New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-09-24
THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.
Tire Erening Post says.

Suppose instance that vote should now be taken IN
Virginia or Louisiana OF North carolina ana majority
bsdk up me linton But the people OF the United states DO
believe in any such n9nsense They say when the Union
the nation not OF any State, or faction, OF part
We know it is no use TO refute The Posts mis-
statements; but the above is not true. We do NOT
hold, and never did that one State has night to
break up the Union, nor that she should be allowed
to do so. We hold the precise doctrine OF our Reyo-
lutionary fathers-nethcr less nor more. Time after
time we have remarked that State has no right to
break up the Union any more than County has to
break up the State. If the people Of Staten Island
tor example) should fancy that they could all get
rich by breaking off from the State and Union i'm
porting goods free of duty and smuggling them into
the adjacent districts. we do not believe that they
would have either moral or legal right to do soi
and we hold that they might properly be compelled
to remain in the State and Union And if Massachu-
sets alone had undertaken in 1775 to dissolve her
connection with Great Britain Gas South Carolina in
1860 undertook to dissolve the UniOn) we hold that
she would not have been justified
We mean to stand on precisely the same ground
with Franklin, Adams and Jeflerson-neither less nor
MORE We think that is not The Posts ground. That
journal says:
The people of the United States do not believe in any such
nonsense They say when the Union IS destroyed must be
BY action OF the whole peopeo the Nation not of any
State, or faction. or part
Was the Declaration of American Independence
the act of 1.-THE ohole people-ofthe British Nation "
Clearly not. large majority " of the '0ho'e people
of the Nation"-were doubtless opposed to it, And
yet our fathers believed they had right to independ-
ence, and IRE believe it.
Suppose that Germany France, Italy, Spain and
Portugal formed to-day one nation, as they did under
the Caesars and again under Charemagne-a nation far
smaller in area than the United States of to.day-and
that, after a centurys experience, Spain and Portugal
should unanimously conclude that they could do better
under a distinct independent rule, would they have
natural, moral right to government OF their own
Our fathers, in the Declaration Of Independence
affirmed such right, or we do not understand them;
What says The POST Must they await the consent
of a majority Of the people Of the whole empire
Wesley in recommending lively, spirited church music
insisted that it neither wise nor right TO let the
devil have all the best tunes" We cherish similar
conviction with regard the right Of people to self
government tersey expressed by our fathers in the
sentence governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed" Wehold that the
late Rebels have no right to take shelter under this
doctrine and that we cannot afford TO let them. They
rebeled. not in obedience TO but in defiance Of this
axonl-not in behalf of but in conspiracy agan. the
inaeuable Rights of Man If any fact can be estab-
lished by crcumstantial evidence then 1t IS fact
that majority Of the People Of the South did not de-
sire nor design to break up the Unon-that Secession
trumphed at the South only through conspiracy terror
ism and violence overawing and overlooking the pop
ular WILL And the spirit OF Rebellion is rampant there
today only because -Four Millions fheariy Unionsts
lie gagged and bound at the feet Of the triumphant
Rebels The sole, sufficient security against future
secessions and robelons is TO be found, not in any
array Of bayonets, but in the arming Of every
loyal man with the Ballot.