New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-10-24

out in the Constitution, and which, as he's beer
well said, sis framed for ages to come, and is de-
| signed to approach Immortality as nearly as human
institutions can approach it,
It is therefore clear that the stability of the Con
stitntien and the permanency Of the Union was moi
designedt to be altered and destroyed, or changed
or disregaraed at the mere willard pleasure Of any
part and portion less than legal and constitu
ticnal majority.
i No State, nor any part or portion of the
people of the United States less than the whole
have the right either to violate the Constitution
snd the laws made in pursuance thereof, or te
secede from the Union
j The sovereignty Of the United States is not il
any State, or in any part portion Of the people
less than the whole, It resides not in the States
i but in the great body Of the whole people of the
i United States. Every freeman in this country
1 constitutes portion of the sovereignty Of the
same. In this country all are freemen twithout
subjeets9 and are all entitled to freemen's rights.
And the great foundation upon which these repose
! are the Union, the Constitution aud the Enforce
Dent Of the Laws. Hwcald, therefore, seem to be
self-eyident proposition that State or States,
nor any part or portion Of The people, cen disre-
gard the one or violate the other at their mere will
/ and pleasure.
/ The correctness Of these views (if indeed it is
i possible for any one to entertain doubt on the
subjeet) is further evinced from the fact that the
sovereignty Of the nation is in the auole people of
The United Sates and not in the States or any sub
4 divisions of them
In the case of Chisholm's Executors US. the State
OF Georgia, . Dallas r. 445 G. Cond. n. 72) Mr..
Justice Wilson, Of the Supreme Court Of the United
States, after ayowiRg his disapprobaton Of the
. purposes for which the terms State and soyer-
eighty are frequently used and Of the object to
which the application Of the term sovereignty is
almost universally made, and by way Of eyincing
4 the meaning of the terms State and sovereignty
and the application which he made Of the latter,
said:
.sIn doing this, shall have occasion incident
ally to evince how true it is that States and gov
ernments were made for man; aud at the same
time how true it is that his creatures and SER
wants have first deceived, next yillfed, and at last
4 oppressed their masters and maker.
Man, fearfully and wonderfully made,'i is the
workmanship Of his AllPerfect Creator. State,
useful and valuable as the contrigance is, is the
inferior continuance Of man; and from his native
dignity derives all its acquired Importance. When
speak Of q State as an inferior continuance, /
mean that it continuance inferior only to that
which is divine. OF all human contrivances it is
certainly most transcendantly excellent It is con-
cerning this continuance that Cicero says so sub
timely: Nothing which is exhibited upon our
globe is more acceptable to that divinity which
governs the whole universe than those commune
ties and assemblages of men which, lawfully asso-
/ ciated, are lenomnated States
Let State be considered as subordinate to the
people; but let everything else be subordinate to
the State The latter part this position is equally
I necessary with the former For III the practice
ana even at length ii the science of politics. there
has been strong current gainst the natural order
Of things, and an inconsiderate or an Interested
disposition to sacrifice the end to the means. As
the State has claimed precedence Of the people,
So in the same inverted course Of things the gov
ernment has often claimed precedence Of the State
and to this peTversion in the second degree, many
of the volumes of confusion concerning sovereignty
owe their existence.
The ministers, dignified very properly by the APP
| pellation Of magistrates, have wished, and have
| succeeded in their wish, to be considered as the
soyereigns Of the State. This second degree of
perverson is confined to the old world, ana begins
to diminish even there hut the first degree Is still
too prevalent, even in the several States Of which
this Unienis composed. BY State Imean d com
common benefit, to enjoy peaceably what is their
own, and to do justice to others.
The only reason, Ibeeve why free man is bound
by human laws is that he binds himself. Upon
| the same principles upon which he becomes bound
by the laws he becomes amenabe to the courts
ofjustice, whichare formed and authorized by those
laws. II one free man. an original sovereign may
do all this, why may not an aggregate Of reemen,
collection of original sovereigns do this like
wise If the dignity of each singly is undimin-
ished, the dignity of all jointly must be unin.
paired.
Who, or what is soFeregnty2 What is his or
its soyereignty2 On this subject the errors and
mazes are endless and inexplicable. 20 enumerate
ALL therefore, will not be expected; to take notice
OF some will be necessary to the full illustration of
the present important cause. In one sense the
term sovereign has for its eorrelative, subject In
this sense, tile term can receive no application;
for has noobect in the Constitution of the United
States. Under that Constitution there citizens
but no subjects. Citizens of the United States.'
Cart. L. sec. Citizens Of another State Citi-
zeus of different States. State citizen there
off, Art. 8, sec. 80 The term subject occurs,
indeed, once in the instrument; but to mark the
contrast strongly, the epithet foreign Qb.) is
sprefxed
AS a citizen, 1 know the government of that
State to be republican; and my definition of such
government Is, constructed on this principles:
that the supreme power resides in the body of the
people. As Judge of this Court, know and can
decide upon the knowledge that the citizens of
Georgia, when they acted up the large scale Of the
Union part Of the people Of the United States,
did not surrender the supreme or sovereign power
TO that State but, to the purposes Of the Union,
retained it to themselves. As 70 the purposes of
the Union, therefore, Georgia is not sovereign
State.n
And this same learned Judge, in further explain.
ing why the pretensions set up that Georgia was a
sovereign State was not true in point of fact and
in tracing and explaining the sense in Which the
term sovereign IS frequently used, says g In
this sense, sovereignty II derived from feudal
source; and like many parts Of that system so de-
grading 70 man, still retains its influence over our
sentiments and conduct, though the cause BY which
that influence was produced never extended to the
American States. The accurate and well informed
| President Henault, in his excellent chronological
abridgment of the History of France tolls US that
about the end Of the second race of kings, q new
4 kind Of possession was acquired under the name of
Il fg.e l n z