The southern press., 1851-08-04

cessiony
As for the perpetuity Of treaties of commsrc
or articles Of partnership, when no time
specified for their termination, that is neithe
law nor the usage Of nations nor of men--an
DR. LIEBER must not expect us to take hi
opinion unsupported He says:
Now, have taken the pains of examining a
confederacies of which we have any knowledge
ln none of the many Greek confederacies did tn
right Of secession exist, so far as we can trac
theirfundamental principles. In some rare caset
N uufaithful member may have been expulsed
But in the most important Of all these confede
racies, and in that which received the most CON
plete organization, resembling, in many point.
our own--in the Ach@an League there existet
no right Of secession, and this Is proved by tn
following case When the Romans had obtained
the supremacy over Hellas, and Greece was littI
moro than province Of Rome, the Etolians re
spectfuly waited upon the Roman agent GaIlus
to solicit permission to secede from the League
lie sent them to the Senate, and the secessionst
obtained at Rome the permission to withdraw
mo "leading case" suppose, for Americans
The Amphictyonic council allowed Of no seces
sion. 1t was Pan Hellenic, and never meant t.
be otherwise. The medieval leagues of thu
Lombard cities, of the Swabian cities, and Of tht
Rhenish cities, permitted no spontaneous with.
drawal; bat the fortunes of the fercest war.
ragged against them by the nobility, would ocea.
sionally tear off member and produce disrup.
tions. The great Hanssatic League, which by
its powerful union of distant cities became one
Of the most efficient agents in civilizing Europe
and which, as Mr.. Huskisson stated in parliament
80 nA ruAo s..ka IL
knew nothing of secession until the year $50,
when the princes, avid for the treasures of her
cities, had decreeed her destruction, and forced
many members to secede. This is no leading
case either.
The Swiss confederacy, the Germanic confed-
GRAFTON. knew and know nothing of secession
nor did the United States of the Netherlands so
much studied by some of our trainers, and Wash
ngton among them, admit the withdrawal of any
single State
All these confederacies consisted ofa far looser
web than ours. None had a federal government
comparable to ours, yet they never contemplated
such right
Now, DIR. LEDER is very unucky in the
pains" he has taken "to examine all confed-
eraces, of which we have any knowledge" For
it does not seem to have occurred to him to OK.
a Line confederacy that existed in this country
before the present one. The articles of that
expressly stipulated that it should
be perpetual and unalterable, except by the con
sent OF all the parties--and no Ach@an, AM
phictyonic, Swabian, Lombard, Rhenish, Han
seattle, Swiss, Dutch, or Germanic confederation,
roud hava hoau v,oro fs,r,fx, hourd +hon th.t
And yet body of seceders met at Annapolis,
Of MADISON, HAMILTON, and others,
and openly proclaimed change. They after
wards met at Philadelphia, with General WASH
INGroN at their head, and with FRANKLIN, RAN
DoLPH, PINcKNEY, RUTLEDGE & Co., and de-
liberately sent forth an invitation and plan to
secede, if they could get the cooperation Of nine
States, and they did-and the present Constitu.
ton was formed, and the present governmen,
went on for some time in open secession from
several of the States, North Carolina, Rhode
Island, &c. This Constitution and government
therefore, were conceived in secession, and borr
in disunion. And if there be no such right as
secession, where none is expressed in Const
tutioq Qr compact, then the present Constitution
is not itself of any authority--nor the present
movement anything but usurpation.
But as for the doctrine of Doctor LIEBRR
that there is a general principle that leagues OF
compacts are perpetual where no provision j,
made for their termination, or even when the,
are perpetual by their terms, we will quote Mr.
WEBSTER, in his speech in the Senate in 1893
against nulifcation--and surely he is good au
thority for DR.. LIEBER:
If a league between sovereign powers have
no limitation as to the time of its duration, and
contsin nothing making it perpetual, it subsists
only during the good pleasure of the parties, al.
though no violation he complained of. If, in
the opinion of either party, it be violated, such
party may say that he wiH no longer full its Oh
igetions on his part, 6m piH consider the ,chole
league or compact at an end, although IL NIGH be
osae Of lis stipulations that ii should be perpetual
Upon this principle the Congress of the United
States, in l798 declared null and void the treaty
of alliance between the United States and
France, though it professed to be perpetual al
lance.
H The New York Tribune thus exuIts in the
formation of an Abolition party in Kentucky,
with the probability of defeat of the Whig
party-not that it loves Wing principles less
but Abolition more.
In Kentucky State officers, as well as men,
bers OF Congress, are to be chosen on the 4tb.
Hon. Archibald Dixon, the Wing candidate,
will have very close pull for governor, and the
probability Is that we will lose it. Cassius M.
Mar 10 xaaxasaisaex G Il