The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-01-21
If tha State Journal.


You utter some strange words for Republican
journalist and loyal Union soldier Virginia" |
you say, was strangled and robbed by the ma
tional sovereignty Her crown Jewels Jnris-
snatched from her at one fell swoop of the |
national sovereignty" And you say to her |
creditors go to this proud sovereignty that has |
despoiled her and demand payment of her liabii-
ities,' sc. Certainly you do not mean all your |
words imply. -. d. .-.-
and aided with heart and hand. If there has
been any strangulation and robbery, did you
not help do it? Certainly if the national
government did all You lay to its charge, then
a great wrong has been done, and you and l, |
who aided or sympathized in the transaction,
should make haste 10 ask pardon of those so
wronged But was it wrong to fight the rebel
lion and have the results of success been an
outrage Was the transfer of ownership in
slaves to the slaves themselves, q robbery, or q
cents impoverishment of the state2 Was
reconstruction upon the basis of impartial SUI
frage spoation of Virginia's rights
You have often asked the Conservative press
to particularize the wrong done Virginia by the
national government yet none nave mace
more sweeping denunciation than you in the
article / refer to. l now make the same
request of you-draw the Indictment, and make
the specifications.
And how is it that you have got to using
the words estate sovereignty SO freely You
handle the word like ante-bellum Democrat.
That is the name of the heresy that has del
uged our country with its best blood, and which
it was supposed the war had exunguished for
ever There is such thing as State sover-
eighty. There never was any in the true sense
of the word. Let ia hope there never can be
any other than that of the people of the United
States, and that sovereignty is represented by
the national government. There Is such a thing
as State rights, which the people OF the United
States, in their sovereign capacity, have defined
| and secured by the constitution they have made.
But the people, in the exercise of the same SOW
| ereign power, may change, modity OF apoilsh
| the same at their pleasure.
| disagree in toto with you rs to the litigation
| resting upon us citizens of Virginia as to the
| State debt. The people of the State incurred
| the liability and have had the value received.
No change of government or constitution can
| impair the moral or legal obligation. Besides,
| the new constitution ratified by the people
| with unprecedented unanimity recognizes the
debt and imposes upon the Legislature the duty
| to provide for its payment. When has this
mandate of the people been revoked?
Let the Legislature perform its duty as re-
quired and the people will do theirs, or L am
mistaken in my estimate Of Virginia character.
| F-- SUBSCRIBER.
FaiJar Courthouse, January II, 1878.
Our words may sound strange to the
writer of the above. We doubt not they
do. But they cannot sound stranger to him
than his must sound to all true Republican
ears. What we said of the i" strangled
sovereignty" of Virginia, we meant and
what we said Of her "spoliation and rob-
berry," we meant. Although q Union
soldier" and fighting in the interests Of
national unity and sovereignty, we neither
helped to despoil nor rob Virginia. II
7" Subscriber" can say as much, we shall
be glad to have him say it. In the editorial
referred to, we laid down principle Of law
universally recognized by civilized nations
that where one sovereignty supplants an
other it takes its liabilities along with the
supplanted sovereignty and eminent do
main. We have repeatedly said that the
partition and spoliation of Virginia was
wrong-that there was no warrant for il
but in the last and most desperate necessi
ty of war and that when the war ceased
the State should have been RENTED to it
ancient jurisdiction and rights Of sove
reignty. Its spoliation was never justified
on any other ground than that o
the war making and war-exactin!
power. No other State was stripped o
its territory or subjected to strangulatior
and robbery. Virginia, which was the las
to go into secession, and which was finally
dragged into it by violence, was made t.
suffer the most cruel deprivation of all
This palpable injustice we have always
demonstrated against and always shall
every " subscriber" to the contrary not
withstanding. #grelgnH -a
70 fight and put down rebellion, is one
thing to fight against the existence ant
integrity Of states, another. We Tough
against the rebellion, or the attempt on TIN
part of the South to destroy the nationa
unity and sovereignty. In other words
we fought for the Union--solely and purely
for the Union-and not for the dismember
ment or destruction of states. As slavery
stood in the way of perfect restoration o
the Union, and was the chief cause of TIN
rebellion, we went in for the destruction
Of that-for its determination, root ant
branch. With the rebellion crushed out
and the cause Of it extermnated, Their,
was no necessity to push the war further
to make it penal war against states
with such high pains and penalties as dis
memberment and complete spoliation Q
sovereignty. gasRsw
Subscriber" asks something les
than a hundred questions, and all in
tone of assumed superiority of Re
publican Judgment, if not of Republican
orthodoxy and antecedent. We do no
: object to this. If he INDUCES any sue
happy illusion, we would not rob him Q
it. 1t is in this tone of superiority tina
he puts thefollowing question to us: "AnC
how is it that you have got to using tn
words state sovereignty so freely ?'' w
answer: Precisely for the reason that W
) use the words Irrational sovereignty
SO freely. The two sovegeignties exis
separate and distinct from eac
other, just as George Washington, pres
dent of the convention framing the consti
tuition, defined them-the sovereign 'powe
of making war, peace and treaties, that Q
levying money and regulating commerce
and the correspondent executive and judi
cial powers, y are vested by the con
htution in the general government 9
the Union. All other 6 rights of in
: dependent sovereignty" he says, ar