North Carolina's WBTS Sesquicentennial -- North Carolina's Sovereignty

 

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial

www.ncwbts150.com

“The Official Website of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission”

“……That North Carolina Should Not Lose Her Sovereignty as a State”

“North Carolina emerged from the Revolution imbued with a strong particularistic spirit. Emphasis upon and interest in State matters absorbed the energies of political leaders. 

The result was that the State took little interest in the affairs of the Confederation.  When the Congress invited the States to send delegates to Philadelphia in 1787 for the purpose of revising the Article of Confederation, the General Assembly appointed a delegation of five to represent the State.

The North Carolina delegation represented the views of the conservative minority in the State which desired a strong central government….[but it] was not representative of the views of the majority of North Carolinians who were apparently well-satisfied with the government provided by the Articles.

It is not to be supposed that the North Carolina delegates, though they desired a stronger Union, favored a genuine national government rather than a confederation of States. 

Although they favored strengthening the powers of the central government, they did not intend that North Carolina should lose her sovereignty as a State.

Upon completion of the new Constitution, provision was made for its ratification by conventions in the States. The anti-federalists, led by Willie Jones in the northeast, Timothy Bloodworth in the southeast, Judge Samuel Spencer, Joseph McDowell and Thomas Person in the central and western counties, campaigned vigorously.

They denounced the federal judiciary, declared that the poor would be burdened with taxation, pointed to the lack of provisions guaranteeing the rights of individuals, and criticized the failure to protect the rights of the States. Public opinion crystallized on the issue of ratification.  The anti-federalists were successful and elected a large majority of delegates to the convention. The farmers of North Carolina looked upon the Constitution as an instrument designed to aid the commercial interests.

In the debate over the clause making the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and all treaties made under the authority of the United States the supreme law of the land, Timothy Bloodworth….declared that the new Constitution “would sweep off all the constitutions of the States,” would be “a total repeal of every act and constitution of the States,” and would produce “an abolition of State governments.”

On this point the Federalist leaders adhered to sound State sovereignty doctrine, holding in general that the new Constitution was a compact between the States. 

Both William R. Davie and Richard Dobbs Spaight, members of the Philadelphia convention, declared that the new government intended a stronger Union without destroying the sovereignty of the States.”  Read more at -- http://www.ncwbts150.com/Test1.php

(The Secession Movement in North Carolina, Joseph Carlyle Sitterson, UNC Press, 1939, pp. 23-25)