Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1862-03-14


UNIoN'-take into their hig import not the
idea Of unimpaired territorial dom inion alone,
tut involve rs well as the indestructi5ility of
the States themselves Their perpetual life is
guaranteed against invasion, secured in repub-
! lean forms of government, in interchangeable
rights of citizenship, in equal representation in
the Senate, and in at least one Representative
in the House. The Constitution apportions
among them electors and direct taxes; gives
faith and credit to their public acts, records,
and judicial proceedings; returns to them fngi-
tives from their Justice; secures them against
the infractiOn OF their territorial limits; and
then subordinates them all, as to Federal pow
ers, to the Constitution, laws, and treaties of
the United States. Destroy one of these po-
litical IDENTITIES called States which the Con
s:ituiion so fully recognizes, protects, and
unites, and you destroy the Uninn' ITSELF Ad.
nit that a State can 60, by rebellion or scces-
sion, an act which can destroy State and
you admit that the rebellion or secession can
destroy what the Constitution has Guaranteed
TO protect. If ar armed minority. or even IL
temporary majority, may, in spite of the Con
stitution, and by means of the very domestic
violence against the State which the Conslitu-
tiOn covenants TO suppress, commit the murder
of State, then each State NAV be SO murdera
cd, and you have Union of States without Il
member in either House; a President chosen bv
electors appointed from each State, but no State
to appoint any electors!
MIR. Chairman, this fatal error, which gives
10 void State action validity for the purpose
of destroying itself, misconceves, as its kind
IL &
the very foundation principle upon which the
entire structure of the Government rests and
which taken away, the whole Government
falls. Marshall the great pioneer jurist OF the
Constitution, states that principle in words
wise, memorable, and just, when he declares
The Government of the Union is emphati-
cay and truly Government of the people
In form and substance il cmanates from them
Its powers are granted by them and are to be
exercised directly on them, and for their ben
eft'
That Union, which it required The will of
this who.e people to make. can only be dissolv-
ed by the will which created il; and, being
made ard administered for the teneft' Of all
the vast body of the people, it cannot be ov-
erthrown, nor any part of its dominions Or of
its States he withdrawn from its jurisdiction, -
either by an act of sece sion or bv an act of
rebellion, or by flag Of truce used in the sup
preston of a rebellion, or by any act less than
The will of the people who made it. No, no.
1t is not the rights of treason which forbid the
dissolution of the Union by means of an un-
successful rebellion.
! Sir, it is a delusiOn which assumes that none
but the rcbelious are interested in the mo-
mentous principles, written in imperishable
light as the very head lines of the Constitution,
and which consecrate it to "a more per feet
| Union,'' "to the common defence" "thc gene
raj welfare, !" "the liberty of ourselves and our
| postcrity," and which sccnres to the citizens
of each State all the privileges of the several
States, protects them against domestic vio-
! lence and in republican forms of Government.
! 1t is a deluson which assumes that rebels only
are concerned in the question whether the
mouths of the Mississippi, the scources of the
Gulf stream, the fountains of the trade winds,
and the harbors of continent, are within the
! Union or ont.
| Those whose fortunes are given to the rescue
| of their States, from rebellion have some con-
| Germ to know whether when the rebellion is
crushed in their States they will have cease To
be equal members Of once glorious Union, or
whether they will have become military dis
tricts, or what else we may please" it. is too
| plain for cavil that, instead Of the constitution
and laws becoming silent and its Union disSUlv-
| ing in the midst Of arms, and in the times OF
great public danger it is pre- eminently for just
these times that the constitution and the guides
and restraints of law are made. When the
FORMS of government and political and social
systems are on the verge of dissolution in the
storms and commissions Of society, then it is that
h. only safety of sjcicty is in clihging with new
J devotion TO our cherished institutions, and in
I gathering more closely around and guarding
with higher, purer, hulier patriotism al the
principles and all the parts OF tue Cons tuition
and the laws.
Sir, it is not so. The cons tuition h:ls not
so ordered it that whenever thos, powers are
brought into operation which it holds in reserve
for its deiyerance from its most deadly perils
and when, by resort to armcs, it puts itSelI
upon the justice of God, and when its majesty
has just been vindicaied by the overthrow ol
treason, that then the triumph of the Cunsti-
tuition is but the cOnsummation OF sell-sIaugh-
ter, and it's deliverance from the rebellion is
the last act in a tragedy ending in hedious
teio de SC. .......
The wisdom which devised all the sublime
frame work Of the government seems. in times
like these, more than ever the inspiration Of the
Divinity. After having arranged all its vast,
intricate, and harmonious machinery for the
security Of the rights Of the people and of the
States. in all the peaceful and ordinary eXperien-
ocl IL,
iperpctuate, to protect, and to shield them all
IN the day of battle. it has covered itself
with the impere,rable pancply Of LAVA
law which draws all its material from the sour
ces OF our holy religion aud Of our Christian
civilization. 1t has laid its own deep foun-
dauionS, and covered It's exalted SUBMITS, and
fortified all its approaches with the forces and
sanctions Of the international law-a law not
allied to itself, not in conflict with any of It's
provisions but one with which the CunstiIu-
tiou has penetrated its very eSSence and being
and which at once illu uaratcs, sanclities and
guards the whole. Ii that aphorism, now so
often and SO Iippantly quoted ON this flor
which is derived from an age anterior TO the
growth of the international law, aud which had
It's terrible significance in that conspiracy which
uTcW IL IEOHl tHe lips VI Il ASOuldh SOuiCh-
"int-r drma silent IegiS," is inteudcd to indi
cate that the Constitution and the public law
of the world utter no commands in civil war
'heu its employment here, and now, is a most
pernicious and fatal error, striking at the heart
ofalI government all security, and all law un
Initiating ut u blow all that distinguishes oul
. cause, which is one for law, for Government
r and for Constitution, from the cause Of the re
bellion, which is for the destruction Of them all
and it ut once precipates us all together into