States’ Rights: The Foundation of Our Republic
The powers not 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. Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution
Fighting together in the American Revolution, Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge CREDIT: Dunsmore, John Ward, artist. “Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge.” Reproduction of a 1907 painting. St. Paul, Brown & Bigelow, copyright 1907. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
Good Monday morning! I pray y’all enjoyed a loving and blessed Valentine’s Day.
When some gaze upon the title of this week’s missive, they may immediately construct a negative connotation for the words “states’ rights.” There are those who will weigh these words against the annals of American history associated with slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, and segregation. The funny thing is that the people who think of state
not because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skin. we can understand without rancor or hatred how this all happened. but it cannot continue. our constitution, foundation of our republic, forbids it. the principles of our freedom forbid it. and the law i will sign tonight forbids it. senator hubert humphrey has called the civil rights bill the greatest piece of social legislation of our generation. tell somebody on my staff, be sure we get some more pens here
the car was burned and we do not know yet whether any bodies are inside of the car because of the intense heat. it s merely an assumption that probably they were burned in the car. or maybe kidnapped and locked up. well, i would doubt whether those people down there would even give them that much of a break. we believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. yet millions are being deprived of those blessings. not because of their own failures, but because of the color of their skin. we can understand without rancor or hatred how this all happened. but it cannot continue. our constitution, foundation of our republic, forbids it. the principles of our freedom
our constitution, foundation of our republic, forbids it. the principles of our freedom forbid it. and the law i will sign tonight forbids it. senator hubert humphrey has called the civil rights bill the greatest piece of social legislation of our generation. tell somebody on my staff, be sure we get some more pens here the civil rights act of 1964 is not going to create instant brotherhood. no one pretends that. but the attorney general gets new power to bring suits against racial discrimination in voting,
created equal, yet many are denied equal treatment. yet it cannot continue. our constitution, foundation of our republic, forbids it. the principles of our freedom forbid it. morality forbids it. and the law i will sign tonight forbids it. after johnson signed the bill, he famously said he lost the south to the gop for a generation. sadly he was right. here is the map of the states of the old confederacy. now look at the map today. for just the second time since the civil war, republicans control the legislature in every confederate state. and in all those states, politicians want to reassert the old motto of states rights. trying to limit the federal