Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-12-14

ton would cease to control fbe councils of the
Union.
Besides we may be sure that such an admis-
sion would hereafter give other nations a fair
excuse and an apt occasion Cor interference. Let
it once be established as the result of this, the
first of our civil wars, that the secession of a
State or States makes them in the chancery of
our government foreign States and subjects them
to conquest as such, and future secession ENJOYS
will not stand waiting in the chambers of
Europe, as their predecessors have stood solicit
ing admission and recognition in vain The other
nations of the world have interest in this Gre
alton of new nations, and in the question of who
shall conquer and subjogate them; and this in
terest will be asserted whenever open for it
door of entrance 1t is beyond doubt that
are indebted for the non.nterierence of foreign
powers in this civil war mainly to the fact that we
have constantly professed in our diplomacy to be
fighting for Thereof, cry of our just constitutional
rights, aud for nothing more. Ii we imagine that
fear of prowess has been the cause of that
neutral attitude, we shall fatter our own vanity
at the expense of our discernment The world
at large may have been more or less willing
to have the Federal Government recover its
rightiul and constitutional supremacy over the
people of the Southern States. But il will be al
together another question with foreign powers
whether whole classes of the States Of this Union
are to be held by US as dependent fiefs. with no
voice in the councils that are to shape our legis-
lation to govern our foreign policy. When
we take such an attitude rs that, even the ghost
of what Mr.. Seward has still left to us of the
so called Monroe Doctrine" will vanish into
thin air.
If. then, it be tF',e that the public law would
oblige US to abstain from demanding that the
Federal sovereignty over those States shall ex-
tend TO any thing over which it did not extend be-
lore the war, let us inquire whether shall not
be bound by that obligation. Passing by the
question whether other nations would have a
right to interfere and considering this purely
domestic matter, it may be conceded that no ex-
ternal force will be applied to make US respect
the requirements of the law of nations in this
regard. But are those requirements then
without other sanctions, which will yet con-
troll willsf Clearly they are
not; for we must look forward to a time when
our own tribunals will be obliged to pass upon
| the fundamental questions arising out of any
! attempt to exercise powers not embraced in the
Constitution, and supposed to result from terri
toIia conquest; and we must act upon principles
now, that be carried into effect by an enght
eDed and independent judiciary hereafter. We
assume that We shall SO act; because we do not
believe the people of this country are so lost to
all sense of right and all perception of the high
est public and social expedency, to their own
standing among nations and to the good opinion
of mankind. to wish to make their judiciary
the more subservient registrars of the popular
will or to require of their Judges to sanction
particular act merely because it has emanated
from the executive or legislative branches of their
government. When the public understand this
subject, aud have freed their minds from the con-
fusion produced by false views of what is called
"war," they may be expected to act rightly
What then will be the view which the instructed
judicial mind must take hereafter of the position
| that the Southern States have been conquered as
States. and that they are, or were for any period
| of time, in the condition of conquered countries2
I 1t will be seen that this claim is without any
foundation in any system that belongs 10 the
public law of modern times Whatever conse-
quences attach, in individual cases, to the right
full exercise of belligerent rights while the
egn was obliged TO resort to the exercise of such
powers, soon as the necessity ceases, the exer-
/ else OF those powers must cease, and the power
of the sovereign effect the civil rights of men,
either individually or collectively. must be meas
ured by the municipal law which defines and
regulates his powers as a sovereign. There is no
other privilege that can be applied to the success
full suppression of an instruction, or to the re-
covery of municipal jurisdiction over portion of
territory that has been wrested for a time from
the supremacy of municipal law, unless it be ad
United that the government of a nation can con-
foreign nations and its own people with all the
consequences of conquest. just as if the territory
we're part of another nation. This can never be
admitted in the case of a civil war, because such
a war is waged for the recovery of a suspended
authority not, as in the case of foreign wars, for
the acquisition of an authority that has not pre-
viousy existed.
These principles apply with peculiar force to
the political system known the government of
al, H.. H.
that resides in that government il very far from
being a general and unlimited sover eighty 1t
consists in supreme right to make laws upon
certain subjects, which shall bind the inhabitants
of each State. Where there are no distractions
in any State to the executions OF the laws of The
United States within its limits, all the suprema
cy which rightfully belongs to the United States
is completely enjoyed. Where any existing
distractions the operation of the laws of the
United States in any State have been removed,
the United States have recovered all their
sovereign rights There has never been any
justification for marching army into
any Southern State, excepting to recover that
of which the United States have been deprived
by an insurgent force When the United States
have fully re possessed themselves of what they
have been forchly deprived for time, thev
have recovered all for which they had any oc-
casion or right to take up arms; and one OF
the obvious means by which they can finally
obtain what they have sought is by an am
nesty, when one l. sought for by the insur-
gents, or when the United States are in a con-
dition to offer one.
We have thus placed before our readors-we
hope that we have done it clearly and dspas
sionateiy-some of the consequences that will
mauifesty flow from the adoption of theory
which will create another Poland or something
even worse on this continent of North America.
We shall eideavor to trace these consequences
further in our next issue-[New York World.
The DtfucuItIes before Us. aC