“Northern States of a political school which has persistently claimed that the government thus formed was not a compact between States, but was in effect a national government, set up above and over the States…The creature has been exalted above its creators; the principals have been made subordinate to the agent appointed by themselves.”Jefferson Davis Message to the Confederate Congress April 29, 1861.
Critical to the debate regarding the right of secession is where, in the minds of the founders, did sovereignty reside. Were the States sovereign principals and the federal government their created agent? Or was the federal government sovereign and the States its created agents? State sovereignty prevailed for most of the 70 years after the founding, but political prejudice and sectional interests continued the debate after the founding generation had passed and certainly clouded the issue in these United States. To escape the clouds it is helpful to listen to foreign statesmen whose tradition of understanding the US government reaches back to the time of the founding without the intervening political and sectional influences.
It is interesting to note the opinions of our Canadian neighbors to the North regarding what kind of government the US had when founded. Here is how future Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald described the US union in 1864:
More @ The Abbeville Institute
No comments:
Post a Comment