The southern press., 1851-08-04
Pref. LleAsr sa Secession.

chairs OF ho 0outu Caf0nnA college, was IN
vted to the antLsecessiou celebration on th,
fourth of July at Greenville, South Carolina
and wrote long letter against the right Of 80
cessi0n. W
DIR. LEIBER is distinguished scholar, o
European as we'll as American reputation
He is a native Of Germany. which has pro
duced q host Of eminent writers on political am
other sciences, and who have been remarkabl
for the labor and research they have devoted t
history, philosophy, and literature. We there
fore expected 70 find In the doctors srgumsn
something learned, original. and cogent w
shall now examine his views. We must sa,
that the preliminary portion of his letter, com
pretending at least onethird of it, is quite vagu
and declamatory. The only position he assume
in that part of it. is that Germany owes her mis-
fortunes to disunion. And here he begs tn,
question. He does not show how disunion ha
injured her. We differ from him altogether. w
regard Germany as the most prosperous, O.
the least miserable of any of the countries o
continental Europe, except Switzerland, which
L. besides Germany, almost the only confed
ency in Europe.
We assert that Germany has now more lib
erty and more prosperity, than any other coun-
try on the continent Several of her States
have republican governments, and several are
constitutional monarchies. But minority of
the German States and population belongs either
to despotic or extremely aristocratic systems.
If Germany were more united or consolidated,
if majority dictated the institutions of all,
what would have prevented her from becoming
like Russia, Austria, or France!
1t is true that, owing to the number of sepa-
rate and sovereign princes and States of Ger
many, number of separate governments and ar
mics must be supported, and that commerce is
restricted between them, although that evil may,
or has been obviated by the Zollverein. But the
result is that every prince or State has the power
and the disposition to preserve its own relative
rights and interests, and commerce, instead of
being as with us, and with France, Great Bri-
tain, and Austria, concentrated in few large
cities, is widely diffused over Germany. Nor is
the expense of their many little armies greater
than of one big one like that of Austria, or
Russia. DR.. LEBER knows full we'll that Ger
many has surpassed France or Russia in rail-
roads, and that, in letterr, the little States are
superior to the greater GOETHE, KANT, ScHm-
LER, and host of others, we're the natives or
residents of the smaller, rather than the more
powerful States.
When the French revolution of February,
l848, excited Germany to revolution, we know
it was favorte idea of the liberals to establish
German union. They assembled general
parliament, but could not succeed, and it was
fortunate they did not. Look at the result of
unity and consolidation in France If German
union had been formed, Austria and the other
despotic States would have had the majority and
control, and the reaction which occurred, not
only in Germany but Europe, would have Aus
trianized Germany.
DR.. LTEBER denies the practicablity of Sc
cession He says, it might be possible with a
seaboard State, but not with an inland one. He
says, we could not and would not consent for
Ohio to secede and become monarchy. Well
does DR.. LrEBER believe that Ohio or any other
State, could be compelled against her will, t.
become or remain republic. The proposition
il solecism. 1t is contradiction in terms And
if we could not compel Ohio to be FREQ, we
could not compel her to be a State of thi,
Union. She might be made province, but thai
would dissolve the whole Union and destro,
the whole Constitution more effectually thar
her secession.
Dr. LrEBER contends that the reservation OF
the undelegated powers to the States and peo-
pie, cannot give or concede them the right of
secession, because that clause recognizes two
powers, federal and State but that secession
puts an end TO one of them, the federal, as to
the seeding State. Well, what of thatl There
is and always has been such thing - the power
to dissolve compact-to abolish government
If that power is not given to the federal govern
ment it is one of the reserved powers The
Doctor says that this would amount "to the
assumption that principle Of selfdestruction
had been infused by it's own makers into the
very Instrument that constructs the govern
ment" Well, what of that! The government
is but the creature-the agent of the people of
each State, and cannot that which creates, des-
troy. Did the generation that formed the pres
ent government have any better right to make
n ngovernment than the present generation7 Nay,
had they better right to make a government
for us than We have for ourselves
DR.. LfssRR thinks our ancestors never thought
OF secession:
Can we, in our sober senses, imagine that they
believed in the right of secession when they did
not even stpu!ate a fixed time necessary to give
notice Of contemplated secession, when they
knew quite AZ well as we do that not even COM
mon treaty Of defence and offence--no, not even
one of trade and an,ity, is ever entered into by
independent powers, without stipulating the Pc
rod which must elapse between informing the
other parties Of an intended withdrawal and the
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