Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-05-29
TIE RIGHT nE sEcESs1nN-

citizen has a right to dissolve his connection
with the government; end, no State has a
right to secede from the Union. The Divine
Right of Kings is professedly an exploded
doctrine in this county, and yet such objec-
tons to the doctrine of DisuLion are based
upon the same principle, and are directly op-
posed to the birthright of universal man, life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They
assume the Divine Right of Government to
exact allegiance from all who happen to be
born upon the territory over which it claims
jurisdiction, without regard to the conscience
or wishes Of the individual. Is this position
a true one : Men have a right 10 be born
without asking the consent of government,
although we have seen some who have crept
through the world as though they were in
truders upon the earth, and it is also true that
they have a right to adopt or reject the go
vernmental policy which was, or may be es-
tablished in the land Of their nativity. How
preposterous the idea that men have no right
to establish such government, as will in their
estimation most certainly secure their own
rights without violating The rights of their
fellows, and by its administration promote
the happiness of mankind; or, that having
made a choice, when time has shown the err
ror of their judgment, they have no right to
withdraw from the partnership into which
they entered, although they leave behind
them their invested capital. Judging the
turnings and overturnings of nations by this
principle, all revolutions have been unjust,
all a violation of the heaven descended doc
trlne of allegiance, and this present genera
ton should humble itself before the British
throne, sue for mercy of the Queen, and thus
make atonement for the rebellion Of 10
Those who urge this doctrine would doubt
less be unwilling thus to apply it, inasmuch as
TO do so, would absolve us from allegiance to
this government, a result they are laboring TO
prevent. Yet the application would be quite
as just when applied to the fathers to con-
demn their dissolution of the Union with the
British government, as when applied to the
sons to prevent their secession from the U.
S. government. Establish this doctrine of
allegiance, and slavery is established. The
power of the government, like the power of
the stakeholder, has fastened chains upon the
limbs, and has fetteied the free soul. Man
10 dragged down from his high position, is
debarred from pursuing his glorious destiny,
and made a mere adjunct of government, a
piece Of timber TO be used in its fabrication
or support.
All men having a right individually to en-
ter any government which is a righteous one,
and to withdraw from any that is corrupt or
does not suit their views Of policy, they have
a right to do it collectively, and we believe
the General Government would not attempt
10 prevent the withdrawal of a State, or pre-
tend that it could do it upon constitutional
grounds. The experiment of South Carolina
in Modification is sometimes pointed to as
proving the contrary; but South Carolina is
not a case in point. Nullif. aticn and Disu-
Mon bear no relationship TO each other; the
one is dishonorable, the other may be a duty,
tHu tHeIelOIo nOuOTdUIO, DIS is True OF tue case
we are now considering. We would define
Modification as open resistance to obnoxious
laws by an inferior government, which at the
same time claims all the protection and pri-
vilegss due an obedient subject. Disunion
is an entire severance of political ties, giving
nothing, retaining nothing, claiming nothing.
Had South Carolina Withdrawn her Repre-
sentatives from Washington, recalled her
Senators from the Capitol, and declared her
self as Independent, of the United States 60
vernment as she was before she adopted the
Constitution, that would have been Disuni-
on, and we have no idea the Executive would
have tried to compel her to obedience, hut
she would have been treated as a foreign
power. What State would ever have Joined
The confederacy if it had supposed, that by
coming into the Union its faith stood forever
pledged to abide in and s~ustainitl Not one
Take for illustration, young Ohio, and let US
see if we cannot cOnstiiuiiOnaly place her in
such a position that the voice OF every citizen
within her borders would demand an imme-
diate dissolution of the Union. There is but
one provision in the Constitution of the Uni
ted States which cannot be amended all the
others may be altered in accordance with the
views of the constitutional majority of Con-
gress and Of the States. Suppose it so amend.