State Documents on Federal Relations

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State Documents on Federal Relations: The States and the United States
by Herman V. Ames
Information about this edition
A collection of documents published by state governments concerning their relationships with each other and the federal government of the United States. Originally published in five volumes between 1900 and 1904, the volumes were combined for publication in 1906 and again in 1911.

Page scans of Volume I (1900) and Volumes II-V (1906) are available. Relevant internal links and links to Wikipedia have been added to the text, but all footnotes are directly from the original.


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(sources: Volume I, Volumes II-V)

Preface

[ 3 ]The following collection of documents on the relations of the States to the Federal Government, 1789–1861, comprises typical papers covering the official action of various states in different sections of the country, relative to the chief political and constitutional issues in our history. The documents have been selected especially with a view to illustrate the development of the doctrines of broad and strict construction, the prevalence of the "compact theory" of the Constitution and the doctrine of "State Rights," State opposition to the Federal Judiciary, and the different phases of the slavery controversy, culminating in the secession movement. The truth of the statement of Alexander Johnston, that "Almost every State in the Union in turn declared its own sovereignity and denounced as almost treasonable similar declarations in other cases by other States," is fully sustained by the following documents.

In making the collection I was soon confronted by the fact that some of the most valuable illustrative material could only be secured with great difficulty, owing to the inaccessibility or scarcity of the volumes containing the desired documents, or the record of legislative action. Indeed I early learned that nothing approaching a complete collection of the legislative documents of the several States was in existence, although the authorities of the Congressional Library and the New York Public Library were endeavoring to secure such. As a result of this experience I have been deeply impressed with the importance of more attention being paid to the collection and systematic study of this class of State documents, for I believe that only in the light of these records can we realize the full significance of our national development. [ 4 ]

This compilation was prompted primarily to meet the need for illustrative material in connection with courses in the Constitutional History of the United States given in the University of Pennsylvania. In view of the fact that so few of the resolutions of the State Legislatures and other official documents of the various States were accessible to the general reader, it was believed that the publication of a series of selections from these important, but little used sources would be welcomed by others. This expectation has been fulfilled by the reception given to the successive numbers as they have appeared. With the completion of the series, in the hope of increasing their value and facilitating their use, the several numbers are now presented in one volume.

Herman V. Ames.

Philadelphia,
     October 30th, 1906.

Errata

The Reports and Resolves of a Committee of the House of Representatives of South Carolina, 1824, does not seem to have been adopted, only considered.

The statement in § 73 that the "South Carolina Exposition" was adopted by the Legislature is incorrect. The report was adopted by a Committee and presented to the Legislature, which ordered five thousand copies printed.

Contents


PD-icon.svg This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923.

The author died in 1935, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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