Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-11-23

ENr STATES CAN MERGE Or SuRRENDER THEIR
SovEREIerrY IN WHOLE Oh IN PART-iN THIS
COUNTRY IT Has BEEN DIVIDED, A Portion
TRANSFERRED TO THE UNITED STATES, AND A
PORTION LEFT IN THE STATBs-MR. MADIsoN's
VIEWS.
To the People Of the Soxth.
Secessionists maintain that each Of the United
States retains all is original sovereignty that the
United States possess no sovereign power; that
their government 10 a mere agency for the States;
that any Of the States may at will disuiu this
agent, and thus relieve lis people from all obliga
ton to submit to its Constitution and laws. One
fundamental position assumed by the secession
lists IL that "SovKRxlsNrY Is INCAPABLE OF DIvI-
sIoN.n
IL this be true how happens 1t that there il more
than one sovereignty in the world,
Old Adam we suppose, was the first sovereign,
and If " sovereignty Ia incapable Of division"
how happens Il that there are 20 many sovereigns
among his descendants! II this position be sound,
there 10 now but one sovereignty on earth, and
that ID vested in all mankind a. one consolidated
mass. South Carolina has been in rebellion
against this "one and indivisible', sovereignty
since 1875 at least!
How came South Carolina to have any sover-
eighty at all! She formed part of the British
Empire, whose sovereignty, according to this ar
gument, or assumption, rather, was and is 'indi-
visible" She il, therefore, still part Of the
British Empire, though in a state Of rebellion,
and ought 70 return to her allegiance! But II
they mean that sovereignty Of any one nation can
not be divided, the position IL equally absurd,
al we shall hereafter show.
1t IL another fundamental position Of secession
lists, that SOVEREIGNTY Is INHRRRSr." Inherent
in what, Secession answers, In the States. But
how did it get into the States Surely, they were
not sovereign while they formed parts of the Brit
ish Empire. They then had no +" inherent' SOW
ereignty. Did the Declaration Of Independence
make them sovereign, That was the act Of Con-
gress. IL that gave them sovereignty they derived
Ii from their own creature, and Congress must
have been sovereign before they could impart
that quality to their constituents. That sover.
eighty was inherent In Congress, nobody pretends
to say that 1t was inherent in the Colonies while
parts of the British Empire, is absurd and II 1t
be " indivisiblen and inherent" pray where
did they get 1t, and when did 1t begin to be in.
herent '' And what became Of the 'sindivisible,
sovereignty Of the British Empire when it was
divided into twelve or thirteen independent
States,
The truth 10, sovereignty IL not indirisibls -
nor " inherent" 1t has been divided and subdi.
vided acquired and lost, restricted and enlarged
times without number and by various means,
during the worlds history.
But without caring how where the States
got their sovereignty, we are ready to admit that
they were sovereigns in 1776; but we maintain
| that they could and did modify their own sover-
eighty In the adoption Of the Consti tuition Can
any one doubt that the people Of each State, II
they had been minded could have united with
the people Of all the other States and formed a
consolidated government that all their sovere On.
hzv hoou
and that the States could thus have been extin.
guished, The history Of the world il full of ex.
amples Of two or more nations being merged into
one, and Of one divided into two or more: OF
sovereignty lost by conquest or by voluntary sur.
render, and sovereignty acquired by rebellion or
voluntary association. To say that State cannot
| surrender or merge her own sovereignty, is to
deny the existence of sovereignty itself; for how
can State be sovereign which cannot dispose of
herself! And IL State can merge her entire
sovereignty In that Of other States cannot she
merge part and retain part, To saw that she
cannot, Is also to deny her sovereignty; for SOW.
eighty according to secession logic, possesses all
political power, while by the same logic 1t can
not divide itself, and therefore does no. possess
all political power. Theargument IL Jfslo de- Sc
| 1t destroys itself.
w men oeceSIonIsrs say that sovereign power
II U0cerDn1eHS
States, they utter a truth which 10 equally appu
cable to the governments Of the States Both
governments are agents in the same sense. and
Doth OF them are g0rsSnnieSts in the same sense
What Is State, The people composing II.
What Ii the United States, The people compo.
sing them In the sense Of the Constitution where
II says, eve, the people Of the United States. ,,
The grants Of the Constitution are to the United
states, meaning the people thereof and not to
tner government The powers reserved in the
Constitution are reserved to the States meaning
the people of the States, not their governments
When the Constitution says there is such thing
a. the people Of the United States, - there must
be such people in some sense, and In that peop,s
Is vested and merged the sovereignty of the people
Of the States far and far only as Il covers the
powers granted in the Constitution In reference
to all their reserved powers, the people of the
States remain as sovereign and independent an
| they were In 177s
TX had entertained doubt OF the CORRECTNESS
| Of my own views on this subject, Il would have
been obviated by the following lucid and unan.
| swerable exposition I have recently met with I'm
one Of Mr.. Madison's letters, viz:
In order to understand the true character NJ
the Constitution Of the United States the error.
not uncommon, must be avoided Of viewing N
through the medium either Of a consoIidsted
Government or Of a confederated Government
whilst II Is neither the one nor the other, but
mixture Of both. And having In no model the
nfnlhtudes and analogies applicable to other sys-
TENS OF government, Ii must, more than other
De It's own Interpreter according to it, text and
the facts of the case
g From these II will be seen that the cbay,cts,
lstic peculiarities Of the Constitution are-I The
mode OF IT. formation; Q. The division of the An
preme powers Of government between the STATE.
In tneir united capacity and the States In their
Individual capacities.
81 IL was formed, not by the governments of
The component States, as the Federal Government
| Tor which IL was substituted was formed No,
was II formed by majority Of the people Of the
Cnited States, as single community in the man.
ner OF consok dated government ii was formed
~ the States that is, by the people In each Of the
S acnng In their highest sovereign capacity,
ana formed consequently by the same authority
which formed the State constitutions
Being thus derived from the same sourcs A
the constitutions Of the States 1t has, within each
safe, the same authority the constitution of the
state; and IL as much constitution in the strict
sense OF the term within its prescr bed sphere "a
the constitutions Of the States are within their
respective spheres: but with this obvious and
essential difference, that being a compact among