The Yazoo Democrat., 1851-07-30


changes OF the fundamental law. These are
oRly not rebellious because they are authorized
and provided for by the. actual sovereign potCer.
If any attempt were made in any OF the
States TO overturn the government or 20 alter
the Constitution Of such State without the exc
press permission and authority of the actual
souerei0n posuer-declared through the appoint
| ed modes and with all the prescribed forms,
such movement would be rebellion and would
| be treated as such. This ID well illustrated by
the history of the Rhode Island movement in
| I641, and the history of Dorr is a warning to
| ell rebels who may be disposed to assert prac-
tically the abstract right Of revolution. This
case has passed the ordeal Of the Supreme
Court of the Union, and the doctrine of Dorr
and his followers, stands condemned by every
intelligent statesman and iurist in the world.
But IL this right Of revolution, as you call it--
this "sacred right of finsurrection, as the French
Jacobins called it-exist at all, you must adj
init the antagonistcai right of the actual gov
ernment to put it down. All publicists will
tell you (you are too will read not TO remember
this) that government is bound TO protect itself.
II revolution is rebellion, and rebellion is trea-
son, is not government bound TO visit the trea-
son with the severest punishment known TO its
code! Did you ever hear of rebellion which
was not suppressed by force, if the government
could suppress it! And did you ever hear of
foreign Intervention or remonstrance in such q
right to put down and to punish revolution if it
can, without any enquiry into the cause of the
revolution. tits right which flows from ne
cessity, for without it, there would be no such
thing as order in the world, and the nations
would be harrassed continually, with confusion,
turbulance, and incessant wars. But have not
the people, at all times, right to change their
government! You will ask. Certainly they
have: when the people Gas they are here) are
the acknowledged source of all political power;
because the people (acting as the sovereignty
can and do often acknowledge the necessity for
change, and provide for its being made. But
not even here have the people right 70 rebel
ag instthe governme ut Gs if they do, the fate
ofrebels assuredly awaits the vanquished. Un-
successful rebellion has always been punished
| by government as q dutgf-and often with a
severity shocking to the sensibilities of men,
and wholly inexcusable if it was not necessary
We read of disembowling, of hanging, draw
| ing and quartering. Would punishments so
ferocious and sanguinary be tolerated by a. y
people except for the crime of treason! HIS
torians may deny or may lament the nee ssty
| of rigid application of the law in the case of
| lady Jane Gray or of Mary Stewart. Humanity
and of Bedloe, or may redden with Indignation
at the excuses of the bloody assizes. But all
will admit, that if Dagdale and Turberville had
not been puriured, Stafford would have deserv-
ed his fate, and perhaps the only public act of
| James, which posterity has justified, is the exc
cution of his own nephew for treason, after the
battle of Sedge-Moor. AS then it is not only
the right but the duty of government TO punish
rebellion with the halter or the axe, and since
revolution (if against the sovereign willy is re-
belion, of what avail is it to you or your party,
to assert the right of State secession as a rero-
tEtionary right!
Contrast with this position that Of the State
Rights party upon this subject. We contend
for the right of a State to withdraw from the
Union peaceably and quietly, and without oppo-
stion or resistance or complaint; and for the
following reasons: Independently of any act
of confederation, the States have always been
to great extent politically seperate they were
subject, it is true, to common Executive head
prior to the revolution, but they never constitut-
| ed one people in the political acceptation of the
! term. They were settled at different times
to some extent by different races-by men of
different political and religious opinions, and
who were often odious and alien to each other
on account of these differences. In truth they
resembled each other in nothing but their lam
guage, and from point of metaphysical divin-
| ity, down to the fashion of their garments, they
differed from each other-and gloried in the
difference. The Catholic of Maryland could
have little in common with the Puritan of
| Plymoth, and the Cavalier of jamestown could
| acknowledge no bond of political sympathy
with the Regecide of Boston. The people of
one colony owed no allegiance to the government
of any other colony, and were not bound by its
laws. The colonies had no common Legisla-
ture, no common Treasury, no common Mill
tary power, no common Judiciary, they were
established at different times, and were unlike
| in their organization. Some were provincial,
some proprietary, and some charter govern
ments. They were united, it is true, by COM
mon Executive head or King: but so are at this
!. time Canada and the British East Indies, and
I vet Canada and the British East Indies do not
;. constitute one people, Nor do Jamaica and
! ireland; nor Scotland and the Mauritias. They
4 did not evon unite (strange as it may seem to
1 many in the act which threw off their aleig-
ance to the the British crown. Virginia de-
Il clared her independence early as the 10Th oi
Il May, l776; and New Hampshire, New Jersey
and South Carolina had each adopted provisions
I al governments several months before this
period It is true they all united in the general
Declaration of the 4th of July, but it was only
d a repetition, not confirmation of what had al
ready been done by the four States above men
: toned. The manner of voting in the Congress Of
'76 and in the Convention which formed the con.
stitvton each State having been entitled 10 one
vnte) )showe that the States, after the revolution
) had been consnmmated, regarded each other Al
distinct and co-equal political entities. AWell
! the Federal Constitution under which we live
, did not destroy this equality. 1t was framed by
7 the representatives of the States, and rafifes
afterwards by the States, at different times, an.
/; from different motives and considerations; eacl
d State acting for itself and not for another
7 Was this Union declared to be perpetual am
: irrevocable at the time of its formation! EveI
{ if it had been 80 declared, ID not a conven
ton, compact, or league, which is violated b,