I mentioned before an SCV newsletter titled "News From the Cradle", George W. Gayle, Editor. In it are several articles from the Confederate Centennial Edition of the Montgomery Advertiser, Sunday, Feb 19, 1961. One of special interest is by Dr. A. B. Moore, and I quote:
"States' Rights is a bedrock principal in our dual system of government. The states have a right to the exercise of all 'reserved' powers, that is, powers not delegated by the Constitution to the national government or denied by it to the states. That is what we mean by states' rights today, but the concept had a far deeper meaning in the minds of able men prior to the War Between the States."
Dr. Moore goes on: "It meant that a state had legal competency to withdraw from the Union, and it might, of course, do so if it should decide that its interests could not be protected by the Union".
Dr. Moore was former head of the Dept of History and Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School of the University of Alabama and when he wrote the article he was executive director of the Alabama Civil War Centennial Commission.
He added: "One of the most significant results of the Civil War was the repudiation of the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of the states which had menaced the Union from its inception...In the future all states and sections and all leaders would talk about and employ other means of redressing their grievances".
If anyone wants to read the entire article, let me know and I will send it to you.
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