Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1860-12-15


laws, to the great injury Of the people Q
NEARLY one-half of the States Of the Union
Z But are we to presume in advance tia
he will violate his dutys This would be a
war with every principle Of Justice
t Christian charity. Let us wait for tn
: covert act.
1 The Fugitive Slave Law has been carried
into execution in every contested case sirc'
1.-THE commencement of the present ADMIN
istration, though often, it is to be regretted
! with great loss and inconvenience, and witt
J considerable expense to the government
Z Let us trust the State Legislatures win re
peal their unconstitutional aud obnoxious
!. lenactments. Unless this shall be done
without unnecessary delay, it is impossible
for any human power to save the Union
1.-THE Southern States, standing on the ba
isis of the Constitution, have right to de
Imand this act of justice from the States o.
1.-THE Moth. Should it be refused them, the
Constitution, to which all the States are
lparties, will have been willfully violated by
one portion Of them, II provision essen
tial to the domestic security and happiness
of the remainder. In that event the in
jured States, after having first used all
peaceful and Constitutional means to obtain
redress would be justified in revolutionary
resistance to the governmental the Union
/ have purposely confined my remarks
to revolutionary resistance, because it has
been claimed within the last few years that
any State, whenever it shall become her
Sovereign will and pleasure, may secede
from the Union in accordance with the
Constitution, and in accordance with her
constitutional rights of the other members
of the confederacy; that as each became
parties to the Union by the vote of its own
people assembled in convention, so any one
of them may retire from the Union in a
similar manner, by the vote Of such con-
vention. In order to justify secession as a
constitutional remedy, it must be on the
principle that the federal Government is a
mere voluntary association Of States, to be
dissolved at pleasure by one OF the contract
ing parties. If this be so, the confederacy
is rope of sand, and to be penetrated and
dissolved by the first adverse wave Of pub
lie opinion in any Of the States In this
manner our thirty-three States may resolve
themselves into as many petty, Earring and
hostile republics, each one retiring from
the Union without responsibility whenever
any sudden excitement might impel them
to such course by this process a Union
might be entirely broken into fragments in
a few weeks, which cost our forefathers
many years of toll, priyation and blood to
establish. Such a principle IS wholly IN
consistent with history, as it was franz
ed with the greatest deliberation and care,
it was submitted to conventions of the peo-
pie Of the several States for ratification, Its
Iprovisions We're discussed at length in these
bodies composed Of the first men Of the
country. Its opponents contended ~tAat it
..r...l ss,re,ts ettic ss9sas $780,
ment, dangerous to the rights OF the States,
whilst its advocates maintained that under
a fair construction Of the instrument, there
was no foundation to such apprehensions.
In that mighty struggle between the first
inteIlects of this or any other country, it
never occurred to any individual, either
among It's opponents or advocates, to assert
or even to intimate that Their efforts were
all vain labor, because the moment that any
State felt htrself aggrieyed she might Sc
cede from the Union. What crushing
argument would this have proved against
those who dreaded that the rights of the
States would tie endangered by the Consti-
tuition? The truth is, that it was not I'M
til MANY years after the origin Of the Fed
errI Government, that such proposition
was first advanced 1t was then met and
lrefuted by the conclusive arguments Of
General jackson, who, in bis message Of the
10th of January, 1888, transmitted the
nullifying ordinance of South Carolina to
Congress, employs the following language
The right Of the people Of a single State
to absolve themselves at will, without the
consent Of the other States, from their most
solemn obligations, hazards the liberty ano
happiness Of millions composing this Union
and cannot be acknowledged. Such au
Dthorit, is believed to be utterly repugnant
j both to the principles on which the Gener
TAI Government Is constituted, and to th'
objects which it was expressly designed t
, attain. 1t is not pretended that any CLAUSE
in the Constitution gives countenance t
!, such theory, it is altogether founded up
on inference, not from any language con
tanned in the instrument ITSELF but from tn
: sovereign character Of the several States b.
which it was ratified, but it is beyond tn
/, power Of State, like individual, to yiel'
} a portion Of its sovereign rights to secnr
thanpspander." In the language Of Mf
hEJiison who has been called the Father 9
thsS Constitution, it was formed By tn
f States, that is by the people in each Of th
) States, sitting in their highest sovereign ca
pacity, and formed consequently by th
same authority which formed the State con
} Istitutions; nor is the government Of tn
: United States created by the CONSTITUTIONS
I less a government, in the strictest sense {
+ THE term, within the sphere Of its powers
/. than the governments created by the Con
/ lstitution Of the States are within their sey
{ eral spheres. 1t is like them organized N
! to Legislative, Executive and Judiciary Dc
+ partments. It operates ike them directl,
a on persons and things, and like them,
: has at command a physical force for execu'