The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-11-14
SECESSION rs. TREASON.
What said Madison, Hamilton, Richie
and Jackson. - 4.
AND WHAT SAYS DOUGLAS.

IL rs scarcely possible TO. conceive OF great
er difference of opinion that exists between the
Secessionists of the present day, and those
which the trainers of our Government, the au-
thors of the Constitution, and its great repre-.
sentatives and champions since, have on all
occasions enunciated. TIE secessionists have
fallen from the position assumed by the great
leaders of the State Rights party as represent.
ed by Jefferson and Madison, and subs aueut-
ly by jackson and Richie. The secessionists
claim that any State in the Union may at its
pleasure secede from it regardless of the opir-
sion, interests and wishes of the majority, and
thus plunge the country at any moment into
the vortex of a revolution? They claim that
the Constitution is the work of the States,
that each State may break up the Union when
ever from any real or fancied evils it may
please to do SO? They claim it as a Constitu-
tional Right. To all such claims at the com-
mencement of our Governments, this was the
response which our fathers returned to them.
"lt as treason to secede," they said. These
are not our words; they are the words of the
State Rights Democracy of Virginia achen the
great Fathers Of the J@ersoaian Democracy
aoere upon the stage Of faction. 80
But let MS 60 back for a moment to a period
anterior to that. Let us go back to the time
when our present Magma Charta had no exis-
tence as the organic law of the people of the
United States. The chief difficulty lay with
New York and Virginia, as the two leading
States of the then imperfect Union, but more
especially with New York. ia a
1t was feared at one time that New York
would. finally reject it, and that thus the labors
Of the Convention that framed it would be in
vain. In order to get the consent of the op-
ponents of the Constitution in the New York
CONVEX ton, and thus secure the adoption of
the organic instrument, a proposition was sub
mitted that New York would ratify the Con-
%stitution upon condition that she might, if she
chose, Withdraw from the Union that would
thus be formed at the expiration of FIVE or
other number of years. Alexander Hamilton,
in his embarrassment, turned to Madison, the
great Virginia expounder of the Constitution
of those days, who was then in the city of
New York. Mr.. Hamilton, in his letter to
Madison, dated Poughkeepsie, J~ulyI78S, said:
"You will understand that the o~nly;qualif-
cations miH be the reservation of a right to
secede, IN case our amendments have not been
decided. upon within a certain number of
years, perhaps Eve or sevea.t II this can, in
the first instance be admitted as a ratification,
I do not fear any further consequences
Yours, afectionately, 81 -fr
IA 3's- A. HAMILTON
h. Mr.. Madison promptly respondedin the fol-
lowing letter = 9" ai
"NEw YORK, Sunday Evening-My Dear
Sir: Yours is this instant at hand. 1 am sor-
ry that your situation obliges you to listen to
propositions of the nature you describe. My
opinion is that a reservation of a right to with |
draw, if amendments be not decided on under
the form of the Constitution within a certain
time, is a conditional ratification; that it does
not make New York a member of the new |
Union, and consequently should not be recei.
we'd on that plan. Gompaets must be reciprc.
cal; this principle would not IN such a case be
preserved. The Constitution requires an adop- |
ton in toto and F%oREvER 1t has been so
adopted by the othe: States. An adoption for
a limited time would be as defective as an
adoption of some of the articles only. In short,
any condition whatever must vitiate The ratif-
cation. The idea of reserving the right to
withdraw was started at Richmond, and con-
sidered as a conditional ratification, which was
itself abandoned as worse than rejection. /
Yours, JAMES MADISON, JR. |
Thas was the rlght to- seeede distinctly and
unequivocally denied by MIR. Madison, and
from his views there was not atdissenting
voice outside of those who were opposed to
the Constitution. Mr.. Hamilton and his
renewed their struggles, and trinmph- |
ed. New York abandoned the reservation of
the right to secede, and thus the Constitution
was adopted sin toto and forever" without
any. condition whatever. No State reserved
the right of secession. When, subsequently,
the right was claimed, the nswe of the Viz
ginia Democracy, and of the State Rights men
and Union men everywhere was, GIT IS TREA-
SON TO sECEDE."
Read the following from the Richmond En-
qutrer, under the editorship Of Thomas Rit
chic, of December 10, 1903. Il; 80 -.
On Thursday last the electors of Virginia
dined together at the Swan cavern, in this
city. The Madison corresponding committee
and Governor of Virginia were their guests.
These gentlemen, eoning from different parts
Of the State; and bringing with them the SEN
timents of the people, many of them distin-
Wings OF the Revolution, assembled
in harmony and unity to interchange the emo
lions of friendship at this interesting crisis Of
our public affairs. Every thing was eenducr-
I'd in the most orderly and dIgnifed manner.
It was all "the feast of reason and he flow Of
,oul." 4'-' a7d
Spencer Roane, one of the Judges of the
Court of Appeals, and Chairman of the Elec-
oral Colleges; presided. Robert Taylor, Esq,
If Orange, Speaker of the House, acted as
Vice Prasidenk. Efier An Alerant and pIepki-