Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-01


Mr.. Pash's speech Yesterday.
The meeting. at Smith 4 Nixons Hall
yesterday afternoon, TO hear the Hon. Geo.
E. Pugb discourse upon the state of the
Union, was very large-the hall being full.
The speech bore The evidence Of preparation,
and was handsomely delivered and system
atica,ly, though rather unskillfully, APP
plauded-the gentlemen engaged in that
service exhibiting more zeal than either taste
or discretion. In the speech there was no
appearance of disposition on the part of
Mr.. Pugh to rise above the plane Of his previ-
Gus political history. He would save the
Democratic Party first, and the Union after
ward, if it should happen to - just as con-
venient His standard of political values
being thus, it would be idle to look for any
mastery views of the Constitution, the
province of government, or of the policy
likely to bring about state Of things more
desirable than the present.
There can be no fair treatment of the press
ent condition of things until the nulli6ca-
ton vocabulary is dispensed with, the fall
lacies which attend it are abandoned, and
we are enabled 10 get back to truly consti-
tutionsl phraseology. The words "seces-
sion, coercion" and multitude of Others
are simply inventions to get around the
plainest principles Of government aud of
the Constitution. Mr.. Pugh assumes that
State may withdraw its allegiance to the
Union-that South Carolina has seeded,
and that other States are about to follow her
example, and that, when they have seeded,
the Union, so far as they are concerned, will
be dissolved. Now there is no such thing as
State secession. An Individual may secede
fIom the Union by going out of il; but as q
State can not withdraw her Territories from
within the boundary line, she can not Sc.
cede. The State and the nation have no
common medium; they are not constitu.
tionally known to each other; they can not,
therefore, mutually act and react. The ma
ton can not, as such, take cognizance of the
fact that State has gone out or come in.
1t only knows the people, and only parts
with its jurisdiction over them when they
emigrate TO some other country.
As there can be no secession, SO there can
be no coercion. The United States can not
coerce South Carolina, because it does not
know South Carolina. The people Of South
Carolina are subjects of the National Gov
eminent; and it is the duty Of those who
administer the Government so see that the
laws arc obeyed alike by all its subjects.
To call this coercion, is dishonesty to per-
vert language. If this is coercion, the peo-
pie of Ohio are daily coerced, and ought to
complain forthwith. 1t is nothing to the
nation or to its Government whether South
Carolina stays in the Union or not; the only
question being, shall those who are sworn
to support the Constitution and enforce the
laws, do as they have promised, aud those
whose duty is obedience 10 the Constitution,
be made to obey?
Again: this is not matter in which there
-ean be third party. The question is be-
tween government on the one hand, and
those, wherever they may be, who refuse
to perform their constitutional obligations,
on the other. The Government is an adver-
sary to each delinquent subject, in his per-
sonal capacity, and not to political corpora
tons of any grade or character. There is,
therefore, no such thing as outside parties.
What Massachusetts,, or Ohio, or the North
has done, said, resolved, or enacted, has
nothing 10 do with the questiou-What is TO
be done with a citizen of the United States
residing in South Carolina, who commits a
breach Of the paramount law of the land
Ohio, says Mr.. Pugb, has, by the acts of her
Legislature, broken the Constitution; there
fore, such is, by implication, the argument
South Carolina is justifiable in breaking it
also. Issue may be taken with Mr.. Pugh
upon his premises. Ohio has not broken the
Constitution, tor the simple reason that
Ohio can not break the Constitution. Ohio
is no subject of the United States; it can
therefore neither obey nor disobey its laws
neither break nor keep its Constitution.
If it could commit a violation of that in
strument there would be provisions to try
and punish it for the offense. There are no
such provisions. Ohio can not be tried CO.
creed, nor punished; no more can South
Carolina. Constitutionally, neither OF them
are gifted with legal discretion-scarcely
with legal existence.
When we get out of the mists of nulliGca-
ton and back to constitutional ideas and
phTaseology, we have left Mr.. Pughs speech
in the back ground. We discover that unless
we can adopt the old fallacies which Mr..
Calhoun, greatly to the disgust of the Demo-
cratic Party of the time, inaugurated, we
can make no use of his prescriptions. Con-
cessions to be made by Northern States, or
amendments of the Constitution in order to
induce gentlemen residing in South Caro-
lima to obey the laws of the Union, have
nothing TO do with each other. They can
not be brought within the relations of cause
and effect nor be made to stand as consider
ations, the one for the other. The only par
ties to any controversy are the Government
upon the one hand, and the people upon the
other, and the only rational question that
can arise is, shall the laws be obeyed?
We shall consider certain points made by
Mr.. Pugb, in the course of his speech, in
another article.
Excessively Kind.
There seems TO be determination on the
part of Congress to force New Mexico to be-
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