The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-07-09
No. 10.


have come, proceed, with far more brevity than
once intended, to examine how far force can be
able to preserve the Union. vI,z 1,ta E.a t...,sa
say, then, first, that the idea presents a moral
impossibility. Say that number of States think
proper to withdraw from the, Union, and you
march force against them and subdue them, you
cannot subdue their will, and compel them to
choose senators and representatives in Congress-.
II they do not participate in your government,
they are subjectto laws in the making Of which
they have no part. 4 n. }asitf.g aIs af4 wi3sa n
They are no longer sovereign States, but con-
quered and subject provinces; and your union of
sovereign States is Of course broken. But let
me tell you more, you would not escape your
selves, II would at any rate require large army
stationed IN the South to maintain your authority
over your conquered provinces. Yearly recruits
IN large numbers would be. called for to supply
the ranks. You remember the story Of the fi-
bied Mnotaur, to which the flower Of the Grecian
youth were yearly offered up As sacrifice. Your
Southern army would, be a sad reality, q thou
sand-fod worse than all that was ever said of the
tabled Minotcur Thousands yearly would be
the number of your best young men that il would
drain from you. And behold the end 1t is
maintained in the field for years success is sup
posed to have crowned its exertions on ambi-
tious general who has led it on from victory To
victory, is at its head mad ambition seizes him
and military pride infames his army they turn
back upon you and subdue you in turn, and 90
out Of the dark abyss Of civil war, the demon of
military despotism energies, and rules over all.
But the idea of preserving the Union by force,
involves further political wrong. You have no
right to employ force against a sovereign State,
should she resolve to leave the Union. Ours is a
peculiar form of government. admit that if a
part OF an aggregate, sovereign community rebels
the government Of the community has the right
to reduce 1t to subsection. But our government is
not based on an aggregate political community !; it
is founded on a union of number Of sovereign
States. The Constitution was adopted by each
State for itself; it is sustained by State action
Senators, Representatives, and Presidential Elec-
tors, being all chosen by States. II is to be
amended, if at all, by State action State organi-
cation is in all, and under all. The General Go
yernment being the creature of the several States,
should it attack Of them, it would be the crea-
ture attacking the creator. But to make the point
clearer still Each State has over it two govern
ments, both adopted by its own action. One is
the State government, which acts only upon the
State itself; the other is the federal government
acting upon the other States also. The latter go
yernment makes the supreme law of the land,
while crcamscribed in its action by constitutional
limits.
But in matters not placed by the Constitution
of the United States under the control of the Gen
eral Government, nor denied to the States, the
State Governments make the supreme law for
their own lands, respectively State laws are as
the United States Constitution, as the laws of
Congress are when made in pursuance of that in
strument.. Now suppose difference of opinion
between these two sets of agents, as to whether a
particular power lies properly in the scope Of the
one, or the other; who shall decide! To give to
either set of agents the right to decide is to make
its will the only limit to its own power You
must refer the dispute to the arbitrament of the
sovereign. Now it is the great American doc
trine that the sovereignty under our system is in
the people, and the only remaining question is,
who are the sovereign ,peoplei Not the people Of
the United States in the aggregate, for there are
one purpose are the people Oh ihe United State.
ever aggregated? Not one. Then sovereign peo-
pie are the people Of the States severally; they
therefore have the right to make or unmake govern
ments for themselves.
The idea of maintaining the Union by force, if
the Southern States should think themselves called
upon to withdraw, would imply lastly a physical
impossibility You would be physically unable
to subdue those States. The very idea of the
question being put to the test is shocking to every
feeling of our nature and the calculation Of the
chances Of the result has something in il much
akin to the calculation of the chances whether one
should win or loose in death struggle with near
relation. Bat bold practice is often necessary
for a rapid and malignant disease. do not intend
to initiate a bad example, and draw any disparag-
ing comparison between northern and southern
valor. Whenever it becomes necessary, it will be
easily shown that it is more in conformity with
true history than with good taste, to charge that
the military history of the South is less brilliant
that proper share of valor is possessed by both
regions, and yet contend that it would be impossi-
BILE to subdue the South. Though numerically
wearker than the north, she in that respectq ute
strong. She is supposed to have about nine mil
lions of people, three millions of which are set
down as slaves. ".'..1 "...I t' '""rfEt
OF the six Millions which remain, take one-half
or three Millions as males. Of these, take again
one-half as being Of military age neither too old
nor too young, and from the remaining mil
lion and half deduct one-sixth as non-com-
batants, from infrmity or from any other cause.
would be acting on the defensive; you on the Of
fensive. We would be contending for rights
considered vital TO us; you for power, or else for
speculative philanthropy. We would be engaged
around our affairs and fre-sides; you would be
employed far from your household gods. But it
has been said by some that the South has a
source of peculiar weakness in her slave property
| controvert the proposition. In all wars the be-
ligerent nations have much the larger part Of their
population engaged in the work of production.
We should necessarily require the labor Of our
three millions Of slaves, or such Of them as are
of working age, in raising supplies for the coun-
try and the army, and would find need for as
many whites besides, in the same business or
the three millions of slaves a larger number would
be engaged in the business of production than
would be the case ifthey were whites because more
of the females could be employed in field labor in
the one case than the other. To this extent our
slaves would be source of strength rather than
weakness. This advantage might be counter
balanced, and probably would, by the escape Of
few from the slave States to the abolition States,
or else to the northern army. But these escapes
would be comparatively few, and instructions
never. For these, time of repose and security
is necessary. Plans are to be laid, concert of ac-
ton is to be gotten up; and among a population
too, that do not, to any great extent, read, or
write, or travel about. In time of war, when the
clash of arms is heard around, and those who
cannot go to the battle field, are daily and nightly
on the beat, with guns in hand, then, sir, the
spirit of instruction lies dormant. What insur-
recons have ever occurred in this country in time
Of war; So far from it, slaves have often been
found anxious to fight for their masters, and side
by side with them. / contend, on theother hand,
that there would be many elements of weakness
in the northern States Break up the relations
between North and South, and your coasting and
carrying business will be broken up, and large
commercial interest would call out for peace.
The raw material would be taken from your fac
tories TO great extent, and large manufacturing