Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1861-07-13
$3.50 4 YEAR.

VueS Ha'S pcSH uecelHlUS Tue lnlnuS OF
their section for more than thirty years,
until at length thsy have brought many
good men to willingness to take up
arms against the government, ths
day after some assemblage OF men
have enacted the farce of taking
the State out of the Union, who could
have been brought to no such thing the
day before. This sophism derives
much, perhaps the whole ofits curren-
cv, from the assumption that there is
some important and sacred supremacy.
pertaining to each State of our FEEDER
al Union. Our states have neither
| more or less power than that reserved
to them in the Union by the Constitu-
ton, no one Of them ever having been
a State out of the Union The origi-
nal ones passed into the Union even
before they east off their British colo
nlal dependence, and the new ones
came into the Union directly from a
condition Of dependence, excepting
! Texas, and even Texas in it's Temporal
ry independence was never designated
as q 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 DecIar-
ton Of independence. These in tho
United Colonies were declared free
and independent States but even the
object plainly was not to declare their
independence of one another in the
Union, but directly the contrary, as
their mutual pledge and their mutual
action before, at the time, and after
ward, abundantly show. The express
plight of faith by each and all OF the
original thirteen States in the articles
Of confederation, two years later, that
the Union shall be perpetual, is most
conclusive, having never been States
either IN substance or name outside the
Union. Whence this magical omnip-
otence Of State rights associaling q
Claim Of power to lawfully destroy the
Union itself? Much is said about the
the sovereignty Of the States, but the
word is not even in the National
Constitution, nor is it believed 10 be in
any Of the State Constitutions. What
is sovereignty III the political sense Of
the term ? Would it be wrong to de.
clare a political community without a
political superior.
/ Tested by this, no one of our States,
except Texas, was q sovereignty, and
even Texas gave up the character in
coming into the Union, by which act
she acknowledged the constitution Of
! the United States, and laws and treat
les thereof, made in pursuance Of the
constitution, for our supreme law. The
| States have their status in the Union,
and they have no other legal status if
they break from this, they only do 50
against law by revolution.
The Union, and not themselves sep
arated, procured their independence
and their liberty by conquest or pur-
chase. The Union gave each of them
| whatever Of independence and liberty
it has. The Union is older than aEy
Of the States, and, III fact, it created
them as States. Originally, some in
dependent colonies made the Union,
and in return the Union threw off their
! tlNA IHNt DNAtCtACG IL ciIi LIlCtil Giltl
the States such as they are. Not one
Of them ever had a State Constitution
| Iindependent Of the Union. Of course,
it is not forgotten that all the new
States formed their Constitution before
11ey entered the Union, nevertheless
dependent on and preparatory to COM
ing into the Union.
L. +i,o S{o+o, -
powers and rights reserved to them by
the National Constitution, sut among
! these surely are not included all con-
ceivable powers, however mischie-
vous or destructive; but such only az
were known in the world at the time
as governmental powers, and certain
ly power to destroy the Government
/ itself had never been known as q Gov
ernmental. as merely Administrative
power. This relative matter Of Ma
! ti0nal power and state rights as prin-
ciple is nothing more than 8 principle
| OF! generality and locality; whatever
concerns the whole should be confined
to the whole General Government,
while whatever concerns the State
should be left exclusively to the State.
! This is all there is Of the original
principle about it, whatever. The Ma
tional Convention, IN defining the
boundaries between the two, as applied
to the principle with exact accuracy, IS
not to be questioned. We are bound
.bv that definition, without question:
What is now combatted, is the position
that Secession is consistent with the
Constitution, is lawful and peaceful.
It is not contended that there is any
express law for it, and nothing shonid
ever be implied rs law which leads 70
unjust and absurd consequences.