Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-07-09

the very assembling of which might be |
prevented, as was intended in this case, by |
the rebellion. No more extended argument
is now afforded, as an opinion at some
length will probably be presented by the
Attorney General. Whether there shall be
| any legislation on the subject, and if SO,
| what is submitted entirely to the better
| judgment of Congress.
The forbearance If this Government has
been SO extraordinary and SO long contin-
ued as to lead some foreign nations to shape
their action as If they supposed the early
! destruction Of our National Union was
probable. While this, on discovery, gave
! the Executive some concern he is cow hap
| py to say that the sovereignty and rights of
the United States are now practically re-
ST ected by foreign uowers. and general
| sympathy with the government is NANTES
ted throughout the world
! The Reports of the Secretaries of the
! Treasury, War and Navy, will give the in
formation in detail deemed necessary and
convenient for your action, while the Exec
utlye and Departments will stand ready to
| supply omis> loBs, or to communicate new
facts considered important for you to know.
1t is now recommended that you give the
legal means for making this contest a short
aud decisive one; that you place at the
control of the Government for the work at
least 1000 men and $780, 900. That
number of men is about one tenth Of those
of proper ages within the regions where
apparently all are willing to engage, and
the sum IL less than twenty third part of
the money salGe owned by the men who
seem ready to devote the whole. A debt Of
six hundred million dollars now, is u less
sum per head than was the debt of our
Revolution when we came out of that strug
gle, and the money value in the country
bears even greater proportion. Surely,
each man has as strong motive row to
preserve our liberties as each had then to
establish them. a right result at this time
will be worth mere to the world than ten
times the men and ten times the money!
The evidence reached Us from the country,
leaves no doubt that the material for the
work is abundant, that it needs only the
baud of legislation to give it sanction, and
the hand of the Executive to give it prac-
teal shape and efficiency. One Of the
greatest perplexities Of the Government is
to avoid receiving troops faster than it can
provide Cor them. In wcrd, the people
will save the Government if the Govern
ment will do its part only indiferently
well.
1t might seem at first though to be of
lite difference whether the present move-
ment Mt the South be called secession or
rebellion. The movers, however, well I'M
derstand the difference. 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 order as much pride
and reverence for their history and the
government OF their country as any other
civilized and patriotic people. They knew
they could make no advancement directly
in the teeth of these strong and noble senti-
ments. They accordingly commenced lv
an industrious debauching of the public
mind. They invented an ingenious sophism
which, conceded, was followed by perfectly
logical steps through all tire incidents of
the complete destruction Of the Union. -
The sophism itself is that any State of the
Union may, consistently with the nation
Constitution, and therefore lawfully and
peacefully, withdraw from the Union with
out the consent Of the Union or of any
other State. A little disguise. that the
supposed right is he exercised only for
just cause, themselves to be sole Judges, of
its justice, is too thin to merit any notice.
Witbe the rebellion thus sugar coated. they
have been drugging the minds of their
section for more thaa thirty years until at
length they have brought many good man
to Willingness to take up arms against
the Government, the day alter some assem-.
! blage OF men have enacted the farce of tax
ing their State out ofthe Union, W ho could
have been brought to no such thing the dav
before. This sophism derives much. per
haps the whole, of its currency fir, m the
assumption that there is some omniputent
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 Con.
sttutIon, no one of them ever having been
State cut of the Union. The original
ones passed ihto the Union even before they
cast off their British dependence. and the
new ones came with the Union directly
from condition of dependence. executing
Texas, and even Texas in its temporary in
! dependence was never designated as a
State. The new ones only " ere designated
States on coming into the Union, while
that name was only first adopted for the
Old ones IN and by the Declaration of In
| dependence. There in the United Colonies
were declared free and independent States.
out even then the object plainly was not
| to declar their independence Of one another.
OF the Union, butidrectly the contrary. as
their mutual action before, at the time
and afterwards, abundanly show. The
express plighting of faith by each and all
OF the thirteen original States in the
articles of confederation, two wears later.
| that the Union shall be perpetual" is
most conclusive. Having never been States
! either III substance OF name outside the
| Union, whence this magical omnipotence of
STATE rights, asserting a claim of power to
lawfully destroy the Union itself? Much
IS said about the Sovereignty of the
States but the word even is not in the
national Constitution nor, it is believed. in
ANY of the State Constitutions What is
sovereignty Would it be far wrong to
declare it Il political community without a
political superior? Tested by this. no one
OF our States except Texas was a sovereign.
ty, and even Texas gave up the character
on coming into the Union, by which act
she acknowledged the Constitution of the
United States and laws and treaties of the
united States, made in pursuance of the
Constitution, to be forever her supreme
law.
The States have their status in the Union
ana they nave no other legal status. If
,hey preaK from this they only do so against
law by revolution. The Union. and NOT
themselves separated, procured their in
dependence and their liberty. By con-
quest or purchase the Union gave each of
them whatever of independence ane lib
erty 1t has. The Union is older than any
OF the States and in fact it created them
as States. Originally some dependant
col1nies made the Union and in return the !
Union threw of their old dependence for !
them and made the States such as they
are Not one of them ever had State |
Constitution independent of the Union.- I
vi course, it is not forgotten that all the !
new States formed their Constitutions he
fore they entered Tho Liz. .-----.I- |