Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1860-12-14
OLAR X svILLE
Friday, December IA, 1850.
sECEssxOs AND REVOLUTION,
CONVERTIBLE TERMS.

organs TO TEEN with sol bistry and unmeanng dis
tincions between the right 10 secedc and the right
20 revolutionizc. As regards the former we can
imagine greater absurdity than the supposition
that the trainers of the Constitution contemplated
government the permsneucy Of which was to be at
the mercy Of the caprice or passion of every con-
stituent part Of the whole system; and that such
was not the intention is evident from from the safe
guards provided, in the Constitution, against any
disruption Of the ligaments which bind the States
together as a whole. In support of the right Of
secession, there arc two favorte assumptions which
are relied upon, by those who advance them, as
clearly establishing that right. Were these assump-
lions well founded, the inference would be egiti-
mate; but that is the question.
III the first place, II assumed that the Constitution
makes no provision for coercing seeding State
and that the absence of such provision is tacit4
admission of the right TO secede. We admit that
the Constitution Is silent on that particular point
but deny the correctness of the inference that such
silence Is a concession of the right claimed, and
were such reasoning to be received as valid, the
Constitution would become perfect nulity at once.
No one will deny that State has not the right to
coin money---and wby2 Because the Constitution
prohibits It. But where Is the clause in that instru
ment which defines the process by which any such
attempt shall be arrested The power to prohibit
always embraces the right enforce obedience; and
It is the sheerest bubble to argue that the Federal
Government is not clothed with power to prevent
or to punish any infractf6n of the Constitution
But we may be met, here, with the assertion that
the right TO coin money is expressly denied to the
States whilst the right to secede is not and that,
therefore the are not parallel. We admit the
force OF the objection, a technically, but de-
nv that il invadatcs, in the slightest degree, the
broad position that the Constitution arms the Fede-
rl authorities with full power to suppress every at
tempt to violate its own provisons-any other sup
position makes that instrument blank and the
government itself a nonentty. But the force of
this position will be made more apparent in the
sideration of the other branch of the subject.
The next and main argument of the secessonists
is, that the Confederucy is mere compact between
sovereign States, voluntarily inferred into and disso-
uble at win. We shall not stop to enquire whether
the States--the original thirteen--were, or were
not independent soyreignties before they entered
into this compact. If they were, they parted with
that sovereignty and not one of them can exercise
single one of the leading functions which consti-
tute independent sovreignty--their Constitutions
are but charters--likc that of a city-aowing them
to regulate their own affairs subject to the Consti-
tuition of the United States They cannot enter in
70 treaties with foreign nations they cannot main
tain standing armies, and build up naves; they
cannot coin money issue bills of credit can
thoy even regulate commerce between themselves
or enter into compac;s with each other. Not one
of these things State do without violating the
Constitution, and the Federal Government has the
right to resist any such attempt, and the means
with which to prevent or pucish - Nv: Soa-..
Carolina says she will resume her sovereignty, and
In that capacity, will no longer be amcnabe to the
Federal Constitution. Was she ever sovereign
State2 When? Not whilst iu a state of rebellion
against the mother country, and not at the close o.
the Revolution because she was then subject to the
old articles of Confederation from which she with
drew her allegiance only to transfer It to the pres
ent Constitution. She cannot resume what she
never possessed, and the act of secession can b,
nothing more or less than an act of revolution
When South Carolina voluntarily became a mem
Der of the Union, she bound herself to adhere to It
as permanent government, without reservation
until oppression, for which there is no Constitutions
remedy authorized her to resort to revolution; ant
every attempt to secedc, without first trying ever,
means of redress within the Uuion, is not only al
act of bad faith towards the other States, but is re
bellion against the government Has an effort bee
- Al,
which it complains On the contrary, it has fc
mented sectional strife for party purposes aud la
been wllin: accessory to every trespass upo
Southern rights-bartcring the same for Federl
spoils until Democracy was dethroncd.
With government demoralized aud a licencior
people inaamed by the artful appeals of corrupt an
selfish politicians, the cause Of rational liberty an
political justice cannot he long upheld and GOV
eminent based upon virtue and intelligence cannt
stand when the foundation is sapped. Already pa
sion and prejudice control the councils of the cour
try; the voice of reason is unheard amidst the str
of contending factions and the masses who hay
nothing to gain, and everything to lose by disunol
echo the senseless jargon of their masiersthe Coz
sttution has been violated There is no remedy
Disunlon Is no remedy for any political evil-ti
fault is not in the government but in those WI
administer il, The peop!e-the source Of all pov
er--are the dupes Of demagogucs playing upon the
intellectual and moral weaknesses. Secession wi
not change their character and carrying with the
the elements Of their own debascment the san
causes win be again at work in Northern and
Southern Couiedcracy, and the madness which eau
cd the separation will q more malignN
form until II involves US in all the horrors OF civ
Wharf.-The death-knell of slavery and forerunner
acspoiism. Or if this direst of Ills be aver,cd vi
South Carolina with her notions Of aristocracy Al
her dstatoria temper live on terms Of equality wi
the border States for which she expresses coatemp
Vsi te hor1er Statas suiIr themselves TO he rll,