Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-09-19

sailed his opinions anu HIS conuuCLi put
now all men begin to see that the plain
people. who at last came TO love him, and
to lean upon his wisdom and hrmness with
absolute trust, were altogether right, and
that in deed ard purpose he was earnestly
devoted to the welfare of the whole coun-
try, and of all its inhabitants.
Believing that Mr.. Llncolns opinions
are of higher authority on the questions of
the war than those of any other public
man on either side eff the controversy, /
desire to % resent them quite fully and IN
his own language.
In the third year OF the war, and while it
was still undecided, Mr.. Lincoln made his
memorable address at the conservation of
the Geitvsburg National Cemetery, on the
I9.h of Novem Der, 1868. He was standing
on the field of the greatest battle OF the
war. He was, no doubt. deeply impressed
with the heavy responstbl tiles wnlcn ne
had borne so long. He spoke not as par
tisan, embittered and narrow and sectional,
but in the broad and generous spirit of
patriot, eolicitous to say that which would
be worthy to be pondereds by all OF his
countryman throughout all time. In MS
short speech of only two or three para
graphs he twice spoke of the objects OF the
war, once in its opening and again IN Its
closing sentence. The words have oeen
often quoted, but they can not be too ia
the question we are considering.
I" -Four score and seven years ago" sald
Mr.. Lincoln, "our fathers brought forth
on this continent new nation, conceived
in liberty and dedic ted to the proposition
that all men are created equal Now we
are engaged in a great civil war. testing
whether that nation, or any nation so con-
ceived and so ded icated, can long endure"
And again, in closing, he said: :" 1t Is
rather for us = that we here bighly
resolve that the dead shall not have died in
vain that the nation shall, under God,
have new birth of freedom; and that
Government of the people. by the people,
and for the people. shall not perish from
the earth"
No statement of the true obj ects of the
war more complete than this has ever been
made. 1t includes them all-N ationality,
Liberty, Equal Rights, and Self Govern
ment. These are the principles for which
the Union soldier fought, and which it
was his aim to maintain and to perpetuate.
If any one supposes that that construc-
tion of our National Constitution which is
sistent with sound principles, let him con-
slider few paragraphs from Mr.. Lincoln's
first message to Congress, at the extra ses-
sion of 1861.
Speaking of what was called the right of
peaceful sece sion-that is, secession in &C
| eordance with the National Constitution
he said:
This sophism derives much, perhaps
| the whole, ofits currency from the assump-
| tion that there is some Omnipotent and fa'
cred supremacy pertaining to a State-to
| each State of our Federal Union. Our
States havo neither more nor less power
| than that reserv ed to them in the Union
| by the Constitution. no one of
| them ever having been State Out
| of the Union. The original ones
pa ,sed into the Union even before
| they cast off their British colonial depend-
| ence, and the new ones each came into the
| Z MON directly from condition of depend
erce excepting Texas. And even Texas,
| in its temporary Independence, was never
designated a State. The new ones only
| took the designation of States on coming
| into the Union, while that name was first
| adopted by the old ones in and by the Dec
Iaration of Independence. Therein the
United Colonies were declared to be free
and nd-iHdependent States;' but, even then,
| the object plainly was not to declare their
independence of one another, or of the
Union, but. directly the contrary, as their
| mutual pledge, and their mutual action,
before. at the time, and afterwards, abun-
| dainty show. The express plighting of
faith by each and all that the u MON shall
be perpetual, is most conclusive. Having
never been tates, either in substance or IN
name, outSi,.e of the Union, whence this
magical omnipotence of State rights as
serting claim of power t. lawfully de-
| stroy the Union itself? Much is said about
the sovereignty of the States; but the
| word, even, is not in the National Consti-
tuition, nor, as is believed, in any of the
State constitutions. What is a sovereign
| ty,' in the political sense of the term
Would it be far wrong to define it A po-
lltlcal community, without political supe-
rIorP Tested by this, no one of our Sta es,
| except Texa, ever was q sovereignty; and
| even Texas gave up the character Oh com
| ing into tho Union; by which act she &C.
kuOWledged the Constitution of the Uni-
| ted States, and the laws and treaties of the
| L nited states made In pursuance of the
Constitution, to be, for her, the supreme
law of the land. The States have their
| status IN the Union, and they have no
other legal status. Ii they break from this,
| they Can only do so against law, and ny
| revolution. The Union, and not them
| selves separately, procured their independ-
| ence and their liberty. By conquest, or
| purchase, the Union gave each of them
| whatever of independence and liberty it
| has. Tne Union Is older than aDy OF the
| States: and, in fact it created them as
| States. Originally, some dependent col
| ohies 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 ever had a State
constitution independent of the Union. Or
| course, it is not forgotten that all the new
States framed their constitutions before
| they entered the Union; nevertheless, de-
| pendent upon, and preparatory to, coming
| into the Union
Unquestionably the States have the pow
| ers and rights reserved to them in and by
| the National Constitution, and upon this
point, in another part of this great III message,
Mr.. Lincoln says:
This relative matter of National power
and State rights, as principle, is no other
| than the principle of generality and local
| ity. Whatever concerns the wnole should
| be confded to the whole-to the General
! Government; while whatever concerns onEv
the State should be left exclusively to the
/ State. This is all there is of original prin-
| ciple about it."
Mr.. Lincoln held that the United States
| is nation, and that its Government pos
sesses ample power under the Constitution
| to maintain its authority and enforce its
| laws IN every part of It's territory. The
| denial OF this principle By those who as
| serted the doctrine of State rights, and who
/ right y claimed that it was inconsistent
| with State sovereignty, made up an issue
| over which aros5 one of the leading con
| troversies which led to the civil war. The
/ resu t of the war decided that controversy
| in favor of nationality and in favor of the
supremacy of the National Government.
On the question of hum n rights Mr..
| Lincoln was equally explicit, and often de-
Il .red that it was involved in the conflict,
and to be ecided by the result. In his
match ess message, already quoted, he
| ays:
| :.Our adyersaries have adopted some
| declarations of independence, in which,
unlike the good old one penned by Jetfer-