apply more immediately to your interest;" and then he goes on to enumerate the many grounds of interest, which should motive the people to preserve the union. [See Farewell Address.] It is well here to say, that in all Washington's political writings, the pith of which will be found in two subsequent chapters [Part III. Chs. X. and XI.], he nowhere hints at that coercive preservation of the union, which the expounders of to-day claim to be the duty of "the government," but which the framers of the constitution carefully considered, severely reprobated, and rigidly excluded, as will hereafter be most conclusively shown. The “Sacred Ties" according to Jackson and Burke. - Instead of saying, as by some he is quoted, "The union must and shall be preserved," ANDREW JACKSON says: "But the constitution cannot be maintained, nor the union preserved, in opposition to public feeling, by the mere exertion of the coercive powers of government: the foundations must be laid on the affections of the people, in the security it. gives to life, liberty, and property in every quarter of the country, and in the fraternal attachments which the citizens of the several states bear to one another as members of one political family." EDMUND BURKE's grand voice sounded consonantly and appositely in the British Parliament: "My hold on the colonies," said he, "is the close affection that grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are strong as iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government, they will cling and grapple to you, and no power under heaven will be able to tear them from your allegiance." But, continued he, "the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything has tens to decay and dissolution," if they are deprived of their privileges and subjected to wrong and oppression. The Union is only Voluntary Engagements. These great men do but express the truth, that none but voluntary ties of union can exist among associate republics; for, when involuntariness supervenes, the republic ceases. In the case before us, the associates guaranty to each commonwealth that she shall continue to be and act as a republic, i.e. govern herself. [Const. Art. IV. § 4.] If she be kept tied to anything, be it tree, wall, or union, against her will, she is not free, or republican. If the safety and interest of the parties be secured and justice done to them in the union, contentment and amity, the elements of “domestic tranquillity," are sure to follow. And, if the American republics remain as they were, the primum mobile of all government, ruling collectively in federal matters, and severally in local; if the idea of an involuntary union be abandoned; if mutual good-will and mutual justice prevail, so that the commonwealths desire to remain united; and, finally, if the general governing authority faithfully do that, and no more, which the functionaries of it are all sworn to do, — the "essential component parts of the union," as Hamilton called them, will never wish to be sundered, but will remain united by ties which are "strong as iron," "though light as air!" In the beginning of that is, of federal lib - or rather retake the old - departure. "Union and Liberty, now and forever!" this second century of "union and liberty," erty, Iwe should take a new Liberty dwells, and must ever dwell, not in the league or union, and not in the constitution of government, but in the people as republics; and the people, collectively and individually, must feel, use, and enjoy it. This is what God and our fathers intended; what Massachusetts and New York so imperially declare; and what, under their lead, we should patriotically strive for, now, henceforth, and forever! Let us preserve the Commonwealths. Self-preservation is alike the first law of nature, and the first duty of those to whom the Almighty has given a sentient existence. Men have an individual being, and, in society, a corporate one, - both of God. And when the commonwealth exercises its mind, or, in the last resort, its physical force, in preserving itself and its freedom, it is acting precisely according to the above law and duty, and the members are bound by the social compact to obey her. They thus individually and collectively exercise the right, and discharge the duty of self-preservation; and at this ever-to-be-remembered epoch, the highest moral obligation devolves on Massachusetts, to say nothing of New York, to take the lead again, and promulgate her sacred and glorious principles of liberty. And henceforth, every new state, or old one, requiring a new constitution, should copy that of Massachusetts, as to social compact, bill of rights, and even form of government. Expounders can then no longer dispute, hide, or pervert the truth. Let all declare the true principles of Liberty. And let all the commonwealths determine to be such, from this time forward; and let them respectively declare in the language of the great exemplar — the Old Bay State : That the people of this commonwealth have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent state; and they will forever exercise every power and right, which may not be by them expressly delegated to the united states, assembled in congress; That all power, residing originally in the people, and being derived from them, all officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times accountable to them; And, finally, that the people of the commonwealth alone, have an inalienable and indefeasible right to institute government, and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, whenever they think their safety and happiness require it. The States are now provincialized. Before July 4, 1776, the nascent states were provinces, their wills being controlled, and they kept in dominion, by a power exterior to themselves, and over their wills. At that time, they became "free, sovereign, and independent" parties to a voluntary and a happy union. In 1876, we found them again subject to an exterior will, in all matters deemed, by that will, necessary and proper. The mind and power that ruled at Washington, claimed and enforced "absolute supremacy." Sovereign wills in states had existed and acted in forming the present union: they then existed no more! In what, said Lincoln, are our states better than counties? Did he realize that they were subjugated; and that “the government" had changed itself from agency to sovereignty — "the very way," said Burke- and it cannot be quoted too often-"in which all the free magistracies of the world have been perverted from their purposes?" Invocation. People of the united states! let us begin the new century by close adherence to the union of our fathers; the union of sovereign and independent commonwealths; the voluntary union that Lee and Davis, and Seward and Chase, were educated to believe in, and revere! Let the fasces be always lowered before the supreme sovereignty of the people. Spurn the idea of "absolute supremacy of government." in a republic! Ever regard your general constitution of it, as federal, and based on the commonwealths of people, the rock of original power. If you leave it on the shifting sands, "great will be the fall of it!" and in the ensuing night and sorrow of despotism, you will come "To think-as the damned haply think of the heaven They once had in their reach that you might have been free." May God preserve and bless the American commonwealths, and may their motto ever be "UNION AND LIBERTY! NOW AND FOREVER! ONE AND INSEPARABLE!" : |