UFORNIA SOUTH AGAINST NORTH. CHAPTER I. FALSE DEFINITIONS THE CHIEF SUPPORT OF THE FALSE DOCTRINES WHICH DESTROYED THE PEACE OF THE UNION. 66 Contemporanea expositio est optima et fortisima in lege.“ If we carefully examine the long controversy between the two sections of the Federal Union with the object of satisfying ourselves as to the validity of the reasoning, the arguments, and the appeals to the intelligence of the people relied on by the respective disputants— disregarding mere appeals to self-interest and passion— we shall find that in their last analysis they were nothing but differences of interpretation. The fundamental difference, from which all others logically resulted, was about the significance of the terms employed to name or describe the Colonies and their inhabitants after the 4th of July, 1776. One class of politicians maintained that each one of the States was an independent sovereignty; that the Federal Government was nothing more than an agent of the States, created by them for certain well-defined purposes; and that whenever this agent usurped powers not granted to it by the States, they were no longer bound to regard it as their agent; and that, furthermore, a violation of the mutual covenants of the States, solemnly" nominated in the bond," would absolve an injured State from its obligations as a member of the Confederacy. The opposing school of 1 Contemporaneous exposition is best and strongest in law. politicians denied the sovereignty of each State; insisted that the people of America" united themselves in a social compact without regard to State lines, that they, as "one people," organized a "National Government" to manage the affairs of the whole people, and "local" governments to which were entrusted local interestsin short, that the "National Government" representing the sovereignty of the whole people, is paramount to the local or State governments. These conflicting views led to deplorable consequences; and since it is important that we should be able to ascertain where the responsibility lay, let us apply the test of definition. This may not be infallible, but it is the test which the common sense of mankind has decided to be best and strongest. The four most important of these terms are (1) State, (2) sovereign, (3) citizen, and (4) nation. STATE. For the true meaning of this word, when applied to communities or governments, we have the authority of statesmen, scholars, historians, jurists, and poets who lived and wrote during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, including the formative period of our Union. Here are some of them: (a) Lord Bacon (who died 1626) in his essay "Of Great Place," begins thus: "Men in great place are thrice servants--servants of the sovereign or State, etc.; and in his, essayOf Seditions and Troubles" he says: As there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of the seas before a tempest, so are there in States''; and, again, "Libels and licentious discourses against the State, when they are frequent and open: and in like sort false news, often running up and down, to the disadvantage of the State, and hastily em braced, are amongst the signs of troubles." All through his writings "State" is a synonym for the highest form of an organized community. (b) Dr. Thomas Fuller (died 1661) is quoted thus in Richardson's Dictionary (under "State"): "The word statesman is of great latitude, sometimes signifying such who are able to manage offices of state, though never actually called thereto. (c) Sir Matthew Hale (died 1676) is quoted by Blackstone (first chapter of his fourth book) as saying: "When offenses grow enormous, frequent, and dangerous to a kingdom or State," etc. (d) Boyer's French-English and English-French Royal Dictionary, published in Amsterdam in 1727, defines "State" thus: "(A country living under the same government) Etat," etc.; and, again, "the government of a People Living under the Dominion of a Prince, or in a Commonwealth) Etat, Empire, Souverainete, ou Republique." (e) David Hume (died 1775) says on page 138 of Volume III of his History of England: "Most of the arts and professions in a State are of such a nature, that while they promote the interests of the society, they are also useful or agreeable to some individual”; and, again, "But there are also some callings which though useful and even necessary in a State, bring no particular advantage or pleasure to any individual.” through his volumes the word is used as it is here. All {ƒ) Sir William Blackstone (died 1780) says in the chapter already referred to, that a knowledge of the criminal law is of the utmost importance to every individual in the State"; that the law and its administration "may be modified, narrowed, or enlarged according to the local or occasional necessities of the State"; and that "sanguinary laws are a bad symptom of the distemper of any State." (g) Adam Smith (died 1790) says in his Wealth of Nations, Volume II, page 62: "In the plenty of good land the European colonies established in America and the West Indies resemble and even greatly surpass those of ancient Greece. In their dependency upon the mother State they resemble those of ancient Rome." (h) And Sir William Jones (died 1794) wrote: "What constitutes a state? Not high-raised battlements or labored mound, Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 66 It is beyond dispute, therefore, that in 1776 "State," whether applied to a people or to their government, was a general term, while "kingdom,” empire,' "republic," and "commonwealth" were specific terms, denoting sources of political power. It was a more comprehensive term than either of these. It was so understood by the statesmen who put "the State of Great Britain" in the Declaration of Independence; it was so understood by the Colonies when, through their delegates in the Continental Congress, they declared themselves to be "free and independent States"; it was so understood by their delegates when they set forth "the necessity which constrains them (the Colonies) to alter their former systems (plural) of government"; it was so understood by the negotiators of the Treaty of Peace of 1783, when they wrote: |