New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-19
N4TTONAL SUPREMACY

NATIONAL SUPREMACY
"For the first time" said Democratic leader
recently, "we have the Republican party on the
defensive" His misconceptiou of the situa-
ton was remarkable. 1t seemed to him that
the Democratic proposal to repeal the election
laws, and to leave to each State exclusive
responsibility of providing adequate laws for
the protection of the balOt-bOx, would place
the Republicans at a Disadvantage in public
opinion would compel them to adopt and de-
fend an obnoxious measure and an unpopular
policy and thus would turn the scale against
them. Yet his notion, closely examined, is
found 10 rest upon the belief that the old
theory of State rights and State supremacy is
dearer to the hearts of the American people than
all that they defended, upheld and established
by years of war and unreasonable sacrifices
of blood and treasure.
State rights, State supremacy, non-interfer-
ence with the States-these have for long
time been notions held by certain class of
professional politicians. But the outbreak of
the Civil War revealed the fact that these no.
tons had no hold upon the people The in
slant the torch OF rebellion was lighted, the
millions of free citizens all over this land
Ieapcu UP 10 90 DdJJe IOT Jlt NduiOudl lucd.
This is as true of the Southern as of the
Northern peoples they fought also for Ma
tionality, and not for a State. Il went with
"my State " was only the excuse of cOwardly
small politicians the people of the South
fought for nationality and independence, and
to the end cared for the South as a unit, for
its institutions, its customs. its pTejudices and
its pride. To this day, the feeling that fingers
is a keen regret that "the South " did not
achieve a separate national existence. On the
Northern side, the spirit was the same except
that there was an uncOnqnerable hostility to
the alienation of any part OF the National ter
ritory. Men volunteered, and lent money,
and endured disease and wounds and captiv-
ity, and faced death, not for a fragment called
New York, or Ohio. or Massachusetts, but for
" the Union forever" Do the blind politicians
fancy that this was only passing whlm2
The centennial anniversaries have inten-
SIZED this National spirit 1t is marvellous
that there are still politicians who do not see
the proof of this fact in every celebration.
Those who gather at Stony Point, and re-
member with pride the deeds of Anthony
Wayne and his heroes, scarcely know or care
whether the fort taken was in one State or
another, or whether the men who captured it
were from either State, or any State. They
were soldiers of the young Nation, and won
one of those victories which gave that Nation
a being; that is all men care for. From the
beginning the people were cemented into one
nation by a common cause, and the petit
Jogging of small local politicians was but the
froth on the crest OF the mighty wave of
patriotic feeling.
SO it is now, though Democrats are so slow
to believe it. The Nation is mighty, and dear
to the hearts of the people, and trusted with
out stint, while the States have become mere
lines on a map. and divisions for the conve-
nience of local administration. Not one man
in a thousand forgets that the Nation is
known and feared and hOnOred throughout the
world, while some of the States are merely
dcspised, and others are unknown. Local dis
honesty and reputation, local folly or knav
;shness in legislation respecting the greatest
undertakings OF investments, cOntTaSted with
the fidelity and the power OF the Nation, have
contributed not little to bring the State idea
into disreDute. and make the National idea
welcome and dear TO a people of vast COM
Inereial and industrial interests. Men feel and
know that the prosperity and grandeur of the
country are largely due to the steady, un-
wearied and mistaken direction of compact
and massive nationality.
In no other particular has State control be-
come more remiss than in the protection and
regulation of the right of suffrage. That the
existence of our free nsitutiOns, and all their
value, depend upon the defence of that right
against force and fraud. men feel instnctively.
But they have seen, IL one State or another,
almost every conceivable method Of defeating
the right of suffrage resoTted to, and shielded
by State law or administration. All sorts of
wise or vexatious restrictions upon that right
have been i'll turn adopted, nullified and aban-
doned in some States, "a majority of all the
citizens have been for a long time deprived of
the right by law in other States the majority
has been OverpOwered by mOb-violence, or
driven from the polls by terror and in this
State and many others the will of the m ljOnty
has been defeated by frauds of the most glar-
ing sort, for which State law has inflicted no
penalty on anybody. Even when States have
tried most earnestly to protect their citizens
in the exercise of their nights, as in Louisiana.
the result has often been the adoption of
methods so arbitrary and so liable to abuse
that they have done more harm than good.