Sovereign Stateand such Is an integral Member OF
our Federal Republic and that NewYOrk, with her ever
so many more people, is The doctrine is that
ours is indeed a Federal Rcpubic-cOnsttucd, not OF
one people in mass single republic is, but composed
of a number Of separate republics"
Comments by The Tribune.
That the above is Mr.. Stephens's doctrine
If he pleases, "the doctrine" of those whom
he regards as "the South OF "the States
below the Potomac and the Ohio-we care not
authority as to his own meaning But this is
not "the doctrine" of Abraham Lincoln,
Benz. f. Wade, Horace Greeley, nor (what is
of far greater consequence Thomas Jefferson
in the immortal preamble. Just read that once
more, and very carefully:
owe hold these truths to be selfevidcnt That al;
created equal that they endowed by their Gre
with certain inalienabe rights that among these
life liberty, and the pursuit OF happiness that 70
these rights governments instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the consent OF the
governed that whenever any form Of government be-
comes destructive OF these ends it ia the right Of the
people to alter or to abolish it, and TO institute
government, laying its foundations such principles
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness"
This is the doctrine which Messrs. Lincoln,
Wade, and Greeley, have had occasion to af-
firm and amplify; and it seems TO us radically
diverse from that of Mr.. Stephens. He is af
frming the sovereign power of existing politi-
cal organizations Mr.. Jefferson cOntemplates
the Rights of the People as they existed prior
to any political organization, and as being at
all times paramount to the charters, powers,
and rescripts, of all organizations whatever.
According to Mr.. Stephens's conception, if
some ROthschild or other great capitalst had