The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1860-12-12
The Presidents Message.

questons growing out OF Inc uissehslons now
existing between the North and the South.
In most Of its features, the message is wholly
unexceptionable; but, upon two or three
points, the views enumerated BY the President
arc directly opposed to the settled convic-
tions q the. Southern mind. Mr.. Buchanan
il eminentiy "sound" upon the question of
the right ofthe general government to coerce
asecedlng State back into the Union. In
hk opinion, no such right exists; and his
afgupent in support of that opinion, drawn
from the proceedings of the Convention of
1887, is, to our mind, conclusive and unan-
swerable. Still, he holds that the right of
secession does not exist. 1t seems, to us,
that, Just here there is ia limp in the logic"
oftlfe President, since, il a seeding State
cannot, BY any constitutional means, be forced
toresnne her former position in the Con-
federacy, it follows, inevitably, that she has
the power to secedc, and that the other States
have no right, under the Constitution, to pre-
vent her from exercising that power. 1t may,
we think, be as justly prcdicatcd of States as
Of individuals, that they may rightfully do
whatsoever they have the power to do, I'M
less such exercise of power be restrained by
some law, or rule, or compact, which they
are bound TO observe. The President does
not pretend that the Constitution itself con-
Gains any express denial of the right of a State
to seccde, at pleasure, from the Onion. He
is driven, therefore, to an attempt to deduce
such denial, by argument and inference,
from what he supposes to have been the
purpose Of the trainers Of the Constitution,
to wit: that the Union should be perpetual
Now we have no idea that the men Of 1887
either intended or desired that the Union
should continue to exist for single day af-
ter it should cease to subservc the great pur-
poses for which it was designed. They hoped,
doubtless, that the work of their hands would
endure while the world should stand but
they depended, for its perpetuation, upon the
intrinsic equity of its provisions, and upon
the scrupulous. good faith of all the parties
TO the compact, rather than upon any fanciful
and merely implied ncgation of the right of
the States to seccdc from the Union. Con-
ccding, however, the promises assumed by
the President-that the Union WAS intended
by its founders to be perpetual-wo are UNI
oh 20, e
conclusion, that the right of secession does
not exist We are thoroughly persuaded of
the fact, that, had the Constitution rccogniz-
cd, in express terms, the right of secession,
the present state of things would never have
existed. The preposterous notion that the
Union was indissolubie, except through re-
volution, has operated, with more potent
energy than all other causes combined, to
encourage and emboldcn the North in its
long career of aggression upon our rights
Regarding us as being bound to the Union
by ties which could lawfully be sundered
only by their free consent, and having firmly
resolved that they never would consent to
the severance of those tics, all the efforts of
their policy, for more than forty years past,
have been directed to the sole end of acquir-
ing such an asccndancy in the Union as would
enable themselves to control the operations
Of the general government That eud once
attained, the South, upon their theory of the
Constitution-which is the theory of the
President-would lie completely at their
mercy, wholly subject to their sway, with no
constitutional means of asserting its rights,
or,irathcr, with no constitutional rights to be
asserted, and with no hope for the redress of
any wrong, however grievous, except through
the bloody path Of revolution; whereas, had
secession been explicitly recognized, from
the first, as the constitutional right of any
State that felt itself aggrieved by the action
of the federal government, the North would
never have attempted to encroach upon the
rights Of the South, because it would have
known that encroacbmcnt would not have
been submitted to. This is "human nature"
in its familiar workings. A highwayman,
who believes that hecan rob rich wayfarer
with immunity, will be very likely to make
the attempt; while sensible foot-pad, how
ever strongly he might desire to rifle the
pockets of a well-mounted traveller who was
aware Of his character and presence, and full
ly able to keep beyond his reach, would
scarcely waste his strength in an endeayor
to accomplish what he knew to be an impos-
sibility. Convince individuals, or the people
of a State or section, that they cannot profit
themselves by any aggression upon the rights
of Others, and it may then be safely assumed
that no such aggression will be attempted.
The right of secession is, therefore, the very
cornerstone of"Union" doctrine; and the
stuff that has been retailed through the coun
try by the "UniOn-saving" quacks of the
day, as the only genuine " Union doctrine I"
now extant, is calculated, in its very nature,
tolead to an ultimate disruption of the Union,
by the invitation and encouragement to ag-
gression which it holds out to the more