Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-06-25
THE SELF-DETECTED FALLACY OF THE Sc
CESSION THEORY.

We published on Wednesday the letter address
ed by Mr. Judah P. Benjamin, the titular Secre.
tary of State of the Confederate States, to Mr.
Mason, the Commissioner of the Confederate
States in England, announcing to the latter the
vocation by President Davis of the erequatur Of
Mr.. George Moore, her Britannia Majestys Consul
in Richmond. After stating the particular grounds
on which this revocation is based, Mr. Benjamin
proceeds as follows:
"Tbe desire of this Government is to entertain
amicabe relations with all nations, and with do its
interests invite the formation Of ties with
Britain Although feeling sggreved that the Government
the conlr of Earl Russell himself increased the
disparity Of strength which he considers to exist between
the begerents and has conferred signal advantage
which Great Britain announces herself
really and not nomnaly neutral the President has
deemed to nterpose any obstacle to the
continued residence of Brhsh Consus within the Coned
eracy By virtue of exequaturs granted by the former Gov
HIS has been consistently guided by the
principles which underle the whole structure OF Gov
ernment The State of Virginia having delegated to the
United States the Constitution of 1887
the power Of controlling it's foreign relations became bound
by the action of that Government in its grant OF
quaiur to Consul Moore. When Virginia seeded with
drew the powers delegated to the Government of the United
States and conferred them this Government the
quator granted Consul Moore was thereby inva
dated An act done by agent while duly authorized
agents authority On ttese grounds the President has
hitherto steadily resisted all Influences which have been
exerted induce him exact Of foreign consus that they
should ask for exequaur from this Government
condition Of the continued exercise of their functions
We do not purpose to direct to-day the attention
of the reader to the historical perversion from which
Mr.. Benjamin starts in his argument when he as
sumes that the State of Virginia, in declaring, by
Convention, her assent to the Constitution Of the
United States, reserved the right Of Withdrawing
the powers thereby delegated to the Federal Gov
ernment. We have too repeatedly exposed this
Misrepresentation of fact to be under the ne
cessity Of recurring to the topic. What Virginia
declared was, that the people of the United
States, not the States separately and singly, had
then adopted
But taking him on his own ground, we wish to
signaze the logical falacy of the secession theory
as confessed by Mr.. Benjamin in the reason he
assigns for permitting foreign Consuls to reside
within the " Confederate States" by virtue of the
erequaturs granted under authority Of the Federal
Government The granting Of this erequatur to
Consul Moore, says Mr.. Benjamin, was act done
by an agent while duly authorized to act for the
principal and, such, continues in force after the
revocation of the agents authority. If this be So
then it follows on this State-rghts theory, that all
the acts of the Federal Government, whether as
found in the construction of forts in the passage Of
laws under the Constitution recognized by the Seced
ed States while as yet they remained in the Union,
"continued to bind the principal after the revoca-
tion Of the agents authority" If the erequaturs
of foreign Consuls remained valid on this ground,
after the passage of secession ordinance, the other
accepted and recognised acts of the "agent" re-
mained and still remain equally valid in point of
law-Mr Benjamin himself being judge. In these
few words he cuts up the whole secession theory by
the roots, and shows it to be an anomaly without
any place in the political cosmos created and defu-
ed by the Constitution Of the United States. 1t
was Interpolation upon that system while as yet
the dogma belonged only to the realm of political
metaphysics, and the attempt to engraft the alien
ofshoot of organic anarchy on the parent stock of
liberty regulated by law has borne the bitter fruits
that might have been expected from such an unna-
tural experiment.
AN HONORABLE RECORD.