The Role of the Police in American Society: A Documentary History Bryan Vila and Cynthia Morris, editors. Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Issues: A Documentary History Michael LeMay and Elliott Robert Barkan, editors.
Series Foreword
Introduction
Documents provide an overview that informs us about the origins and changes in the nature of states' rights and American federalism. Questions about the relationship of the people to both the state and national governments (as they existed in the eighteenth century when federalism emerged) have persisted in the American political experience.
Chronology of Key Events in States’ Rights and American
Federalism
1896 The Supreme Court announces that separate but equal facilities are constitutional in the decision in Plessy v. 1999 The Supreme Court balanced the issue of federalism and the role of the states in Alden v.
States’ Rights and American Federalism
The Mayflower Compact, 1620
Originally, the document we call the Mayflower Compact was known as the ''Plymouth Combination'' or simply the ''Combination''. Whatever its name meant, the people had agreed to combine themselves into a ''civil body politic.'' In 1793, the Mayflower Compact written by the Pilgrims was first published for public reading. In the Mayflower Compact, the larger unit was the ''civil body politic''. The smaller units were the people who signed the pact.
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639
Towns, it should be noted, retained some powers in the federal system of Connecticut's Basic Orders. But neither of these Courts shall be dissolved or dissolved without the consent of the majority of the Court.
Organization of the Government of Rhode Island, March 16–19, 1642
It is ordered that a line be drawn and a road opened between the towns of Nuport and Portsmouth, by removing the timber and cutting it; that livestock can pass sufficiently; and for the execution thereof, capt. Jeoffreys of the other, appointed to draw the line, and to be paid of it, and the Townes to perform the rest.
On Liberty, 1645
This liberty is incompatible with and contrary to authority, and cannot bear the least restraint of the most just authority. This freedom is preserved and exercised in a manner of submission to authority; it is of the same kind of freedom with which Christ has made us free.
Penn’s Plan of Union, 1697
A Royal Commissioner specially appointed for that purpose presides and presides over the said Congress. That in time of war the king's high commissioner general or commander in chief shall have as many quotas of service against the common enemy as he shall be advised for the good and good of the whole.
Albany Plan of Union, 1754
That the members of the Great Council shall be allowed for their service ten shillings sterling per diem, during their sitting and traveling to and from the place of meeting; twenty miles to be counted as a day's journey. That the consent of the President-General is required for all acts of the Grand Council, and that it is his office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution.
Declarations of the Stamp Act Congress, October 2, 1765
That trial by jury is the inherent and inestimable right of every British subject in these colonies. That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonies to petition the King or either House of Parliament.
From a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, Letter II, 1767
This power is vested in Parliament; and we are as dependent on Great Britain as a perfectly free people can be on any other country. Pitt, in his speeches on the debate over the repeal of the Stamp Act, recognized that Britain could restrict our production.
Thoughts on Government, Letter of John Adams, January 1776
The basis of any government is a principle or passion in the minds of the people. Now that representation of the people has been achieved in one assembly, the question arises whether all the powers of government, legislative, executive and judiciary, will remain in this body.
Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, July 1776
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all directly intended to establish an absolute Tyranny over these States. He repeatedly dissolved Houses of Representatives because he resisted with manly determination his incursions on the rights of the people.
In Defense of State Sovereignty, Thomas Burke, 1777
It originally stood the third article; and expressed only a reservation of the power to regulate the internal police, and consequently resigned every other power. It seemed to me that this was not what the States expected, and I thought, that it left it in the power of the future Congress or General Council to explain away every right belonging to the States, and to make their own may make as unlimited as they please.
James Madison’s ‘‘Vices of the Political System,’’ April 1787
A desire for sanction for laws and for coercion in the Confederate government. Source: James Madison, ``Vices of the Political System,'' in The Papers of James Madison, ed.
The Virginia Plan Presented to the Federal Convention, May 29, 1787
Resolved, That provision should be made for the admission of states legally arising within the borders of the United States, either by a voluntary union of government and territory or otherwise, by the concurrence of a number of voices in the national legislature less than the whole. Resolved that provision should be made for the amendment of the Articles of Union whenever deemed necessary and that for this the approval of the National Legislature should not be required.
John Dickinson of Delaware on Federalism at the Constitutional Convention, June 7, 1787
He maintained the opinion that the Senate ought to be composed of a large number, and that their influence of family weight &. Madison] was good that it would prove that the number of the Senate ought to be reduced below ten, the highest number of the Tribunitial Corps.
The New Jersey Plan Presented to the Federal Convention, June 15, 1787
Resolved, That the United States shall be authorized in Congress to elect a Federal Executive, composed of persons, who should remain in office for a number of years, and who should at regular intervals receive a fixed compensation for their services, no increase or reduction of power takes place. shall be so done as to affect the persons constituting the executive branch at the time of such increase or decrease, and shall be paid out of the Federal treasury; are unable to hold any other office or position during their service and in subsequent years; to be ineligible for the second time, and to be impeached by Congress at the request of a majority of the executive powers of the several states; that the executive branch, in addition to their general authority to execute the federal laws, should appoint all federal officers not otherwise provided for and direct all military operations; provided that none of the persons constituting the federal executive branch shall come into power. Established that a citizen of a State who commits an offense in another State of the Union shall be deemed guilty of the same offense as if it had been committed by a citizen of the State where the offense was committed.
James Madison of Virginia Compares the Virginia and New Jersey Plans at the Constitutional
The insurrections in Massachusetts warned all the States of the danger to which they were exposed. Let the union of the States be dissolved and one of two consequences must happen.
James Wilson of Pennsylvania on Federalism at the Constitutional Convention, June 25, 1787
Source: Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention, reported by James Madison, with a foreword by Adrienne Koch (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), pp. Source: Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention, reported by James Madison, with a foreword by Adrienne Koch (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), p.
The Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787
No less than three nor more than five states must be formed in the said territory; and the borders of the States. And when any of the said States shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted by its delegates to the Con-.
Federalist Number 10, Publius and the Extended Republic, November 22, 1787
It will not be denied that the Union representation is most likely to have these required funds. Is it actually in the bigger obstacles that oppose the concert and the realization of the secret desires of the unjust and interested majority.
Agrippa Writes a Letter to the People in Opposition to an Extended Republic and the Constitution of
Let us now consider how far this is practicable according to the happiness of men and their liberty. Therefore, a certain degree of seriousness is required in one which would crush the spirit of the other.
Federalism and the Meaning of the Tenth
Amendment, 1789–1835
George Mason’s Objections to the Proposed Constitution, October 1, 1787
The lack of a Bill of Rights was intertwined in state and national government relations and the rights of the individual. There is no bill of rights: and the laws of the general government are paramount to the laws and constitutions of the several states, and the bill of rights of the separate states is no security.
James Madison’s Proposal to Congress for a Bill of Rights, June 8, 1789
The rights of the individual are therefore only protected against the actions of the national government. No state shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases.
The Sedition Act, July 14, 1798
I know that in some of the state constitutions the power of government is governed by such a declaration; but others are not. And the jury that shall try the case shall have the right to determine the law and the fact, under the direction of the court, as in other cases.
The Kentucky Resolutions, November 16, 1798
That therefore [the Sedition Act], which really restricts the freedom of the press, is not a law, but is altogether void and of no effect. Therefore, in matters of power, trust in man should no longer be heard, but free him from wickedness with the demands of the constitution.
United States v. Peters, 1809
After nearly thirty years, in 1808, the crew's heirs filed a claim against the Rittenhouse estate. The cause shown is an act of the Pennsylvania legislature, passed after his conviction.
Report and Resolutions of the Hartford Convention, January 1815
No new State shall be admitted into the Union by Congress, by virtue of the power conferred by the Constitution, without the consent of two-thirds of both Houses. The same person shall not be elected President of the United States a second time; The president must also not be elected from the same state for two consecutive terms.
Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
The Constitution was framed and determined by the people of the United States for themselves, for their government, and not for the government of the individual states. If these propositions are correct, the Fifth Amendment must be understood as limiting the power of the general state, not as applicable to the states.
States’ Rights in the Antebellum Period and
Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable, January 1830
The people of the United States have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law. Calhoun developed the states' rights argument around the position that the Constitution was the creation of the sovereign states.
Andrew Jackson’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1833
They are the preservation of the rights of several states and the integrity of the Union. Let us be aware of the importance of the relationship in which we stand before the world.
Abraham Lincoln’s Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838
The event of the existing crisis will, in the opinion of humanity, be decisive as to the practicability of our federal system of government. “The consolidation of our political institutions” has been chosen as the topic for the evening's remarks.
The Seventh of March Speech: Daniel Webster and the Compromise of 1850
Questions of individual rights, states' rights, the status of slaves, and the nature of the United States. One of these rights is the privilege to sue in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution.
James Buchanan’s Fourth Annual Message
Whatever it acquires, it acquires for the benefit of the people of the various states that created it. The Federal Government has no power over the person or property of any citizen, except as granted by the citizens of the United States.
Resolutions of Secession: Mississippi (January 11, 1861), South Carolina (December 20, 1860), and
THE PEOPLE of the State of South Carolina, assembled on the 2nd day of April A.D. An ORDINANCE to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America by the State of Virginia, and to resume all rights and powers granted under said Constitution .
Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
I believe that from the point of view of universal law and the constitution, the union of these countries is permanent. If we proceed from these general principles, we find the claim that the union in legal contemplation is always confirmed by the history of the union itself.
The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
Changes Involving States’ Rights and
Deal, 1865–1940
Women’s Suffrage Petition to Congress, December 1871
Isabella Beecher Hooker, daughter of Reverend Lyman Beecher, disliked fame but rose to leadership in the cause of women's rights. She gained a national reputation when she spoke at the convention of the National Suffrage Association in 1870.
An Episcopal Priest Challenges Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, 1905
Restraint itself, no matter what the race or class forbade, was made the occasion of the punishment. It is not to the benefit of the State that the sense of political injury should operate within any of its social forces.
Theodore Roosevelt on Lincoln and the Race Problem, February 13, 1905
I admire and respect and believe in and have faith in the men and women of the South as I admire and respect and believe in and have faith in the men and women of the. All of us, Northerners and Southerners, Easterners and Westerners, can best prove our loyalty to the People's post by the way in which we do the People's work in the present; for only in this way can we be sure that our children's children will inherit Abraham Lincoln's single-minded devotion to the great unchanging creed that "righteousness exalts a nation."
Elihu Root Calls for the Preservation of Local Self-Government of the States, December 12, 1906
Such changes in people's lives cannot help but bring about corresponding political changes. How can these changes and trends maintain the power of the states?
Wilson Rejects the Old Ideal of Limited Government, October 30, 1909
The intervention of the national government in many affairs which it has recently undertaken would have been entirely unnecessary if the states themselves had lived up to their duty to the general body of the country. This document reported his ideas about the role of the national government in the federal system.
Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom Changes the Old Order, 1913
America's treasury is not in the brains of the small group of people who now control the great corporations concentrated under the leadership of a very small number of individuals. Source: Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom: A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913), pp.
Kate Gordon’s Letter to the Governors of the Southern States, 1913
If this fails, the responsibility will fall on the men of the South if Southern women are forced to support a National Amendment that faces the same concerns as the Fifteenth Amendment. Solid South,” from Trend, from the Catharine Waugh McCulloch Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, as quoted in Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, New Women of the New South: The Leaders of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the Southern States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p.
Petition from Women Voters, Anti-Suffrage Party of New York, 1917
We therefore appeal to you, gentlemen, who have the power to shape the situation so strongly as to consult with us and influence public opinion to accept woman suffrage by state measures. Resolved, That the Senate of the United States be respectfully requested not to pass any measure involving so radical a change in our government, while the attention of the patriotic portion of the American people is fixed on the all-important task of winning the war, and during the absence of more than a million men abroad .
State of Tennessee Approves Nineteenth Amendment, August 1920
In witness whereof, I do hereby sign my name as Governor of the State of Tennessee, and hereby affix on the twenty-fourth day the Great Seal of the State of Tennessee in the Capitol in the city of Nashville, Tennessee. of August 1920, at 10:17 am
President Calvin Coolidge on the Responsibilities of the States, May 30, 1925
Obviously, these differences create many problems in government that must always be recognized.
President Calvin Coolidge’s Fourth Annual State of the Union Message, December 7, 1926
In the measure against distress this winter, the great private agencies of the country have again been mobilized; our generosity. The great majority of states show solid cooperation in the spirit of federal assistance.
FDR’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
