The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1869-08-06
oooI Iooet VA FRIDAY MORNING

ed Nulliflcation, and in which certain
expressions haG,giyen great alarm by
their apparently Federalfst tendency.
carefully ascrlbes the Constitution TO
"a compact among the several States''
as s"independent communities" Again,
he spoke of them as sovereign mem
bers of our Union" and his farewell ad
dress soiemnly adjurcs the people to
maintain "the rights and sovereignty
of the States.
A sovereign can have no Judge; and
the Federal Constitution provided no
means by which one State could bring
another to justice for wronging or nom
iuiflllment of engagements. In like
manner there existed no legal mode by
winch the Federal Government could
| coerce State which should exercise
the right of sovereignty to redress its
wrongs under the compact by denounc-
ing the compact itself. A sovereign
Power is the judge OF its own rights
It's subject must obey it, and defend it.
right or wrong. 1t follows, therefore.
from the sovereignty OF the States. that
they were entitled legally to secede il
they chose. and that their citizens were
bound to follow and fight for the choice
OF the State. This was the view on
which Mr.. Stephens acted; and in its
support ne quotes the authority of such
eminent lawyers ais Tucker and Rawle.
and the conditional admission of Story
himself. He shows that Massachusetts
and the other New England States had |
more than once asserted the rjght of |
secession, and Threatened to exercise
1t; that Mr.. Lincoln himself asserted, I
in general terms, the right of anv peo-
pie or POI tion of q people, locality dis
tinct, to choose its own government;
and that Horace Greeley, up to the very
last, Insisted that, if the South chose,
she had right to go in peace, He him
sell dlsapproved the policy Of secession,
out asserted to the fullest degree the
nature of the right, and the
OF the provocation; and he
calls WEBSTER to testify, in very distinct
Serms, that the systematic Vfotftion of
me Constitution in the case of fugitive |
slaves was alone a sufficient vindica-
ION of the total reputation, by the
south, OF compact with the North OBJ
erved only as far as she pleased.
1t is impossible, within our limits, to
I'VE fair idea even OF tile outlines of {
uch an argument; much more to con- I
ey just impression of the lucidity. f
0Wer OF thought, vast and appropriate e
eading, and vigorous reasoning By c
'hich it is sustained. 1t would be diff b
cult to name more perfect MASTER S
iece OF constitutional reasoning and q
olitical disquisition; work which a
light with greater advantage be placed L
the hands of the young lawyer who t
csired to see how these high questions p
Inch are the common ground of the c'
wyer, the historian, and the states 81
IAN, can be treated by one who COM u
mes the qualifications of all three OF
he book is perhaps hardly suited to the tf
'heral reader, but 1t may be confident &C
recommended as indispensable to y
'ery one who wishes really to under W
and either the Federal Constitution kl
the Civil War; and it will be ranked ell
nong the most valuable of those ma ia
rails which the walters of this age are is
cumulating for the future historian of til
America.