The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-07-12
THE WEEKLY PIONEER AND DEMOCRAT

AZ" u0ouo iOI mahIUS tulS CONTEST SNORT
and decisive one; that you place at the con-
troll OF the Government for the work at
least 100000 men and $4OOOOO,OOO. That
nrmoer OF men is about one tenth of proper
ages within the regions where apparently
az are willing to engage, and the sum is
less than twenty-third part of the money
value owned by the men who seem ready to
devote the whole.
A debt of six hundred million dollars
pw, is less sum per head than was the
debt OF our revolution when we came out of
that struggle, and the money value in the
sountry bears even greater proportion.
purely, each man has as strong motive
bow to preserve our liberties as each had
Then to establish them. A right result at
his time will be worth more to the world
rhan ten times the men and ten times the
money. The evidence reaching US from the
country, leaves no doubt that the material
FOR the work is abundant, that it needs
pnly the hand of legislation to give it sane.
zion, and the hand of the Executive to give
IT practical shape and efficiency. One of
Fhe greatest perplexities of the Govern.
nent is to avoid receiving troops faster
Ehan it can provide for them. In a word,
Ehe people will save the government if the
government will do its part only Indifferent.
Ey well.
1t might seem at first thought to be of
little difference whether the present move
nent at the South be called secession or
rebellion. The movers, however, well un-
derstand the difference. They knew at the
beginning they could never raise their trea-
son to any respectable magnitude by any
name which implies violation of law. They
knew their people possessed as much devO-
ton to law and order, as much pride and
reverence for their history and the governs
ment OF their country as any other civilized
and patriotic people.
They knew they could make no advance
ment directly in the teeth of these strong and
noble sentiments. They accordingly common.
ced by an industrious debauching Of the pub
INC mind. They invented an ingenious sophism
winch, conceded, was followed by perfectly
logical steps through all the incidents of the
complete destructian of the Union.
The sophism itself is that any State of the
Union may, consistently with the nations con-
stltution, and therefore lawfully and peace
fully, withdraw from the Union without the
consent of the Union or OF any other State. A
little disguise that the supposed right is to be
exercised only for just cause, themselves to be
sole Judges OF its JUSTICE is too thin to merit
any notice. With rebellion thus sugar. coated,
they nave been drugging the minds of their
sectlon tor more than thirty years until at
length they have brought many good men to
Willingness to take up arms against the Gov
ernment, the day after some assemblage of
men have enacted the farce of taking their
State out of the Union, who could have been
brought to no such thing the day before.
This sOphism derives much, perhaps the
whole, OF its currency from the assumption
that there is some OmnipOtent and sacred su.
premacy pertaining to each State of our Fed
eral Union. Our States have neither mOIe nor
less power than that reserved to them in the
Union by the Constitution, no one of them ever
having been State out of the Union. The ORR
ginal ones passed into the Union directly from
condition of dependence, excepting Texas,
and even Texas in Its temporary independence
was never designated as State. The new
ones only were designated States on coming
into the Union, while that name was only first
adopted for the old ones in and by the Decla-
ration of Independence.
These in the Uuited Colonies were declared
free and independent States. but even then the
object plainly was not to declare there inde-
pendence OF one another, of The Union, but
directly the contrary, as their mutual action
before, at the time, and afterwards, abundant
ly show, Tne express pighting of faith by
each and all OF the thirteen original States IN
the articles of the confederation. two years
later, THAT the Union shall be perpetual" is
most conclusive. Having never been States
either Ia substance or name outside the Union
whence this magical OmnipOtence of State
rights, asserting 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 Ma
tiOnal Constitution, nor, it is he ieved in any OF
the State Constitutions. What is a sovereign
ty! Would it be far wrong to declare it a pO-
littcal community without POLITICAL superior
Tested by this, no one of our States except
Texas was sovereignty, and even Texas gave
up the character on coming Into the Union, by
which act she acknowledged the Constitution
OF the Unitee 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 he Union,
and they have no other legal status. Ii they
break from this they only do so against law by
revolution. The Union, and not themselves
| separately procured their independence and
their liberty. BY conquest or pur base the
| Union gave each OF them whatever OF indie
| pendence and liberty it has. The Union is
older than any of the States, and in fact it Gre
| ated them as States. Originally some depend
ant colonies mede the Union, and in return the
| Union threw OFT their Old dependence for them
aud made the States such as they are. Not
one of them ever had State constitution in.
| dependent of the Union.
! Of course, it is not forgotten that all the
new States formed their Constitutions before
they entered the Union, nevertheless depend
ent on and preparatory to coming into the
Union. PROFESSIONALLY the states have the
powers and rights reserved to them by the
National Constitution, but among these sure
ly are not included all conceivable powers
however mischievOus or destructive. But al
most such only as were known in the world
at that time as governmental powers, anc
dertainly power to destroy the Govern
ment itself, had never been known as gov
ernmental, merely administrative power.
| NATIONAL POWER AND STATE RIGHTS
This relative matter of National power an(
States rights as principle, is no other thar
a principle Of generality and locality. What
ever concerns the whole should be confined
to the whole General Government, whil
whatever concerns the State should be LET
exclusively to the State. This is all Their
is left OF the original principle about it
Whatever the national convention in def
ming the boundaries between the two as ap