The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1862-04-22

try; they have murdered citizens OF the Uni.
ted States; they have attempted foreign al.
lances; they utterly deny that they constl-
tute any portion Of tho United States; and
thus they have cast off their corporate rights
and abandoned their former political condi.
ton. They have officers indeed, but you do
not recognize them as lawful. They acknowl-
edge fealty, not to the United States, but to
hostile Power. Their political condition as
p State has been extnguished. Sir, the soil
Of South Carolina remains, but her loyal peo
pie and her municipal rights and immunities
havo passed away. The land is still the law
full territory Of the United States; but the
State, IN its technical Specification, has gone
with the political organization.
Shall we be told that the Constitution still
survives? Let us see. BY the term constitu-
ton we mean the organic tho fundamental
law, upon which the political structure is
based. Law is defined as being rule Of ac-
tion prescribed by the supreme power of the
State. In popular governments, this supreme
power is tho will of the people, and in this
country is evidenced by written charters or
constitutions. The written parchments, how.
ever, are not laws, but merely the shadows or
symbols of laws. The parchment being with
out inherent vitality, cannot invigorate and
perpetuate itself. The language in which it
is framed may provide for it's everlasting du
ration, but the spirit and life Of the law are
not in the record, but in the continuous will
and support Of the people. Two circumstan
ces at least are essential to tho existence Of
law-the supreme power to prescribe, and the
subjects to be controlled. Law can no more
exist without the sovereign and the subject
than sound without the atmosphere and the
tympanum Of the ear. In the State Of New
York the people, in their collective capacity,
constitute the sovereign, in their individual
relations they are the subjects. To day the
constitution of New York is the fundamental
law Of the State because it is the will Of the
people. Should the people will otherwise, it
would cease to be their organic law. They
could not turn their State over to a monarch.
icsl government-whyi Because they are
Inhibited by tho Constitution of the United
States. They might, however, abolish their
present constitution, and in the same act per-
petuate their political existence in another
But should they annul their organic law, and
vacate all their Offices, and utterly neglect and
refuse TO provide any substitute, then clearly
their political organization would fall, anarchy
would commence its reign, and tho State
would be out of existence.
II South Carolina be State she is one Of
the United States, unless she be a foreign
commonwealth, which you will not, and can
not, admit. Is there any supreme power in
South Carolina that recognizes and sustains
her consttul lion as a State Of tie Union? If
not, then the parchment upon which it is
written has no vitality; it is dead, and the
State is out Of existence. Where are the Of
icer-, the people, the supreme power of South
Carolina They arc 10 tho camps Of the en-
envy, represented in tho rebel congress, ms k
ing war upon the Federal Government, and
submissive to the rule of the usurper Davis
Now, if there be any supreme authority in ttat
locality II is hostile power, and If there be
any subjects they claim 10 be amenable to the
rebel government. use this broad expires
sion because no faithful men arc manifest; and
people must be Judged by it's collective ac.
ton. DO written constitutions, per sc, con.
stirute Statesl Is State n piece Of written
parchment whose perpetuity depends upon
the durability Of its legbility. Are State
franchises indcstructiblel Can they not be
surrendered or abandoned by the recipients
themselves? Can they not be forfeited under
anv possible circums anccs The United States
has a written Constitution and written laws !;
but these, and even its own existence, may be
botted out and like the anclent Grccian
States, live only in history. speak not now
Of the vast physical districts Of country that,
stretching from ocean TO ocean, rested for more
than five thousand years previous to tho ad.
4 IL. IL
solitude of trackess wilderness; nor Of the
Pilgrim Fathers who performed their dcvo
tions on Plymouth rock; nor of their dcscen
dants who struggled and prevailed on revolu.
tiouary battle fields; nor Of tho teeming mil
lions this day repl csonted on this floor re-
fer 10 the body polite, the living onersized
nationality known throughout the world as
the American Government. Who will deny
that the people might abolish the Consutu-
tion with a its franchises and incidents, even
by the substitution of monarchy, notwith.
standing that here and there loyal citizen
should iuterpose his solemn protect, supported
by tho cog ncy of the organic law in his
hand Aud had that little affair Of the Trent
combined all Europe, and had sho been able
TO visit US through An army sufficiently pow
eriu t. march flom the Atlantic 10 the Pscit.
ic, vacating in its course the seats in this Cap
itol, and placing in the mansion at the other
end Of the avenue sprig Of royalty, still you
might talk of tho nlestructibiIity Of tho po
litical organization Of South Caroliua but
imagine that history would be deceived into
tho folly of recording that tho traitors Macon
and Slidell, with the aid Of tho gallant and
patriotic Captain Wilkes, had been somewhat
instrumental in bringing to her last hours the
/ great Republic. In either event, the Rocky
/ Mountains would still be clad with snow as in
times gone by, a'd the waters Of the Missis
sippi would continue to glide along in their
accu> toned currents; an !, if you please, stacks
OF constitutions aud statutes at large might be
piled up in every city, village, and hamlet in
/ the land, and native born Americans might
continue to plow the fields inherited from
their ancestors, but the United States would
be no more, forever!
Sir, do not argue that the Federal Gov
ernmeut has power to remand loyal State to
the condition Of Territory; but insist that
the latter may surrender her franchises and
abandon her immunites, and when the Fed
cral authority attempts to assert its power 10