The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-07-18


per head than the lebt of our own revo-
! luton, when came out of that struggle
and the money value in the country now
bears even greater proportion to what it
was then than does the population. Surely
each man has as strong motive now 20 pre-
serve our liberties as each had then TO es-
/ tablSh them.
! A right result at this time VIII be worth
more in the world than ten times the money.
/ The evidence reaching from the country
/ leaves no doubt that the material for the
/ work is abundant, and that it needs only
the hand of legislation to give it legal sane
ton. and the hand Of the Executive TO give
it practical shape and efficiency One of
the greatest perplexities of the Government
/ is to avoid receiving troops faster than pro-
Yiding for them. IN word, the people will
save the Cover nment if the Government It
! self viii do its part only indifierently Well
1t might seem at first thought to be of
little difference whether the present move
ment OF the South De called secession or re-
bellion. The movers however well under
stand the difference. At the beginning
they knew that they could never raise their
treason to any respectable magnitude by
any name which implies violation of law
They knew that their people possessed as
much of moral sense, as much OF devotion to
law and order, and as much pride in and
reverence for the history and Government of
their common country as any other civilized
and patriotic people. They knew they
could make no advancement directly in the
teeth of these strong and noble sentiments.
Accordingly they commenced by an insidious
debauching of the public mind. They in
vented an ingenious sophism, which, if con-
ceeded, was followed by perfectly logical
steps all through the incidents to the
complete destruction of the Union.
The sophism Itself is, that any State of
the Union may, consistently with the Nath-
ional Constitution, and therefore lawfully and
peacefully, with draw from the Union, with
out the consent of the Union or of any other
State. The little disguise, that the supposed
right is to be exercised only for ajust cause
because they themselves are to be the sole
judges of its justice, is too thin to merit
any notice.
With rebellion thus sugar 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
man to willingness to take up arms against
the Government some days after assem-
blage of men have enacted the farcical pre-
tence of taking their State out of the Union,
who could have been brought TO no such
thing the day before.
This sophsm derives much, perhaps the
whole of its currency, from the assumption
that there is some omnipotent and sacred
supremacy pertaining to a State, to each
State Of Federal Union. Our States
have neither more nor less power than that
reserved 10 them in the Union by the Con-
stitution, no one of them ever having been
q State out of the Union. The original ones
passed into the Union even before they cast
off their British colonial dependence, and
the new ones each came into the Union di-
rectly from condition of dependence, ex-
cepting Texas, and even Texas, in its tenn
porary independence, was never designated
a State. The new ones only took the desig-
nation of States on coming into the Union;
while that one first adopted for the old
ones in and by the Declaration of Indepen-
dence Therein the United Colonies were
declared to be free and independent States !
But even tEen 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 afterwards /
abundant,y show. The express pIighting of |
faith, by each and all the original thirteen, in
the articles of Confederation, two years
later that ''the Union shall be perpetual !
is most conclusive. Having never been |
States either in substance name outside |
of the Union, whence this magical omnipo- !
tence of State Rights asserting a claim of /
power TO lawfully destroy the 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 1
sovereignty. IN the political sense of tue /
ternI VI Ouid It be wrong 10 oenne II "a I
political community without political su- (
perior?" Tested by this, one ofour States !
except Texas, ever was a Sovereignty and !
even Texas gave up the character on coming 1
into the Union, by which act she acknowl- /
edged 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 I
States have their status in the Union, and (
they have no other legal status If they 4
break from this. they can only 90 so against /
law. and by revolution The Union. and 7
not themselves separated, procured their /
independence and their liberty Byconquest I
or purchase, the Union gave each of them t
whatever OF independence ana liberty il has. /
The Union is older than any of the States, I
and in fact it created them as States Orig
inally some dependant colonies made the 1
Union, and in turn, the Union threw off their I
old dependence for them and made them t
States, such they Not one of them I
ever had State Constitution independent of !
the Union.
Of course ii is not forgotten, that all
the new States framed their Constitutions
before they entered the Union; nevertheless |
dependant upon, and preparatory TO coming
into the Union.
Uiquestionably, the States have the pow !
ers and che rights reserved to them in and +
by the National Constitution; but among !,
these, surely, are not included all conceive
able powers, however mischevious des- !
trnctive, hut at most, only such as are known