Conflict over States Rights Essay

John Marshal once said, “It's been a long road, but I am sure that it will be worth the effort that everyone has put in.” As a child grows into a teenager and a struggle for power ensues with his parents, so the Government of the United States was growing up and struggling to wrench power for itself at the expense of states’ rights. For the first 50 years after the ratification of the Constitution, the issue of slavery magnified the struggle for sovereignty between states and federal government.

Slavery was an increasingly hot topic within the U.S. and there was only one way to solve it: let the federal government end slavery. Otherwise the state governments were going to persist with it and the disputes would continue to fester. The slave states were dubious that the American Society could even continue if the slaves were freed. Henry Clay said that the immediate abolition of slavery would be followed by a power struggle between Blacks and Whites. He argued that one race had to rule over the other, and freeing the slaves would result in a civil war and would end with the annihilation of one of the races (Doc H).

Fire was added to the slavery controversy when states, such as South Carolina, took steps to disrupt a federal program, the United States Postal service. Part of the abolitionists’ plan for ending slavery was sending propaganda down south in the form of mail. South Carolina recognized this tactic and responded with an inexorable blockage of northern mail into the state. Anything that looked like a letter from an abolitionist was simply thrown out and not delivered. The abolitionists appealed to the national government by arguing that the postal system was under federal control and that the government should take some kind of action against South Carolina.

The power to regulate commerce was also part of the “slavery debate.” The question was whether the states or the federal government could regulate the importation of slaves. If the federal government had the power to regulate interstate commerce, it had the power to regulate the slave trade, in other words, the entire southern economy!

On March 2, 1807, Congress passed an act to prohibit the importation of slaves. This act did not make it illegal to continue to own the slaves already in the country, but it did stop new slaves from being brought into the United States (Doc B). The slave states argued that it was their right to decide whether they were allowed to import slaves or not, but this did not matter. With the new act in place, the value of a plantation increased dramatically due to the amount of slaves owned. If the states could find a way to maintain regulation over this commerce, they could continue importing slaves, maintaining authority over them, and assuring their prosperity. Eventually, the Supreme Court, who determined the constitutionality of each case brought before it, made a decision in the “Gibbons vs. Ogden” case that resulted in the strengthening of Congress’ power to regulate the interstate commerce. As the road continued, the Federal government gained more power, inch by inch or mile by mile.

The struggle and debate about states’ rights versus Federal power also delved into which would be most beneficial to the prosperity of not only the states but also the nation as a whole. The slave states stated that slavery was the backbone of the American economy because both the southern and national economies were proportional to one another -- if one failed so would the other. The southern states argued that the abolition of slavery would lead to a cessation in national progress and the impossibility of the “American System” (doc. F). Congress, eventually, had the final word on slavery when it passed the Missouri Compromise. This Compromise, temporarily, kept the country even in the amount of slave and free states, but it also drew a line saying what land would later be slave or free. This line was the 360 30’ line that prohibited slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase territory north of it (a vast amount of land). Whether the Congress realized it or not, they had determined that the power fell to the Federal government, and sooner or later slavery was going to come to an end.

The battle for power between the states and the federal government had been tiring and emotional and long, and slavery had been the sore spot. In the end, though, the long journey was probably worth the walk. Focusing on one specific issue, slavery, had led to the defining of the Nation and a determination of where ultimate sovereignty lay. The Civil War still lay ahead and struggles for power and authority continue today in more subtle ways, such as through the federal grant system that rewards states programs for following federal guidelines and objectives, and the judicial system has become an even more prominent player to boot.