The southern aegis. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1857-1862, 1861-12-14

uTe tO-uaNj all tuey Hdu III common WIS
certain fealty TO the British crown, otherwise
they were wholly distinct On what ground,
then, is it attempted to be proved that our fathers
constituted their States into one nation. On
this; that having, as all admit at the first banded
the States together by very simple federal pact,
the confederation, they afterwards determined as
they said, to come together under the present
constitution for closer union. " Closer union ~
mark we'll their own Words they do not say
they would make themselves into one nation, but
| that they would come more nearly together for
closer union? What is a nation and what is
union? nation is one thing; union of neces-
sity, consists Of more things than one; who ever
heard of one thing making union? Clearly then
1T was not nation your fathers made, for they
themselves emphaticaly called it n UNION
What was it they formed? A FEDERAL COMPACT,
more closely and beautifully interviewer than
| had ever before been seen or conceived of in the
world. And what is a Federal compact? A
league or covenant, between independent and
sovereign States. Did then, the States, in max
ing this covenant abrogate the sovereignty that
originally belonged to each of them, separate and
apart? Mol for they saJ with precision ia their
instrument, the Constitution, that they delegate
| certain powers to general government for de-
fined purposes, and that all powers not expressly
delegated are reserved to the States and the peo-
pie. The States, always Jealous of their indepen-
dcnce, did not give up one jot or title Of their
! righttul sovereignty.
Aud the name again proves this, for if your ia
theirs, denuding their States of their actual SOW
ereign power, had made them subordinate parts
! of one nation, they might have called it the
American Republic or the American State but
they would never have dreamed of naming it the
United States of America. States, the plural,
affirming more than one, and affirming also,
sovereignty, for State Isl nation, nation, one
sovereign state We have then States and Union,
| both words clearly proving sovereignty resident
! in more than one thing, for States implies plu-
raj of sovereign communities and union cannot
be without equal component parts
The banner in which you glory, that flag of
| your pride, is another proof Your fathers did
not set there blazing sun or a single star, SYM
| Dol of one nation, but they placed thereon thir-
teen stars to ypfy the thirteen States, sovereigns
| and equals in sovereignty, and ever since, when
| another State has come into the Union, another
star has been added to that bright constellation,
to denote that she also was the equal of her sis
| tiers, and might walk with them O sovereign
| among sovereigns. 1t is the fashion of our day
to scott with coutumely and with hate at the So
called right of secession, the reserved power of
each of the States to withdraw from the Union,
| and yet, such latent power or right seems alb
solutely necessary to the completion and harmo-
ny of the system, for without it independence and
sovereignty are but "mockery and name'
Let US suppose the case: A State deems herself
| deeply wronged and aggrieved of her sisters, and
the grand tribunal, the solemn Convention of the
States, has assembled, and with the dignity that
becomes her, she lays before them, her grievan-
ces and her wrongs, but they cannot or will not
see them, or seeing will not redress. What
remedy has she2 Without this right she isa vas
sal in their hands. She must have the power to
go from them, not with bated breath and
slow" asking their permission, that would make
her servitor but with the calm power Of a SOW
ereign departing from among her equals. Plain
ly sovereignty of the States is but shadow, ifshe
has not the right togo, and if be not the impera
tive duty of the others to suffer her to depart
| without reproach. Your fathers must have known
this nece sity of their system, for they were too
wise not to follow it to its logical results. But
no doubt they deemed it one of its great distin-
gushing principles, and an efecrual barrier to
that tyranny they had spent themselves in resis-
| ting, the tyranny Of one community over anoth-
er; they loved union, but the liberty for which
! they fought was yet dearer to them, and they