From Founding Fathers To Fire-Eaters: The Constitutional Doctrine of States' Rights in the Old South

“The United States” was a confederate union, created by the acts of the peoples of sovereign States. In the Constitution they delegated specific, limited powers to a federal government that was to handle certain matters common to them all. It was nobody’s intention to create a government of unlimited and …

“The United States” was a confederate union, created by the acts of the peoples of sovereign States. In the Constitution they delegated specific, limited powers to a federal government that was to handle certain matters common to them all. It was nobody’s intention to create a government of unlimited and eternal power. No honest student can doubt that the Southern “state rights” interpretation of the Constitution was the correct one, however much condemned by the lies and bluster of centralists. The case has been re-made by truth-seekers in every generation. James Rutledge Roesch has made the case afresh for our own times, bringing to light much new and original evidence and reasoning.

James Roesch here sets himself the worthy task of describing the southern states’-rights tradition, which is the basis of the Declaration of Independence and much else, in its foremost advocates’ own words. Lay and expert readers alike will find much in this tome to admire.
—Kevin R. C. Gutzman, author of James Madison and the Making of America, Virginia’s American Revolution, and Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary