The Shreveport weekly news. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1861-1861, 1861-07-22

buSluAOusS va ''AS
mind. They invented an ingenious
sophism, which, if conceded, was fol-
lowed by perfectly logical steps to
the complete destruction of the Tn
ion. The soplism itself is, that any
State may consistently with. the ma
tional constitution, peacefully and
}awfuiTv Withdraw from the Union,
without the consent ct the Union Or
of any State. = s,t,'
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 iusfice,'is tho thin
to merit any notice. With rebellion
thus sugar-coated, they have been
drugging the public mind Of their
section for more than thirty .y?aars,
and until at length they have brought
many good men to Willingness to
take up arms against the 6 ,vernlnent
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 70 no
such thing the day before.
This sophism derives much, per-
Laps the whole Of its currency, from
tie assumption that there is some
Omnipotent aud Sacred Supremacy
to a State, to each State of our Fed
eral onion. Our States have Meth
er more nor less power than that To-
served to them in the Union by the
Constitution, no one OF them ever
having been State out of the Union.
The original ones passed into the
| 'nio,, even before they ca-t Of. their
British Colonial dependence, and the
ncw ones each came into the Union
directly from a condition of Deepen
dence, excepting Texas; and, even
Texas in its temporary independence
was never esignated us IA 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 beclara-
,;cn es lndepemd once
Therein the limited United Colo
MES were declared to be FREQ and in
d-penGcnt States, but even then the
object plainly was not to declare their
independence of one another, or of
the L Mon, but directly the contrary,
as their mutual pledge and their nut
tual action before, at the time, and
afterwards, abundantly show. The
express plighting of faith by each
and all of the original thirteen in the
articles of confederation, two wears
later, that the Union shall be perpet-
Uai, is most conclusive.
Having never been States either in
substance or in name outside of the
Union, whence this magical omnipo-
tcncc Of State rights, asserting a
claim % power lawfully to destroy
tle 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 a sovereignty in a political sense
OF the term! Would it be far wrong
to define it "a political community
with Il political superiorr' 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
treaties 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
L MON, and they have no other legal
status. ltthey break from this, they
can only do SO against law, and by
revolution. The Union, and not
themselves separated V, procured their
independence and tkeir liberty; by
conquest or purchase the Union gave
each of them whatever of indepen-
dence 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
dependence for item and made them
States, such they are. Not one of
them ever had a State constitution
independent of the Union.
OF course 1t is not forgotten that
all the new States framed their Con-
situations before they entered the
Union, nevertheless dependent iibon
and preparatory to. coming into the
Union
Unquestionably the States have
the powers and rights reserved to
them in and by the national constitu-
ton; but among these surely are not
included all conceivable powers how
ever mischievous or destructive; but
at most such only as were known as
governmental powers, and certainly
Il power to destroy the Government
itself had never been known as gov
ernmental-as. a merely administers
tive power. The relative matter OF
national rowrv AVID State rights, rs a
II l