Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-09-26


coming into the Union, while that name was
first adopted for the old ones in aud by the
Declaration of Independence. Therein the
United Colonies were declared to be free
and Independent States : but, even then, the
object plainly was not to declare their indie
pendence of one another, or of the Union,
but directly the contrary, as their mutual
pledge and their mutual action, before, at
the time, and afterward, abundantly show
The express plghting Of faith by each and
all of the original l3, in the articles Of con-
federation, two years later, that the Union
shall be perpetual, is most conclusive Hav-
ing never been States, either in substance or
in name, outside of the Union whence this
magical omnipotence of State rights as
serting n claim of power to lawfully destroy
the Union ITSELF Much is said about the SOW
ereignity' of the States but the word even,
is not in the national constitution, nor, as is
believed, in any of the State constitutions
/ What is q Sovereignty in the political sense
! fine it "A political community without po-
/ litcal superior ? Tested by this, no one of
/ our States, except Texas, ever was a sover-
! eighty; and even Texas gave up the charac-
/ ter on coming into the Union, by which act
/ she acknowledged the constitution of the
/ United States, and the laws and treaties of
the United 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 stat
us II they break from this, they can only
do so against law and by revolution. The
Union, and not themselves separately, pro-
I cured their independence and their liberty.
! by conquest, or purchase, the Union gave
each Of them whatever of independence and
liberty it has The Union is older than any
Of the States; aud, in fact, it created them
as States Originally, some dependent col
onies 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 State con-
sttution independent of the Union. OF course
it is not forgotten that all the new States
/ framed their constitutions before they enter
ed the Union nevertheless, dependent upon,
and preparatory to, coming into the Union
Unquestionably the States have the powers
and the rights reserved to them in and by the
national constitution, and upon this point, in
, another part of this great message, Mr. Lin
coin says:
This relative matter of national power
and State rights, as principle, is no other
than the principle Of generality and locality.
Whatever concerns the whole should be con-
ided to the whole-tO the General Govern
ment; while whatever concerns only the
State should be left exclusively to the State.
This is all there is of original principle about
it,
Mr. Lincoln held that the United States is
a nation, and that its government possesses
ample power under the constitution to main
tain its authority and enforce its laws in ev-
cry part of its territory. The denial of this
principle by those who asserted the doctrine
of State rights and who rightly claimed that
it was inconsistent with State sovereignty,
made an issue over which arose one of the
leading controversies which led to the civil
war The result of the war decided that con-
troversy in favor of nationality, and in favor
of the supremacy of the national government
This decision is in accordance with the
principles of the fathers. On this day ~
years ago the delegates in convention at Phil
adelpha agreed to the constitution of the
United States, which was afterward ratified
and adopted. On the same day, Sept. H.
1887, Gen. Washington sent letter transmit
ting the constitution to the Congress in ses-
sion in New York. In that letter he said:
The friends of our country have long
since desired that the power of making war
peace, and treaties that of levying money
and regulating commerce, and the cores
pondent executive and judicial authorities
should be fully and effectually vested in the
general government of the Union. ""* 1t
is obviously impractcable in the federal gov
of Independent sovereignty to each, and yet
provide for the interest and safety of all. -
In all our deliberations on this subject We
kept steadily in our view that which appears
TO us the greatest interest of every true Amer
ican-the consolidation of our Union-in
which is involved our prosperity, felicity,
safety, perhaps our national existence"
Again, in his farewell address, Washington
said
,.'Tba ,,r;t,, of r,ovar,,,art which corst;
tutes you one people, is also Justly dear to
you. ""+ The name of American, which
belongs to you in your national capacity,
must always exalt the just pride of patriotism,
more than any appellation derived from local
determinations
On the subject of suffrage Mr.. Lincoln's
guiding principle was that mo man is good
enough to govern another man without that
other mans consent" Thus we have from
the lips and pen of Mr.. Lincoln-the great
leader and representative of the Union cause
in the most solemn and authentic form, a
complete statement of the issues of the war.
He held that the Union is perpetual that its
government is national and supreme, and
that all of its inhabitants should be free and
be accorded equal civil and political rights.
These are the great fundamental principles,
affirmed on the one side and denied on the
other, upon which the appeal was made to
the God of battles. l do not undertake to
review the debate as to the nature and pow
ers of the government of the Union and as to
the doctrine of State rights which began with
the foundation of our institutions and which
was continued until it was hushed 10y the
clash of arms. Ii is enough for my present
purpose to say that as a matter OF history all
of the political parties of the past, when
charged with the responsibility of directing
the affairs of the government, have maintain
ed in their practical administration of it pre-
cisely the same principles which were held
by President Lincoln. The principles as to
the powers of the national government which
were acted upon by Washington and Jackson,
and which are sustained by the decisions of
Chief Justice Marshall, and by which Lin
coin and the Union armies crushed the rebel
lion and rescued the Republic, are among the
legitimate and irreversible results of the war
which ought not TO be questioned.
Touching the remaining important contro-
versy settled by the war the public avOwals
of opinion are almost all in favor of the faith
full acceptance of the new constitutional
amendments. On this subject the speeches
of public men and the oreeds and platforms
of the leading political parties have for some
years past been explicit. In 1872 all parties,
in their respective national conventions,
adopted resolutions recognizing the equality
of all men before the law and pledging them
selves, in the words OF the Democratic ma
tonal convention, ito maintain emanci patton
and enfranchisement, and to oppose the re-
opening of the questions settled by the re-
cent amendments to the constitution" In
1876 the great political parties again, in the
language of the st. Louis national conVen-
ton affirmed their devotion to the constitu-
ton of the United States, with its amend
ments universally accepted as a final settle
ment of the controversies that engendered
the civil war" Notwithstanding these dec
hrations We are compelled to take notice
that, while very few citizens anywhere would
wish to re-establish slavery if they could, and
no one would again attempt to break up the
Union by secession, there still remains in
some communities a dangerous practical de-
nial to the cOlored citizens of the political
rights which are guaranteed to them by the
constitution as it now is. In the crisis of the
war Mr.. Lincoln appealed to the colored peo-
pie TO take up arms. About two hundred
thousand responded to the call enlisted in
the Tnion armias and fOupht for the Union