The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-10
Uhe Wlessen9er.
A GLANCE AT GOVERNMENT
CHANGES

lie SOF6Tulu6uL Ol lie ChlISu 0IdNCS
has been very greatly changed within
thirty-five years. The Great Repub-
lie has to a considerable degree become
a Great Capitalization. People who
have not critically examined the
changes wrought by the results of the
war and the legislation of the congress
and the Three Amendments have but
little idea Of the vast stretches made
by the centralized power at Washing
t.. If Thomas Jefferson could return
he would stand amazed at the changes
wrought by the rude, destructive hand
of war, and the men in the north who
in the ecstacies Of victory forgot the
past and began at once to make funda-
mental changes in the very structure
itself of the government. In 1861, the
federal congress declared that it
would wage war against the south to
preserve the union with all the dig
nifty, equality and rights of the several
states unimpaired." How DOR the
overpowering north forgot all that.
The war ended, and then the destruc-
tives began at once to dig under the
very foundations. Hence the XIII,
XIX, and XIV amendments. This was
the work to topple the great repub-
lie and set up a powerful Nation. The
idea had seized the hot-headed de-
structives that it was right to 'natur-
alize the government. The be-
ginnings, the meaning of all this has
been we'll stated by Hon. j.. L. M. Cur
ry, LII. D., a native Georgian, we
think, ex-member of U. S. congress
and Confederate congress, and a man
of admirable parts. We quote from
a address he made in 1898 on John c.
Calhoun. He said:
"They ~nationalized the government
and broadened citizenship beyond what
the fathers ever dreamed Of. They
emancipated the slaves and placed
them upon equality of citizenship with
the white people"-recently liberated
negroes without experience or know
ledge or any conception of civic gov
eminent and what citizenship means
and demands-'compelled the seeding
states to repudiate all obligations
growing out of conflict with the United
States, and eliminated sectlonism as a
state right or remedy"-mark that,
thus a%bridging the original power OF
the commonwealth'-by creating ma
tional citizenship, thus transferring
permanent allegiance from state to the
general government'-an IMMENSE
stride towards a strong government. Do
YOU know what that means-the first
step in destruction of the republic and
supplementing it with a centralized
power to be yet a despotism? DR..
Curry is a thorough student OF the
constitution, one of the ablest men III
the south now living who has been
associated with public life, and who
was the ablest man in the confederate
house, in the opinion of the late Chief
Justice Smith of our state, as we heard
him say, and who served with him. DR..
Curry says this: LAS a legitimate con-
sequence" (of what was done as stated
aboye) "the right of state i~nterposltlon
to arrest u%surpation by the federal
government, whether by notification
or secession, has gone forever, and all
granted powers are i~rrevocable by the
states. and the general government has
become practically the final judge OF
the measure and extent Of the powers
conferred upon it. Before the war
the constitution expressly limited the
powers of the federal government.
What was not expressly given to it IN
the constitution was reserved to the
states. Befor the war the will of the
states dominated. They were the mas
tiers. The rights of the states have been
curtailed, interior with, impaired, to
a great extent destroyed.
How vast the change! Lincoln him.
self held, that revolution was the sole
remedy left to the states. The hands
of a commonwealth are tied to a great
extent. Now a president does not
hesitate to over run the will of a state
and send an army into it at his W
sweet will, as Cleveland so arbitrarily
and in~solently did. Before the over
throw of the constitution to a great ex-
tent, he would not have dared to have
done that. Washington absolutely re-
fused to send troops into Pennsylvania
without the consent of the governor.
President John @. Adams foresaw
dangers threatening beea" e of war.
He said that he gave solemn warning
to the statesmen Of the union, in, their
conflict with foreign powers through