History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

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" I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States
incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly
by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive
of the great object for which it was formed. To say that any State
may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United
States are not a nation, because it would be a solecism to contend
that any part of the nation might dissolve its connection with the
otler part, to their injury or ruin, without committing any
offense. * * * The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts of a
nation they surrendered many of their essential parts of sover
eignty. The right to make treaties, declare war, levy taxes, exercise exclusive judicial and legislative powers, were all of them
functions of sovereign power. Tile States, then, for all of these
important purposes, were no longer sovereign. * " X The
duty imposed on me by the Constitution, to take care that the laws
be faithfully executed, shall be performed to the extent of the
powers vested in me by law."
In those olden times an honest man was chosen on his merits,
and asked to represent this country, and not lhimself, in the halls of
the legislature, in the supervisors' court of Oakland, and again
in the board of this county. A reference to the election returns
subscribed will prove this statement precise in every particular.
Years rolled on and still party lines remained unobserved. In
1836 there was an apparent tendency to party politics, but tile
effort was comparatively a weak one. Two years later, in 1838,
the abolitionist doctrine was received with favor on one side and
with suspicion on tlhe other. In 1840 " Abolition " and " Liberty "
were the watchwords of the country, and four years later, the Valley sent forward a candidate for the Presidency, as the nominee of
the Liberty party. James G. Birney, a native of Danville, Ky.,
who settled here in 1841, was sent into the field of political battles,
to contest it with Henry Clay on one side and James K. Polk on
the other. Birney was honest, enthusiastic and honorable. In this
matter he lived before his time, and as a result did not become an
occupant of the Presidential chair. Iis party acquiesced in tile
doctrine, laid down at that memorable meeting, held " under the
oaks " at Jackson in 1854, and the name and faime of the ' Sons of
Liberty " were hencefortl embosomed in that party.
The American party, organized immediately afterward, soon
passed away. In this county, its impracticable, unjust and unholy principles were stigmatized, and to the credit of the people,
mayit be said, entirely ignored. It was no more American in
principle than the tea tax was. The contest between the humble
Abraham Lincoln and tle noted Stephen A. Douglas in 1860 was
characteristically interesting. Here it was made a trial of power
between Democrats and Republicans.