and if we fail to learn and utilize them, we may as well give up self-government, and cry out, as did the Hebrews, "Give us a king," to save ourselves from the war and woe of his inevitable coming. - But in the opening of the new cycle the second century of "federal liberty" 1- we have some good auspices. Certain subjugated and degraded states have recovered that equality, vital to a voluntary union of republics; and the head-alike of the federal agency and of the supposed centralistic party (President Hayes) declares that "The American flag must wave over states and not over provinces"; which can only mean, that the great American revolution, from provinces to states, is not to be annulled; that henceforth our union will be an association of equal commonwealths, governing themselves through agencies with entrusted powers; that the means of enforcing said authority is "the mild and salutary coercion of the magistracy" [Federalist]; and that the soldiery is no more a part of the government, than the switch or ferule is a part of the parent or schoolmaster, but is an instrument of the civil power, to be used as a last resort. IN CONCLUSION, it is to be hoped that the American people will speedily come again to know and feel that they are, in form, and life, and action, an association of republics; and to recognize their duty of preserving their sacred heritage and trust of liberty against cen 1 This phrase was used by James Wilson, to express the liberty that free states enjoy under their league. "The definition of civil liberty," said he, " is, briefly, that portion of natural liberty, which men resign to the government [i. e. to society], and which then produces more happiness than it would have produced if retained by the individuals who resign it; still, however, leaving to the human mind the full enjoyment of every principle that is not incompatible with the peace and order of society. Here I am easily led to the consideration of another species of liberty, which has not yet received a discriminating name, but which I will venture to term federal liberty. This, sir, consists, in the ag gregate of the civil liberty which is surrendered [i. e. delegated] by each state to the national government [i. e. to the United States]; and the same principles that operate in the establishment of a single society, with respect to the rights reserved or resigned by the individuals that compose it, will justly apply in the case of a confederation of distinct and independent states." [See Connecticut Courant, Dec. 24, 1787.] tralization. The fundamental laws, which the states have severally and federally established, seem once more to be in accord with the tones of the old bell which, on the 4th of July, 1776, "proclaimed liberty throughout the land." All patriotic hearts and hopes are in harmony, and our only political discords are the usurpations and excesses of those ephemeral creatures who fly, for a measured while, with imparted strength, in the sunshine of popular favor creatures who, as subjects and chosen servants of the commonwealths, are sworn to keep within those written limits which they daily transcend. - CONTENTS. The separateness of the states from their origin Each body must, if independent, be sovereign The constitution provides for a union of states It is a constitution of government by states It is a part of the machinery of self-government The federal government is not over the states The danger of giving it supreme power. All political power inherent in the people. The doctrine of the perverters 25 |