St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1861-07-18

owned by the men who seem ready to
! devote the whole. 4 debt Of six hun
drcd million dollars now is a less sum
per head than was the debt OF our
Revolution when we came out of that
struggle, and the money value in the
country bears even greater proper
ton. Surely, each man has as strong
motive now to preserve our liberties
as each had then to establish them.
\ right result at this time will be
worth more to the world than ten times
the men and ten times the money.
The evidence reaching US from the
country, leaves no doubt that the ma
terial for the work is abundant, that
it needs only the hand Of legislation
to give it sanction, and the hand OF
the Executive to give it practical
shape and efficiency. One of the
greatest pcrpleNities of the govern
mcnt is to avoid receiving troops fast
er than it can provide for them. In a
word, the people will save the Gov
ernmcnt if the Government will do its
duty only indifferently well.
1t might seem at first thought to be
of little difference whether the present
movement at the South be called Sc
ccssion or rebellion The movers
however, we'll understood the differ
ence. They knew at the beginning
they could never raise their treason
to any respectable magnitude by any
name which implies violation of law.
They knew their people possessed
as much devotion to law and Or
der, as much pride and reverence for
their history and the government of
their country as any other civilized
patriotic people. They knew they
could make no advancement directly
in the teeth of these strong and noble
sentiments. They accordingly COM
menccd by an industrious debauching
of the public mind. They invented
an ingenious sophism, which conced-
ed, was followed by perfectly logical
steps through all the incidents of the
complete destruction of the Union.
The sophism itself is that any State
Of the Union may, consistently with
the nations Constitution, and therefore
lawfully and peacefully, withdraw
from the Union, without the consent
of the Union or of any other State.
A little disguise, that the supposed
right is to be exercised only for just
cause, themselves to be sole Judges
of its Justice, is too thin to merit any
notice. With rebellion thus sugar
coated, they have been drugging the
minds of their section for more than
thirty years, until at length they have
brought many good men to a willing
ness to take up arms against the Gov
ernmcnt, the day after some assem-
blagc of men have enacted the farce
of taking their State out of the Un-
ion, who could have been brought to
no such thing the day before. This
sophism derives much, perhaps the
whole, of its currency from the as
sumption that there is some omnipo-
! tent and sacred supremacy pertaining
to each state Of our federal Union. Our
States have neither more nor less
power than that reserved to them in
the Union by the Constitution, 10 one
of them ever having been State out
of the Union. The original ones pas
sed into the Union even before they
cast off their British dependence, and
/ the new ones came into the Union di-
rectly from condition of dependence,
excepting Texas, and even Texas in
its temporary independence was never
designated as q State The new ones
only were designated States on com
ing into the Union, while that name
was only first adopted for the old ones
in and by the Declaration of lndepen-
dence. Therein the United Colonies
were declared free and Independent
States, but even then the object plain,
ly was not to declare their indepen-
dence of one another, or of the Union,
but directly the contrary, as their
mutual action before, at the time, and
afterwards, abundantly show. The
express plighting of faith by each and
all the of the thirteen original States
in the articles of confederation, two
years later, "that the Union shall be
perpetual" is most conclusive. Hav'
ing never been States either in sub
stance or name outside the Union
whence this magical omnipotence Of
State rights, asserting claim of pow.
er to lawfully destroy the Union itself
Much is said about the " sovereignty
of the States,' but the word, even, is
not to be found in the National Con
stitution, nor, it is believed, in any oI
the State Constitutions. What is @
sovereignty? Would it be far wrong
to declare it to be a political commu
nifty, without political superior
Tested by this, no one Of our States
except Texas was a sovereignty, anc
even Texas gave up the character OF
coming into the Union, by which ac
she acknowledged the Constitution o
the United States, and laws and trea
. ties of the United States, made in pur
suance of the Constitution, to be for
. ever her supreme law.
, The States have their status in the
Union and they have no other lega
, status. If they break from this they
only do so against law by revolution
, The Union, and not themselves sepa
rately, procured their independence
and their liberty. BY conquest or pur
chase the Union gave each of then
whatever of independence and libert.
it has. The Union is older than an,
of the States and in fact it create,
them as States. Originally some de
pendent colonies made the Union an,
in return the Union threw off their ole
dependence for them and made th'
States such as they are. Not one o
them ever had State Constitution
} independent Of the Union. OF course
it is not forgotten that all the new
. States formed their Constitutions be
=; fore they entered the Union, neverthe
} less dependent on and preparatory t.
t coming into the Union. Unqucstlon
/ ably the States have the powers an(
f rights reserved to them by the nation