National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-10-18
FEDERAL OR STATE SUPREMACY.

FEDERAL OR STATE SUPREMACY.
The great issue of National OF State su-
premacy which was supposed to have been
decided by the arbitrament of war in favor
OF the Nation, is again the issue between
the Republican party and the Democratic
party. There is no possibility of a peace,
or even of truce, until one or the other
party is utterly vanquished, and either the
Nation or the States are declared supreme.
so far as the governments of the world are
concerned, they know nothing of the exis-
tence of any other Government in this
country than the three Departments of the
Federal Power. No State in this Union
can treat with foreign power or with an.
other state of the Union, No State in this
Union can maintain standing army or a
Navy. No State can declare war or grant
letters of mark or reprisal. No State can
make treaty of peace or of commerce. No
State can obstruct or regulate either foreign
or internal trade or commerce, and no State
flag can be lawfully carried by any ship on
the high seas. No State can impose ton
mage dues, or impose or collect customs
duties on imports or exports. No State
can establish rules of navigation or grant
letters-patent to inventors, or copyright the
works Of authors No State CO... ees.ahl:s. Isl.
rules of bankruptcy. No State can coin
money or regulate its value, or make 1t
legal tender until the coin has the National
stamp impressed uponit. No State can fix
the standard of weights and measures; and
no State can establish even post-oiiico or
post-road within its own borders.
Ever since the formation and establish
ment of our Government the great powers
which appertain 10 sovereign and independ-
ent States by the law of nations have been
and are solely vested in ono great central
authority, and that authority is the Nation.
The Republican party believes that the
Nation is supreme and the States subordi-
nate to the Nation. The whole world
recognizes the Nation, and honors its flag
and its citizens. No sovereign power in
the world, not even the Most insignificant,
would oondescend to recognize tho exist
encc of South Carolina, or of any other
geographical fraction of the country; and
no sovereign power in the world would
recognise the existence of even the most
distinguished parsonage Of South Carolina
or any other geographical fraction of the
United States, if he claimed recognition as
fractional citizen.
The Democrats want to reverse the order
of superiority established by the founders
Of our Government and recognized and re-
spected by all the sovereign powers of the
world. This is the issue between tho Dem.
ocratic and the Republican party. lie who
is not for national sovereignty is revolu-
ZIONIST against our constitutional govern
mcnt, and therefore the Democratic party
is revolutionary party.
If the Democray succeed in their object
to establish coniederacy Of sovereign
States, they can only do SO by changing our
fundamental principles of government at
the polls or By war. They have already
tried the latter. They failed, but every
democrat in the South and every Copper
head in the North then claimed, and still
claims, that the States had right and
that they still have right, to establish any
number Of fractional geographical divisions
Of our country into confederacy of SOW
eign States and. that the existence of ma
tional authority is therefore a mere Ques-
ton Of suffrage Of the people of any State,
which they may righthllly withhold at any
time.
ALEXANDER STEPHENS, the most con-
servative-talking man in the Democratic
party in the South, openly breaches this
State rights hercsy which deluged our land
with blood, and which cost thousandfold
more of life and treasure than were cx-
pended to establish us as an Independent
sovereign nation, and to maintain our ex-
istencc as one Of the greatest and most hon
ored powers in the great family of Nations
for more than halfa century. ALEXANDER
STEPHENS, and every other rebel in the
South-every mother in the South, accord
ing to JEFFGRsoN DAvIs-in fact the whole
Southern Democracy are teaching this
fraudulent doctrine of State supremacy to
the youth of the South and doing all that
they can to inspire them to revive the
struggle when fit opportunity shall present
itself "A struggle which, according to
STEPHENS, was one of holy right, for which
their fathers fought and died gloriously,
until unjustly overpowered by superior
force. This is the issue of to-day, and I'M
less il is decided by the overwhelming vote
of all good citizens, the revolutionary and
rebel training of the youth Of the South by
such men as STEPHENS, and such women
as JEFF. DAVIS describes the mothers of
the South TO be, another bloody struggle
"between the States will be the result be-
fore this generation turns the climacteric OF
manhood,
A national political victory to the Demo-
cratic party, as now constituted, will as
suredly bring this issue to an affair of arms,
because that party will never relinquish its
power if it ever gains it without another
rebellion and certainly one Democratic
administration would bring this issue upon
us, with the rebel element directing it, and
the Southern youth burning to achieve what
their fathers laid down their lives in glo-
rious but Intellectual struggle to accom-,