Author : Moses M. Granger
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781544774862
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (748 download)
Book Synopsis Washington Vs. Jefferson by : Moses M. Granger
Download or read book Washington Vs. Jefferson written by Moses M. Granger and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-03-18 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE war of 1861- 65 will always command the interest of both North and South. No one can understand how and why it came, or fairly judge the parties to it, without an accurate knowledge of those facts in our history that -make up the case- that was then submitted to trial by battle. Those facts have not yet been stated in -ordinary and concise language, - in their proper relation to the issue, and to each other. The -plain people- have not time or money to expend upon the many small books, each telling a part of those facts, or upon any of the large ones that deal with the whole matter. Therefore I now try to so state them that everyone can spare the money to buy and the time to read my small book, and yet find in it so complete an outline of the material facts that all may either form a judgment satisfactory to themselves, or be aided by my narrative in the selection of such matters as seem to them to require further investigation. My readers will find in the following chapters the following facts: In the fall of 1798 Jefferson wrote in the Kentucky resolutions the Confederate or secession theory of the Constitution, but concealed his authorship. Washington, who held the national, or Union theory, condemned the doctrine of those resolutions. The last year of his life was troubled by fears for his country. His last work for that country was to induce Patrick Henry, most eloquent of Virginia's sons, to publicly oppose that doctrine. He wrote Henry that if that doctrine should be persisted in, either a dissolution of the Union or coercion must follow. The basis of the doctrine was the claim that the Constitution was a treaty between sovereign states, by whom no arbiter had been agreed upon. An examination of the proceedings in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 shows that that body, having satisfied themselves of the inefficiency of a confederate government, early in its session resolved to frame a national government, and later carried that vote into effect. On motion of a Virginia delegate, it voted to establish a supreme judiciary to decide all questions that might affect the peace between the states, and so framed the judiciary article as to make the national judiciary -the arbiter- that Jefferson's resolution declared had not been provided. The convention significantly omitted to place in the Constitution the words, -Each State retains its sovereignty, - with which article II. of the Articles of Confederation opened; discarded the -preface- by which those Articles were proclaimed as an agreement between thirteen specified states; announced the Constitution to the world as ordained and established by -The People of the United States- for themselves and their posterity; vested in the national government all the great powers usually exercised by sovereign states; prohibited the states from using any of those powers; and declared that Constitution and the laws made pursuant thereto the supreme law of -the land.- Yates and Lansing, delegates from New York, well-equipped lawyers, deemed the instrument national, a departure from the confederate form, and therefore withdrew from the convention because their commissions only authorized them to revise and amend the -Articles of Confederation.- The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously decided in 1816, 1819, and 1824 that the Constitution was not made by the states, but by the people of the United States; and that although the states were sovereign before they ratified the Constitution, they, by that ratification, had ceded sovereignty to the nation....
