The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1874-04-10
THEORY, OF GOvERNMENT-sTAT
AND FEDERAL. 4#
NUMBER SIX.

Editor Democrat:
i In my first letter ! proposed that
u we apply the result Of these inquiries
| to the "principles enunciated and
theFpolicy pursued by the party in
trusted with the administration of
the general government for the last
thirteen years, and in whether these
fundamental principles that pertain
to our system, and distinguish it from
most other governments, have been
adhered to or departed FROM In
this letter I propose that we com
|lnenee to make the application sug-
gested, -, s5
If the few incidents of history con4
nccted with the formation Of our
| general government, referred to in
the preceding letters, be correct,
and if, in the light of that history
and the Constitution itself, we are
correct in our conclusions as to the
theory of government given us by
the early fathers of the Republic, we
cannot fail to observe that they did
mot expect the people Of the several
States to sleep in the delusion that
they would derive all needful security
from their own intelligence and
virtue. They fully realized the fact
that the superstrueture they were
then making was not q self-acting
machine, that would perform its
functions without human agency,
and they further realized that the
people cannot always protect them
selves against their rulers, for as we
have seen by previous letters they
sought as far as seemed practicable
to interposo such checks and balances
as would enable the people to main
tain their liberties at home, and pro-
tect themselves from invasion from
abroad. For security from foreign
invasion they evidently looked to the
Federal Government; but for the
maintenance of their personal hber-
ties-the right to acquire and hold
property with all that pertained
thereto, the State governments was
looked to as their only safety. They
evidently intended that as little as
possible Of this form should be in
trusted to the Federal Government,
and even that little should be watch
ed by a power authorized and compe-
tent to arrest its abuse-that power
the States retained. In our system,
the Federal Government is not re-
sponsible directly to the people en-
Dtassg, but to the people in their
character Of distinct political corpo-
ratio1is. .E A
1t is sometimes easy for q govern
menk to steal power from the people,
but gooau0aoatS do not SO readily
yield it to one another; hence they
pursued it at their State organiza-
ions, yielding to the Federal Govern
lnent i'll the foundation OF the Con-
8Etution only such powers as the
States could not efficiently exercise,
evidently intending to retain the
right and all requisite power to keep
their common government within its
proper sphere; and q sufficient Sc
curity for the due exercise of that
right it was supposed was afforded
by the fact, that it would be the
interest Of the States to exercise it
discreetly. Having created the
Federal Government of their own
free Will, and for their own uses;
having clothed it with q certain
portion Of their own powers for their
own benefit, why should they desire
to render these powers imperative
and nugatory? Thus evidently rea-
soned the architects of the Govern
ment Of the United States and thus
reasoned the people Of the several
States when they voted in their re-
spective States to adopt the Federal
Constitution.
Tt is not my purpose to show, or
to attempt to show, that any State
has, for itself, sought to render the
powers conferred, or the powers
reserved, imperative or nugatory,
but the inquiry we have instituted
requires us to show at whose door
lays the great sin of the woeful
calamities that have overtaken the
country within the last thirteen years
to show where and how these
powers, State and Federal, have
been indiscreetly exercised.
Our form of government was such
that each State had reserved the right
to control and regulate its own
domestic polity. This principle in
our system it seems did not become
obnoxious to any portion Of the IN
ion until long after slavery was abol-
ished in all the States north Of Ma
sons and Dixon's line. This insidious
foe to our domestic tranquility first
showed its formidable proportions
when the power-not the constitu-
tional authority of the Federal Coy
ernment--was invoked to exclude
that institution from the Territory
Of Missouri upon her application for
admission into the Union as State.
This contest gaye-if not birth
tangible form and shape to the
''irrepressible conflict that forty
years afterward eliminated in the
late Civil War between the two
sections Of the country one
having acted upon their reserved |
rights as independent sovereign |
States and abolished the institution |
Of slavery within their own respect
i've limits the other acting upon the
same principle, saw 6t to retain the
institution.
The territories now became the OBJ
ioct Of strife, and it would seem all |
candid minds must admit that our
party lost sight OF, not only the her
ishod principles Of State rights which
they had all so zealously guarded,
but also Of the golden rule, to edo
unto others as you would have 9TH
ers do unto you" They did not
.v-o, IA 10 m into 4e,,.;foy.;aa 1t-;th eiayaa