The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-09-02


law of 1888, which forbids the courts of til
! States to sit in judgment on the acts of an off
Ger of the United States done in pursuance {
, national law The present Congress has wo
the unenviable distinction of making the frs
attempt, since the death of Calhoun, to reviv
/ and put in practice his disorganizing and dc
structive theory of government
Firmly believing that these doctrines and at
tempted practice of the present Congress ar
, erroneous and pernicious, | will state brief
| the counter propositions:
| affirm First, that the Constitution of tn
United States was not created by the govern
ment of the States, but was ordained and es
tablshed by the only sovereign in this coun
try-the common superior OF both the State
and the nation-the people themselves Sc
cond, that the United States is nation, hay
ing government whose powers. as defined
and limited by the Constitution, operate upol
, all the States in their corporate capacity ant
upon all the people; third, that by its egis
lative, executive and judicial authority, thu
nation is armed with adequate power to en-
force all the provisions of the Constitution
against all opposition of individuals or O
States, at all times and all places within the
Union
These are broad propositions: and | take
the few minutes remaining to defend them
The constitutional history of this country OF
rather the history OF sovereignty and govern
ment in this country, is comprised in foul
sharply defined epochs:
First Prior to the 4th day of July, 1916, soy
ereignty, so far as it can be affirmed of this
country was lodged in the Crown of Great
Britain. Every member of every colony (the
colonists were not citizens but subjects) drew
his legal rights from the Crown of Great Brit
ain "Every acre of land in this country was
then held mediately or Immediately by the
grants from that Crown" and "all the civil
authority then existing or exercised here, flow
ed from the head of the British Empire,
Second. On the 4th day of July, 1776, the
people of these colonies, asserting their natur-
al inherent right as sovereigns, withdrew the
sovereignty from the Crown of Great Britain
and reserved it to themselves. In so far as
they delegated this national authority at all,
they delegated it to the Continental Congress-
assembled at Philadelphia. That Congress, by
general consent, became the supreme govern
mant of the country-executive, judicial and
legislative in one. During the whole of it's
existence it welded the supreme power of
the new nation
Third. On the list day of March, 1881, the
same sovereign power, the people, withdrew
the authority from the Continental Congress
and lodged it, so far as they lodged it all, with
the Confederation, which though league of
States, was declared to be a perpetual union.
Fourth When at last our fathers found the
confederation too weak and inefficient for the
purposes of a great nation, they abolished it
and lodged the national authority, enlarged
and strengthened by new powers, in the Con-
stitution of the United States, where, in spite
OF all assaults it still remains. All these great
acts were done by the only sovereign in this
Republic, the people themselves.
That no one may charge that pervert his
tory to sustain my own theories, l call atten-
ton to the fact that not one Of the colonies de-
clared itself free and independent Neither
Virginia nor Massachusetts threw off its allegi-
ance to the British Crown as colony The
| great declaration was made not even by all the
colonies, as colonies, but it was made in the
name and by authrity of 'all the good people
of the colonies as one people
Let me fortify this position by great name
that will shine forever in the constellation OF
our Southern sky-the name Of Charles Coats
worth Pnckney, of South Carolina. He was
a leading member the constitutional conyen-
ton ot1797, and also member OF the conven-
ton OF South Carolina which ratified the Con
stitution In that latter convention the doc
| thine of State sovereignty found few cham
| pions; and their attempt to prevent the adop-
| ton OF the Constitution, because is established
a supreme national government, was rebuked
| by him in these memorable words. l quote
| from his speech as recorded in Elliott's debate
This admirable manifesto, which for Importance
| of matter and elegance OF composition stands I'M
rivaed, and sufficiently cOnfutes the honorable gen.
tieman's doctrine of the individual sovereignty and
Independence of the several States. In that decsr-
alton the several States not even enumerated,
but after rect1ng, In nervous language and With
convincing arguments our right to tn1ependence
and the tyranny which compelled to assert it, the
declaration Is made in the following words eve,
therefore, the representatives Of the United States
of America In general Congress assembled, appeal
Ing to the supreme Judge Of the world FOR the recti
tude of our Intentions, do, In the and by the
authority of the good people of these colonies sol
emnly publish and declare that these united colo
MES are, and of right ought to be- free and indie
| pendent States.
The separate independence and Individual sover-
eighty OF the several States thought of
declaration. The several States are not
mentioned by name in any part Of it, If 1t in
tended to impress this maxim America
that our freedom and independence arose from
our union, and that without 1t could neither be
free nor independent Let us, Them consider all
tempts to weaken this union by maintaining that
each is separately and individually Independent as
species of political heresy which can never benen
U.s. but may bring US the most serious distresses
For further and equally powerful yindica
| ton Of the same view, | refer to the Common
taries OF Justice Story, vol. |, p. 1877.
In this same connection, and as pertinent
and effective response to the Democratic doc
| trine under review, quote from the first an
| nual message of Abraham Lincoln, than whom
no man Of our generation studied the origin
OF the Union more profoundly. He said
served to them in the Union by the Constitution no
one Of them ever having been State of the I'm
lon. The original ones passed Into the Union even
tefore they cast off their British colonial indepen-
dence, and the new ones each came into the Union
directly from condition Of dependence excepting
Texas. And even Texas, In Its temporary indepen-
dence, was never designated State. The new ones
only took the designation of States coming into
the Union, while that name Was first adopted for the
old by the Declaration OF Independence There
in 'the united colonies" were declared to be Stree
and Independent States;" but, even then, the OBJ
1ect plainly not to declare their Independence
OF onoter or of the U,aioa but directly the
trary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual &C
tion before, at the time, and afterWard abundaEtly
| show.
| The States have their status In the Union and
they have no other legal status. II they break
this, they can only do against law and by rev.
| luton. The Union and not themselves separately,
| procured 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, and in fact
created them as States. Originally some dependent
colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union
| threw OH their old dependence for them and made
them states such as they are. Not of them ever
! had State constitution independent of the Union.
Of course 1t Is not forgotten that all the states
framed their constitutions before they entered
Union; nevertheless, dependent upon and prepara-
| tory to coming into the Union.
| In further enforcement of the doctrine
that the State governments were not the
soyereigns who created this government,
l refer to the great decisions of the Su-
preme Court of the United States, in the
case of Chisholm os. The State of Georgia,
| reported in Dallas a decision replete with
| the most enlightened national spirit, in which
the court stamps with its indignant condemna-
ton the notion that the State of Georgia was
sovereign" in any sense that made it indie
pendent of or superior to the nation.
Mr. Judge Wilson said:
AS Judge of this court know, and can decide
upon the knowledge, that the citizens of Georgia,
when they acted upon the large scale of the Union
as part OF the speople of the United States did
j not surrender tho supreme sovereign power to
that state; but as to the purposes of the Union,
retained 1t to themselves. AS to the purposes OF
the Union, therefore, Georgia is not sovereign
State
Whoever considers in combined and compre-
hens1ve view the general texture of the Constitution
Will be satisfied that the people of the United
States intended to form themselves into nation
for national purposes They instituted for such
purposes national government, complete In all It's
parts with powers Legislative, executive, and judi
ciary and In all those powers extending the
whole nation 1t Is congruous that, with regard to
such purposes, any man body of men, any person,
natural or artificial, should be permitted to claim
successfully entire jur