Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-05-10
STATE SOVEREIGNTY"

One of the most dangerous and
at the same time most insidious
heresies that has ever been taught
By any school of American politi-
clans is that Of State Sovereignty,
as insisted upon by modern DemOc,
raoy. It is not of modern origin,
however, for its agitation was COM
menced in the early days of the
Republic, when it was opposed by
the eloquent voice and trenchant
pen of that great statesman, Alex
ander Hamilton, and gave rise to
some of the most exciting discus
sions which attended the adoption
of the Federal Constitution. Had
Mr.. Hamilton's voice been needed,
and had his counsels prevailed, We
would have been spared the greatest
calamity which has ever befallen US
as q people. After the terrible ex~
periences through which We have
gone in the immediate past, it is al
most incredible that there should be
found in this day and time ma
jority in the two houses of Con-
gress insisting that a policy so
fraught with evil should be the
policy upon which the affairs of
government are to be administered.
1t is ike a reckless, adventurous
mariner, who has suffered ship
wreck repeatedly, but who still in
sists upon steering his vessel di-
rectly upon the dangerous breakers,
where he knows by experience that
ruin is inevitable. 1t would be no
less criminal for our Southern sea-
board cities, that have been scourged
by yellow fever, and from whence
the seeds of death have been scat
tered to decimate other communi-
ties, to throw open their ports, and
disregarding all quarantine meas
ures, again invite the scourge within
our borders.
This States Rights theory lies at
the foundation of the peculiar meas
ures which the Democratic party is
now endeavOring to force upon the
country. This is what the present
extra session of Congress means,
and this is the scheme which excites
the frenzy of the majority in Con>
gress,
1t is State Sovereignty for which
they are cOntending, 1t is the God
of disunion, secession, anarchy,
misrule aud destruction they are
invoking. 1t is the old Democratic
theory, that the United States has
no right to enter a State, even for
the purpose of preventing fraud,
force, intimidation and murder re
sorted to in the election of Presi-
dent of the Nation or of Repre-
sentatives to the National Congress.
1t is the monstrous doctrine that we
are Nation only by consent of the
States, and that the State is above
the Federal Government. If car
ried out to its reasonable and legiti-
mate conclusion, we are not a Ma
ton, but merely a number of
independent States leagued together
temporarily, the compact to be
broken and the Union to be dis
solved whenever any one Of these
States choose to do so. 1t means
now a supremacy of fraud for the
benefit of a political party, and
those who are urging it believe that
the fraud can not be successfully
committed unless the hands of the
Federal Government are tied. The
Democratic leaders have forged the
chains and are now endeavoring to
hand-cuh and manacle the National
authority, in order that they may
have free and undisturbed recourse
to these favorite methods and carry
the elections next year by open,
undisguised, unmitigated fraud.
They make plausible arguments in
favor of States Rights and indulge in
emphatic professions of loyalty