Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1861-04-19
THE UNION INDESTRUCTIBLE.

at length in the Wdtchmdn, we take tn
following extracts
"After long an | patient consultation, GU
fathers adopted as our system one whose ez
istence rests upon these two great facts tn
separate existence and sovereignty of tn
| several States, and the union, not OF th'
States, but of the people Of the States int
one mighty Nation under common govern
ment. The Union is therefore a fact before
and above the government. 1t grows no
out of the States but out of the people o
the States is independent of all State ac-
ton and sovereignty. No matter, there
fore, what rebellious States may do. the
Union, which is thg basis of the govern
ment, exists. The States are not parties to
it, and they cannot destroy 1t. 1t IS not.
theoretically, affected by any State action.
Individuals and not States are alone response
bic to it and though States should return
to their pristine territorial or colonial con-
dition, the Union could not be dissolved so
long as two or three could be anywhere
found "to keep step to its music. The re-
volt of the two tribes did not destroy the
Hebrew commonwealth or the national eX-
istence. The law still went forth from Je-
rusalem and the word Of the Lord from
Zion. 1t lost many of its tribes, many Of
its citizens, but it did not lose its union, its
temple, its tabernacle, its capital, its ar
chives or its king. So, our government is
constructed that the Union remains, and the
government which is built on that Union, so
long as enough men can be found who will
bear alolt Its banner and recognize 1t as the
symbol of the power to which they owe al
legiance. Our government rests upon
not "We, the several States" but upon
ave the People of the United States.
1t therefore provides for its own perpetuity
so long as it has any liege subjects. 1t
would be the United States and the COVER
nment of the United States Just as much
after the secession of twenty-one States as 1t
was when the original thirteen flung the Ma
tiOnal ensign to the breeze Of heaven. Now,
in order to ascertain if the Union is destroy
ed, we need not look to Florida, or Miss
issippi, or South Carolina, but into our own
hearts and INTO our neighbors' fac s. 80
long as we are true to the Union, the Union
will be true to us and a true thing for us.
Even New England alone, less in proportion
to all the States, than the tribes of Benjamin
and Judah to the whole Of Israel, might
still retain the national ark and covenants.
and preserve the Union in its unbroGen his
tOric continuity.
| do not know how government, built up
on such a union, could be wiser CT stronger;
or how any other government could have IN
it more elements of stability and perpetuiy.
Itcons SITS, like all proyIdcntial Institution
of apparently conflicting dement's. The
harmony of the universe is in the mutual
of opposing forces, rightly bal
anced. The harmony and power and perma-
nence of our institutions depend upon the
Just antagonsm Of conflicting forces; namely,
the separate sovereignty Of the States, and
the union Of the people OF the several States
under one government into one Nation. The
wisdom of our fathers did not invent this
system, but it has come gradually from the
wisdom and care Of Him who has 80 ordered
the growth of the nations as to develop It's
principle, and our growth, 50 that we are at
all times one People, and at all times under
the direction Of different States.
II this is SO, it dispOscs eHectually OF all
questions relative to the status of the gov
crnment, whether it be a government or II
union or not, even though ten TRIBES, and
twice ten, were to secede. No act OF the
States can affect American citizenship. And
in the preservation of this system is garnered
up the last hope of mankind for political
liberty and happiness. To attempt its de-
struction, either by anhihilatiOn of State SOW
ereignty, or by a secession of the States from
the Union, is Treason yes, that Is the real
word, treason not only against the actua!
government, but treason against the Ameri-
can people against American freedom, against
social order, against Him who committed to
us this incstimabe trust for ourselves and
for the unborn generations Of posterity.
And it will stand as Treason an fOr0 con-
sCientG.
There are many, North as well as South who
look upon our Union as simple contract
that may be dissolved at the pleasure of the
people who are parties to it or OF the States
who are not parties to it, who seem to think
that Government is a thing to be sPcrted
with and changed with the tickle humors
of the day; that it is nothing better than a
partnership between traders IAN agreement in
a trade of spices and provisions, of cotton, to.
bacco and manufactures that it can be con-
structed and broken and reconstructed at the
whim of the parties But it is no such part
nership. 1t is a Union in all things of Il
permanent and valuable nature 1t is "a part
nership in all historical recollectIons, in all
science and literature in all art, in all renown,
Sin every virtue and in all perfection" The
ends OF such partnership as our Union is
cannot be secured in two or a hundred gen
erations, and our government therefore be-
comes partnership not only between those
who are living, but between those who are
living and those who are dead and those who
are to be born. Our Union is but PORTION
of that great providential contract, of eternal
society, linking the visible and the invisible
world, the past, present and future. 1t is
not subject to the fancy, the caprice or the
will Of man. 1t holds, and will hold by an
invincible and resistless principle. IL Will be
great, known, honored, the source Of power,
like Judea when the lost tribes are forgot
ten, when the seeding States shall have no
name, no place among the nations and no
historian among men. In the order of God s
government it cannot BE- destroyed except by
a necessity, not sought or chosen, but a ne
cessity stronger than that which gave it birth.
When that necessity, of Gods ordering and
not OF mans conspiring and choosing, shall
come, then we will submit. But till that
necessity comes, the Union and government
will and must stand by law of their own,
with more or less States, with larger or a
smaller population, but still in its ideal CT
theoretical integrity, while all who break
from it will be like the people of Israel, held
outlawed and rebelliOns, and will be cast
forth, exiled from this ''world of reason and
order and peace and virtue into the antago-
mist world of madness and discord, vice, con-
fusion and unavailing sorrow" The Union
and government, social law, order, ideal
sentiments of patriotism, sacred recollections
of the past, glorious hopes for the future,
are not destroyed for US when one and ano-
ther of the States secede ; but they are all
destroyed for us when we secede, when we
break from the parent stock and cut our
selves from the ancestral altars. Designing
and unpatriotic men may destroy their
Union, but they cannot trouble ours SO long
as our hearts beat true to the old oracle, the
old temple and the old tables of the law
Our government then is not the cause Of
our evils. No government can protect itsell
against the possibility of conspiracy. trea-
son, secession or rebellion. No government
over hundred years old but has had it
principles tried in the white beat of social
commissions and political revolutions anC
civil wars. We need not throw away oul
Union and our government in despair, be