Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/342

 336 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Judge Tucker, professor of law in the University of William and Mary in Virginia, and one of the earliest commentators on the Con- stitution, in 1803, wrote " the Constitution of the United States, then, being that instrument by which the Federal government hath been created, its powers defined and limited, and the duties and functions of its several departments prescribed, the government thus established may be pronounced to be a confederate republic, composed of several independent and sovereign democratic States united for their com- mon defense and security against foreign nations, and for purposes of harmony and mutual intercourse between each other, each State retaining an entire liberty of exercising, as it thinks proper, all those parts of its sovereignty which are not mentioned in the Constitution or act of union as parts that ought to be exercised in common. In becoming a member of the Federal alliance, established between the American States by the articles of confederation, she expressly re- tained her sovereignty and independence. The constraint put upon the exercise of that sovereignty by these articles did not destroy its existence."

" The Federal government, then, appears to be the organ through which the united republics communicate with foreign nations and with each other. Their submission to its operation is voluntary ; its councils, its engagements, its authority are theirs, modified and united. Its authority is an emanation from theirs, not a flame in which they have been consumed, nor a vortex in which they are swallowed up. Each is still a perfect State, still sovereign, still inde- pendent and still capable, should occasion require, to resume the exercise of its functions as such in the most unlimited extent."

In speaking of our separation from Great Britain, Chancellor Kent says : " The principle of self-preservation and the right of every com- munity to freedom and happiness gave sanction to this separation. When the government established over any people becomes incom- petent to fulfill its purposes, or destructive to the essential ends for which it was instituted, it is the right of the people, founded on the law of nature and the reason of mankind, and supported by the soundest authority and some illustrious precedents, to throw off such govern- ment, and provide new guards for their future safety."

With a single exception I have confined my citations of authority to the Northern anti-slavery States, the home of the "originally small party." No Southern man, no slaveholder, ever more clearly announced and advocated the sovereignty of the States, or that the Constitution was a compact between the States, or that one party