Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1861-01-16

90~ 80 \ II DGISOlAhl AODASuulIC. All
parties agree that he is honest, capable and
faithful; and ~soclear is his reputation that the
virulence of party spirit exerted ina struggle
for the highest place and the greatest patros
mage could not be tempted to assail it. The
outbreak which has followed is not the effect
in an election on disappointed parties. The
result was anticipated Dy all, and the occasion
IS only seized upon rs a signal for the e1plO-
sion of a plot, long maturing in secret coun-
sells, to accomplish Mr.. Calhoun's new scheme
of government for the slave States-the es-
Enlistment of a Southern Confederacy.-
which, in the language recently pronounced
by q distinguished Southern Statesman
IVA expand as our growth and civilization
shall demand, over Mexico. over the isles of
the sea. over the far-of Southern tropics, I'M
til we shall establish a g eat confederation Of
republics, the greatest, freest and most useful
the world has SEEM"
On the occasion of nv Inauguration. 1 felt
it to be my duty to warn my countrymen of
these hostile designs against the Federal I'm
ion But then they were in speculation only.
Now they are in act. Shall they be consum-
mated! Shall the national government be
d sgraied into a mere league between indie
pendent States, existing only by their suffer
anco, subordinate to them and subject t. be
destroyed at the pleasure of any State in the
confederacy? Or shall it continue to be main
tanned, US it has Away been maintained, as a
government proper-soverei IN within its pre-
Scribed spheres us the States are SOW reign in
their prescribed spheres-f-unded upon th,
adoption of the people As were the States. and
creating direct relations between itself and
the Individual citizen, which no State al-
tho-ity has power to impair or disturb, and
which nothing can dissolve but revolution.
THE VOICE OF OHIO.
Nearly thirty eight years ago. the people
Of Ohio, speaking though the General A.
semhly, declared what in their judgment are
the constitutional relations between the fed
eral and State governments. 1 quote but
one of \ series of resolves of the General As
semblv on this subject
That the Federal Union exists in a sol
emn compact entered into by Il voluntary
consent of the people of the United States,
and of each and every State, and that there
fore. IA State can claim the right to seeede
from. or violate that compact, and however
g~revious may be the supposed or real bur
thens Of a State, the only legitimate remedy
is in the wise and faithful exercise of the cleo
tive franchise and solemn responsibility of
the public agents"
This is the Judgment of Ohio today.
RIGHT OF SECESSION.
There never was i people so thoroughly
bound together rs q nation as the people of
the United states. The founders of the gov
eminent took possession of the country I'M
der the authority Of the parent State, ac-
knowledging its sovereignty as binding all
the colonies together rs IA portion of the same
realm. When they resolved upon a .epara-
ton, against the consent of the supreme pow
er, they entered upon a war to establish a
republican government, embracing the con-
federated colonies, to take their place
among the nation of the earth" as one and
an Independent people, constituting another
nation. of which the Articles of Confedera-
ton, establishing it on the basis of 'perpet-
ual %uniOn," was the evidence to the world.
and the covenant among themselves. The
Constitution of the United States was the
repetition of this grand national act and,
being more emphatically the act of the whole
people, they declared in the preamble, I'VE,
the people, ordain," &c, giving the scope
Of the nstiOnS functiOns,) pr1claiming one
of the main objects to be to make 'more
perfect" the union already established as
perpetual" What nation ever presented
so perfect . record of its existence as "A ma
tional government, and of the indissoluble
union, cemented among the municlple COM
monwealths in charge of the local, internal
affairs of a people, rs the Constitution of the
United States! Every new State is brought
into the Union by an act of the national gov
ernm0nt, and no man of foreign birth can
become a citizen without swearing allegi-
ance to it. 1t acquires territory, provides il
with population, n~urtures them in infancy,
and introduces them as States at maturity
1t has authority to annul such constitutions
and laws of anv of the States as contravene
the provisions of the Federal Constitution.
All State Executives, Legislatures and ju-
dicial tribunals have accepted it from the
day 1t was proclaimed AS the aupreme law
of the land. The Constitution gives the
right of eminent domain even over the soil
of the States, the sea coasts harbors, for
national and constitutional purposes, through
which to establish post oil ;es and routes,
custom houses, forts, navi yards, a~rsenals,
Armories, everything necessary for the
national defence and to the administration
OF the government Can a State secede
and MAIN the power and right of ~self-pre-
seIvation, inherent in the system, which
pervades the governments, State and Nation
al. and acting By its oA;ers directly on the
citizen?
Shall the artery that gives life to
the great valley of the West be at the
mercy Of hostile communities, and
subject to be severed from the gulf
stream, through which the interior
States reach and embrace their sea-
board sisters? If there were nothing
else in the interposition of a foreign
power upon the grand trunk of the
mighty food whose branches bear the
fruit-the riches of the cOntinenI-it
is enough to array the country against
it, that it would break the symmetry
nature has given it for the tuIl devel-
opment Of the vast republic now
reaching from ocean to ocean.
The right of secession is the right
to tear 4 limb from the body, and in
the supposed case of the secession of
States on the lower Mississippi, ii tho
right OF domain over all its sources
would not attach to the seeding
States, it would at least seriously con-
ffict With the free enjoyment Of op-
posing rights, and eventually lead to
discussions, if not war, between the
States directly interested in the navi-
cation Of that great highway of the
worlds commerce..
The Constitution makes a body po-
little Of all embraced within its juris-
diction. To dismember it, is so far to
destroy it. 1t constitutes an Uni on,
and separation is war against it. Sc
cession and Union are incompatible
ideas. The attempt to assert the
right attaching to both as consistent
with the same Constitution is mere
.abSurdity; the ole is but the negative
Of the ether, and they cannot be re-
coneiled.
Bat tho discontents which have
grown up between the States may
and ought to be reconciled.
rHE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW AND personal