The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-11-03
PROFESSOR WOODROW WILSON
ON SECESSION.


Times thinks that OF It as practical
matter is Of no consequence whatever In
determining whether the Southern states
did or did not have the right 10 secede
in 1861 1t might have been an utterly
pernicious principle and yot, II virginia
had reserved the right TO secede from the
Union when she went into it, no one had
any right to say her nay when she elect
cd to exercise that right. II che reserved
the right. then 1t was her right ana II
was simply trespass and an outrage for
her sister states TO coercc her into re-
framing from exercising the right when
she determined to exercise It.
It is Just as hard for Us to understand
how an intelligent man who IS versed II
our constitutional history can doubt that
the Southern States had reserved the
right to secede from the Union as II Is TOT
us TO understand how an intelligent man
can think the United states government
can turn forty cents worth Of silver into
n dollar. Yet we see intelligent men
every day who believe the government
can do this impossible thing, and as our
social relations compel us to treat the
blinded SILVER men with patience and
tosration so we must exercise 'o:Deor-
ance towards those who aro unable 10
nerceive that the Southern States had an
absolute and indefeasible right to secede.
According to the published reports Of
the lecture delivered few nights back
al Richmond College by Professor Wood
row Wilson upon secession, he took the
most curious and the most indefeasible
ground IN regard to it that we have
known to be taken by any one yet He
admitted that upon such a construction as
q court would give and be compelled 10
give 10 the constitution, the Southern
states had a right under the law to Sc
cede. That is. that was the constitution
as the States adopted it. But. he said
constitutions grow like all other parts
of the government we admit ~ many
states. into the Union between lisg ana
1861 which stipulated for no right OF SCI
cession and the general growth OF our
institutions in that interval was such as
TO mould the constitution into an entity
that had sloughed off the principle OF Sc
cession.
We are not surprised that Professor
Wilson conceded that the States framing
the constitution in 1888 reserved the right
TO secede and that this right would then
have been decreed to them If a question
had be made about it in a judicial forum.
But how he can agree that they lost
their right by the operation or seventy
wears Of evolution we cannot under
stand Their right stood out upon the
face of the constitution, their citizens and
representatives in Congress 7e'e AT al
times during the period pointing the right
ont and notifying the world that time
might come when the States would feel
called upon TO exercise it, and nothing
was Transporting in the meantime Which
required them to make an active assertion
of the right or stand estopped thereafter
TO make II. Laches and limitations are
never TO be pleaded against a State and
this is not so upon any named eonstruc-
ton of technical law, but upon the broad
and necessary principle Of all public law
that the people can never lose a right
merely because the people refrain from
making an active assertion of it. Nullum
tempus occurrit regi Is a principle Of
public necessity. If Virginia reserved
the right to secede when she entered the
Union, she had 1t in unimpaired vigor in
1861.
But we cannot say this much without
adding that she has parted with ana
abandoned the right for all times and
that her sister seeded States have done
the same. All Of their state constitu
tons contain a provision abandoning II
for an time and they resumed their
places I'm the Union after the war upon
conditions OF their adopting their consu-
tutions. In addition the fourteenth
amendment to the constitution Oh the
limited States provides hat AL persons
born or nauralized in the United States
are citizens Of the United States
and of the States in which they
reside.m There was no citizenship
of the United States before the war;
but all Americans are citizens OF
the United States now, and citizen
cannot end his citizenship except by con
sent of his government. Consequently
there can never be another secession eX-
cept by consent of the people OF the
United States