Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1860-12-14

! h0N0o'7i iof eAeEutihS ltS inspection
laws aud if they exceed this amount, th,
excesses shall belong to the United States
and no State shall without the consent 0
Congress lay any duty on tonnage, keeI
troops or ships of war in time Of peace
enter luto any agreement or compact with
another State or with foreign power .o
engage in war unless actually invaded o.
In such imminent danger as will not admi
OF further delay.
In order still further to secure the un
interrupted exercise Of these high power:
against State interposition, it is provided
that the Court and the laws If the United
States, which shall be made in pursuance
thereof and all treaties made or which
shall be made under the authority Of tie
United States, shall be the supreme law oi
the land and the Judges in every State shall
be bound thereby, any thing in the con-
stitution or laws of any State to the con-
trary notwithstanding. The solemn sane
ton of religion has been superadded to
the obligations of official duty and all
Senators and Representatives of the United
States, all members of State Legislatures
and all Executive and Judicial officers,
both of the United States and the several
States, shall be bound by oath or atfirma-
ton to support the Constitution.
In order to carry into effect these laws,
the Constitution has established perfect
government in all its forms, Legislative,
Executive and Judicial, and the Govern
ment to the extent of its powers. acts Epon
the Individual citizens Of every State and
executes its own DEGREES by the agency of
its own officers. In ibis respect it differs
entirely from the Government under the
old Confederation, which was confined TO
making requisitons on the States in their
sovereign character. This left it in the
discretion of each whether to obey or re-
fuse, and they often declined to comply
with such acquisitions. 1t thus became
necessary, for the purpose of removing
the barrier. and in order to form a more
perfect union, to establish a Government
which could act directly upon the people,
and execute its own laws without the IN
termedistc agency of the States. This has
been accomplished by the Constitution Of
the United States.
In short, the Government created by the
Constitution, and drawing its authority
from the sovereign people Of each of the
sovereign States, has precisely the same
right TO exercise its power over tie peo-
pie of all States in the enumerated cases,
that each one OF them possesses over sub
iects not delegated to the United States,
but reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people. To the extent of the dele
gated powers, the Constitution Of the
United States is as much part the Con
stitulion oil each State, and is as binding
upon the people as though il had been
textually inserted therein. This Govern
ment, therefore, is great and powerful
government, invested with all the attri
butes OF sovereignty of the special sub
jects to which It's authority extends. It's
trainers never intended 10 implaht in its
bosom the seeds of its own destruction,
nor were they at its creation, guilty of
the absurdity of providing for its own
dissolution.
1t WAS not intended by its trainers to
be the baseless fabric Of vision, which,
at the touch of the enchanter would van
sh into thin air, but a substantial and
mighty fabric capable OF resisting the
slow decay of time, and of defyiug the
storms of ages. Indeed. well may jealous
patriots of that day have indulged fears
that government of such high powers
might violate the reserved rights of the
States, and wisely did they adopt the rule
OF a strict construction of those powers,
to prevent the danger but they did no;
fear nor had they any reason TO imagine,
that the Constitution would be SO inter
preted as to enable any state, by her own
act and without the consent OF her sister
States, to discharge her people from all or
any of their federal obligations. 1t may
be asked, then, are the people of the States
without redress against the tyranny and
oppression of the Federal Government
By no meaus. The right Of resistance on
the part OF the governed against the op-
preston of then governments cannot be
denied it exists independent Of all con
stiLutions, and has been exercised at all
periods of the worlds history. Under 1t
old governments have been destroyed
and under it new ones have been replaced
1t is embodied in strong and express Ian
guage, in our own Declaration Of Inde-
peudence, but the distinction must ever
be observed, that this is revolution against
the established government, and not a
voluntary secession from it by virtue of
an inherent constitutional right.
In short, let US look the danger fairly
in the face secession is nothing more nor
less than revolution. 1t may or it may
not be jus!lhable revolution, but still it is
revolution. What, in the meantime, is the
responsibility aud true position OF the ex-
ecutlve, bound by solemn oath before God
and the country TO take care that the laws
be faithfully executed From the obIiga-
ton he cannot be absolyed by any human
power. But what if the performance of
this du y. in whole or in part, has been
rendered impraciicable by events over
which he could have exercised no contro.?
Such at the present moment Is the case
throughout the State of South Carolina.
So far as the laws of the United States to
secure the administration of justice by
means of the Federal Judiciary is con-
cerned, AL the Federrl officers within it's
limits, through whose agency alone those
laws can be carried into execution, have
| already resigned We have no longer a
District Judge, or District Attorney, in