The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-06-09

sition of the President OF. the United
States in that war with England, be-
cause. they said, as the Governors Of
sovereign and independent States,
they had right to Judge for them
selves whether the contingency had
happened under which the President
had right to call for troops, and
they decided that it had not, and re-
fused to honor the requisition.
STATE SOVEREIGNTY.
The next application of it was in
1914, in the celebrated Hartford Con-
vention (composed chiefly Of old Fed
eralists) of men from the New En-
gland States. You will remember
that that war with England was re
garded as destructive to the commerce
of New England, and that the New
Enalapd States we're very hostile to
it. This hostility to the war led that
party to gradually adopt this doctrine
of the independent sovereignty of the
States. In that Hartford convention,
which proved to be the tomb Of every
politician that went into it, they re-
solved that it was the duty of each
State to SO lecislate as to protect the
State against the levies, conscription
and drafts of the General Govern
ment, except in such cases where each
State decided for itself that it was
proper that such draft, levey or con-
scription might be made. There was
a strange feature in the hietory Of
parties at that time, the old Federal
party starting out in favor of strong
central government. Washington be-
ing member of it, Alexander Ham
oc
to that war it gradually drifted around
and placed itself upon this doctrine of
State sovereignty and denied the exist
other hand. the so-called Republican
party Of that day, or Democratic party
if you please, had been imbued with
this doctrine of State sovereignty first
by Jefferson, but still supporting the
war, gradually drifted around and took
the place formerly occupied by the old
Federal party, becoming the national
party. Madison himself asserted the
existence oc the nation and those
rights and powers of the government
which enabled it to wage that war and
prosecute it to successful termlna-
ton, and to preserve the Union. As
another illustration that 90 section of
the country is safe from this doctrine,
no party secure against it, / may refer
to the fact that in 1918 and 1919 |
think it was then-when the State Of
Ohio, through her Legislature, de-
clared the State to be sovereign and
Independent, and that the Government
of the United States was mere COM
pact to which the States were only
parties in their corporate capacity, and
to which the people of the United
States were not party in their aggre-
gate capacity. think, in 1929, the
great State Of Pennsylvania, through
It's Legislature, by concurrent resolu-
tion, declared that the government
was compact and was in the nature
of a treaty between sovereign and in
dependent nations. Then we come
down to 1882; there we find South
Carolina nullifyiDg a tariff law of the
United States because, in the opinion
Of her people, that law was destructive
to her interests, again asserting this
doctrine Of the independent sovereign,
tty of the States. Coming down still
later, just before the war of the rebel
lion. We find many old anti-slavery
men, in their hatred for the fugitive
slave law, going very far in the asser- :,
ton of the same doctrine. Then we
COIHc UOWu ~ lu0 wax Ol Iuc TCpctllOH
That doctrine was at hand. The
South seized upon it. 1t was the
ready made instrument of destruction
seized upon by slavery. and it was that
doctrine that enabled the South to
take eleven States, for the time being,
out OF this Union, to organize that
Confederacy which has cost all of this
blood and treasure.
THE RESULT OF THE DOCTRINE.
l notice common idea that the
doctrine was invented for the benefit
OF slavery; that it perished with slav-
cry and was buried in the same tomb.
That is not correct historically or log.
ically, for it was declared and assert
ed, and sought to be applied, long be-
fore the slavery que stion ever arose to
disturb the peace of our nation. That
doctrine is a perpetual threat against
the life OF this nation. II is poison
ed dagger ever at hand to be clutched
by desperate factions. 1t is a ready
made instrument of destruction, to
lie seized upon by any portion of the
country that may, for the time being,
be estranged, or by any party.
Our country has now gradually ex-
tended from the tropics to the Arctic
regions, from the Atlantic to the Pa
ci6c. Consider the Pacific slope sep
arated from US by l 500 miles Of des-
ert and of mountain. A far -oi1 coun-
try, with different commerce from
ours, its trade is with China, Japan,
the western coast of South America
and the islands of the Southern Pa
ciic. That commerce, but now in its
infancy, may yet develop and change
the whole commercial character of the
country. The time may arise when
ambitious demagogues and dangerous
men on that farOH slope may aspire
to establish Pacific republic Thank
God, see no signal of it now. Those
States were as loyal during the war as
any States. But consider the whole
pen in the future? There is no safety
to this nation in the long time to come
while any considerable portion shall
which have referred.
What is the other doctrine and the
ory Of our fathers? That our Govern
ment was formed by the people of the
United States in their aggregate char
acter; that we are one nation, though
we are many States. When they
came together in convention to organ
Ize the new government, they gave it
certain powers, with the necessary
power to carry those given into exe-
cution. All the rest-all the unspe-
cific balance and residuum, was as
signed to the States or to the whole
people.
THE OLD THEORY.
This is the theory: that the rights