Here it becomes important to consider the operation of the Rebellion in opening the way to this question. To this end we must understand the relations between the States and the National Government, under the Constitution of the United States. As I approach this question of singular delicacy, let me say on the threshold, that for all those rights of the States which are consistent with the peace, security, and permanence of the Union, according to the objects grandly announced in the Preamble of the Constitution, I am the strenuous advocate at all times and places. Never, through any word or act of mine, shall those rights be impaired; nor shall any of those other rights be called in question by which the States are held in harmonious relations as well with each other as with the Union. But, while thus strenuous for all that justly belongs to the States, I cannot concede to them immunities inconsistent with that Constitution which is the supreme law of the land; nor can I admit the impeccability of a State.
From a period even anterior to the National Constitution, there has been a perverse pretension of State Rights, which has perpetually interfered with the unity of our Government. Throughout the Revolution this pretension was a check upon the powers of Congress, whether in respect to armies or finances, so that it was too often constrained to content itself with the language of advice or persuasion rather than of command. By the Declaration of Independence it was solemnly declared that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States” and that, as such, “they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.” Thus, by this original charter, the early Colonies were changed into independent States, under whose protection the liberties of the country were placed.
Early steps were taken to supply the deficiencies of this government, which was effective only through the generous patriotism of the people. In July, 1778, two years after the Declaration, Articles of Confederation were ratified by nine States, but the assent of all was not obtained till March, 1781. The character of this new government, which assumed the style of “The United States of America,” appears in the title of these Articles, which was as follows: “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.” By the second article it was declared that “each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.” By the third article it was further declared that “the said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare.” By another article, a “committee of the States, or any nine of them,” was authorized, in the recess, to execute the powers of Congress. The government thus constituted was a compact between sovereign States, or, according to its precise language, “a firm league of friendship” between these States, administered, in the recess of Congress, by a “committee of the States.” Thus did State Rights triumph.
But the imbecility of the Confederation, from this pretension, soon became apparent. As early as December, 1782, a committee of Congress made an elaborate report on the refusal of Rhode Island, one of the States, to confer certain powers on Congress with regard to revenue and commerce. In April, 1783, an Address of Congress to the States was put forth, appealing to their justice and plighted faith, and representing the consequence of failure on their part to sustain the Government and provide for its wants. In April, 1784, a similar appeal was made to what were called “the several States,” whose Legislatures were recommended to vest “the United States in Congress assembled” with certain powers. In July, 1785, a committee of Congress made another elaborate report on the reason why the States should confer upon Congress powers therein enumerated, in the course of which it was urged, that, “unless the States act together, there is no plan of policy into which they can separately enter which they will not be separately interested to defeat, and of course all their measures must prove vain and abortive.” In February and March, 1786, there were three other reports of committees of Congress, exhibiting the failure of the States to comply with the requisitions of Congress, and the necessity for a complete accession of all the States to the revenue system. In October, 1786, there was still another report, most earnestly renewing the former appeals to the States. Nothing could be more urgent.
As early as July, 1782, even before the first report to Congress, resolutions were adopted by the State of New York, declaring “that the situation of these States is in a peculiar manner critical,” and that “the radical source of most of our embarrassments is the want of sufficient power in Congress to effectuate that ready and perfect coöperation of the different States on which their immediate safety and future happiness depend.”[183] Finally, in September, 1786, at Annapolis, commissioners from several States, after declaring “the situation of the United States delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the united virtue and wisdom of all the members of the Confederacy,” recommended the meeting of a Convention “to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.” In accord with this recommendation, the Congress of the Confederation proposed a Convention “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union.”
In pursuance of the call, delegates to the proposed Convention were duly appointed by the Legislatures of the several States, and the Convention assembled at Philadelphia in May, 1787. The present Constitution was the well-ripened fruit of their deliberations. In transmitting it to Congress, General Washington, who was the President of the Convention, in a letter, bearing date September 17, 1787, uses this instructive language:—
“It is obviously impracticable, in the Federal Government of these States, to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance as on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered and those which may be reserved; and on the present occasion this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence.”
These famous words were in harmony with the constant sentiments of Washington. Here is additional evidence, from a letter to John Jay, during the summer of 1786:—