“it is better that this union be a rope of sand around those who are willing to stay together, than a rope of hemp around the neck of Liberty”
-Carl Schurz
Interesting speech by Carl Schurz leading up to the Civil War in 1859, printed in “the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, newspaper, March 24, 1859”
Link to the whole speech- https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Sta…nd_Byron_Paine
the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, March 24, 1859
“A Republic with centralized administration in it, is no better than a despotism without a nominal King. There the people exercise their right of suffrage only in order to choose their own tyrants, and every popular vote means the suicide of Liberty.”
“In order to invest the central government with the powers indispensable for carrying out the objects for which it was instituted, the States had to divest themselves of them. So they did, and made certain grants of power to the central government, never losing sight of the objects for which it was done. — “In deciding, what powers ought, and what ought not to be granted, the leading principle undoubtedly was, to delegate those only, which could be more safely, or beneficially exercised for the common good of all the States, by the joint or general government of all, than by the separate government of each State; leaving all others to the several States respectively. The object was, not to supersede the separate governments of the State; but to establish a joint supplemental government, in order to do that, which either could not be done at all, or as safely and well done by them, as by a joint government of all.” These are the words of a high democratic authority, Calhoun. The powers of the executive branch of the general government were most exactly enumerated; the range of the legislative department firmly walled in, the scope of the judiciary rigidly defined, and the makers of the Constitution, and of the amendments thereto, took great care to leave not a shadow of doubt about that one all important point, that the powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. They never lost an opportunity to recognize the sovereignty of the States; in the convention which framed the constitution, they voted by States; they submitted the Constitution for ratification to the States, and made it amendable only by a vote of and by the States; all this, because they designed, in the construction of a general government, to carry out the doctrine of the ramification of political power as the only reliable safeguard of the liberties of the people, and because they recognized the States as the great depositories of organized local self-government. They, indeed, intended to build up an efficient general government; but they were determined not to sacrifice to its efficiency any of the bulwarks of popular liberty. And there stands the constitution, establishing a government of delegated powers, strictly defined and firmly walled in; strong enough to protect the honor of the American flag in every sea, and the honor of the American name in every land; strong enough to protect our frontiers from invasions and the homes of the citizens from lawless violence; but intended not to be strong enough to invade the liberties of the people. (Applause.)
And here let us pause a moment. There is the Constitution of the United States, with all its grants of power, and its limitations and restrictions, with all the great fundamental principals underlying it, and setting forth all the great objects it is to subserve, nicely defined and well-worded, the Constitution, the glorious bequest of the heroic age of our history, the object of our confidence and admiration, and now I tell you, calmly and deliberately, that constitution is not worth the paper on which it is printed, if the authority to construe it, is exclusively and absolutely vested in the central government.
Cardinal Richelieu used to say: “Give me three lines in writing of a man, and I will find a capital offense in it, sufficient to make him swing.” And I tell you: “Give me absolute authority to construe the Constitution of the U. S., as I please, and I will construct under its provisions the most absolute government the world ever saw.” (Laughter.)
They say: “If there is no supreme authority, to which all others must yield, how will it be possible to maintain law and order.” Sir, I have heard that argument before I landed upon the shores of this Republic. I have heard this claim set up against all liberal aspirations in the old world; against every attempt of the people to throw off the shackles of despotism. And, sir, it fills my soul with sinister misgivings when in the very bosom of this republic, I see them instill into the hearts of the people that superstitious belief in the necessity of a strong central government.
People are but to apt to take a childish pleasure in the great actions of state, performed on the boards of our general government. They already like too much to see their servants appear in a gorgeous outfit of power and act the great and mighty. Take care not to make them forget that the principal guaranty of their rights, their liberties, their security, their welfare and their greatness does not not consist in a splendid representation, but in that dismemberment of political authority which keeps the power near the original source of sovereignty; a system which is modest in its outward appearance, but renders governments weak in doing mischief, and the people strong in doing good.
Law and order! You must indulge me sir, if I have a little more distrust in that device than many of my friends. There was no crime ever committed by the bloodiest despots for which “law and order” was not used as a ready plea. “Law and order” was written on the banners of Louis Napoleon when he cemented his empire together with the blood of the people. “Law and order” has reddened the green waters of my beautiful Rhine, and marked with bloody streaks the waves of the Danube. Go to the old world, and on the gateposts of the European Continent you will find the inscription, “law and order,” in characters of blood and fire. Go and study it, and you will learn how beautiful it is, under the dazzling splendor of their strong governments; that sublime order of barracks, and that serene tranquility of grave yards. (Applause.)
You may tell me that I exaggerate, and that such things are far off. Perhaps I do exaggerate. I wish these things were farther off than many of you suppose. Take care lest unexpected events shake you up from your dreams of security. Do you not see the general government surrounding itself with all the paraphernalia of centralized authority? Do you not hear the incessant cry of more soldiers, more ships, more money, more discretionary power? Do you not see a government determined to carry its point at all hazards? Do you not see the hideous monster of the constructive treason doctrine lurking behind the supreme bench?
Do you not see those petty pro-consuls, the federal district judges, who feel big when they can show their power? Did you never see them meddle with your domestic concerns, see them sneer at your state authorities and wantonly set your state laws at defiance. Ah, is your recollection so short! Did you never hear of the federal soldiery levelling their bayonets at the breast of the citizen in order to enforce — what? The fugitive slave law, a law by virtue of which, they may impress you and me as a police force to hunt up a man who has broken his fetters? Did your cities never resound with the crack of the federal musketry? Have you forgotten that federal army was sent to subdue the people of Kansas, who had the impudence to make laws for themselves? Have you never heard the threat, we will subdue you! Exaggeration, indeed; you have but to submit and acquiesce a little longer, and that power which rules over you, will teach you to tell truth from fiction.
Sir, do not set me down as an advocate of disorder and disunion. Oh sir, I have spent many a midnight hour over the awful problem, how human liberty can be brought in accordance with the strictest order of the social machinery; how the conspiracies of lurking despotism can be disarmed without a struggle and the rights of man be placed above all dangers of collision and conflicts. — I long to see descend to us that sublime order which reigns in regions above, where different solar systems rotate side by side, in eternal harmony, undisturbed even by the wanderings of the comet which draws its irregular lines across their spheres. But since that cannot be, since error and prejudice and passion stand in the way of human perfection, I do not want to see the safe guards of our rights and liberties surrendered without a struggle. I rejoice to see collision and conflicts unavoidable, when our highest good is put in danger.
Disunion! I am asked — will not with your doctrine of co-ordinate powers, the union be “a rope of sand.”
Sir, it is better that this union be a rope of sand around those who are willing to stay together, than a rope of hemp around the neck of Liberty. [Loud cheering.]”
Norman Rockwell by Alex Ross