Union County star and Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1859-1864, 1861-01-25

that there is a prevailing conviction that
legislative compromises which sacrifice
honestly cherished principles, while they
anticipate future exigencies, even if they
do uot assume extra constitutional powers,
are less sure to avert imminent evils than
they are certain to produce ultimately
even greater dangers.
Iudeed, Mr. President, think it will
be wise to discard two prevalent ideas or
prejudices, namely: First, that the uuion
is TO be saved by somebody in particular;
aud secondly, that it is to he saved by
some cunning aud insincere compact of pa
cfcatiou. If | remember rightly, | said
something like this here so long ago as
1850, and afterwards in 1851.
Repad,ates Constitutional Secession.
TIE present danger di,closes itself in
,tis form: Disccuteuied citizens have oh
tanned political power in certain States,
aud they are usIug this authority to over
throw the Federal Government. They
delule themselves with the belief that the
State power they have acquired eusbles
them to discharge themselves of Allegiance
to the whole Republic. The honorable
Senator from Illinois, says We have ight
to coerce a State, but We eau not. The
President says that DO State has right
to secede, but We have no constitutional
power to make war against State. The
dilemma results from an assumption that
those who, in such a case, act against the
Federal Government, act lawfully rs
State, although manittstly they have per
yerted the power of the State to an uucon-
sti,u,ionai purpose. A class of politicians
in New England set up this theory, aud
attempted to practice upon 1t, III our war
with Great Britain. Mr.. Jefferson did
not hesitate to say that States must be
kept within their constitutional sphere 10y
impusiou, if they could not be beld there
uy attraction. Secession was then held TO
be iuadmissible in the face of public en-.
emy. But, if it is untensble in one case,
il Is necessarily so in ali others. | fully
admit the originality, the sovereignty, aud
the independence Of the several States
within their sphere. But | hold the Fed
eral Goverumen, TO be equally original,
sovereign aud independent within lis
sphere.
Aud the government Of the State can
10 more sbsplve the people residing with
in it- limits from Allegiance to the Union,
than the Government Of the Union can ab.
solve them from allegiance to the State.
The Constitution of the United States,
aud the laws made in pursuance thereof,
are the supreme law of the aud, paramount
TO ali legislation of the States, whether
made under the Constitution, or by even
their organic conventions. The Union can
be dissolved, not By secession, with or
wi'hou, armed force, but only by the vol
untary consent of the people OF the United
States, collected in the manner prescribed
by the Constitution Of the Cuited States.
Jlt,ny,,co .l--pI s~e'."tos.
Congress, in the present. case, ought not
to be impassive. Ii ought, if it can, to
redress any real grievances of the offended
States, aud then it ought to supply the
President with all the means necessary TO
maintain the Union Iu the iuil exhibition
y
Beyond this, with the proper activity on
the part Of the Executive, the responsible.
ity Of saving the Union belongs TO the peo-
pie, and they are abundautiy competent to
discharge 1t.
promise, therefore, with great defer
euce, to address myself to the country up
on the momen,ous sutject, asking hear
ing, not less from the people within wha,
are called the secediug, than from those
who reside within the adherlng States.
Jniou a HuJt cf tie People.
Union is an old, fixed, settled habit of
the American people, resulting from con-
viciious of its necessity, and therefore not
likely to be hastily discarded The early
States, while existing as colonies, we're
combined, though imperfectly, through a
common allegiance to the British Crown.
When that allegiance ceased, no one was
so presumptuous as to suppose political ex-
isteuce compatible with dlsuniou and,
therefore, on the same day that they de-
cIared themselves Independent, they pro-
claimed themselves also confederated
States. Experience in war aud in peace,
from l776 until 1877, only convinced
them of the necessity of converting that
loose cOnfederacy into more perfect and
perpetual Union. They acted with a
J coolness very different from the intemper-
ate coDduc. of those who now on one side
threaten, and those who on the other rash
ly defy, disunion. They considered the
continuance of the Union as q subject
comprehending nothing less than the safe
ty aud welfare of all the parts of whch the
country was composed, and the fate of an
empire in many respects the most interes-
ting in the world. Instead of only thir-
teen, the country is now composed Of
thirty-three parts; and the empire embra-
ces, instead Of only four millions, no less
than thirty millions Of inhabitants.
The founders of the Constitution, more
over, regarded the Union as DO mere na-
tional, or American interest. On the con-
trary, they confessed with deep ssnsibili,y
that it seemed 10 them to have been reser-
we'd for the people of this country to decide
whether societies of men are really capable
of establishing good government upon re-
fectiOn aud choice, or whether they are
for ever destined to depend for their poll.
tcal constitutions on accident aud force
They feared, therefore, that their failure
a. y