Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-10-21
Nurtb:Guruliua Stun1ar1
For the Standard.
THE RIGHT OF SECESSION.

For the Standard.
THE RIGHT OF SECESSION.
v;,, now nav nv respects to "Marion's" argu-
rnsnt in favor of the fright of secession from the
Federal Union. He has labored through four NOR
tai columns of the Journal with great zeal and en-
erpy. he has made an immense number OF quota-
tons some Of them from eminent men, others from
obscure men, and the sum and substance OF all MS
arguments is that the States were at the time they
formed the Union absolutely sovereign and andepen-
dent, and that in forming the Union they surren-
dered no part of that sovereignty; that the Con
st1tution did not form in any sense OF the wora
national government; that it did not IN the slgnt
est degree derive its powers from the sanction OF
the people. but that it was a mere compact be-
tween free, sovereign, and independent States
6 organizing certain individuals into a machine
termed the government of the United States, ana
comforting on it. merely delsgating to-. 1T certain
snecified limited powersp that it Is IN the nature
Of league or treaty of alliance between lndepen'
dent nations depending for its support upon the
will or good faith of the parties to it, and that
therefore the right Of secession is deducloe irom
the nature of it. ,
He assumes that no person will deny that the
several States were at the ratification OF the Con-
stntion of 1889 sovereign States, to the same ex-
tent that either England France is at this asy
free and sovereign State" Many Of the most emf
nent statesmen Of the Convention of 1877 did deny
1t. have already quoted Gen. G. @. Pinckney on
this subject and will now give the opinions OF
several others including the "father of the Constr,
tuition himself In the debates in the Federal
Convention, Mr.. Madison said: some contend
that the States sovereign, when In TACT tney are
mere political societies. There is gradaslon OF
power in all societies, from the lowest corporation
to the highest sovereign. The States never pos
sessed the essential rights Of sovereignty. Ihese
were always vested in Congress. Their voting as
States in Congress is no evidence of sovereignty
The State of Maryland voted By counties; did this
make the counties sovereign? The States at pres
ent are only great corporations, having the power
of making bylaws, and these are etfectual only II
they are not contradictory to the General Conicd
Grafton. The States ought to be placed under the
contsol of the General government" In the same
Convention, Rufus King said: "None OF the States
are now sovereign or independent Many OF tnese
essential rights are vested in Congress. Congress
by the Confederation possesses the rights OF the
United States This is union of the me" OF those
States none of these, States individually or collec-
lively but in Congress, have the rights OF peace or
soar. The magistracy in Congress possesses the
sovereignty To certain points We are now uni
ted people. Consolidation is already established
In the same Convention, Mr. Gerry said: 1T
appears to me that the States never were indepen-
dent-they had only corporate rights MT: Will
son, of Pennsylvania, afterwards Judge CT the Su-
preme Court of the United States, said: "Shall
three fourths of the Union surrender their rights
for the support OF that artificial being, called State
interest" need not add, that Gen. Hamilton,
who has been quoted by Marion" and who was
formerly quoted by President Davis while yet in
the Senate of the United States, with the remark
that "he was the mightest intellect Of the age in
which he lived that he thoroughly understood ev-
cry subject of which he treated and that he never
treated Of any subject without exhausting it,; and
by Gov. Ellis, in his messageto the first extra ses'
sion of the Legislature, in May, 1861, with how
much justice will appear hereafter, held the same
opinions as we'll as a great many Others among the
abest statesmen of that age
The doctrine which maintain is, that the pres
ent Constitution is not q mere league, treaty, or
Confederation between sovereign and independent
States, but that it is a Constitution of National
government, deriving its powers from its ratitica-
ton by the people themselves; of delegated powers,
if you choose, but those powers delegated by the
people themselves, acting through State organiza-
lions, and not by the States themselves in their
corporate capacity, but delegated without limita-
ton in point of time but in all other respects its
powers limited by the plain language and meaning
of the Constitution. itself. 1t forms mixed gov
eminent, partly national and partly Federal in the
organization of its powers For instance, the House
of Representatives is elected by the people, and is
responsible only to the people, and therefore forms
a purely national branch Of the government; while
the Senate is elected by the States, each State hav
ing an equal representation, which is Federal
feature But then as the vote in the Senate is not
BY States each Senator having one vote, and the
Senator'S from the same State often voting against
each other it loses in its operation the Federal fea
ture and merges again into the national form. So
in many other respects it has some of the Federal
principles but in its operations it is almost aoh0y
national As cannot fully explain all its features
and the mode of their operation here, would refer
the reader to the seth No. of the Fsderalist, by
James Madison which contains by far the best anay
sis of the Constitution extant. 1t does not form
complete consolidation, as the State governments
retain their existence but so far as its powers do
extend and they extend to eoery object of national
sovereignty-to war, to peace to commerce, to f.
NANCE to treaties, to foreign alliances to the raising
of armies aud equipping nasies, the regulation Of
the CON- and to almost every conceivable object of
that character, as well as to many of municipal
character while it prohibits them to the States to
that extent it does form consolidated government
to that extent 1t made US one people-one nation
On the other hand the powers not delegated to the
national government by the people, were reserved
by them to the States and to that extend, and no
farther do they possess the rights of sorereignty
but that sovereignty is Of q local and municipal
character, extending to all the internal concerns
and police of the States to the protection of life and
property the regulation ofdesoents and of marriages
and to vast number of similar objects, and, if you
please, to the right of "eminent domain" That
class Of persons who are always talking about the
national government being one of Nssited po,oers,
should 20; forget that the gsG in the same nstru
eral government, also limited the powers of the
State governments; first by actually prohibiting
many powers to them; secondly, by providing that
where the Constitution or laws of State conficted
With those Of the United States the former should
yield to the latter. The second clause Of Article
VI of the Constitution ordains that: "Ths Con-
stitution, and the laws Of the United States which
shall be made in pursuance thereof and all treaties
made, or which shall be made under the authority
Of the United States, shall be the supreme law Of
land; and the Judges in eoery State she'll be bound
thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of
any State to the contrary notwithstanding" The
second clause of the III article of the Constitution
provides that: "The judicialpower shall extend to
all cases. in law and equity arising under this Con.
ettuton the laws Of the United Statas and treaties