Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1861-02-05
Thos. J. Niche, Esq, of 1913 Us. Thos. j.
Niche. ESD. of s61.

delivered speech of two hours length, In ad-
vocacy of the right of secession. He expressed
bis sastonishment that persons should SO soon
forget the principles which were ''fought and
bled and died" for in the revolution of 1776-he
that as the Constitution was adopted
by the people of the several States and not by
the people of the States collectively, that they
had the right to secede-and ''waxed wroth"
when speaking of those who denounce such ac-
ton as reasonable. We propose to notice these
positions, and to give some authority in OPPOSE
ton to them which we know will challenge the
respect of the distinguished advocate of this po-
litcal heresy.
Though secession is contra distinguished from
revolution, and though all historians and states
men have concurred in calling the severance of
the colonies from the British crown by the
sword revolution and not secession, being uni
versally designated, as every school boy knows,
as the great american Revolution" yet Mr..
Niche says that it was merely secession. He
is astonished that the principles of secession, as
be calls them, which were acted upon in that
era, should be SO soon forgotten and denied
We are astonished to find that Mr.. Niche seems
to be oblivious to the fact that the trainers of
our Constitution denied that there was such a
right as secession under the Constitution. Mr..
Madison, who has been called the Father of the
Constitution, denied, time and again, in the most
emphatic manner, the existence of such right
He denounced it as "heresy," and said that
both secession and notification "spring from the
same poisonous root" Mr.. Niche seems to
forget that this right was not claimed or advo-
Gated till near half century after the adoption
of our present Government. It did not dare to
raise its ''hideous head" till most of those noble
patriots who framed the Constitution had been
gathered to their fathers" Mr. Madison was
the head of the serpent"-he proclaimed it a
''heresy" which should be condemned and re-
nounced. If Mr.. Niche is so astonished that
persons should deny this right as early as the
year 1861, what language could express his as
constituent at such denial as early as the year
1888. Yet in that year Mr.. Niche denied the
existence of such right, and said that his opin-
ions were ''unaltera6ly JSred." Men may and
do change, but principles are 'unaltera6ly Jired,
and if secession was 'heresy" then, it is SO
still.
He now says that, as the Constitution was a.
dopted by the people of each Of the States sep
arately, and not by the people of the States COL
lectively, that State has the right to secede.-
What did ha COW nnon this como nronos;tion in
1888 in his address to the people Of this county,
when candidate for the Legislature2 Listen
he said
"Fellow-citizens! am not one of those who
consider the National Government as the crea-
ture of the people of all the States collectively,
but rather as the creature Of the people of each Of
the States, as such. This, however can make
NO DIFFERENCE in the question before u.s.
The State Governments were created By the eo-
pile Of each Of the States; the General Govern
ment by the consent of all the States, voting sep
arately. 1t, therefore, seems so me just as alb
surd to say, that one individual State should be
tolerated in resisting the laws of this Union, as
to say that one single individual should be tole.
rated 10 resisting the laws of his State each
State standing in the same relation to the Fed.
eral Government, that each individual stands to
the State Government"
II will thus be seen that Mr. Niche maintained
that 80 far as the right of secession was concerned
it made "no ditserence' whether the Constitu-
ton was adopted by the people of the States
collectively or severally. He then maintained,
with Mr.. Madison, that the "Oonstitution of the
United States was formed by the States that is,
by the people in each of the States, acting in
their highest sovereign capacity and formed
consequently by the same authority sOhich FORM
ed the State Constitutions"
| TIA State has the right to secede and set up a
separate Government at pleasure, as Mr.. Niche
maintaine, and if the relation which an individ-
ual sustains to his State Government is the same
as that which State bears to the Federal Gov
eminent, as the same individual maintained in
1888, then it follows that each individual citizen
in the State has the right to secede and set up a
Government to suit his own fancy on his own in
dividual aud independent responsibility, and there
will be no one having a right to ''molest or
make him afraid" This is the ''rope Of sand''
with which he said it was better for freemen to
be bound, than by letters which could only be
severed by the sword
He seemed to be horryisd that any one should
consider secession as treason. He was SO very
severe upon those who did SO, THAT we felt ex-
tremely sorry for the Thos J. Niche, Esq, of
1888, for it was painful to hear him so sorely
abused. In the same address from which we
have quoted, the Mr.. Niche of 1888 used this
language:
'During the last war. when it was believed
by many that disaffection to the General Gov
eminent was manifestiDg itself in some of the
New England States, and that the object of the
Hartford Convention was to concentrate the op-
position, and to produce notification or secession
the whole State of Virginia was aroused by the
mere suspicion of the contemplated TREASON,
and blasted that Convention with name, which
even now is odous to republican ears. And
why should the suspicion that an act was contena-
plated in Connecticut, more arouse the indigna-
ton of the true patriot, than the doing of that
act in Carolina TREASON is the same,
whether he raises bis hideous head in the North
or in the South. Away, then, with
sectional distinctions between the Northern and
Southern members of our Oonfederacy. Carroll
ma holds precisely the same relation to us that
Connecticut does-they are both our sisters
both equally entitled to our love for their vir-
tues, and to our dsapprobaton for their faults.
If it would have been TREASON for the North
to SECEDE during the last war, it is Urea
SON NOW FOR THE SOUTH TO DO THE