The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 18,1:,,1861.

LEEL BRENTON'S meritorious and gallant services
in her MAJESTY'S Navy, £100." But—here, of
course, the literary character of the deceased subor-
dinates the professional.
Among the literary names upon the catalogue
several will be recognised as those of popular fa-
vourites, some of their names being familiar as
household words, and as such cberished in the
national recollection.. Who will not be glad
to read in reference to one of the brightest and plea-
santest names of this kind inscribed upon the new
Civil List Pensions Catalogue—that Miss JULIA
HUNT is to receive henceforth during her life £75 per
annum In consideration of the valuable contri-
butions of her father, the late Mr. LEIGH HUNT, to
English literature," Regretting only as we do that
the seventy-five pounds in that instance could not
have been made a good round one hundred. :Agree-
able to us—save from the reason which we italicise
in the subjoined statement—agreeable in everything
save that—is the intimation that £lOO has been
awarded to, "Miss ELIZA MURPHY and Miss CHAR-
LOTTE MURPHY—On account of the eminent
literary merits of their sister, the late Mrs.
JAMESON, and their straitened circumstances." An-
other £lOO, we likewise are glad to notify, has been
set down, per annum, for Miss KATE SOUTHEY,
"on account of the important services rendered by
her father, the late Mr. R. SOUTHEY, to English
literature." And £5O to " Miss MARY ANN
JERROLD, in consideration of the literary merit of
her father, the late Mr. DOUGLAS JERROLD." All
these have assuredly good and valid claims upon the
national regard—LElGH HUNT—Mrs. JAMESON—
ROBERT SOUTHEY—DOUGLAS JERROLD. It is
right that, having won golden opinions from us
during their own lifetime, those who are nearest
and dearest to them should, after their
death, receive, in recognition of this,
a sprinkling of other "golden opinions" ring-
ing down to them now in honourable tribute—sub-
stantial evidences of the popularity still surround-
ing their regulations. It is satisfactory to know
also that one or two living men of letters receive
tribute from the nation in this wise themselves,
not alone, being put off with the prospect of re-
ceiving it, so to speak, vicariously and posthum-
ously. For example, right glad are we to observe
that £75 per annum has been set aside for "Mr.
DUDLEY COSTELLO—in consideration of the many
years devoted by him to the pursuit of literature,
and the high character of his works." DUDLEY
COSTELLO'S name being agreeably familiar for
many years past to the public at large, particularly
through the medium of his sprightly contributions
to the periodicals. There are even more pensions
upon the list, which we thought it unnecessary, as
it would doubtless also be tedious here to particu-
larise.

It is somewhat remarkable, by the way,
that the aggregate amount awarded during the
year last past, under the head of these " Civil
List Pensions," will be found short of the
full amount of £1,200, by just "fifty "
—only £1,150 having been distributed at the
behest of Lord PALMERSTON. How about that
forgotten or neglected £5O ? Was there nobody
anywhere discoverable who was worthy of receiv-
ing that £50,? Might not another £25 of it have
been tacked on to the £75 set down to the name of
the unmarried daughter of LEIGH HUNT to make
up the round £lOO already spoken of? And say
that the other £25 (completing the £1,200) had
been doled out as an after thought to the following:
" Mrs. MARY HAYDN—(In addition to her two
former pensions of £25 each) In consideration of
the literary merit of her husband, the late Mr.
HAYDN, author of ' Dictionary of Dates,' Book of
Dignities," and other works, £25 !" That is alto-
gether still but £7s—just then £25 short of a
round £lOO for Mrs. HAYDN. The country would
hardly have been ruined by such a decision as
that ! Perhaps, however, the oversight of the odd
£5O may be attributable to the anguish of mind
caused in the Premier's instance by the withdrawal
of the astonishing pension lately awarded to that
wonderful doggrel poetaster recently dragged into
momentary notoriety (we declare we have forgot-
ten his name) the Poet-Laureate of shall we
say ? (for we have forgotten the Potentate's name
also)—the King of the Cannibal Islands!

7 '1
LATEST

BADEN-BADEN, JULY 17.
The King slept well last night. This rest has
had a restorative effect on his Majesty's health.
The contusion on his neck is progressing favour.-
ably.

TURIN, JULY 17 (Evening).

In to-day's sitting of the Senate Baren Ricasoli
gave some explanations in reference to the changes
which have been made in the Lieutenancy of
Naples. He declared that the Ministry had been
unanimous in all the resolutions recently taken.
The Minister further said that General Cialdini
has no exceptional powers, and that his position is
identical with that of General Rovere, the Lieu-
tenant of Sicily.

VIENNA, JULY 17.

A denial has been given to the news of the resig-
nation of the Baron Vay, published by the Ost
Leutsche Post.

It is stated that Baron Vay has not even tendered

his resignation.
Another proposal for the settlement of the Hun-
*
garian question was made yesterday.
Up to the present moment no decision or solution
has been arrived at.

MADRID, JULY 16.

Rumours asserting that fresh disturbances have
taken place in the provinces continue to circulate.
The Ministerial journals reply to the rumours
that full guarantees have been taken for the main-
tenance of tranquillity.
Judgment will soon be given on the prisoners
taken at Loja.

AMERICA.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

We have received the full text of President
Lincoln's Message.

The dates from New York are to the 6th inst.
The following is the text of the Message :
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of
Representatives,

Having been convened on an extraordinary occasion, as
authorised by the Constitution, your attention is not called
to any ordinary subject of legislation. At the beginning of
the present Presidential term, four months ago, the func-
tions of the Federal Government were found to be generally
suspended within the several States of South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida,
excepting only those of the Post-office Department. Within
these States all the forts, arsenals, dockyards, custom-
houses, and the like, including the moveable and stationary
property in and about them, had been seized, and were held
in open hostility to this Government, excepting only Forts
Pickens, Taylor, and Jefferson, on and near the Florida
coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbour, South Caro-
lina. The forts thus seized had been put in improved condi-
tion, new ones had been built, and armed forces had been
organised, and were organising, all avowedly with the same
hostile purpose. The forts remaining in the possession of
the Federal Government in and near these States were
either besieged or menaced by warlike preparations, and
especially Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-pro-
tected hostile batteries, with guns equal in quality to the
best of its own, and out-numbering the latter, as perhaps
ten to one. A disproportionate share ,of the Federal muskets
and rifles had somehow found their way into these States,
and had been seized to be used against the Government.
Accumulations of the public revenue lying within them had
been seized for the same object; the navy was scattered in
distant seas, leaving but a very small part of it within the
immediate reach of the Government. Officers of the Federal
army had resigned in great numbers, and of those resigning
a large number had taken up arms against the Government.
Simultaneously, and in common with all this, the purpose
to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accord •
ante with this purpose an ordinance had been adopted in
each of these States declaring the States respectively to be
separated from the National Union. A formula for insti-
tuting a combined government of those States had been
promulgated, and this illegal organisation, in the character
of the "Confederate States," was already invoking recog-
nition, aid, and intervention from foreign Powers. Find-
ing this condition of things, and believing it to be an im-
perative duty upon the incoming Executive to prevent if
possible the consummation of such attempt to destroy the
Federal Union, a choice of means to that end became indis-
pensable. This choice was made, and was declared in the
inaugural address. The policy chosen looked to the ex-
haustion of all peaceful measures before a resort to any
stronger ones; it sought only to hold the public places and
property not already wrested from the Government, and to
collect the revenue, relying for the rest on time, discussion,
and the ballot-box ; it promised a continuance of the mails,
at Government expense, to the very people who were re-
sisting the Government, and it gave repeated pledges
against any disturbances to any of the people or any of their
rights, of all that which a President might constitutionally
and justifiably do in such a case, everything was forborne,
without which it was believed possible to keep the Govern-
ment on foot.

On the sth of March, the present incumbent's first full
day in office, a letter from Major Anderson commanding at
Fort Sumter, written on the 28th of February, and received
at the War Department on the 4th of March, was by that
Department placed in his hand. This letter expressed the
professional opinion of the writer, that reinforcements could
not be thrown into that fort within the time for his relief,
rendered necessary by the limited supply of provisions, and
with a view of holding possession of the same with a force
of less than 20,000 good and well-disciplined men. This
opinion was concurred in by all the officers of his command,
and their memoranda on the subject were made enclosures
of Major Anderson's letter. The whole was immediately
laid before Lieutenant. General Scott, who at once con-
curred with Major Anderson in his opinion. On reflection,
however, he took full time, consulting with other officers
both of e army and the navy, and at the end of four days
came reluctantly, but decidedly, to the same conclusion as
before. Ile also stated, at the same time, that no such
sufficient force was then at the control of the Government,
or could be raised and brought to the ground within the
time when the provisions in the fort would be exhausted.
In a purely military point of view, this reduced the duty
of the Administration in the case to the mere matter of
getting the garrison safely out of the fort. It was be-
lieved, however, that to so abandon that position, under
the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous ; that the
necessity under which it was to be done would not
be fully understood ; that by many it would be con-
strued as a part of a voluntary policy; that at home, it
would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden its
adversaries, ani go far to insure to the latter a recognition
abroad, that in fact it would be our national destruction
consummated. This could not be allowed. Starvation was
not yet upon the garrison, and, ere it would be reached,
Fort Pickens might be reinforced. Thislast would be a clear
indication of policy, and would better enable the country to
accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter. As a military neces-
sity, an order was at once directed to be sent for the land-
ing of troopsfrom the steamship Brooklyninto Fort Pickens.
This order could not go by land, but must take the longer
and slower route by sea. The first return news from the
order was received just one week before the fall of Sumter.
The news itself was that the officer commanding the Sa-
bine, to which vessel the troops had been transferred from
the Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armistice of the late
Administration, and of the existence of which the present
Administration, up to the time the order was despatched,
had only too vague and uncertain rumours to fix attention,
had refused to land the troops to reinforce Fort Pickens,
before a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter was impos-
sible, rendered so by the near exhaustion of provisions in
the latter named fort. In precaution against such a con-
juncture, the Government had a few days before commenced
preparing an expedition, as well adapted as might be, to
relieve Fort Sumter, which expedition was intended to be
ultimately used or not, according to circumstances. The
strongest anticipated case for using it was now presented,
and it was resolved to send it forward, as had been intended.
In this contingency it was also resolved to notify the Go-
vernor of South Carolina that he might expect an attempt
would be made to provision the fort, and if the attempt
should not be resisted, there would be an attempt to throw
o t iacne
dwba
bombarded
m accordinglybarde d
t o
attackedThisn
in men, arms, or ammunition, without further notice, or in
gcaivseen, of
whereupona n attack
thepon
fortth e
wfort.as
its fall, without even awaiting the arrival of the provision-
ing expedition.
It is thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of '
Fort Sumter was, in no sense, a matter of self-defence on
the part of the assailants. They well knew that the gar-
rison in the fort could, by no possibility, commit aggres-
sion upon them ; they knew, they were expressly notified,
that the giving of bread to the few brave and hungry men
of the garrison was all which would on that occasion
be attempted, unless themselves by resisting so much
should provoke more. They knew that the Government de-
sired
to keep the garrison in the fort, not to assail them, but
merely to maintain visible possession, and thus to preserve
the union from actual and immediate dissolution, trusting
as herein before stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot
box, for final adjustment, and they assailed and reduced the
fort, for precisely the reverse object, to drive out the visible
authority of the Federal Union, and thus force it to imme-
diate dissolution. That this was their object the executive
well understood ; and having said to them in the inaugural
address, " You can have no conflict without being your-
selves the aggressors," he took pains not only to keep
this declaration good, but also to keep the ease so far from in-
jurious sophistry as that the world should not misunderstand
it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding cies
cumstances, that point «as reached. Then and thereby the
assailants of the Government began the conflict of arms,
without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire,
save only the few in the fort, sent to that harbour years be-
fore for their own protection, and still ready to give that
protection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding
all else, they have forced upon the country the distinct issue ;
immediate dissolution of blood. And this issue embraces
more than the fate of these United States. It presents to
the whole family of man the question whether a constitu-
tional republic or democracy, a government of the people by
the same people, can or cannot maintain its territorial inte-
grity against its own domestic fees. It presents the ques-
tion whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers
to control the administration according to the organic law
in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this
case, or an) other pretences, or arbitrarily without any pre-
tence, break up the Government, and thus practically put an
end to free governmer t upon the earth. It forces us to ask,
" Is there in all republics this inherent and fatal weakness?"
Must a Government of necessity be too strong for the li
berties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own
existence? So viewing the issue, no choice was left but
call out the war power of the Government, and so to resist
the force employed for its destruction by force for its pre
-
serration. The call was made, and the response of the
country was most gratifying, surpassing in unanimity and
spirit the most sanguine expectations. Yet none of the
States, commonly called slave states, except Delaware, gave
a regiment through the regular state organization. A few
regiments have been organized within some others of those
states by individual enterprise, and received into the Go-
vernment service. Of course, the seceded States (so called)
and to which Texas had been joined about the time of the
inauguration, gavo no troops to the cause of the Union.
The border States (so called) were not uniform in their ac-
tion, some of them being almost for the Union, while in
others, as in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
Arkansas, the Union sentiment was nearly repressed and
silenced. The course taken in Virginia was the most re-
markable, perhaps the most important. A convention
elected by the people of that State to consider this very
question of disrupting the Fesieral Union, was in session at
the capital of Virginia when Fort Sumter fell.
To this body the people had chosen a large majority of
professed
Union men. Almost immediately after the fall of
Sumter, many members of that majority went over to the
original' disunion minority, and with them adopted an ordi-
nance for withdrawing the State from the Union. Whether
this change ores wrought by their great approval of the as-
sault upon Sumter or their great resentment at the GoVern-
ment's resistance to that assault is not definitely known,
although they submitted the ordinance for ratification to a
vote of the people, to be taken on a day then somewhat
more than a month distant. The Convention and the Legis-
lature which was also in session at the same time and place
with leading men of the State not members of either, im-
mediatelyit the State was already out
commenced acting as
of the Union. They pushed military preparations vig,orensty
forward all over the State. They seized the United States
Armouryat klarper'a Ferry and the Navy-yard at Gosport.
near Norfolk. They received, perhaps invitAl, into their
state, large bodies of troop,, with their svariike appeintments
from the so-called seceded States.
They formally entered
into a treaty of teniporery alliance with the so-called Cen-
t, derste States, and sent members to their Congress at
Montgomery, and finally they permitted thb insurrectionary
Government to ho transferred to their capital at Richmond.
The people of 'Virgin:a have thus allowed this giant insur-
rection to make its nest within her Lordere, and thus Go-
vernment has t ••
s no cam eo left but to deal with it where rt
finds it, and it bee the lers to regret, no the loyal cit'zens
have in due form claimed its protection. These loyal citi-
zens this Government is bound to receeniee and iseoteet as
being in Virginia. In the border States, so called, in feet,
the middle States,
cssese are those who favour a policy
which they call armed '
nentrallty. That is an arming of
these Stateo to prevent the Unien forces passing one way

or the dis-unionists the other over their soil. This would
be disunion completed. Figuratively speaking, it would
be the building of an impassable wall along the line of
separation, and yet not quite an impassable one, for under
the guise of neutrality it would tie the hand of the Union
men, and freely pass supplies from among them to the
insurrectionists, which it could not do as an open
enemy ; at a stroke it would take all the trouble off the
hands of secession, except only what proceeds from
the external blockade._ It would do for the disunienists
that which of all things they most desire, feed them well
and give them disunion without a struggle of their own. It
recognises no fidelity to the Constitution, no obligation to
maintain the Union, and el hile very many who have fa-
voured it, all doubtless loyal citizens, it is nevertheless very
injurious in effect.
Recurring to the action of the Government, it may be
stated that at first a call was made for 75,000 militia, and
rapidly following this a proclamation was issued for closing
the ports of the insurrectionary districts, by proceedings in
the nature of blockade. So far all was believed to be
strictly legal.
At this point the insurrectionists announced their pur-
pose to enter upon the practice of privateering.
Other calls were made for volunteersto serve three years,
unless sooner discharged, and also for large additions to the
regular army and navy. These measures, whether strictly
legal or not, were ventured upon under what appeared to be
a popular demand and a popular necessity, trusting then, as
now, that Congress would readily ratify them. It is be-
lieved that nothing has been done beyond the constitutional
competency of Congress. Soon after the first call for mai-
' tia it was considered a duty to authorise the commanding
General, in proper cases, according to his discretion, to sus-
pend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, or, in other
words, to arrest and detain, without resort to the ordinary
processes and forms of law, such individuals as he might
deem dangerous to the public safety. This authority has
purposely been exercised, but very sparingly. Nevertheless,
the legality and propriety of what has been done under it
are questioned, and the attention of the country has been
called to the proposition that one who has sworn to take
care that the laws be faithfully executed should not himself
violate them. Of course some consideration was given to
the question of power and propriety before the matter was
acted upon. The whole of the laws which were required
to be faithfully executed were being resisted and failing of
execution in nearly one-third of the States. Must they be
allowed to finally fail of execution, even had it been per-
fectly clear that by the use of the means necessary to their
execution, some single law made in such extreme tender-
ness of the citizen's liberty that practically it relieves more
of the guilty than the innocent, should to a very limited
extent be violated ? To state the question more directly,
are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the Govern-
ment itself to -go to pieces lest that one should be vio-
lated ? Even in such a case would not the official -oath
be broken if the Government should be overthrown when
it was believed that disregarding the single law
would tend to preserve it. But it was not believed that
this question was presented ; it was not believed that any
law was violated. The provision of the Constitution that
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus-
pended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion the
public safety may require it, is equivalent to a provision
that such privilege may be suspended when, in cases of re-
bellion
or invasion, the public safety does require it. It
was decided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the
public safety does require the qualified suspension of pri-
vilege of the writ, which was authorised to be made. Now
it is insisted that Congress, and not the Executive, isvested
with this power. But the Constitution itself is silent as to
which or who is to exercise the power. and as the provision
was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be
believed that the framers of the instrument intended that
in every case the danger should run its course, until Con-
gress could be called together, the very assembling of which
might be prevented, as was intended in this case, by the
rebellion. No more extended argument is now afforded, as
an opinion at some length will probably be presented bythe
Attorney-General. Whether there shall be any legislation
on the subject, and if so, what, is submitted entirely to the
better judgment of Congress. The forbearance of this Go-
vernment had been so extraordinary and so long continued
as to lead some foreign nations to shape their action as if
they supposed the early destruction of our National Union
was probable. While this, on discovery, gave the Executive
some concern, he is now happy to say that the sovereignty
and rights of the United States are now everywhere practi-
cally respected by foreign powers, and a general sympathy
with the country is manifested throughout the world.
The reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and
the Navy will give the information in detail deemed neces-
sary and conveni -nt for your deliberation and action, while
the Executive and all the Departments will stand ready to
supply omissions or to communicate new facts considered
important for you to know.
It is now recommended that you give the legal means for
making this contest a sheet and decisive one; that you place
at the control of the Government, for that work, at least
400,000 men and 400,000,000 dole. ; that number of men is
about 1-10th of those of proper ages within the regions where
apparently ail are willing to engage, and the sum is less
than a twenty-third part of the money value owned by the
men who seem ready to devote the whole. A debt of
600,000,000 dols. now is a less sum per head than was the
debt of our Revolutionists when we came out of that
struggle, and the money value in the country bears even
a greater proportion to what it was then, than does the
population. Surely each man has as strong a motive now
to preserve our liberties as each had then to establish them.
A right result at this time will be worth more to the
world than ten times the men and ten times the money.
The evidence reaching us from the country leaves no doubt
that the material for the work is abundant, and that it needs
only the hand of legislation to give it legal sanction and the
hand of the Executive to give it practical shape and effici-
ency. One of the greatest perplexities of the Government
is to avoid receiving troops faster than it can provide for
them ; in a word, the people will save their Government, if
the Government itself will do its part only indifferently
well. It might seem at first thought to be of little differ-
ence whether the present movement at the South be called
secession or rebellion; the movers, however, well under-
stand the difference. At the beginning, they knew they
could never raise their treason to any respectable magni-
tude by any name which implies violation of law; they
knew the people possessed as much of moral sense, as much
of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in its reve-
rence for the history and government of their common coun-
try, as any other civilised and patriotic people. They knew
they could make no advancement directly in the teeth of
these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they
commenced by an insidious debauching of the public mind,
they invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded,
was followed by perfectly logical steps through all the in-
cidents of the complete destruction of the Union. The
sophism itself is that any state of the Union may consis-
tently with the nation's constitution, and therefore lawfully
and peacefully, withdraw from the Union, without the con-
sent of the Union or of any other state.
The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exer-
cised only for a just cause, themselves to be the sole judges
of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice with rebellion.
Thus, sugar coated, they have been drugging the public
mind of their section for more than 30 years, and until at
length they have brought many good men to a willingness
to take up arms against the Government the day after some
assemblage of men have enacted the farcical pretence
of taking their state out of the Union, who could have
been brought to no such thing the daybefore. This sophism
derives much, perhaps the whole of its currency, from the
assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supre-
macy pertaining to a state, to each state of our Federal
Union our states have neither more nor less power than
that reserved to them in the Rnion by the Constitution, no
one of them having been a state out of the Union. The
original ones passed into the Union even before they cast
off their British Colonial dependence, and the new ones
came into the Union directly from a condition of depend-
ence, excepting Texas, and even Texas, in its tempo) ary
independence, was never designated as a state. The new ones
only took the designation of states on coming into the Union,
while that name was first adopted for the old ones in and by
the Declaration of Independence. Therein the united colonies
were declared to be free and independent states. But even
then the object plainly was not to declare their independence
of one another of the Union, but directly the contrary, as
their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the
time, and afterwards, abundantly slow. The express plight-
ing of faith by each and all of the original 13 states in the
articles of confederation two years later, that the Union
shall be perpetual, is most conclusive; having never been
states either in substance or in name outside of the Union,
whence this magical omnipotence of state rights asserting a
claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself. Much
is said about the sovereignty of the states, but the ward,
even, is not in the national constitution, nor, as is believed,
in any of the State constitutions. What is a Sovereignty in
the political sense of the term ? Would it be far wrong to de-
fine it—a political community without a political superior ?
Tested by this, no one of our states, except Texas, was a
sovereignty, and even Texas gave up the character on coming
into the Union, by which act- she acknowledged the consti-
tution of the United States, and the laws and treaties of the
United States made in pursance of the constitution, to be for
her the supreme law. The states have their status in the
Union, and they have no other local status. if they break
from this, they can only do so against law and by revolu-
tion. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured
their independence and their liberty, by conquest or pur-
chase.' The Union gave each of them whatever of indepen-
dence and liberty it has. The Union is older than any of
the states, and in fact itcreated them as states. Originally,
some dependent colonies made the Union, and in tarn the
Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made
them states, such as they now are. Not one of them ever had
a state constitution independent of the Übion. Of course it
is not forgotten that all the new states formed their consti-
tutions beore they entered the Union, nevertheless depend-
oat upon and preparatory to coming into the Union, Ur Twee
tionatly, the states have the power and rights reserved to them
in and by the national constitution. But among those surely
are not included all conceivable powers, however mis-
chievous or destructive, bull at most such onlyas were known
in the world as governmental powers ; and certainly a power
to destroy the Government itself had never been known as
a governmental power This relative matter of national
power and State rights, as a principle, is no other than the
principle of generality and locality ; whatever concerns the
whole should be confined to whole general Government,
while whatever concerns the State should be left exclusively
to the State. This is all there is of original principle about
it, whether the National Constitution, in defining bounda-
ries between the two, has applied the principle with exact
accuracy is not to be questioned. We are all bound by that
defining without question. What is now combated is the
position that secession is consistent with the constitution ie
lawful and peaceful. It is not contended that there is any
express law for it, and nothing should ever be implied as law
which leads to unjust or absurd consequences. The nation
purchased with money the countries out of which several of
these States were formed. Is it just that they shall go off
without leave, and without refunding ? The nation paid
very largo sums—in the aggregate, I believe, nearly a hun-
dred millions, to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is
it just that she shall now be off without consent, or without
any return ? The nation is now in debt for money applied
to the benefit of these so-called seceding States in common
with the rest. Is it just either that creditors should go
unpaid, or the remaining Ste'L's pay the whole? A part of
the present national debt was contracted to pay the old
debts of 'foxes. Is it just that she shall leave, and pay no
part, of this herself? Again, if one State may secede, so
may another ; and, when all shall have seceded, none is left
to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we
notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed
their money ? If we now recognise this doctrine by allow-
ing the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we
can do if others choose to go or to extort terms upon which
they will promise to remain. The seceders insist that our
Constitution admits of secession. They have assumed to
make a National Conetitution of their own, in which, of
neceseity, they have either discarded or retained the right
of secession, as they insist it exists in ours. If they have
discarded it, they thereby admit that, on principle, it cueht
not to mist in ours ; if they have retained it, by their cwn
construction of ours, they show that, to be consistent, they
must secede from'one another whenever they shall find it
the easitet way of settling their. debte of effecting any
selfish or unjust object. The principle itself is c ty
y disintegration, and upon which uo Government
_
Fan possibly endure. If all States save one ehould'