Year: 1862




The DisfraBchIsemento of states.


With this deep sense of the enormity of trea-
son, however, we cannot vet persuade ourselves
of the justice or policy of the scheme which pro
poses to disfranchise the seeding States until
such time as they shall be of better mind. 1t
proceeds. if we understand it, upon the ground
that those States. by the very act of secession,
have abrOgated their functions as States and re
verted to the condition OF Territories, in which
condition they are to be held and treated until
again admitted as States. But that is certainly
not the theory on which we have thus far con-
Quoted the In the Presidents proclamation
and in all the subsequent acts of the Government
secession has been regarded as the rebelOus
outbreak of unlawful combinations of men, and
not as a deed having the least legal VALIDITY or
force. Every act or ordinance of secession, be-
ing inconsistent with the fundamental law Of the
land. is null and void from the first. No State
convention, no legislative body, no popular as
semblage of any kind has authority to overthrow
the general Constitution of the nation. The re-
lations of the States to each other and to the
Federal Government are created by that instru-
ment, and until that is destroyed those relations
remain the same. whatever course any single
State may see fit TO pursue. If State could,
by act of its own, annul its own existence,
then the doctrine of secession is right, and we
of the North have been warning against cor
rect principle


But the position of the North, we repeat, has
always been that every law promulgating disan-
ion was reasonable, rendering the individuals
concerned in it liable to prosecution for treason,
but invalid in its effects upon the existing political
status. For that reason, our Government has
uniformly treated rebel agents, whether official or
otherwise, insurgents against its authority, and
nothing more The State Governments which
have confirmed the rebellion held to be in
suspense, but not annulled. As organizations
they have been perverted from their purposes, but
not annihilated They still exist de juye As
soon as enough people loyal to the Federal Con-
stitution are gathered TO put their machinery in
operation, they will be revived. They are as
much factors of the Union now as they ever
were, because the Constitution which creates and
defines them is in full vigor. although their own
local constitutions are for time paralyzed.


Itwouid be departure then, from sound theo
~, to those States as territories; il would
be doing by legislation precisely what their peo-
pie wish to by arms, but which we would not suf
fer them to do; and it DISTINGUISHES abruptly all
their loyal inhabitants because of offenses com
mitted by the disloyal In either phase the
scheme is likely to awaken hostility. not at the
South alone, but at the North. Our present
unanimous prosecution of the war against rebel
lion would be complicated with an intricate and
doubtful political question, which would eventu-
ally lead TO serious party divisions, and greatly
embarrass the energetic action of the Government.
All the jealous adherents of the doctrine of State
Rights, ourselves among them. would feel com
PEELED to oppose the new doctrine, or any other
which involves the legal dismemberment of the
nation. We are not, as our readers are aware,
superstitious wOrshippers Ofany instrument, how
ever venerable, even the Constitution of the Uni
ted StateS-but the principles OF national Union
and local Independence which underlie il are, to
our minds the finest results that political wisdom
h..