Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1861-03-13
The Right o, Secession,

The Augusta Georgia. Sentinel insists upon the \
recognition of the right of secession in the organic
law of the New Confederacy. The Sentinel, it will
be seen, exhibits very proper appreciation of the
doube-edged character of the weapon with which
the extreme position is sought to be defended. We
quote:
1t is confessed on all hands that the Confederate
States only exist by virtue of the claim of the right
of secession While acknowledging the right of
revolution, we do not and never did, hold to the
Constitutional right of secession either express, or
necessarily implied. Still we acknowledge with all
others, that we are now independent from having
claimed the exercise of the right and from having
actually exercised ii. Consequently our Confedera-
tlon from the very nature of the case, only be
simple league by Sovereign States for certain pur
poses, each State having the undoubted right to
abandon the league at any time for cause that cause
to be judged by the State ITSELF
This being so, We deem it matter of some i'm
portance that this right be distinctly acknowledged
in the Constitution. Perhaps it may be preposerous
to suppose that the present Confederate States
would have the handiEood to deny this right Of Sc
cession to any State but it is better to have it nomi
mated in the bond to prevent discussions and troubles
hereafter. For we know not how soon even the
present actors in the scence may choose to change
their opinions, and we can make no secure calcula
ton about the men twenty years hence. Let us
provide noW for every contingency, at least every
one that seems likely to arise. If Georgia shows
majority for certain Presidential candidate at any
time, the other States being for another man and
another policy, Georgia may secede, and her right
to do so should be plainly declared.
The slave trade, the tariff, and the right of seces-
sion are not the only issues upon which South
ern friends radically divided The following ex
tract from the Enquirer, Columbus Ga, shows that
there exists among many, some disafection in re-
gard to the Cabinet of President Davis. The En-
quivr says:
Every member of the Cabinet, we believe was
Breckenridge Democrat and original secessionist
The Bell and Douglas men have been entirely exclud
ed from a share in the administration of the new
Government. Even such men as Geo. W. Crawford
Of Georgia, and Thomas H. Watts, of Alabama, who
supported Bell but sustained secession it
was made an ISSUE are passed by, and politicians of
less ability and influence with the people selected
Presenting, as the Bell and Douglas men did, such
fine material for Cabinet appointments their total
exclusion cannot be regarded otherwise than pro-
scrption account of their course previous to the
secession issue. The new Government we believe,
has made great error by this exclusive promotion
of particular party-a party that was in minori-
ty in two of the seeding States. 1t has however,
trative departments and we may yet hope from them
a reputation of the partsanship that appears to
have influenced their own selection Such men are
Hon. c. G. Memnnger, of South Carolina, and Hon.
L. P. Walker, of Alabama, gentlemen who have
ever exhibited an independence of party in emer.
gences requiring devotion to their country alone.
The action of the Cotton States" in seeding
from the Union for insufficient cause has struck the
hardest blow against State Rights that the reserved
rights of the States have yet received since the
adoption of the federal constitution. A strong gou
ernment is and has been for years the fvorte thee
ry Of the leading spirits in the Montgomery govern
ment We see from the debates in the Southern
Congress that the parties divided to the pro
posed duration of the Presidential term Some con
tend for six and some for ten years. This is dis
tnct departure from the republican democratic spir
it of the Constitution ITSELF 1t is dangerous to tn
liberties Of the people for whom this government
was established, and by whom those liberties wer
fought for and achieved in the war Of the revolu
ton. The rights of the States and the liberties Q
the people are in danger. Already the absorption
| of Florida by Georgia and Alabama is canvassed
and if the Yancy school of politicians succeed il
ENGRAVING their peculiar dogmas upon the organi
law of the Confederate States, We may look to Sc
| State lines after while obterated, and mtar
consolidated government erected upon the ruins c
that Constitution which has protected the rights
| the people for more than seventy years.