Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-08-09

l highest bidder.
3 A six-shooter is what you need,
, Mr.. Mig.
> ARE WE A NATION? ?
, Sentimentally speaking, we are.
Stump specifically, we are.
Fourth of Julyically, we are.
Yet the sentimentalists, stump
: speakers, Fourth of July orators
J and spreadeagle writers all profess
, profound admiration for the COnsti-
tuition, which Says-We are not.
We are not and never can be a
} nation so long as there are thirty
eight States and thirty-eight Con-
stitutions, each State having two
Senators in Congress and entitled to
one vote in case of Presidential
election going into the House.
We are not, SO long as rebel
: Brigadier sits in Congress, or it is
possible for one to get there.
Nor so long as the rickety, bat
: tered and busted Constitution of the
old United States is recognized as
fundamental law.
Nor so longas Republicans content
themselves with standing on the
ramparts yelling, This is Nation.
Nor will it be until Grant is seated
in the White House, surrounded by
stalwarts, and they proclaim the
Nation.
COMPLETE THE REVOLUTION.
That is to make us a Nation
change the name-abolish the Con-
stitution-cancelS State lines.
Abrogate State Constitutions-re-
organize the Senate-elect Grant
proclaim the Nation.
1t was the passage of the fugitive
slave law that inaugurated the rev.
olution of '60-'65.
Taking advantage of the Constitu-
ton, the people of the North as
serted and maintained the doctrine
of State sovereignty, as no Southern
State ever had the courage to do.
Massachusetts, Michigan, Wis
consin and other Northern States
defied and successfully resisted the
United States Government, in its
ridiculous and false claim to SUI
preme sovereignty over the States,
as they had a right to do under the
Constitution.
They defied the so-called Nation,
and made it a crime against the |
sovereign States to aid in the en-
forcement of the odious fugitive
slave law.
They had right to do so, for
then this republic was a league, not |
nation-a United States, not a
| State.
But this crowning act of infamy
by the slave-hOlding BarOns of the
| South kindled the fires of a revolu-
ton destined to sweep them and |
their institutions from the conti-
nent.
The North rose in its majesty,
purged 5he halls of Congress of their
slave-holding and doughface ma
jorities,
Placed Lincoln in the Presidential
chair,
And inscribing freedom on its
banners,
And swore by the eternal gods,
that this great republic is nation,
that liberty is national, and that
any State that dared to resist by
virtue of any pretended sovereignty
should be cOerced.
This was not constitutional, it is
true, but revolutions are the higher
law, to which all Constitutions are
subOrdinated.
And the advent of Lincoln to the
Chief Magistracy was the culmina-
ton of the peaceful part of the rev.
olution.
Up till that time State sovereignty
was sectional shuttle-cock, tossed
from State to State and from section
to section, as party and political ex-
igencies required.
Eleven sovereign States resumed
their sovereignty and detached
themselves from the United States
but it was then too late.
The election of Lincoln was po-
litical revolution, whose very es-
sence was the Transforming of the
United States into a nation.
The eleven States refused to con-
cur in the revolution.
But revolutions never go back
ward.
And blood seems to be as neces-
sary to legalize revolutions, as
preachers tell us it is needed for the
souls salvation. ;
Enough.
The doctrine of the revolutionists
was indorsed by the god of battles,
anu GIlNSG W AlO 4llNA O1ACO W lCoAol |
them were rebels and traitors. (
The United States ceased to exist. I
The Constitution, which had been {
suspended during the cruel test of
war, was patched up and by "a pretty
little fiction restored. {
But the doctrine that this republic {
is Nation, having a National Leg
islature, whose authority issupreme, l
II Z
the revolution originated. {
That is, the North recognizes it as [
an abstract proposition. ]
But the South, the barbaric South,
equally incapable of progress or the
comprehension of fact-still ex- {
lists. {
And with reason. 8
The North has contented itself [
with asserting and accepting the !
proposition as an abstract truth. I
And vociferates fiercely in politi- t
cal platforms and Fourth of July S
orations about this being a nation,
not league. ]
But it has not had the courage to c
embody the proposition into the q
concrete form of legislation. {
1t yellS and screams and sings t
and shouts about the Nation. c
But reooils from oOnsummating ]
its thought. /
No weakness now, Danton. i
The name United States must be !
changed to a name tsRlt expresses t
unity.
A State is a body polite with the '
attribute of sovereignty. /
United States are necessarily t
co-partnership of equal members. c
No union between equals can con-
tinue longer than the equal partners a
are willing to remain. /
But this republic Is no longer a
confederation of States, but a nation. q
And no State can withdraw, for S
the potent reason that there Is now c
only one State-the Nation.
The name United States perpetu-
ates the hallucination that there are
still separate States.
It Is y treasop-hreediRg, seditian-
generating, State-sovereignty-im-
plying, insurrection-provoking, re-
bellion-inciting rebel Brigadier-in- !
Congressjustifying title, and ought !
to be retired to the anti-revolutiOn- {
ary period,
There now.
Jump up, D sentimental sWash- 9