Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1861-08-09

reconstruction, and with suggestions OF
guarantees, and publications, and medi-
alton, and neutrality, armed or other
wise. Border-State Conventions are pro-
ljected, and we'll meaning governors have
been arranging interviews or conducting
correspondence with governors who
talked of fSouthern rights, and undertook
to say what their States would or would
not permit the United States Govern
ment to do Even Cabinet officer, of
whom better things might have been ex-
pected, and by whom better things are
now nobly said and done, allowed him
self to fall into the error of explaining
to the vacilating Governor of Maryland
that the intentions of the National Ad-
ministration were purely defensive
While such language is current at home,
it is not strange that foreigners should
find themselves in state of hopeless
confusion about US. Few European
writer's, except De Tocqueville, have
ever shown clear comprehension of our
political system; and the speeches of
| British statesmen on American affairs
are perhaps rather to be accounted for
and excused from want of information,
than resented as hostile or insulting.
But it is time that this whole pernicious
dialect should be exploded, and the
ideas which it represents be eradlcated
from the minds Of Intelligent men ey
erywhere.
The right of revolutio it is needless
to discuss. Resistance, in any practi-
cal method, to intolerable oppression, is
the natural right of every human being,
and of course Of every community. But
such right is never included in the
frame work of organized civil society.
From its nature, it can form no part of
a plan of Government The only form
ula which embraces it is the famous one
of ':Monarchy tempered by Regicide;"
! and where that prevails, it seems to be
| adopted as practical expedicnt, rather
| than recognized as an established consti-
tutional maxim. But as a question of
revolution the issue is not presented.
If it were, it would be easy to deal with.
The only embarrassment i'll our present
condition, so far as reasoning goes. arises
law, and the inaccuracy Of language
which necessarily attends them In Or
der, therefore, to know what Is before
US, let us first see where we stand.
The london Times informs The people
of England, that ''the resolution Of the
North to crush Secession by force in
wolves denial of the right cf-each Que
Of the seeding States to determine the
conditions of its own national existence
Precisely so. 1t involves all that; but
the whole fact comprehen;ls great deal
more. Not one of the States Of the
American Union has any national exist
encc, or ever had any, in the sense in
which the Times uses the phrase Not
one of them has any Of the functions OF
qualities of a nation. Tn the case Of the
| greater part of the States in which the
rebellion exists, the United States bought
and paid for the territory which they oc
cupy, made States of them under its own
| Constitution and laws, upon certain con
d;tions made irrevocable by the act which
created them, and reservedthe forts, ar
senals, and custom houses which their
! reasonable citizens have since under
taken to steal. The fundamental idea
Of the American system is local self-gov
ernment for local purposes. and national
unity for national purposes. Our ma
tional union is synonymous with our ma
tional existence. When we speak Of
sovereign and Independent States, the
phrase has no other just meaning than
that each State is independent of every
other in all matters, exclusively apper
tanning to its own powers and duties, and
sovereign upon all sui bjects which have
not been committed exclusively to the
jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
any encroaehment by the Government
of the United States upon the lawful ju-
risdiction Of the several States would he
resisted as a usurpation; but the 'sre-
served rights Of the States, &c VI termint,
! cannot include any of the attributes of
power which the people Of the whole
country have conferred upon the Union.
But further-and this is point of great
practical mportance-the Federal Gov
eminent has no relation to the several
States as States, and they have no rela-
tions to it, or to each other, except so
far as these relations are expressly de-
fined and specified in the National Con-
fstitution. Beyond these, the authority
and jurisdiction Of the nation address
themselves and are applied to the indi-
vidual citizens of all the States alike.
''The king can do no wrong" is the
maxim of English law. \ State of the
| American Union cannot secede, or COM
NIT treason, or make war upon the
United States. 50 the United States
cannot, and do not, make war upon any
State. Virginia, for all national pur-
poses, belongs to the United States-ex-
actly as it belongs to the State, for the
purposes Of local administration. In
theory, and in practice, the State of Vir-
ginia is at this moment a peaceful and
faithful member of the American Union.
Her Senators and Representatives, cx-
cept so far as individuals among them
may have disqualified themselves by res
ignation, or, what may be held to be
equivalent by deserting their posts to
array themselves in active hostility to
their country, are still entitled to their
seats in Congress. The State may be
overrun by armed insurgents, resisting
the Federal authority; but so it might be
by foreign army. The peaceful citi-
zens who remain faithful to their cou-
stitutional obligations, are entitled to
the aid of the national power to suppress
domestic insurrection, whatever proper
tions thatinsurrcction may assume. The
soldiers of the United States, lawfully
mustered to resist invasion or put down
rebellion, have nothing to do with State
lines, and act in perfect harmony with
all Legitimate State action. They can
no more invade State than if they were
in it to resist foreign enemy, or than