Sentence:  The Providence Daily Journal answered the Daily Post by stating that the raid of John Brown was characteristic of Democratic acts of violence and that `` He was acting in direct opposition to the Republican Party , who proclaim as one of their cardinal principles that they do not interfere with slavery in the <WSD>states</WSD> '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation