The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1877-06-13

CHlcAco, May 81, ISL

II SHtIicOf my 80 -St's
To ihe Editor Of ass csiesgo later oeessl.
I, If a mob, organized or unorganizsd,
should begin numbering people in
Chicago, and burn houses store:
aad warehouses---in short, devastate
the city aud slaughter It's citizens BY
the thousands; and the Governor
should neither stopit, be able TO stop
J it, nor call on the Federal Govern
ment for help, could that govern
ment legally interferel 1t has nc
power except that delegated TO it by
tthe Constitution. and these powers
must be strictly construed. There is
no express provision tor the protec-
ton of the individual citizen in that
instrument. Il was assumed that the
State would discharge that duty.
The State is The sovereign, so far as an
individual is concerned. lie can look
to it alone for help. When the rebels
at the opening of the late war aban-
doned the national Gag and followed
their State they were apparently
consistent, and their action the Oh
vious, natural, and logical outcome Of
the usual process of reasoning con-
corning the nature OF the Federal
Union. Each man decided the case
| for himself. He saw that be, while
on American soil, could call only up
on bis State for his protection, hence
the reciprocal obligation upon him
to defend that State.
The right of the United States TO
listen to the cry of distressed ciIi-
zen, while be is within the limits OF
q State, is not only not in express
words delegated, but the right to
protect State itself is not given, as
against domestic violence" until
the Governor or Legislature of that
State asks for help.
Congress has power to declare
war; to raise and support armies. and
"to provide for calling forth the mill
tia to execute the laws of the United
States, suppress instructions, and
repel invasions;n but neither Con
gress nor either Of the other branches
of the General Government is sup
posed to possess power TO perform
the reciprocal duty Il protecting the
very men who may be drafted iato
The army of the q Dited States. The
General Government can command
my services as soldier; can compel
me to fight and to die for the preser-
vati0n of that government, but | may,
while u civilian aud a resident of
State, cry IN vain for the exercise
of the reciprocal duty of protection.
| ought to be as safe, and shave the
protection of my country as surely, in
Chicago as | would have It if in
China. The arm of patriotism was
nerved during the rebellion by that
magazine article, "a man without
Country So far IS the power of
protection st home IL concerned We
have no country, and there are mil
lions Of people on American soil to-
day, every one of them citizens of the
United States, who feel this. We at
the North do not feel il, though we
know it. As mass we feel nothing
until the frebrand is applied to our
own roof, or the arrow of death
pierces our own family circle. With
the cold-blooded, sluggish selfish
ness characteristic Of men reared in a
cold climate we shall not be moved
sensibly until the blood of the defense
less has been shed by their oppres-
sors, not by thousands only, but by
tens of thousands, so long as our
own little circle of personal sequaint-
ance is untouched
The trouble is, we have theoretic-
ally league of sovereign States ia-
stead Of a nation The war settled
one question against the State and 10
favor of national theory, but there
looms up with fearful portent this
other question Of the denied right Of
national protection for tie individual
citizen.
The obligations to defend and the
right to be defended are reciprocal
A country cannot preserve the affec-
tion Of its people or command their
effective services which is unable or
fails to protect those people 1t
must protect Immediately, and not
depend upon the uncertain call of an
other and, perhaps, a hostile power
A relationship ought to be established
between the nation s1d the man Ii
is not enough that the relationship
exists between the nation aud the
state, and between the state end the
man.
The Federal Government is to-day
administered upon the theory COM
planned Of, upon the pretext of want
OF power Il is not policy, bu. a
sad necessity. Such is the
theory
What can we d. about it
A change must come 1t will
come without revolution or with |
revolution. Amendments to the Fed
eral Constitution requiring the assent
of fthree-.ourths Of all the States can
rot easily be obtained to remedy the
great abuse during the existence Of
that abuse. The fact that il exists
following so extensive
as to make the abuse 50 largely popu-
lar as to render It's destruction by a
three fourths vote hopeless
But is the Constitution such dia-
bolical maa-trsp as is assumed
Does it give power to place me in The
front rank of battle for the defense of
my country, and then tarn me over
to the tender mercies OF another and
q hostile sovereign when | ask for
protection? The Constitution gives
the Federal Government not only all
the powers expressly granted, but all
the powers necessarily implied Is
not the power to protect the iodiFid-
ual emphatically and inevitably i'm
piled 10 the gran, Of the power to caIl
forth the militia to exeeate the laws
Of the United States, to suppress in-
and repel invasionss II
must be implied. Protection is the