Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-14

turning now 10 our own country, let us sup
pose that the States of this Union, from the At
lantic to the Pacific, we're obliterated to-day, and
that the people of this whole country were a con-
solidated democracy, zone and indivisible." No
laws would then be made, no justice administer
ed, no order maintained, no Institutions upheld,
save in the name and by the authority of the ma
ton. What sort of a Republic, think you, would
that bel If it started with the name and sem
blance, how long would il preserve the substance
OF Republican institutionsl In order to act at
all in the discharge of the vast duties deyolving
upon it, the government of such a Republic, ex-
tending over a country so ncrmous must more
and more be made the depository OF the %irresisti-
bic force of the nation; and the theory that the
will of the government expresses in all cases,
the will of the ruling majority, must soon
confer upon it that omnipotent power, be
meath which minorities and individuals can have
no rights.
This is no mere speculation. Every rejecting
man in this country knows that he has some civil
rights, which he does not hold at the will and
pleasure of a majority of the people of the Uni
ted States. He knows that he holds these rights
by a tenure which cannot lawfully be touched by
all the residue OF the nation. This is Republl-
can Liberty, as | understand and value IT: and
without this principle in some form of active and
secure operation, | DO not believe that any valua-
bic Republican liberty is possible in aay great
80 vi NC NV VI YIN OaANAAs WI
tainly, il is not possible for US.
1t seems to one who looks back upon our his
tory, and who keeps before him the settled con-
dition of our liberty, almost impossible to be-
lieve, that in consequence ola direct collision be-
tween the rightful supremacy of the nation. and
a wrongful assertion of State Sovereignty. we
are exposed to all the evils of civil war. and to
the danger of destroying the true principles of
our system. in the effort to maintain them. That
this danger is real and practical, will be conceded
now, by every man who will contemplate the
projects that spring up on all sides, looking to
the acquisition of powers which have never be-
longed to the Federal Union by any theory under
which it has vet existed. The main resemblance
between these projects is. that none of them will
fit the known basis of the Constitutions; and that
as means, therefore, of curing the disorders OF
our country, or of making men obedient to the
Constitution, their tendency is merely mischiev
Gus. At the same time, they are none of them
founded on any theory of a new Union, or ON a
new form of national existence, which their au
thoTs can explain to US or to themselves. One
man, for instance, wishes the Government to as
sumo the power of emancipating all the slaves of
the South, by some decree, civil or military. But
he cannot possibly explain what the Government
oithe Uuion is to be, when it has done this. An
other man wants a sweeping contiscatiOn Of the
property of all the people of the revolted States,
guilty and innocent alike. But he does not tell
you what kind of a sovereign the United States
is 10 be, alter such a seizure shall hive been con-
summated. A third. in addition to these things,
and rs if in imitation Of the Austrian method of
dealing with rebellious Hungary, wishes to de-
clare Il sweeping fOi feiture of all political rights;
an utter extin.uiShment of the corporate State
existence, and a reduction OF the people OF the
revOlted States to IA condition Of military or some
other yasSalage. But he not only does not show
the Constitution enables the Federal Government
to Obliterdte a State, but he does not even sug-
gest what the Union is to be, when this is done,
or even whence the requisite physical force is to
lie derived. MultiIudes of politicians tell US
that slavery is the root of ell the national disas-
tiers, and that we must "strike at the root" But
none OF them tell US how we are TO pass through
these disasters to a saler condition, or what the
condition is to be when we shall have "struck at
the root" [Applause(
Now it seems to me, endeavoring as l do to re-
press all merely vain and useless regrets for what
is passed, and To find some sale principle of nc
ton fI the present and the future, that there
is one thought on which the people OF the
United States should steadily fix their attention.
We have seen that our National Union has
had three distinct stages. The first was tie
Union formed by sending delegates to the Rev
dictionary Congress, and by a general submission
TO the measures adopted by that body for the
common defense. The second Was the closer
league of the Confederation, the powers of which
were defined by a written charter. The third
was the institution of a Government proper, with
sovereign but enumerIteI powers, under the
Constitution. Now | infer from what | see of
some Of the currents of public and private opinion,
that many persons entertain a vague expectation
that the military operations now necessarily car
ried on by the Federal Government will result in
the creation of new civil relations, n new Union
and a new Constitution of some kind, they know
not what. He would be u very bold and Il very
rash man who should undertake to predict what
new Constitution can follow a civil war in n great
country like this. But looking back TO the com
mencement of our national existence, we see that
there never has been Il change in the form OF the
Union; there never has been Il new acquisition of
political power by the central Government which
has been gained by force Such additions OF for
eign territory as we have obtained by arms or
treaty have merely increased The area of the
Union, but they have not augmented the politi-
cal powers of the Government in the smallest
degree. The inhabitants of those regions have
come into the Union subject TO the same powers
to which we, who were original parties to the for
nation of the Constitution, have always been
subject, aud to no others. The national authori
ty has never gained the slightest increase OF its
political powers by force of arms. In every
stage in which its powers have been augmented
the increase has been gained by the free, vOIun-
tary consent of the people OF each State, without
coercion of any kind.
This consideration certainly affords no reason
why the Government of the United States should
not vindicate its just authority under the Consti-
tuition over the whole of its territory BY military
power. The right of the Government of this
Union to exercise the powers embraced in the
Constitution rests, ] repeat, upon "a voluntary, ir-
revocable cession of those powers by the people
of each State; and no impartial publicist IN the
world will deny that the right to put down all mil
itary OF other resistance to the exercise of those
powers rests upon "A just and perfect title. lAp
plausc.l This title is founded on a public grant.
But when you come To the idea of acquiring
other and further powers by the exercise of force.
you come to a very different question. You then
have to consider whether II people whose civil
polity is founded on the title given by consent
who have never known or admitted any other
rule of action than that expressed in the maxim
that governments derive their just powers from
the consent of the GOV erned"-can proceed to
found any new political powers on a military
conquest over a rebellion, without changing the
whole character of their institutions. For my
own part, with the best reflection | have been able
to give this momentOus subject, | have never
been able to see how a majority OF the American
people can proceed to acquire by military subiu
CATION, or by military means, or maxims, any new
authority over the people or institutions or any
State or class of States, without falling back
upon the same kind of title, rs that by which
William of Normandy and his descendants ae-
CURED ard held the throne of England. That
title was founded on the sword.
Perhaps there are some who will say, if this is
to be the issue let it come. / can have no argu-
ment with those who are pre- pared to accept. or
who wish for, this issue. All that | know or ex-
Dect in this world. of what may be called civil hap
piness, is staked on the preservation OF cur republi-
III