State Sovereignty. National Union.

If Illinois fails financially, it will not do so in unison with the rest of the country. Will voters from Texas, Florida and the rest of the states send their tax dollars to help? Perhaps the success of "The Mount Vernon Statement" suggests not.

by Collin Hitt

“National Union. State Sovereignty.” The debate over federalism is, literally, part of the fabric of Illinois state government.  Those words appear on the state flag and seal. Some coincidence, since the growing debate over the future role of the federal government will determine the financial future of government here in Illinois.

When Illinois became a state, the state seal read “State Sovereignty. National Union,” an acknowledgment of twin – or rival – concepts in the federal constitution. During the nineteenth century, as federal action to abolish slavery appeared more and more likely, the debate over federalism eventually culminated in the outbreak of civil war.

Illinois proved influential in that debate. Stephen A. Douglas was a political giant, a U.S. Senator from Illinois, whose statue stands guard closest to the statehouse in Springfield, a staunch Democrat who believed the nation must remain united but could only do so half-slave, half-free. His chief political nemesis, who would go on to be president, disagreed. The 1858 debates across Illinois for Douglas’s U.S. Senate seat – and the presidential campaign that followed in 1860 – proved to be the most engaging debate of federal power (and policy) in the history of democratic government.  The debate did not die with Lincoln, Douglas or the millions of soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

After the close of that war and the assassination of Illinois’s most-loved son, a movement grew in Springfield to reverse the wording on the state seal. “National Union. State Sovereignty,” many argued it should say.  When the legislature kept the motto intact, Secretary of State Sharon Tynedale took artistic liberties with the seal, casting a bronze eagle holding a twisted ribbon that if held pulled taught would have read “State Sovereignty. National Union.” But the ribbon curls oddly across the seal, so that instead the word order is National-Union-State-Sovereignty. The primacy of National Union mirrored Tynedale’s own political beliefs, not coincidentally.

The question of National Union hardly seems open any more. There are federal departments on education, law enforcement and the environment – and these are hardly controversial facts.

But an emphasis on state sovereignty is on the comeback.  When the Obama administration issued layered bailouts of state governments, Washington bureaucrats also mounted control over huge portions of state budgets.  The passage of ObamaCare multiplied the federal influence, and made it permanent in healthcare. This overreach ignited a latent passion for constitutional principles that has transformed the political landscapes of many parts of the country.

Tea Parties and Attorneys General alike are battling federal influence in newfound ways. As state-led efforts to repeal ObamaCare are waged in the courts, it is rightfully seen as a movement to roll back federal power.

But a real federal takeover of state governments may yet loom ahead.  Illinois, the current President’s home and a sure swing state for years to come, is in financial ruin. So are dozens of other state, city and local governments. Policy options are available for those who want to become solvent again, but those options include trimming spending and handouts to big-government interests like public employee unions. Many lawmakers are looking for another way out – and the federal bailouts of states, school districts, automakers and banks suggest a precedent.  Perhaps, through bankruptcy legislation or a trillion dollar cash-transfer to states, the federal government could put things back in order. But two problems emerge: the explosive effect on the national deficit and, especially, the micro-managerial control that federal bureaucrats would insist upon.

Illinois is first in line to go belly up – such are its continuing budget deficits and the unfunded liabilities of its government employee pension funds. And in fact many big spending politicians are hoping the Land of Lincoln is too big to fail and that a bailout will come – this is their only hope of maintaining programs and pork.

Those politicians should think twice. If Illinois fails financially, it will not do so in unison with the rest of the country. It will be the first to fail, perhaps accompanied closely by Connecticut, and California.  And so we have to ask ourselves: absent a national panic, like we saw during the financial collapse, will voters from Texas, Florida and the other 45 states send their tax dollars to help? There is good reason to think “No.”

Here’s one of them: nationwide over 200,000 people have signed onto “The Mount Vernon Statement,” a stirring rededication to the founding principles of America, chief among which was state sovereignty.

Click here to read the statement, and if you so choose, to sign it.