The Shreveport weekly news., 1861-07-22

accordingly they commenced by an
insidious debnucling Of the public
mind. They invented an ingenious
sopl,ism, which, if conceded, was fol-
lowed by perfectly logical steps to
the complete destruction Of the I'm
ion. The soPhism itself is, that any
State may consistently with the ma
tional constitution, peacefully and
lawfully withdraw from the Union,
without the consent Of the Union or
of any State. =, = evn'
The little disguise that the sup
posed right is to be exercised only
for just cause, themselves to be the
sole ..iudge OF: It's Justice, fis too this,
to merit any notice. With rebellion
thus sugar coated, they have been
drugging the public mind Of their
section for more than thirty .yaars,
and until at length they have brought
many good men toa willingness to
take up arms against the 6 ,vernInent
the day after some assent age Of men
have enacted the farcical pretence of
taking their State out Of the Union,
who could have been brought to no
such thing the day before.
This sophism derives much. per-
laps the whole Of its currency, from
'tf;e assumption that there is some
Omnipotent and Sacred Supremacy
to State. to each State of our Fed
eral onion. Our States have Meth
or more nor less power than that re-
served to them in the Union by the
Constitution, no one OF them ever
having been State out Of the L Cnion.
The original ones passed into !. the
MON even before they cast Of tlsir
British Colonial dependence, and the
new ones each came into the Union
directly from condition of Deepen
dence, excepting Texas; and. even
Texas in its temporary independence
WAS never esiguatcd us Il 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 aud by the neclara-
,;ch ef 1ndenemdencc
4 lllt iJIAtittl L Hlleu SOlc-
rics were declared to be free and in-
dependent States, but even then the
object plainly was not to declare their
independence of one another, or of
the Union, but directly the contrary,
as their mutual pledge and their nut
tusl action before, at the time, and
afterwards, abundantly show. The
express piighting of faith by each
and all of the original thirteen in the
articles Of confederation, two wears
later, that the Union shall be perpet-'
Ua,, is most conclusive.
Having never been States either in
substance or in name outside of the
Union, whence this magical omnipo-
tcnce Of State rights. asserting Il
Claim of power lawfully to destroy
the Union itself! Much is said about
the sovereignty OF the States, but
the word, even, is not in the National
Constitution, nor, as is believed, in
any Of the State Constitutions. What
is sovereignty i'll n political sense
of the term! Would it be far wrong
to define it "a political community
with a Political srperior!' Tested by
this, no one of our States except
Texas ever was a sovereignty; and
even Texas gave up the character on
coming into the Union, by which act
she acknowledged the Constitution of
the United States, and the laws and
of the United States, made
in pursuance OF the Constitution, to
be for her the supreme law Of the
land
The States have their status in the
Union, and they have no other legal
status. they break from this, they
can only do SO against lay, and by
revolution. The Union, and not
themselves separate v, procured their
independence and tLeir liberty; by
conquest or purchase the Union gave
each Of them whatever of indepen-
dcnce and liberty it has.
The Union is older than any Of
the States and in fact it created them
As States. Originally some depeud-
ent colonies made the Union, and in
turn, the Union threw. OFF their old
for tke,, and made them
States, such they are. Not one of
them ever had State constitution
Independent of the Union.
OF course it is not forgotten that
all the new States framed their Con-
stitutions before they entered the
Union, nevertheless dependent iibon
and preparatory TO. coming into the
Cnion
Unquestionably the States have
the powers and rights reserved to
them in and by the national ccnstitu-
ton; but among these surely are not
included all conceivable powers, ,how-
ever miscifevous or destructive; but
at most such onl y as were known as
powers, and certainly
n no,yar to lpstr,y III. ,-,,nrp,,a,,t