ADDRESS BEFORE THE NEW YORK YOUNG MEN’S REPUBLICAN UNION, AT THE COOPER
INSTITUTE, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 19, 1867.
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains
of Israel, … and they shall be no more two nations.… Neither
shall they defile themselves any more with their idols,
nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their
transgressions.--EZEKIEL, xxxvii. 22, 23.
* * * * *
In these days their union is so entire and perfect that they
are not only joined together in bonds of friendship and
alliance, but even make use of the same laws, the same weights,
coins, and measures, the same magistrates, counsellors, and
judges: so that the inhabitants of this whole tract of Greece
seem in all respects to form but one single city, except only
that they are not enclosed within the circuit of the same
walls; in every other point, both through the whole republic
and in every separate state, we find the most exact resemblance
and conformity.--POLYBIUS, _General History_, tr. Hampton,
(London, 1756,) Vol. I. pp. 147, 148.
* * * * *
We represent the people,--we are a Nation. To vote by States
will keep up colonial distinctions.… The more a man aims at
serving America, the more he serves his colony. I am not
pleading the cause of Pennsylvania; I consider myself a
citizen of America.--BENJAMIN RUSH, _Speech in the Continental
Congress, July, 1776_: Bancroft, History of the United States,
Vol. IX. p. 54.
* * * * *
It is my first wish to see the United States assume and merit
the character of _one great Nation_, whose territory is divided
into different States merely for more convenient government
and the more easy and prompt administration of justice,--just
as our several States are divided into counties and townships
for the like purposes. Until this be done, the chain which
holds us together will be too feeble to bear much opposition
or exertion, and we shall be daily mortified by seeing the
links of it giving way and calling for repair, one after
another.--JOHN JAY, _Letter to John Lowell, May 10, 1785_:
Life, by William Jay, Vol. I. p. 190.
* * * * *
He took this occasion to repeat, that, notwithstanding his
solicitude to establish a National Government, he never
would agree to abolish the State Governments or render them
absolutely insignificant. They were as necessary as the General
Government, and he would be equally careful to preserve
them.--GEORGE MASON, _Speech in the Constitutional Convention,
June 20, 1787_: Debates, Madison Papers, Vol. II. pp. 914, 915.
* * * * *
Whether the Constitution be good or bad, the present clause
clearly discovers that it is a National Government, and
no longer a Confederation: I mean that clause which gives
the first hint of the General Government laying direct
taxes.--GEORGE MASON, _Speech in the Virginia Convention to
ratify the Constitution, June 4, 1788_: Elliot’s Debates, (2d
edit.,) Vol. III. p. 29.
* * * * *
The Declaration of Independence having provided for the
_national_ character and the _national_ powers, it remained
in some mode to provide for the character and powers of the
States individually, as a consequence of the dissolution of
the colonial system. Accordingly the people of each State set
themselves to work, under a recommendation from Congress, to
erect a local government for themselves; but in no instance did
the people of any State attempt to incorporate into their local
system any of those attributes of national authority which the
Declaration of Independence had asserted in favor of the United
States.--ALEXANDER JAMES DALLAS, _Argument in the Case of
Michael Bright and others, in the Circuit Court of the United
States, April 28, 1809_: Life and Writings, p. 104.
* * * * *
Hence, while the sovereignty resides inherently and inalienably
in the people, it is a perversion of language to denominate
the State, as a body politic or government, sovereign and
independent.--_Ibid._, p. 100.
* * * * *
America has chosen to be, in many respects and to many
purposes, a Nation; and for all these purposes her government
is complete, to all these objects it is competent. The people
have declared, that, in the exercise of all powers given for
these objects, it is supreme. It can, then, in effecting these
objects, legitimately control all individuals or governments
within the American territory. The Constitution and laws of a
State, so far as they are repugnant to the Constitution and
laws of the United States, are absolutely void. These States
are constituent parts of the United States; they are members
of one great empire.--CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL, _Cohens_ v.
_Virginia_, Wheaton, Rep., Vol. VI. p. 414.
* * * * *
This Address was prepared as a lecture, and was delivered on
a lecture-tour reaching as far as Milwaukee, Dubuque, and St.
Louis. On its delivery in New York, Dr. Francis Lieber was in
the chair. It became the subject of various local notice and
discussion.
The idea of Nationality had prevailed with Mr. Sumner from the
beginning of his public life. In his appeal to Mr. Webster
before the Whig State Convention, as early as September 23,
1846, while calling on the eminent Senator and orator to become
_Defender of Humanity_, he recognized his received title,
_Defender of the Constitution_, as justly earned by the vigor,
argumentation, and eloquence with which he had “upheld the
Union and that interpretation of the Constitution which makes
us a Nation.”[1] And from that time he had always insisted that
we were a Nation,--believing, that, while many things were
justly left to local government, for which the States are the
natural organs, yet the great principles of Unity and Human
Rights should be placed under central guardianship, so as to
be everywhere the same; and this he considered the essence of
the Nation.--The word “Federal” Mr. Sumner habitually rejected
for “National.” Courts and officers under the United States
Government he called “National.”