National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-04-15
STATE SOVEREIGNTY,
EnIlif ers and g Su bnissIOnists"- THE Doc
tr1ne TIA uSht in the South

EnIlifers and {" Subdivisions The Doe
trlne TIA usht in the South.
To the Editor of The Republican:
There was in every State of the South,
before and during the civil war, a large body of
thoughtful and patriotic men who had never ac-
cepted the extreme doctrine on State sovereignty
propounded by John C. Calhoun, and in an
humber sphere by Judge Tucker, of Virginia.
The advocates of State sovereignty, however, OBJ
tanned control of the South and their doctrine was
enforced in society by all the penalties of ostra
cism and social accommodation. To the men
who opposed notification and its doctrines the
followers of Calhoun and Tucker applied the op-
probrious epithet of "submissionists" term i'm
plying to the mind of the rabid Calhounist every
degree of political heresy and cowar1ice and of
treason to the State in which one was born and
reared. 1t is somewhat singular that the extensive
use of this obnoxious designation in the South has
so fully escaped the attention of Northern writers
and speakers.
THE YOUNG MEN WHO BECAME ISocULATED
with the extreme doctrines of Calhoun wore blue
cockades in their hats and houted and jeered at
the advocates of the supremacy of the Union
Charleston and Columbia and put down all oppO-
sition with the same fiery zeal which in 1861
marked their demonstrations in carrying out by
the last resort of secession the baneful teachings
of the great logician and i-Unionist Social
ostracism played in the days of Calhoun and of Sc
cession as it still plays throughout the South,
be eliminated as political force until the young
men of the South are taught in their school books
and at their fireSides the doctrine of permanency
and indissolubility of the Union of the States
THOMAS JEFFERSON SHOWED,
when he reached supreme power in the Republic
that his adherence to. or advocacy of the ultra
doctrine laid down in the Kentucky resolutions of
1873 had been feigned for the mere purposes
of party expediency. and could not control
his action as Chief Executive; indeed, there is
strong ground for believing that he soon repented
of the use he had made of that famous pronunca-
mento. In his own State of Virginia powerful
opposition to the anti-natonal theories was deVel-
oped, and he showed, in his purchase of Louisi-
ana from France, how little he regarded the rigid
notions as to the power of the Central Government
which he had himself formulated and diffuSed
Had Calhoun become President it is not unlikely
ferson in summarily abandoning the impracticable
theories of the sovereignty of each State when
ever a conflict of jurisdiction should arise.
THE FACILITY WITH WHICH JEFFERSON
rejected in practice the doctrines which he had
upheld as political theorist reflected less credit
the sincerity than on the executive Sagacity of
the first National Republican leader. The doc
trines, however, survived, and were indelibly i'm
pressed on the Southern mind and heart by the
great and mischievous genius of Calhoun. Robert
T. Lee, James Longstreet, Alexander H. Stephens
and thousands of other soldiers and civilians of
unqucstioned probity and unsullied lives cast in
their fortunes with the movement OF secession be-
cause of their being trained in the pernicious
teachings of State sovereignty The late illustriouS
Indiana statesman, Oliver p. Morton, had an in
stnctye appreciation of the lasting Importance of
Graduating from the Southern mind this grest
political heresy, and his successors will approve
themselves patriots by holding alof as he did
all occasions, whether i'll the Senate or on the
forum, the banner OF uncompromising National.
ism.