The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-08-03

Of April, 1889, when the constitutional govern.
ment was fully organized and commenced its
operations, and the time when North Carolina
| and Rhode Island, then independent States, ac-
ceded to the Union. Does any man suppose
that, during the interval, they We're counted
among the existing States for the purpose of
determining whether the Senate had a quorum,
or that they ought to have been so counted9
They were existing States, in contemplation of
the Constitution, in no other sense than France
and Holland, TO both of which we had been in
debted for aid in the revolutionary struggle. 1t
must be kept in mind that we are now, as we
were before, discussing this point with the Press
upon its own ground and according to its
own theory, so far as we are capable of COM
pretending it. 1t is upon the superstition that
secession could be, and had been, constitution
ally perfected, that Inquired of us what would
thereafter be the United States. 1t seemed to
us, as it still does, as plain pikestaff, that
if secession can be consttut,onaly effected, then
it does not impair the operation of the Constitu-
ton upon the States who do not participate in
the movement. The latter would still const-
tute the United States, and the Press is an
swered. If it cannot be constitutionally effect
ed, then the Press requires no answer.
The Press confuses Senators and States in
its inference from the provision establishing a
quorum. If half the Senators were to with
draw, there would indeed be no quorum for the
transaction Of any other business than that of
compelling the attendance of the absentees. If
half of the States were to withdraw, then ma
jority of the Senators from the remaining States
would be quorum for all purposes Suppose
South Carolina to have seeded, there will either
continue to be two gentlemen holding the posi-
ton of Senators of the United States from South
Carolina, or there will not. II such official in
dividuals exist, then the Sergeant alarms must
bring them to the bar, however troublesome
the task may be to him and his assistants. If
they do not exist, it is exceedingly difficult to
discover under what rule of political arithmetic
the Secretary of the Senate should count two
n-existents-personages not IN rer,un nat,t-
ra-in cyphering to see whether the Senate
had quorum. The Press would scout the idea
that the two very respectable Senators elect
from California, who have local habitations and
names, should be reckoned for this purpose. We
cannot for our lives see the distinction between
things that have ceased to be and things that
have not begun to be.
Those who undertake to make the Consttu-
ton feio de Sc, and look to find in it the pro-
gramme of arrangements for its own death and
burial, have need of those sharp optics (Which
see what is not to be seem" Two kinds of what
we may call chloroform for the Constitution
have been devised by political alchymists. We
have always understood that the discoveries
of secession plumed themselves upon avoid
ing the contradiction which notification in
volves-that of regarding State as in the
Union and out Of the Union at one and the
same time. The Press, we apprehend, in at
lost sight of the chief recommendation of the
theory of secession.
The same confusion of terms which we have
pointed out infects the deductions of the Pres,
from the other constitutional provisions cited by
it, too obviously TO demand special comment
To us it is impossible to conceive that the words
each State, The people Of The several States, can
be construed in the Constitution as referring Il
any territory not completely within its juris-
diction and that of the government which it es-
tablishes, for all purposes, with whit more
propriety than TO the province of Canada-or
if the epithet State is deemed material-to the
State Of Nicaragua