ABSTRACT
The question of national organization is the most difficult problem that the United States has yet been called upon to solve. Possessing all the characteristics commonly attributed to nations, — common race, language, religion, geographical unity, — the full expression of this nationality met with stubborn resistance, and was realized only after the bloodiest war of the century had been fought. Even in colonial days there was evident the strongest reluctance to form any union at all binding in nature. During the enthusiasm of the Revolutionary movement a decidedly national attitude was assumed, but in the Articles of Confederation this was abandoned. In the formation and adoption of the Constitution there was a reaction in which the national spirit was conspicuous. From the very first days of the Republic, however, there was marked divergence of opinion in regard to the nature of the new Union. The Eleventh Amendment, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the Hartford Convention, Nullification, — all were evidences of the general difference of opinion as to 253die character of the federal Union. With the rise of slavery to the position of a national issue, the defenders of this institution made states-rights a part of their platform. Thus the unnational doctrine was associated with a particular section of the country and with the life of a particular institution. It had a local habitation and a name. The conflict accordingly became more and more desperate, until the final appeal was taken to the arbitrament of arms.
