Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-10-18

Preamble of the Constitution. On the
other hand, its advocates did not deny it,
but openly avowed it, and at their head
stood Washington, who asserted that the
very object of the Constitution was to Gre
ate consolidated Union, regarding this as
its fundamental value.
A brief review of our political and
constitutional history would, we believe,
satisfy any lover of his country that the
doctrine Of Estate Sovereignty" was dis
carded when the old Articles of Confeder-
alton were supplanted by the Constitution
OF 1887. To show this, we have only to
compare the beginning of the two. The
Articles of Confederation began as fol
lows:
!. The style of this confederacy shall be
the United States of America.
II. Each State retains its sovereignty,
freedom and independence, etc.
V. sin determining questions
in the United States in Congress assembled,
each State shall have one vote"
In all the most important measures
coming before Congress, it required the
vote of nine out of thirteen States to pass
a law, and for all other measures 1t re-
quired majority of all The States, thus
placing 1t in the power of one man to de-
feat the most salutary measure, which in
fact was done when Jetlerson's ordinance
for the prohibition of slavery in all the
territories was before that Congress- Nor
was there any inherent power in the Arti
Giles OF Confederation to bind the States
together. But so long as the war of the
Revolution lasted, the States were held
together by an outside pressure of fear,
and the moment that the pressure was re-
moved, our pretense to nationality was
gone, and the spirit of union died away !;
in fact, the Confederacy was a failure,
and was 50 pronounced by our fathers
We are" said Washington, lone Nation
to day and thirteen tomorrow" The best
men OF those times felt that the only way
out OF these difficulties and perils was by
means of a stronger Government A
convention was called to revise the Arti-
Giles of Confederation, and the result was
an entirely new Constitution (our present
organic law, which was adopted by the
people through conventions in the several
States, and went into operation in 1889.
Now, compare the Preamble of this Con-
stitution with the beginning of the above
quoted Articles of Confederation
We, the people of the United States, in or
der to form a more perfect Union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common defense, promote the gen
eral welfare, and to secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do or
dain and establish this Constitution for the
United States OF America.
Here we have the true key to the inter
probation of the Constitution as to wheth-
er we are a Nation or Confederacy. And
before its adoption, the beginning of the
Preamble, I'VE, the people" was pointed
out by its opponents as the most obiec-
tionabe feature OF the whole instrument,
because it recognized the people as Ma
ton, and ignored the States in their sover-
eign capacity. AT the hour the Constitution
was adopted, the Nation received its life,
and the leading statesmen of the country,
both North and South, heartily approved
of its adoption.
That the people of the Southern States
subsequently became the vehement advo-
Gates of State sovereignty" instead of
National Union, arose principally from
the enhancement of the value of their
slave labor, through the invention of the
cotton gin and the acquisition by our
Government OF new territory adapt
ed to the products of slave la.
Dor. As soon as the great value of
slave labor became known, the
shareholders began to look about for
guard against the destruction of slavery,
and they at once embraced the doctrine of
" State sovereignty" as their projections
and they followed up this doctrine until,
in 1861, it broke forth in open rebellion.
We know the results of that rebellion, and
we know, too, that the South has not
abandoned this peculiar dogma, notwith-
standing the chief cause of its dangerous
growth has been blotted out The South
ern people are naturally embittered at the
loss OF their slaves, at the immense de-
struction of their property, and, above all,
at their downfall from their supreme con-
troll OF the National Government That
they hate the negro with ballot in his
hand is not TO be wondered at, for it is
only the eXempitication of the truth of
the old maxim, "Whom we have injured
We begin to hate" The majority of the
whites mt the South today are in favor of
secession, and are opposed to the citizen
ship OF the negro, and the condition of the
latter is now, without the protection of the
Government, worse than whc1 he was
slave and unless this Government shall
" establish justice, insure domestic tran
guilty, and secure the blessings of
liberty" to this people, the world will
justly pronounce Republican Government
a lamentahie and disgraceful failure.
At the present juncture tins question
is one of paramount importance; for the
Democratic party have placed at its head
man who is fully and absolutely com.
mitted to The doctrine that leads at once
to secession. In 1860 Mr. Tilden wrote a
letter TO Hon. William Kent, then Dem
ocratic elector for the State of New ork,
in which he said The masters of politi.
cal science who constructed our system"
=" left revolution organized when il should
be demanded by the public opinion of
State, In eth po,cer to snap the tie If
confederation as Nation might break