Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-01-19


/ Confederacy. But, unles the power to enforc,
reside somewhere in the Government, II is vir.
tually no Government at all. II wears q gar
ment Of shreds. II tho force is Of that irrespon
sible kind called war, the Government IL theI
worse than a failure. IL then wears coat o
mail. But il it have the force to maintain itself
and subordinate to itself the military which i
may use in it's defense, then tits Government
lt then wears the robe of State!
The time does not yet call for threats Of coer
cion by martial or other meane. II only CALI
for defense from those who are aggressive.
would reserve this power Of coercion, as Prince
Arthur bid his diamond shield. He evei
kept it out of sight, covered with vail and
only uncovered 1t to fight mosters and alien en-
emiee.
call this secessiJA, revolution. will not i1
an American Congress. with an oath on my
conscience to support the Constitution, argue
the right to secede. No such right can ever be
had, except by amendment Of the Constitution,
legallzng such secession. 1t Ia q solecism to
speak of the right of secession. II is revolu-
ton; and the burden of proof is on him who
begins it, to show why be seeks the change
The combined reason Of the ages has fixed In
its maxims Of thought, rules o govern the ac-
tions of men and nations, which no one can
overrule without great criminality. These
rules require 6rst that revolution must have no
light end transient cause. To overthrow a
despotism, such causes must be of grave weight.
A fortiOr!, what must be the grievance to justify
a revolt against Government so free as ours!
Besides, there must be a reasonable hope of q
happy and successful termination Otherwise
history, with her judicial prescript, will ban
those who begin it to an eternity of retribution.
ho in IN %
which all others yield competent to meet
every emergency. No naticn can be consigned
to anarchy Dy some absurd conirivance, either
in the shape of personal liberty bills or seces-
sion ordinances. In America, we have ma
tonal Constitution. Under it, we have United
States citizenship. To 1t we owe and swear al.
legiance, It may be a compact; but 1t is a
government also. 1t may be league; but it
has authority, Operative" as Mr.. Madison
holds, ,"directly on the people," 1t may reach
States as States; butt does more; it reaches
the people of the States through its executive,
judicial and legislative departments. Ifit can.
not declare war against State, IL is because a
State is part of itself, and not, quo ad hoe, q
for eign and independent State. Its constitu-
ton is the supreme law Of the land; though, as
Chief Justice Marshal says, (IWheaton, 304,)
"the sovereign powers vested in the State
governments by their respective constituen
cies remain unaltered and unimpaired, yet
bsy remain SO, except so far as they were
granted to the government of the United
States" could cite Marshal, Jefferson, Mad
ison, Jackson, Story, Duer, and Webster ,.almost
every student, expounder and executor of the
Constitution, to show these conclusions to be ir-
refragable II is an absurdity to contend that
which voluntarily surrendered such por-
tions Of their sovereignties as were requisite
for National Government, can be equs! in
power to that National Government. In the
name of the people, the Constitution asserts its
own supremacy and that OF the laws made in
pursuance thereof. II is supreme, by the coz
sent of South Carolina herself, "over the Con-
stitation and laws Of the several States" Let
South Carolina, then, attempt, as she has by
her ordinance, to annul her connection with this
national system, does she not usurp power of
the General Government Does she not infringe
on the rights of Ohio2 Is il not plain viola.
tion of the permanent obligation she is under
as one of its members2 Nay, che not only
breaks her oath of fealty to the United States
Constitution, but she breaks her oath to her own
Constitution, which requires that oath.
Am referred by members Of my own party
to our platform and principles indorsing the
Kentucky and Virginia resolutions2 Am told
that the sacred principles Of State rights
declared by Jefferson and Madison, as q check
against the usurptons of consolidated Federal
Power, allow that each State may so Judge of
the infraction of the Constitution, and the
means and measures Of redress, that 1t may go
out of the Union1 These Virginia and Ken
lucky resolutions ar misinterpreted. Judge
Marshal, however federal his views, in letter
to Judge Story of July 81, 1888, <Story's Lie
and Letters, p. 1857 is an honest witness TO this
misinterpretation. Hs aaysi
"Ths word State rights, expounded by the resolu
tions Of 1893 and the report Of 1902 construed by
legislature has charm against which all reasoning is
vain. Those resolutions and that report constitute the
freed Of every politician who hopes TO rse Virg MIA
Ion oivea BY their author, sdesmsd political sscrilege."
This Government was intended to be perpet-
lal. IL was adopted in toto, and forever. Says
Mr., Madison:
"The idea Of reservlng the right to withdraw was start
ID, condsidered and abandonec worse than rejected
Judge Marshal says: -
The intrument was not intended to provide merely for
he exgenOies Of few years. but was to endure through
long lapse Of ages the events Of which locked up
n the inscrutable DEGREES Of Providence"
II was. therefore, provided with means for lie
,wn amendment. By the Legislatures of three
Tourths of the States, there is Q means Of
amendment; and In that way alone can o
State withdrew. Notification and secession,
said Mr.. Madison, are twin heresies, and
should be buried In the same grave. Well
said General Jackson, that secession did not
break league, but II destroyed the unity of a
nation, hence, he argued that 1t Is an offenTe
against tie whole Union, To say that State
may constitutionally secede, Is to say that the
elements were poisoned at the
birth of the nation and of malice prepense, were
intended to kill our national lifel Such reason.
ing overthrows all government. Ii is to affirm
that the tribunal appointed for the arbitrament
,f mooted questions under the Constitution, or
hat the means for its own amendment, shall be
set aside at the pleasure Of one ofthe parties to
De affected. Monstrous sophestry! Are gentle.
men of the South aware that it is from this twin
leresy that the Republicans have drawn their
arguments for their personal liberty bills and for
heir reputation Of the fugitive slave law2 The
very chief justice of Ohio, so recently reindors-
ID for his seditious decision in tho Oberlin fugi
i've case, bases his adjudication on the usurpa-
ions of the Federal Government. He, like
South Carolina, denies that "the decisions of
he usurping party, In favor of the validity of
ia own assumptions, can settle anything,"-
Er parte, Bushnell, Ohio State Reports, 227 y
He warns against the "praotioal omnipotence Of
he Federal Government by making authoritivo
he judgment of its judicial tribunals" He
lang the Marseillaise in his ermlne, from the
supreme bench, as South Carolina sings 1t in
ler convention.
/ would, therefore, guard against the least re
,ognition Of this right OF secession, or of null
Iification, which is the lesser type of the same
disease. Il would, say, destroy all govern
ment. Il would dissolve the united mass of