Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-07-12

nlng, tney wen AhO" 'hNJ S0N'N
raise their treasury to any respectable
magnitude by any name which implies
violation of the law. They knew their
people protested as much of common
sense, as much of devotion to law and
order, as much pride in its reverence for
the history and government of their COM
mon country as any other civilized and
patriotic people. They knew they could
make no advance directly in the teeth OF
these strong and noble sentiments. Ac-
cordingly they commenced by an insidi-
Gus debauching of the public mind
They invented an ingenious sophism,
which, if conceded, was followed by per-
fectly logical steps through all the Incl
dents to the complete destruction of the
Union.
The sophism itself is that any State OF
the Union may consistently with the Ma
TONS Constitution, and therefore lawfully
and peacefully withdraw from the Union
without the consent of the Union or of
any other State. The little disguise that
the supposed right is to be exercised only
for just cause, they themselves being the
sole judges of its justice, is too thin to
merit any notice.
With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they
have been drugging the public mind of
that section for more than thirty years,
and until at length they have brought
many good men to willingness to take
up arms against the government the day
after some assemblage Of men have en-
acted a farcial pretense Of taking their
State out of the Union, who could have
been brought to no such thing the day
before.
This sopbism derives much, perhaps
the whole of its currency, from the as
sumption that there is some omnipotent
and sacred supremacy pertaining to each
State of the Union. Our States have
neither more nor less power than that
reserved to them in the Union by the
Constitution, no one of them ever having
been a State out Of the Union. The
original ones passed into the Union even
before they cast off their British colonial
and the new ones each came
into the Union directly from condition
OF dependence, excepting Texas, and
even Texas in its temporary independ-
ence was never designated as State
The new ones only took the designation
of States on coming into the Union, while
that name was first adopted for the old
ones in and by the Declaration Of indie
pendence. Therein the United Colonies
were declared to be free and independent
States.
But even then the object plainly was
not to declare their independence of each
other or Of the Union, but directly the
contrary, as their mutua! pledge and their
mutual action before, at the time, and at
forwards, abundantly show. The ex-
press pHghting Of their faith by each and
all the original thirteen in the articles of
two years later, that the
Union shall be perpetual, is most conclu-
sive. Having never been States, either
in substance or in name, outside Of the
Union, whence this magical omnipotence
Of State rights, asserting a claim of pow
err to lawfully dissolve the Union itself?
OF THE STATES TO THE UNION.
Much is said about the sovereignty of
the States, but the word even is not in
the national constitution, nor, as is be-
lieved in any of the State constitutions.
What is a sovereignty in the political
sense of the term? Would it be far
wrong to define it political community
without a political superior !? Tested by
his, no one of the States except Texas
vas sovereignty, and even Texas gave
Up the character on coming into the I'm
on, by which act she acknowledged the
Constitution of the United States, and the
avs and treaties of the United States
made in pursuance therof, to be her su-
IRENE law.
The states have their status in the
Jnion, and they have no other legal
tatus. If they break from this they can
My do so against law and by revolution.
he Union, and not themselves separately
REQUIRED their independence and their
berty, by conquest or purchase. The
'nion is older than any of the States,
nd in fact, it created them as States.
some dependent colonies made
le Union, and in turn the Union threw
+ their old dependence for them and
ade them States, such as they are. Not .
lie of them ever had State constitution ,
dependent of the Union. ;
OF course it is not to be forgotten that
| the new States framed their Consti- !
tions before they entered the Union
denendent nnnn and r,rn,,n..