New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-02-12
understanding in regard to the policy thus

Wa ara the more disposed to hope this, be-
c,u.e the ground on which Mr.. Lincoln has
placed the suhjec. has in it an intrinsic rea-
son,b,enes, which nigh. well command bis as
sept MS we are cure it will commend Itself 10
the Judgment of all who truly love ireeoo"
throughout our country. Slavery in every De-
ceaioo State is dead; not merely because the
vitality of the institution is lost anna tue con-
fusion Of conflicting armies; not merely Dc
cau,e the bondman must learn the way to the
f,ss North: not merely because the love OF lib
e,tv must be breathed into him by his contact
with the myriads of freemen who are now
pourng down iato the area of the rebellion,
out for reasons of yet greater cogency even
than these.
The institution Of Slavery hitherto in our
history has found protection in the doctrine
and yet more in the fact, of State Sovereignty
/ Whaieger may be our views OF such sovereignty
| in theory, it is an unque'tlonable TACT that the
authority of each slayeholding State has founded,
maintained and perpetuated this institution
within its own limits, and has shielded 1t there
rom all assault. Tho Constitution, without
ever directly recognizing Slavery, has recog-
nized the legislative authority OF each State
within its own domao, and given its general
sanction and protection TO whatever arrange
meuts tho States might adopt Tor the govern
ment Of their own inhabitants. Under thls
local authority each State has adopted Its own
social system, and tended at its own VIII
toward Freedom or toward Slavery. The
States of tho South have followed their own
I short-sight view of their immediate interest
and have made it their chief policy to consoi-
idate and strengthen the cruel bondage OF Tue
slave. The strength of the Slave system has
hitherto lain wholly in the local legislation
which has maintained it not only against
hostile external agencies, but also by legal
and even by constitutional, prohibitions OF
individual emancipation, against the humane
sentiments of the Southern people themselves,
and against every liberal construction oil The
common law.
But the peculiar character of the Southern
rebellion carries with it peculiar consequences
10 the institutions os the Slave States. That
rebellion is no outbreak of mere individual or
local violence; it is no riot OF furious mobs, no
tumult of factions submerging for the 'ime
institutions of government which emerge I'M
changed when the wave has swept over them.
fl i, the deliberate aud formal act OF legislative
bodies and sovereign States organizing them
.,lyr. for the forcible subyersion OF the Constl-
tuition aud government of the Union. The
whole machinery OF State government Is turned
against the Constitution in dress determination
To rob il Of It's authority, its jurisdiction, lis
military resources, ia territory. its very life.
; The nation and the Constitution are placed IN
extremes, jeopardy by the insurrccton of organ
lied aud powerful States against them.
Now. such States in such condition can
have 10 constitutional existence. The Consti-
tuition can know only harmonious and CO.
operative States within the Union. Whoever
.hall sIbyert these can establish no other local
; authorities. The territory OF all the States
belongs ndeieasibly 10 the Uuon: over It oil, the
Constitution gives Congress certain defined
powers. aud no act Of State eau remove from
the nation is pledged to maintain local Repub-
; lcan Governments. When. therefore, State
= secede., and terminates its relations of peace
with the Union, It does but inaugurate trea-
sonable state OF war aud all it's officers and in
sttulons become at once the enemies OF the
Constitution. Its tax collectors, sherifI,, judges,
. Legislators. every one ia short who acts under
its sanction is traitor TO the Union, and
j every local authority which the Constitution or
, the General Government con recognize perishes
when the loyal organization OF the State is con-
r yerted into an instrument Of war;
The State, then, has perished by the'act OF
seeding 1t is no longer member, it has
become an enemy of the Federal Union. 1t
has overthrown its own institutions; its authority
is at an end, aud with il all to which that
authority gave existence. Courts, laws, insti-
tutlons, ALL so far as they draw their vitality
from the local law simply, have persisted.
What then remains Plainly, the organization
Of society has come to an end, and with II has
terminated everything which has not some natural
right Of existence. Parental and conjugai rela-
tons remain; the obligations OF honesty, of TRUTH
OF Justice remain but wicked laws end iustitu.
tons Of violence aud fraud, resting heretofore
solely upon the States authority, exist no
longer. No loyal man may any longer recOg-
nizo the local authority of any government IN
South Carolina, save the exclusive authority of
Congress acting under the Constitution, for the
purpose Of establishing there those republican
forms az yovernment which IL ia anlcmrlv bound