The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer. (Bel Air, Md.) 1862-1864, 1862-07-12

bilious rulers in the national councils
If the Federal army should be able to quell
the resistance IF one State, the distant
States would have it in their power to
make Roadway with fresh forces. The adj
vantage geined in one place, must be
abandoned to subdue the opposition in
others, and the moment the part which has
been reduced to submission is left to it.
self, its efforts would be renewed and re-
sistance revived
Says Hamilton, vol. LIST, p. 1859, Of the
Federakst: 1.-THE State Legislatures will
not only be vigilant, but suspicious and
jealous guardians of the people, against
the encroachments of the Federal Govern
ment. They will be ready enough, if
anything happens, to sound the alarm to
the people, and not only become the voice
but the arm of their discomfort"
Says Hamilton again, in No. 16:-
whoever considers the populousness and
strength of several of these States singly
at the present juncture, and looks forward
to what they will become, even at the dis
lance of half century, will at once dis
miss as idle and visionary any scheme
which aims at regulating them or coer-
cling them in their collective capacities by
the General Government. A prospect Of
this kind is little less romantic than the
monster-taming spirit, attributed to the
fabulous heroes and demigods of antiqui-
ty."
And again in No. 16 :-"Even in these
confederacies which have been composed of
members smaller than many Of our coun-
ties, the principle of legislation for sover-
eign States, supported by military coer-
cion, has never been found effectual. It
has rarely been attempted to be employed
against the weaker members and in
most instances, attempts thus to coerce
the refractory and disobedient have been
the signals of bloody wars, in which one
half of the confederacy has displayed its
banners against the other. We aoant no
such a Government as Mis.''
This is the testimony of the men who
made the Constitution, and it stands upon
the record in letters so plain, that he who
runs may read, and the way-faring man,
though fool, cannot err therein. In fact
this appeared to have been the theory at
first adopted by President Lincoln and
Secretary Seward, judging from the fol-
lowing letter written by the latter to Mr..
Adams, the present. Minister. to England,
and to whose sentiments / invite particu-
lar attention. They are sentiments for the
utterance of which the Secretary has not
scrupled to send more honest men than
himself to the gloomy casemates Of La
fayette and Warren. On. the 10th of
April, 1861, he writes to Mr.. Adams the
following letter:
"For these reasons he (the President
could not be disposed to reject cardinal
dogma of theirs (the seeding States, J
namely, that the Federal. Government
could not reduce the seeding States to
obedience by conquest, even although he
was disposed to question the proposition.
But in fact the President willingly accepts
it as. true-only an imperial or despotic
Government could have the right to sub
jugate disaffected and insurrectionary
States. This Federal Republican system
of ours is, OF all forms of Government, the
very one the most untitled for such labor.''
1t will require more than the proverbial
ingenuity and craft of the Secretary to es-
cape from the logical conclusion that such
a letter must create in the mind of every
man that reads it.