Daily national Democrat., 1861-07-19

intended in this case by the rebellion. n o
No more extended argument is now offered,
as an opinion of some length will probably
be presented 10y the Attorney General
W neither there shall be any Legislation upon
the subject, and if any, what, is submitted
entirely to the better Judgment OF Congress.
The forbearance OF this Government had
been so extraordinary and so long continued
as to lead some foreign nations 10 shape their
elton as if they supposed the early dissolu-
Wbqf our National Union was probable.
son,o chis, on discovery, gave the Executive
the soyoryern, he is now happy to say that
states ore SSty and rights of the United
spected bv fono everywhere practically re-
symnathJS WIN rGte's :, powers, and general
tIronghSS,," WIN inc country is manifested
the treasury War and me NAVY will give
the information n detail aaarn91 nooosenr,,
and convenient Tor sour d.Iihoro,ion and oc
ton, while the EXecu: % a1 w
partments will stand rea,," ~ ",l ."' ,,;,
sions or to communicate new racts p noSs derod
important for you to know. /, 10 ,,',' 80
commended that you give the Ie.oi ,roars
for making this contest II Shorthand 0laa;si,.o
one; that you place at the control e tLe
Government for the work at least four Id.
dred thousand men and four hundredmill
of dolaes. That number of men is about
one-tenth of those of proper ages, within the
regions whore apparently all are willing to
engage and the sum is less than twenty
third pard of the money value owned by the
men who feel ready to devote the whole
amount of six hundred millions of dollars,
which is a less sum per head than was the
debt of our Revolution, when we came out
Of that struggle, and the money value in the
countryhow bears even a greater proportion
to what it was then, than does the population.
Surely each man has as strong motive now
to preserve our liberties as each had then to
establish then--a right result at this time
will keep the North more to the work than
ten times the men and ten times the money
hereafter The evidence reaching us from
the country leaves no doubt that the mate
rial for the word is abundant, and that it
legal sanction, and the hand of the Executive
to give it practical shape and efficiency. One
of the greatest perpleXites Of the Govern
ment is to avoid receiving troops faster
than provisions can be made for them. In
a word, the people will save their Gov
eminent if the Government itself will
do its part only indiferently well. 1t
mi ht seem at first thought of but little differ
ence whether the present movement at the
South be called secession or rebellion; the
movers however, well understood the differ
ence at the beginning They knew they could
never raise their treason to any respectable
magnitude by any name which implies viola
ton of law. They knew their people pos
sessod as much of moral sense, as much of
devotion to law and order, and as much pride
and reverence for the history and government
of their common country as any other civil
lied and patriotic people. They knew they
coull make no advancement directly in the
teeth Of these strong and noble sentiments.
Accordingly they commenced by an insih-
ous debauchng ofthe public mind. They
invented an ingenious sophism, which, if CON
cedcd, was followed by perfectly logical steps
through all the incidents to the complete de-
stFuction ofthe Union. The sophism itseltis,
that any State of the Union may, consistent
ly with Che national Constitution, and, there
fore, lawfully and peacefully, withdraw frolA
the Union without the consent of the Union
or OF any other State. The little disguise,
tAat the supposed right is to be exercised on
ly for a Just cause, because they themselves
are to he the sole judges of its justice is too
thin to merit any notice With rebellion thus
suga"-coated they have been dragging the
public mind Of their section for more than
thirty years, and until at length they have
brought many good men to willingness to
take up arms against the Government the
day after some asscmOldge Of men have en-
acted the farcical rreteuse Of taking State
out Of the Union, who could have been
brought to no such thing the day before
This eophism derives much, perhaps the
whole Of its currency, from the assumption
that there is some omnipotent and sacred SUI
pr.macy pertaining to u state to each State
of our Federal Union. Our States have nei-
ther more nor less power than that reserved
to them in the Union 10y the Constitution, no
one of them ever having been State out Of
the Union. The original ones passed into the
Union even before they east OFF the British
colonial dependence, and the new ones came
into the Union directly from condition of
except Texas, and even Texas, in
its temporary independence, was never desig-
mated 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 Colonies, were
declared 20 be free and independent 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 mutual action
before, at the time, and afterwara absolutely
shows, and the express plighting 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. llGVng never been States either
in substance or in name, outside of the Union,
whence the magical omnipotence of State
Rights, asserting claim of power lawfully
destroy the Union itself? Much is said about
the sovereignty of the States, but the word is
not in the National Constitution, nor, rs is
believed, in any of the State Constitutions.
What is sovereignty in the political sense of
the term? Would it be far wrong to define
it political community, without a political
superior? 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 ac-
knowledge the Constitution Of the United
States and The law1 aad treaties Of the uni
ted States made in pursuance of the Coustitu
tion, to be for her the sNpreme law Of the
land. The States have their status in the
Union, and they have no other legal status
If they break from this they can only do so
against law and by revolution. The Union,
and not themselves separately, procured their
independence and their liberty by conquest
or purchase; the Union gave each of them
whatever independence and liberty it had.
The Union is older than any of the States,
and in fact it created them as States original
w. Some dependent colonies made the Union,
and in turn the Union threw off their old de-
pendenee for them, and made them States
such as they are. Not one Of them ever had
a state Constitution, independent of the
Union. OF course it is not forgotten that all
the new States framed their Constitutions be-
fore they entered the Union. Nevertheless,
dependent upon and preparatory to coming