American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-02-03

| III iSSItSb w ihhhJ iIhttCio uhtClinS
the general welfare of the people is
not denied. We take the Constitu.
ton as whole, and respects all its
powers alike, whether they delegate
or prohibit power. and we insist chat
the broad line of dcmarcation be-
tween the powers delegated and the
powers prohibited, or reserved to
the States and people, shall remain
precisely where the trainers Of the
Constitution established it. We do
not want to disturb it, but we do
want the authorities to see it and
respect it.
The Federal Government should
be as reluctant to encroach upon
the reserved rights of the States and
people as it would be trespass upon
the acknowledged rights of the most
powerful foreign nations, Interior.
ence by that Government with the
domestic affairs of the States, no
matter upon what pretense, unless
it be in accordance with the require.
ments of the Constitution, is, in
every respect, as great ii wrong as
interference in the internal affairs
of any country in Europe. II the
administration of General Grant
we're to send armed men into Can
ada to superintend elections and
overawe the people, it would be just
cause of war aud vet, in our opin.
ion, it has as much legal right to
send them there as it has to send
them into Ohio or Kentucky for
such purpose.
Every State in the Union, and
every citizen in every State in the
Union, is vitality interested in the
restoration of the true theory Of the
Constitution, and all should coop
crate in an honest effort to accom-,
pliSh that result. But 1t is pecu-
liarly the interest and duty Of the
great States located in the interior
to insist upon the acknowledgment
of their rights and powers in the
Union. They must always be in
habited by an agricultural people,
who, from the,very nature of things,
have but little to expect from the
General Government, except the
privilege of paying taxes and trib.
uteS in various forms to the Eastern
constituents of the men who con
troll the policy of that Government.
They have but few manufactures to
be sustained at the general expense;
no shipping interests to be fostered
by bornties; no fisheries to be pen.
stoned upon the country no har-
bors to be improved and fortified
by Federal appropriations; and, in
short, they have scarcely any of
those interests which require The
care and protection of great cen
trail power. Their industries and
their rights are of the kind which
the State itself can best promote
and protect. They have no con-
tract with foreign governments, and
no commerce with foreign people
Their habits are simple, their tastes
are comparatively few and easily
supplied.
Here, too, in this great valley, is
to be the seat of political power in
this country, if the political power
of the States and people is to exist
anywhere under the Government.
Such Il people should have policy
of their own, and should be prepar-
ed at all times to assert it and reap
the benefit of it. There has never
been II time in the history Of this
country when New England did not
have well defined protective and
aggressive policy, or when she did
not number among the WarmcSt
supporters of that policy many of
the ablest and most Influential pub.
lie men IN other sections of the
Union Her policy is rs triumphant
to-day in the legislative and eXecu
tive department of the Federal
Government as If the President and
his Cabinet and all the members of
Congress has been born and educa
ted beneath the shadows of Ply
mouth rock. Her protective tariff,
her fishing bounties, her spurious
circulating medium, her lattudin-
arian construction of the Constitu.
ton in behalf OF Federal power, her
arrogance and intolerance, her ava
rice, her stubborn and unyielding
enmity, her religious and political
fanaticsm, are all incorporated
with the machinery of the Govern
ment, which now unfortunately
makes and enforces laws upon al
most every subject affecting the in
tercsts of the people in the West
and SOnth.
1t is time, we say, that these peo-
pie, too, had a doctrine and a poll
cy in accordance with it. There is
but one doctrine that will preserve
them, and that is the old-fashiOued
and much derided doctrine OF JEFF /
ferson and Madison and the COnsti
tuition. There is but one policy
that will give them their proper
weight and influence in the Govern
HltIl, dIu llldC 10 tuo poIlN9 vi mar
cooperation upon the ba'
sis of State rights in opposition to
the New England policy of absorb
ton and Capitalization. We will
Join hands with all who propose to
advocate this doctrine and policy,
and we will go with them wherever
the argument logically takes us.
Those who expect to frighten the
Democracy away from their princi.
pies by the cry of notification and
rebellion, will, we trust, be wofully
deceived. Whatever the Constitu-
ton, properly interpreted, permits
The States and people to do for the |
of their rights and lib 4
rites, we shall not hesitate to adj