This was of course not true of the primal is
sue upon which the founders of the Republic
so widely differed. There were at the begin
ning two classes of American statesmen. One
of these classes, represented by Alexander
Hamilton, believed in a strong centralized gov
ernment; while the other class had as their
leader, Thomas Jefferson, who championed the
principle afterward crystallized into the doc
trine of states’ rights. It is to be gravely
doubted whether this fundamental issue would,
have seriously disturbed the autonomy of the
states, if it had not been for the localization
of slavery in the Southern half of the United
States. The doctrine of state ’s rights took on
a new and more aggressive form when the
need arose for its application to the issue of
human slavery. While the question of slav
ery, at least in a sense, became a national is
sue, it remained in essence a sectional issue
until it was settled by the arbitrament of war.
We have had no national issue since, ex
cept the prohibition of the liquor traffic.
While the old political parties have sought to
pitch their campaigns upon the tariff and other
questions, they have all in reality been fought
upon the issue that preceded and followed the
Civil War.
