Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1861-02-04
haps our national E7AORs De
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bates UoL I, p. "a.
The thirteen colonies as have before
said, were united under the Confederation at
the time the present Constitution was adopt
ed, and the old Continental Congress, repre-
sentlng the people il ell the States, initiated
the movements for the new government by
calling together the convention Of delegates
wnich made this Constitution, declaring by
resolutions, when they did so, that the con-
vention was called '9or the sole and only pur-
pose Of making the Federal Government ade-
quatc to the exigeneies Of government and
the preservation of he Union" And This
constitutional convention, when submitting
their 10 nt lA')oF3 TO the judgment Of their
constituents, declared in the preamble to the
Constitution, that
ave, the people Of The United States, in
ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION, estab-
lish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, pro-
vide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings Of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do or.
dain and establish this Constitution for the
United States Of America
Says General jackson;
HOan It be conceived, that an instrument
made for the purpose Of forming more perfect
Union than that Of the Confederation could
be 80 constructed by the assembled wisdom Of
our country as 20 substitute for that COnfed-
era.ion form of Government dependent for
its existence on the local interest," the party
spirit of a State, or of prevailing faction in
State ~
Mr.. Patterson, of New Jersey, distin-
guished member Of the convent N which
framed the Constitution, decl ired ''that no
State under the Confederation had right to
withdraw from the Union without the con-
sent of allf he says:
''Thc Confederation is in the nature of a
compact, and can any State, unless by the
consent Of the whole, either in politics or
law, withdraw their powers2 Let it be said
by Pennsylvania and the other large States,
that they, for the sake of peace, assented to
the Confederation, can she now resume her
original right without the consent Of the
donee 2" a4 ~
This modern doctrine Of the right of State
TO withdraw from the Union at pleasure, IS a
iheresy,T which was denounced by all the
leading men Of the Revolution. If one State
can withdraw from the Union at pleasure
may not a majority of the states with the
same propriety exclude one or more States
from the Union2 Certainly they can. But
there is no such right under the Constitution,
and the trainers OF the Constitution carefully
guarded against any such absurd theory
Says Judge Story
at is only in the event of a failure of eV-
cry constitutional resort, and an accumula-
ton Of usurpations and abuses, rendering
passive obedience and non-resistance a great
er evil than resistance and revolution, that
even Madison claims, for a single member
of the Union, fright, as an extra and ultra
constitutional right to make the appeal from
the cancelled obligations of the constitutional
compact to original rights and the laws OF
self-preserVation. '-l Story on Constitution
p. $50.
Chief JIstice Marshall, in the case of Co.
hens US. Virginia, (5 Wheaton, p. 92,) said
"The people made the Constitution, and
the people can unmaks it Il is the creature
of their will, and lives only by their will
But this supreme irresistible power to make
and unmake resides only in the whole body
of the people; not in any subdivision of
them. The attempt of any of the parts to ex-
ercise it is usurpation, and ought to be re-
PEELED by those to whom the people have del
egated this mower of repelling it. The ac-
knowledgeG inability of the Government,
then, to sustain itself sgainst the public will,
and, by force or otherwise, TO control the
whole nation, is no sound argument in sup
port of its constitutional inability to preserve
itself against section of the nation acting
in opposition to the general will"
TO BIZ CONTINUED.