Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-07-26
State and Federal.

WE find among our exchanges no
better or ADLER champion of States
rights than the 1rontou REGISTER, Eli
Axes paper. The recent hasty resort
to federal aid by the corporations to
put down the strikers has awakened
grave apprehensions of danger to State
autonomy in the minds of many
thoughtful Americans; and the REGIS
TER's editor is among the number. He
gave his readers last week an able ar
ticle on the .sDecadence of the State"
Mr.. AXE was Federal soldier during
the ''late unpleasantness," and, as he
says, was 'an ardent advocate of the
preservation of the Union of the
States" When the war was fought
the supreme issue at stake involved
the very identical principle friend AXE
now champions so ably and with such
grave fears that it will sooner or later
be lost sight of entirely and the gov
eminent degenerate into a mere oil
garchy." Recently when the Rev. r.
C. Cave, an able man, in public ad-
dress in Virginia, reviewed the ques-
ton of States rights as an issue in the
War of the Rebellion. and reminded
the public that that question is not a
dead issue, that it can not die, he was
set upon and abused by Republican
speakers and newspapers generally,
and by not few Democratic papers
and public men. But 10, and behold!
how that issue comes up from battle
fields of the past-where it was sup
posed to be buried beyond resurrection
to haunt US now! 1t is a living,
vital principle, as redOlent of youth as
it was when it was SO carefully guard
ed by our foretathers in every State
that ratified the Constitution. There
needs no ghost, my lord, come from
the grave TO tell US this. jackson
Cash Book.
The issue involved in our civil war
was not as to the autonomy of the
state. 1t was then a question as to
whether a State could of its own mo-
ton withdraw from the Union and set
up an independent sovereignty. Had
this view obtained, our federation
would have been a rope of sand. ready
to dissolve on the first appearance OF
danger from without, or from the first
clash of State interests from within.
Under such a construction of the Con-
stitution the State of New York would
probably withdraw from the Union if
the Rothschilds should demand it in
the not Improbable event of the selec-
ton of a President favorable to the
Free Coinage of Silver. By the civil
war it was settled that the duties and
liabilities of the Constitution were mu-
tual, and that, as the assumption OF
its burdens had originally required the
assent of two-thirds of the States, no
State could be permitted to free itself
from those burdens without assent of
the other parties to the compact. The
issue now presented to the people of
this country is not one affecting the
Union: it touches the integral charac-
ter of the State. 1t affects its structure
anu 4uCSblOuS tiC uCSCSclty Va Ato CAASt-
ence. The fathers of the Republic
threw strong constitutional safeguards
about the State, under the impression
that in so doing they were providing
for the preservation of personal liber-
ty and adding to the stability of the
general government. They believed
that the constitutional powers of the
general government should be strictly
construed, and should be exercised on
ly where it was plain that the Consti-
tuition authorized it. They believed
that In a country so extensive as ours
then promised 10 become-which
promise has been so amply realized
and whose citizens would probably be
so diverse in their habits of life and
thought, and whose traditions and in
terests would be so varied, that it
would be better to turn over to each
locality, as far as possible, the bust
ness of conducting its own affairs-of
providing for the administration of
justice-of organizing and controlling
its own police-of levying and ex-
pending its own taxes and legislating
within constitutional limits for the
benefit OF its own people. 1t was this
idea of local self government SO neces-
sary to free people that caused the
Constitution to so carefully foster the
State and municipality. But what be-