Evening star., 1922-07-09

To the Editor of The Star.
In YOUR issue of June 20 Mr. James
p. B. Hyndman discusses American
history and the supposed destiny OF
the United States and offers certain
conclusions constituting a remark
able collection of errors, political and
historical But his erroneous conciu-
sions follow naturally. perhaps. from
his faulty premise, in which he holds
lin thought that our nation, America
is. under her fundamental documents,
single idea" etc, etc.
Now, the Declaration of Independ-
ence is entitled THE unanimous
declaration of the thirteen United
states of America. in Congress as
sembled": i. e., thirteen separate
states or nations cooperating through
their respective representatives or
agents for certain common ends
(See definition of state" In Web
ster's Dictionary. as "a nation;o These
colonies, states or nations had oeen
association since May. 1775; The
somewhat more compact union or
confederacy of 1881 followed.
From this union of 1871 eleven OF
the states, each for itself. seeded or
withdrsw s ,dn in very ney {T Union years or com
federacy under the federal Constitu,
tion OF 1889, North Carolina and
Rhode Island coming In later, each
for itself, after Washington mad been
inaugurated President OF the eleven
United States.
We should note that the. union Of
1871 was declared. in the articles Of
confederation, to be "perpetuar': but
that, despite this solemn assertion,
eleven Of the constituent states. as
just noted. very shortly seeded In
order to form the more perfect
union" of 1889. which the Constitu-
tfon very wisely nowhere declares to
be perpetual or permanent. In so
doing they but exercised that right
of self determination" preached by
the United States and the allies IN
the world war and practiced by the
american colonies in 1776 and the
southern states In 1860-61.
In one of his conclusions Mr.. H.
gives strongly centralist construc-
tion to the phrase. I'VE. the people
to the federal Constitution of 1889.
But article VII Of the same instru-
mont provides that the Constitution
shall be established between the
states" (nine or more Of the origi-
nal thirteen) ratifying It. each for
mentary construction is to construe
text by context.
The foregoing Is sufficient to show.
briefly. how our documentary history
proves exactly the opposite Of that
supposed by our Jealous friend. We
can readily fill columns with addi-
tional quotations from the documents
in question In further proof. (For
instance. at least three states-Vir-
sinia, New York. Rhode sland-in
their formal accessions to the Con-
stitution of 1873. expressly reserve
the right to. withdraw or secede from
the new Union as they had already
done from that Of 1871, the meaning
becoming plain by constituting the
t"~t of their reservations with con-
text.)
u. H. quotes the words of the
Apostle Paul at Corinthians. -,
20-25, as against "schism." But "ac-
tions speak louder than Words"
commend to him the actions Of Paul
tActs, 1880 when he and Barnabas
departed asunder one from the
other" because "the contention was
30 sharp between them that they
could no longer peaceably cooperate.
See, also, the like worthy example of
Abraham, in the twentieth century
B. c., when he separated" from Lot
Genesis, 13.7-11) in order that strife
might cease as between these "breth-
ren." In this showing himself wiser
than that other Abraham OF the nine
teenth century Of the Christian era. =
The right of secession by q confed-
AratA6 state fWa4hfnpfon r.allad tIfA