North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial
“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)
