The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-07-02
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY 2.

Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary indepen-
dence, was never designated a State The new ones
only took the designation of States on coming INTO
the Union while that name first adopted for the
old ones by the Declaration of independence.
Therein the ''united colonies were declared to pc
"free and Independent States" but even then the
object was plainly to declare their independence
of another of the Union, but directly tne con-
trary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual se-
ton before, at the time, and afterwards abuhdaty
show.
The States have their status in the Union, and
they have other legal status II they DreaK from
this, they only do so against law anu Dy Ievoiu
ton. The Union, and not themselves separately,
procured their independence and their nDerIy. by
conquest or purchase the Union gave each OF them
whatever of Independence or liberty it has. The
Union is older than any OF the states ana IN laGt II
colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union
threw off their old dependence for them and made
them States such as they are. Not one of them ev
err had a State constitution independent of the
Union OF it is not forgotten that all the new
States framed their constitutions before entering the
Union; nevertheless dependent upon and prepare
tory to coming into the unlon
In further enforcement of the doctrine that
the State governments were not the soyereignS
who created this Government refer to the
great decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States in the case of Chisholm VS.. The
State of Georgia, reported in Dallas, a deci-
sion replete with the most enlightened nation
al spirit in which the court stamps with its i'll
dignant condemnation the notion that the
State of Georgia was sovereign" in any sense
that made it Independent of or superior to the
nation.
Mr.. Justice Wilson said:
AS Judge of this court know and can decide up
theI Knowledge, that the citizens of Georgia when
they acted upon the large scale of the Union as
part of the "peope of the United States" did not
surrender the supreme or sovereign power to that
State but to the purposes of the Union, retained
it to themselves. AS to the purposes of the Union,
therefore, Georgia is not sovereign State,
Whoever considers in a combined and comprehen-
siye view the general texture OF the Constitution
intended to form themselves into nation for nation
al purposes. They instituted for such purposes a
national Government complete in all its parts, with
powers legislative, executive and judiciary, and in
all those powers extending over the whole nation
Is it congruous that, with regard to such purposes
any man or body of men, any person, natural or ar
tical should be permitted to claim successfully an
entire exemption from the ju risdiction of the Ma
tional Government?
Mr., Chairman, the dogma of State sover-
eighty which has reawakened to such vigorous
life in this Chamber has borne such bitter
fruits and entailed such suffering upon our peo-
pie that it deserves more and particular notice.
1t should be noticed that the word sovereign
ty'' cannot fifty be applied to any government
in this country. 1t is not found in our Consti-
tuition. 1t is a feudal word, born of the despo-
tism of the middle ages, and was unknown
even in imperial Rome. A sovereign" is a
person, prince that has subjects that owe him
allegiance. There is no one paramount sover-
eign in the United States There is no person
here who holds any title or authority whatever
except the official authority given him by law
Americans are not subjects, but citizens. Our
only sovereign is the whole people. To talk
about the inherent sovereignty of a corpora
tion-an artificial person-is to talk nonsense:
and we ought to reform our habit of speech on
that subject.
But what do gentlemen mean when thew tell
that State iS S0yarnipnp What
ereignty mean in its accepted use but politi-
cal power having no superior? Is State of
this Union such a corporation? Let us test it
by few examples drawn from the Constitu-
ton. No State of this Union shall make war
or conclude peace. Without the consent of
Congress it cannot raise or support an army or
navy. 1t can make no treaty with foreign
power, nor enter into any agreement or COM
pact with another State. 1t cannot levy any
imposts or duties on imports or exports. 1t
cannot coin money. 1t cannot regulate corr
merce.
1t cannot authorize single ship to 20 into
commission anywhere on the high seas: if it
should that ship would be seized as pirate or
confiscated by the laws of the United States.
A State cannot emit bills of credit. II can
make no law which makes anything but gold
and silver legal tender. 1t has no flag except
the flag of the Union. And there are MANY
other subjects on which the States are forbid
den by the Constitution to legislate.
HOW HuCll inherent sovereignty is lett III
corporation which is thus shorn of all these
great attributes of sovereignty?
But this is not all The Supreme Court of
the United States may declare null and void
any law or any clause of the constitution of a
State which happens to be in conflict with the
Constitution and laws of the United States
Again, the States appear as plaintiffs and de-
fendents before the Supreme Court of the
United States. They may sue each other; and.
until the eleventh amendment was adopted, a
citizen might sue State. These ''sovereigns''
may all be summoned before their common ST.
perior to be judged And yet they are en-
dowed with supreme, inherent sovereignty?
Again. the government of State may be alb
solutely abolished by Congress, in case it is not
republican in form. And finally, to cap the
climax OF this absurd pretension, every right
possessed by one of these Sovereign" States
every inherent sovereign right except the sin
gle right to equal representation in the Senate
may be taken away without its consent by the
vote of two-thirds of Congress and three
fourths of the States. And yet, in spite of all
these disabilities, we hear them paraded as in
dependent, sovereign States, the creators of
the Union and the dictators of its powers.
How inherently sovereign" must be that
State west of the Mississippi which the nation
bought and paid for with the public money,
and permitted to come into the Union a half
century after the Constitution was adopted
And yet we are told that the States are inner
entity sovereign and created the National Gov
eminent.
Read a long line of luminous decisions of
the Supreme court. Take the life of Chief
Justice Marshall, that great Judge, who found
the Constitution paper and made it a power.
who found it o skeleton and clothed it with
flesh and blood. By his wisdom and genius he
made it the potent and benefcent instrument
for the government of a great nation; and be-
nificent instrument for the government of a
great nation. Everywhere he repealed the in
sidious and dangerous heresy of the sovereign
ty of the States in the sense in which it has
been used in these debates.
Half centuay ago this heresy threatened
the stability of the nation. The elo0uence of
Webster and his compeers, and the patriotism
and high courage of Andrew Jackson resisted
and for time destroyed its power; but it con-
tinued to live as the evil genius, the incarnate
devil of America; and in 1861 it was the fatal
phantom that lured eleven millions of our peo-
pie into rebellion against their Government.
Hundreds of thousands of those who took up
arms against the Union stubbornly resisted all
inducements to that fatal step until they were
by The authority of their States
The dogma of State sovereignty in alliance
with chattel slavery finally made its appeal to
that court OF last resort where the laws are 81
lent and where kings and nations appear in
arms for judgment In that awful court of
war two questions were tried. Shall slavery
live? And is State so sovereign that it NAV
nullify the laws and destroy the Union? Those
two questions were tried in the thousand bat
tle-felds of the war. and if war ever .legis-
lates, as leading Democrat of Ohio once
wisely affirmed, then our war legislated finally
upon those subjects and determined beyond all
controversy that slavery never should again
live in this Republic, and that there is not SOW
ereignty enough in any State to authorize its
people either to destroy the Union or nullify
its laws.
am unwilling to believe that any considera
BILE number of Americans will ever again push
that doctrine to the same extent; and yet in
these summer months of 1879, in the Congress
Of the reunited nation, we find the majority
drifting fast and far in the wrong direction, by
much of that doctrine which the
war ought to have settled forever And what
is more lamentable, such declarations as those
which l read at the outset, are finding their
echoes in many portions Of the country which
was lately the theatre of war. No one can
read the proceedings at such recent public eel
ebrations without observing growing deter
mination to assert that the men who fought
against the Union were not engaged in treas
sonable conspiracy against the nation, but
that they did right to fight for their States, and
that in the long run, the lost cause would be
victorious. These indications are filling the
people with anxiety and Indignation; and they
are beginning to inquire whether the war has
really settled these great questions.
/ remind gentlemen on the other side
that we have not ourselves revived these is
sues. We had hoped they were settled beyond /
recall, and that peace and friendship mioht no