Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 10 (of 20)Sumner, Charles
History
Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 10 (of 20)
Sumner, Charles
Slavery -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., American
in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of
every other State”; but here mark the controlling power of Congress,
which is authorized to “prescribe the manner in which such acts,
records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.”
There are five other provisions of the Constitution by which its
supremacy is positively established. (1.) “The citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the
several States.” As Congress has the exclusive power to establish “an
uniform rule of naturalization,” it may, under these words of the
Constitution, secure for its newly entitled citizens “all privileges
and immunities of citizens in the several States,” in defiance of
State Rights. (2.) “New States may be admitted _by the Congress_
into this Union.” According to these words, the States cannot even
determine their associates, but are dependent in this respect upon the
will of Congress. (3.) Not content with taking from the States these
important functions of sovereignty, it is solemnly declared that the
Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance
thereof, and all treaties under the authority of the United States,
“SHALL BE THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND,--_anything in the Constitution
or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding_.” Thus are
State Rights again subordinated to the National Constitution, which
is erected into the paramount authority. (4.) This is done again by
another provision, which declares that “_the members of the several
State Legislatures_, and all executive and judicial officers both of
the United States and of _the several States_, shall be bound by oath
or affirmation to support this Constitution”; so that not only State
laws are subordinated to the National Constitution, but the makers of
State laws and all other State officers are constrained to declare
allegiance to this Constitution, thus placing the State, alike through
its acts and its agents, in complete subordination to the sovereignty
of the United States. (5.) This sovereignty is further proclaimed
in the solemn injunction, that “the United States shall guaranty to
every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall
protect each of them against invasion.” Here are duties of guaranty and
protection imposed upon the United States, by which their position is
fixed as the supreme power. There can be no such guaranty without the
implied right to examine and consider the governments of the several
States, and there can be no such protection without a similar right to
examine and consider the condition of the several States, subjecting
them to the rightful supervision and superintendence of the National
Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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