Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1880-12-01

Hon. n. B. SMITHERs month ago made |
a speech in the Town Hall in which he |
characterized Estates rights as a danger
GUS doctrine, asserting that the States did |
not exist as such until after the formation |
of the General Government and could not
therefore claim any sovereign rights. Sen
ator Bayard from the same platform the
next day combatted Mr. Smithers' position
vigorously, giving the States sovereignty
prior to that of the General Government
which they carried with them in the Federal
compact. We now have an opinion from
another and a different platform, the pulpit.
Rev. DR.. Armitage from his pulpit, the First
Baptist Church in New York, on Thanks
giving day said:
"The thirteen American colonies pos
sessed no sovereignty their charters gran
ted them a certain order of corporate or
municipal government, but this was not
of primary character, because soyeignty
did not inherein the people. When the colo
MES extinguished British authority here SOY.
ereignty devolved Immediately on the people
themselves. The colonies banded together
not as temporary sxpedient, for prudential
reasons, but with the purpose in conquer.
ing their independence to become one con.
federation. The States formed confed-
eracy under which Republic, after sort,
lasted for about eleven years. AS the
wants and necessities of the Republic en-.
larged q closer national union was de-
manded by the exigencies of the country
This led to the Constitutional Convention
with Washington at its head, and its WORK
= T.. -. ALaC &C L. -, ~
States.
The Constitution which create = H...
eral Government was made and ratified b.
the people, for the people, and makes tn
people themselves the source Of all power
Sovereignty, therefore, rests where the,
lodged tin the National Union, whicl
they built as a sacred temple to human
liberty, after they had laid the Nationa
Constitution as its chief cornerstone.
Any demand for State Sovereignty mad
in our day is q most bald anachronisn
Scarcely in any particular is our country tn
same as It was hundred years ago, and il
true chronology in this matter is not to b
found in its unconstitutional history
much as in the practical sweep and oper
ton of the Constitution as the suprem
law Of the land since its adoption. III
stretch of great distances and the diffcu
old thirteen States made them look upc
each other with mutual jealousy as, after
sort, foreign soil. But the very invention
of the century have changed the relatio
of the different parts Of this Republ
The magnetic telegraph has brought all
points of compass together within an no
by the clock. The railroad system b
changed all the channels of its interi
commerce. This agency alone has call
many new States into being. Our numb
less steam vessels ply their enorme
freight and passenger traffic on both sic
OF the continent and pierce its centre
an every direction. Our present post of
system has grown from the distribution
AN infant correspondence, at small &C
until we have now total transportation
l57.00oA00 miles at an annual cost
$33.000,000. These and other aeenc
have reyelutionizsd all the relations of
States TO each other, The Nation has {
grown all its confederate conditions {
relationships; its old .prejudices and crl
ties. In the long contest of ideas betw
State and National sovereignty from
war of1ndependence down, the Constitui