, 1880-05-03
State Rights.

There is 10 greater popular error than
that very common one OF confounding
state rights with notification, state sove-
reignty with secession. The ideas thus
sought to be identified are in no way
reconcileable. 1t might as well be con-
tended that personal liberty implied a
total release from personal and public
obligations, and the sovereignty Of the
citizen as paramount to law. State rights
as contendcd for by the great mass of its
intelligent advocates, Is simply and sole
" the righ: to the free and unconstrained
exercise of the inherent and inalienable
functions of government pertaining to
the domestic or municipal affairs Of the
State exclusively, in which are involved
the liberty. persons and property of its
citizens. There is no element of aggres :
sion in this; no principle of notification;
no overstepping its own limits to invade
the rights of Others; but simply the policy
which preserves the peace of communi-
ties and neighborhoods without impair>
ing in any degree the duties and obliga>
tions of each individual to the whole
the necessary surrender of such portion
of personal freedom as may be deemed
necessary to maintain social organization
tor mutual protection-the policy ex>
pressed in the wise admomition: Mind
YOUR own business" State rights was
never an aggressive cause OF disturbance
in this Government it was the denial
Of state rights. the invasion of state
authority, the perpetual tendency in the
central government to aggregate powers
which the States had never voluntarily
conceded and which could only be exer-
cised by the General Government by cons
struction not warranted by its charter
which created the ground for collision.
Modification is no more state than it
is personal right. 1t has been some
times suggested as remedy for wrongs
for which there was no other apparent
redress. Then it was revolutionary
measure; nothing mere or less; lew, it
any, ever avowed nullitication as among
the reserved rights OF the States, for that
would have invalidated the whole cons
pact.
When the Confederated States formed
a mere perfect union under the Constitu-
tiou, neither parted with an attribute of
sovereignty. They but united in power
OF attorney-specific and expressly limit
ed-to common commission, to exercise
certain functions OF government relating
exclusively to common and general in
terests, principally regarding their in
tercourse with foreign countries and be-
tween each other; expressly retaining all
powers not therein specifically delegated.
By the terms of this Constitutioa-its
sole charter of power-the General Gov
ernment was invested with no sovereign>
ty over the States in any OF their reserv>
ed rights, no right to meddle with any
of their domestic institutions which are
not repugnant to the Constitution. The
Constitution is compact between sove>
reign powers, perpetual in Its terms. 1t
provides how States may be admitted
into the Union upon equal terms with
the original States;" but it makes no
provision for peaceable secession; that
could only be accomplished by one Of
two ways: the consent of the adhering
States, or war; not by insurrection or
rebellion, involving the personal crime of
treason, but by war between the sove-
reign contracting parties-organized gov
erhments independent of each other in
all the essentials OF self-government. A
State cannot commit treason, and a citi-
zen of State cannot be held amenable
to criminal law for an act committed un>
der State authority. That is universal
law recognized by all civilized govern
ments throughout the world and laid
down as a fundamental principle by all
publicists on international law. To
characterize the late war between the adj
herring and the revolving States as rebel
lion; to speak of the citizens of the sece
ding States as rebels-involving the per-
sonal crime of treason-is gross perver-
sion of language as applied to the facts,
for which there is not shadow of .justi>
fication in either civil or international
law, anc these terms are only used to
justify the arbitrary exercise of Federal
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