Thread by @rachelshelden

Here's a little thread about #StateRights and #StatesRights that has been puzzling me. #Twitterstorians I am anxious for your insights! 1/

Nearly every book that considers the problem of state sovereignty uses the phrase "States' Rights" to describe this constitutional idea. "States' Rights" seems to be the preferred usage over "State's Rights" and "State Rights" in University Press guides as well 2/

But anyone familiar with political language in the mid-nineteenth century knows that people at that time more commonly used STATE Rights. Folks who favored more centralized power OR who claimed power for the states--in both South and North--talked about State Rights 3/

Just three examples of pamphlets from this period illustrate the point that people interested in the rights of states (for any reason!) used State Rights: 4/

George McDuffie's reflections on national and state power from 1831 refers to State Rights 5/

John C. Calhoun's reprinting of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in the 1830s similarly refers to State Rights 6/

And even folks talking about issues other than slavery (fisheries!) discussed State Rights (not states' rights) 7/

The oddity of this insistence on states' rights becomes even more apparent when quotations from the 19th c featuring state rights are positioned next to the author's discussion of states' rights--something that happens in nearly every book on the subject 8/

Sometimes you don't even need to get into the meat of the work to see the absurdity. See Michael Woods' (excellent!) article in the @JCWE1 "'Tell Us Something about State Rights': Northern Republicans, States' Rights, and the Coming of the Civil War" muse.jhu.edu/article/656479 9/

A little digging into the common usage of these terms may help explain a little bit. Google Ngrams shows how popular usage shifted from State Rights to State's Rights and finally States' Rights from the 19th to the mid-20th century 10/

Here's the Ngram for "State RIghts" (important to search case sensitive): 11/

And the google Ngram for "State's Rights" 12/

And finally the google Ngram for "States' Rights" 13/

A more tangible example of how this term shifted is in its role in party names. In the 1830s, the GA anti-Jackson party called itself the State Rights Party, while the anti-Civil Rights party of the mid-20th century was the States' Rights Democratic Party (aka the Dixiecrats) 14/

So what gives? Why the change? Does this shift reflect a different understanding of how states relate to the federal government? Was there a shift from a state's indiv. relationship to federal power in the 19th c to a collective relationship with the federal govt in the 20th? 15/

Full disclosure: I'm just wrapping up a special issue on federalism for the @JCWE1 due to come out in December and, writing the introduction, have found this shift puzzling. We're going to use State Rights throughout but I'm anxious to hear what folks think is behind this. 16/16