The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-10-11

not been permitted to approach the polls for
any purpose, and continued and enforced the
prohibition. When, few years afterward,
troops were used to qIiel riot at Westmin-
ster election, with uncovered heads and bend
ed knees the offenders received the censure of
the House of Commons. Within a month,
when the city Of Quebec requested the pres
ence Of 2 regiment to preserve its peace the
Governor General refused. He said we'll
regulated police, not a part Of the army, must
keep the peace If the community England
TO day is the freest Government in the world
except our own A soldier eanno: enter the
hall of the Commons with his uniform and
Our Declaration OF Independence is the pro.
test In behalf of civil liberty, immortal in his
tory 1t will gather glory throughout all the
) ages 1t voices the whole spirit Of freedom
1t exalts the individual in stating his inaliena-
blerights 1t ennobles the State in defining
ats gust purposes and powers. 1t was evoked
by the wrongs our fathers suffered.
He has refused his assent TO laws the most
,yholesope snd necessary for the public good y
4 He has kept among us IN time OF peace
ethndins Armies without the consent OF our
Legislature - - ~ s*tp
He has affected 10 render the military indie.
pendent of and superior to the civil power
-sHe has deprived US IN many cases OF the
benefits of trial by jury"
This sublime protest against outrages on
civil liberty denounced the wrongs Of which
the Democratic party complains to day. II
stands upon the declaration out or which the
republic was born. II asks nothing which the
Declaration does not demand. That was a
revolutionary document, "-says Gen. Garfield
Aye and the Democratic party is revolution
airy" TO that extent and no further. II teaches
the truths which the Declaration announced to
be self evident II demands the rights for the
assertion of which our fathers pledged their
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor
The Republican perry to-day dsnotnces these
doctrines ss revolutionary, and inconsistent
With the Maintenance of the Government and
tho best interests of thepeople.
My countiymen, must adjure you to heed
the Lesson of all reason, of all history? The
great experiment is in onr hands to-day. We
are exposed to greater dangers from this cause
than any Government. Other Governments
have the King, the throne, the crown, the ex-
eoutive head---the emblem Of national SOW
ereignty raised above parties, welding the vital
powers OF the Government aud maintaining its
form, whichever party may succeed. II it were
possible at all, such Government might use
the troops impartially TO keep the peace as be-
tween the partiee Every department. of our
Government, every representative of the SOW
| ereignty of the peoples in the hands of party;
every office, and honor, and emolument is the
price OF party success, 1t is madness, to con-
fide to party the power Of bringing troops to
the polls where its fate Is to be decided
State rights are not State ---ongs. The rights
of the Stste5, as reserved and limited by the
constitution, are as essential to our constitu-
tional Union as are the rights and powers OF
the Federal Government Both are essential
to our Government and form of governmental
being, which has been so well defined by the
!! Supreme Court Of the United States to be AN
understandable Union composed of indestruct-
ible States. The doctrine of States rights is
not the doctrine Of disunion, nor of notification,
nor vet OF secession. 1t does not maintain the
superiority Of TIE Statee II does not dec,y OF
belittle the powers of the Federal Union wheth-
er of making or executing the laws. II never
has been stated, 1t never will be stated
more tersely, more accurately, more clearly,
tn in the Tenth amendment of the constitt-
tion, SO tenacously insisted on by Massa-
| chuseits:
"The powers not delegated to the upited
States by the constitution, nor prohibited by IT
to the States are reserved TO the States RESPECT
lively, or to the people,
The Government Of the United States is su.
| preine within its sphere, because the constitu-
! ton expressly provides that This constitution
and the laws of the United States, which shall
be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties
made, or which shall be made, under the au-
thority Of the United States shall be the gu
preme law Of the land; and the Judges in every
State shall be bound thereby, anything In the
constitution or laws Of any State to the contrary
| notwithstanding" The constitution is the
| preme law. The laws made in pursuance of it
are likewise supreme. The laws made not in
I pursuance OF it are not supreme. They are null
|
power to execute the constitution and laws have
| been confided by tie constitution to the Federal
Government The powers OF the Federal Gov
| eminent are delegated, every one of them, by
| the States, or, If you prefer it, by the people Of
| the States They exist by virtue of that delega-
ton, and the instrument delegating, defining,
| expressing the extent and limit of the powers,
is the constitution. The powers and rights of
the States, meaning thereby the Government
! and the people of the States, are inherent in
] them nOlitica1 communities The States
delegated some of their powers to the Federal
Governments they prohibited the exercise of
| some by themselves absolutely, and of others
without the consent of Congress. The con-
stitution defines the powers delegated, the
| powers prohibited, and declares that the pow
ers not delegated to the United Statesmen pro-
hbited to the States are reserved to the States
IL If question arises as to the power of the
+ United States, you must look to the delegation
| OF powers by the constitution. If the power
is notfound there, 1t does not exist Ifa ques-
| ton arises as to the power of State, you look
| to the powers delegated to the United States,
| and then go to the powers prohibited to the
! States. And ifthe power is in neither category
| it does belong to the State. Ii difference of
| Interpretation as to the power delegated and
! prohibited arise, and case involving the ques-
ton can be made, then the judicial tribunals,
andultmately the Supreme Court of the United
| States, become nece ssarily the final arbiter If
a case for Judicial interference cannot be made,
| that great public opinion-that enlightened
public conscience which seeks the highest
sources of wisdom, which always aspires 10 be
| right-will in one way or another give decisive
/ Judgment That opinion may ebb and flow
like the tides of the ocean at the bidding of the
tickle encore Butt will attain steadiness
| like the ocean from which all height is meas
ured. This is the doctrine of State rights as
maintained by the Democratic party. 1t is the
| doctrine of the constitution. 1t is the doctrine
! of local Government, of home rule, of Union
| 1t is the doctrine Of . simple Government of
| few powers, touching few objects, of freedom.
Consolidation is unconstitutional as seces-
! sion; unity of Government is as unconstitu-
tional as separation, and both consolidation and
unity tend as certainly in the end to disunion.
| If it be said this theory cannot be strictly cor
rect, for that twenty-four new States have been
carved out of territory belonging TO the Union,
| the answer is that it is strictly and entirely
true as to the original thirteen States and that
every new State has been admitted to the
Union expressly on the same terms as the orig
| inal States.
| know it is fashionable in these DAYS to de-
cry State rights to hold them up as the origin
| of the war and the cause of all our sectional
| troubles. They are COMPOUNDED with seces-
| sion with notification, with denying or dwarf
| ing or paralyzing the Federal government, and
they are made the stalking horse of all that
shocks the Union sentiment of the people.
Even now the fear of them is invoked to aid
| the scheme of using the military power and the
civil officers of the Federal Government to
! interfere with elections. Iprotest against this
j confusion Of ideas; protest againet defining
as our doctrine. will quarrel with no man
about terms, about names he may call this Gov
ernment-a Nation or q Confederation, or a
Federal Union. II he believes the Federal