Portugal e o seu aliado

Nuno Rogeiro como entrevistador, lembrou ao embaixador americano que ao tempo da sua Revolução, Portugal era ainda uma monarquia e o grande aliado dos Ingleses. É que a bem ver, ao seu tempo, tais revolucionários eram grupos armados ilegais e separatistas que expulsaram dezenas de milhares que eram leais ao bom do Império Britânico. Como é aquela coisa que diz que a História é escrita pelos...

PS: E é que depois em 1812, declararam guerra outra vez aos ingleses quando estes estavam em plena luta contra Napoleão. É preciso ter lata!

Claro que nesses tempos, pelo menos existia um verdadeiro federalismo. Os Estados de Massachusetts and Connecticut recusaram-se:

During the War of 1812, Massachusetts and Connecticut were ordered to call out their respective militias for the purpose of defending the coast. The call derived from the federal government’s authority to call the state militias into service "to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel invasions."

Massachusetts Governor Caleb Strong, however, maintained that the states reserved the power to determine whether any of these three conditions held. At Strong’s request, the Massachusetts Supreme Court offered its opinion. That court agreed with the governor: "As this power is not delegated to the United States by the Federal Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, it is reserved to the states, respectively; and from the nature of the power, it must be exercised by those with whom the states have respectively entrusted the chief command of the militia."

Connecticut followed suit:

It must not be forgotten, that the state of Connecticut is a FREE SOVEREIGN and INDEPENDENT state; that the United States are a confederacy of states; that we are a confederated and not a consolidated republic. The governor of this state is under a high and solemn obligation, "to maintain the lawful rights and privileges thereof, as a sovereign, free and independent state," as he is "to support the constitution of the United States," and the obligation to support the latter, imposes an additional obligation to support the former.

Thus if the militia were called out for any purpose but those listed in the Constitution, it "would be not only the height of injustice to the militia…but a violation of the constitution and laws of this state, and of the United States." The president had no authority to call upon the militia of Connecticut "to assist in carrying on an offensive war" .

Claro que tudo isso desapareceu com Lincoln.