Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1884-04-26
TIE DEMOCRATS AID TIE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT.

Lees surrender to- Grant. Now
that twenty-three years have
passed since the war was open
ed by the cannonading at Fort
Sumpter, we can calmly and
dispassionately review the
events of those perilous days
and consider the causes which
produced So much useless blood
shed. Since. the war at every
election, q great hue and cry is
always raised against the Dem
ocrats by the Republicans, to
the effect that the former party
is antagonistic to the Federal
Goverpmen:, and that a Dem
ocratic President would he
pledged to unsettle those GleS-
tons decided for the common,
good of the country by Lees
surrenderat 4 pp"mattox Court ,
House; now, what were those
issues involved in the war, and
what have they to do with pos
litical matters to>,lay! In 1861
the South appealed: to the ar
bitrament Of sword and bayo-
net to vindicate certain theories
regarding the constitutional re-
iations of the General Govern
ment to the several States com
posing the Union, the interpre,
tatiOn Of which had been hotly
discussed under the sway Of
that stern and uncomrromi>ing
old veteran, Andrew Jackson.
We know that under The two
fold system of Federal and ST ate
government there are executive
mowers which pertain exc usivc-
~ to the General Government
and Others belonging as exc'u
sively to the several States, and
still others which may be ex"r-
ciscd concurreutly and iaIepen-
IDENTIFY both by the Federal
Government and by the States
composing the Union:
The secession OF the Sont' .
ern States was caused by theo-
rics respecting the exclusive
power of the States to act i'f
certain matters as they should
see fit, dating as far back as
1892 when the Legislature of
Georgia provoked collision with
Federal authority respecting the
removal of the Cherokee IndI-
ans from that State and in the
Notification Ordinance passed
by Son h Carolina, which dccreed
Ell "that 4 State conld meet in
State convention, and arrest or
veto the execution of a law of
Congress, offensive to that
Stale until Il meeting of all the
States in national conven<
ton ;" which ordinance was the
ontsrowth of, what both Geor-
gia and South Carolina cnnsids
cred the iniquity and u'iconstis
tutiOna!ity of the Tariff Act.
Andrew Jackson;s famous words
"the laws of the United States
must be executeJ,' found their
entoTcer in Abraham Lincoln
some thirty years later at which
time the Seeding Southern !
States claimed that any State
could by her own act, dissolve
the bonds which held her in the
Union and could take herself
out Of the Uuion and be Il law
unto herself. The civil war
effectualiy decided the non>ex-
lstence of any such power or
right, as rabid States Rights
men of that day claimed for
their States; and it is folly to
assert other than that now both
Northern -anii Southern Demo-
Gratis realize that the Federal
Constitution is part and parcel
Of the constitution of eacl, State
and that all laws "enactcd in
pursuance of the Constitution,
are in effect State laws which
no State may seek to evade."
70 execute Federal laws, the
Federal executive may enter
any State but for other purpose
than the enforcement of such
Ia VS., it may not uninvited en-
ter that State. Nor may Fed
eral arms he employed for the
purpose Of executing State laws
Or to maintain the peace of a
State as in the late riot at Gin
,innati, or further back as in
he Louisiana troubles. That
all recognize the limits of both
Federal and State rights, none
out disappointed aud aggres.
,iVe Republicans would dare