Year: 1860




e the Government has at its command. Unde
J. such Circumstances, to seAd military force in
i to any State with orders to act agains. tn
" people would be simply making war upo
i them.


: The existing laws put and keep the Fedora
v Government strictly on the defensive Yo,
e can use force only to repel an assault on tn
Il public property, and aid tie courts in the per
a iOrnance OF their duty. If the means giyei
n you 70 collect the revenue and execute the 9th
4 laws be insufficient for that purpose, Congress
, may extend and make them more eiectual t
f. that end


II one Of the States should declare her indie.
pendence, your action cannot depend upon tn
Y rightfulness Of the cause upon which such dec
3 larston is based. Whether the retirement O
, a State ftom the Union be the exercise ola righ
5 reserved in the Constitution, or revolutionary
movement, It is certain that you have not il
r either case the authority tc recognize her indie
peudence or to absove her from her Federal OBJ
legations. Congress or the other States in Con
, vention assemble must take such measures as
may be necessary and proper. In such an event
see no course for you but to go straight on.
ward in the path you have hitherto trodden -
that is, execute the laws to the extent OF the
defensive means placed in your hands, and aci
generally upon the assumption that the present
constitutional relations between the States and
the Federal Government continue to exist un
I'll new order of things shall be established
either by law or force.


Whether Congress has tho constitutional
right to make war against one or more States,
and require the Executive of the Federal Gov.
ernment to carry on by means Of force to be
drawn from the other States, is question for
for Congress itself to consider. 1t must be ad-
mitted that no such power is exclusively given;
nor are there any words in the Constitution
which imply it. Among the powers epumera-
ted in article l, section 8, is that ito declare
war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and
to make rules concerning captures on land and
water" This certainly means nothing more
than the power to commence and carry on hos
tilities against the foreign enemies Of the ma
tion. Another clause in the same section gives
Congress the power ito provide for calling forth
the militia" and to use them within the limits
Of the State.--But this power is so restricted
by the words which Immediately follow that it
can be exercised only for one ofthc following
purposes: l. To execute the laws Of the u
Mon; that is, to aid the federal officers in the
performance of their regular duties. q.
To suppress instructions againsr the State;
bnt this is confined by Article ", Section
4, to cases in which the State herself
shall apply for assistance against her own peo-
pie 8. To repel the invasionsofa State by en-
emies who come from abroad to assail her own
territory. All these provisions are made to pro-
tect the States, not to authorize an attack by
one part of the country upon another; to pre-
serve their peace, and not to plunge them into
civil war-Our foreiathers do not seem to have
thought that war is calculated ''to form more
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defence,
promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our poster
| ity.' There was undoubtedly strong and
universal conviction among the men who fra
med and ratified the Constitution that military
force would not only be useless, but perncious
as means of ofholding the States together.
| Ifit be true that war cannot be decIaled, nor
| fo1 L., A..
Central Government against State, then it
seems to follow that an attempt to do so would
be ipso facto an expulsion Of such State from the
Union. Being treated as an alien snd an ene-
my, she would be compelled to act accordingly.
And if Congress shall break up the present u
nion by unconsttutionally putting strife enmi-
ty and armed hostility between different Sec
tions of the country, instead Of the domestic
tranquility" which the Constitution was meant
to insure, will not all the States be absolved
from their federal obligations? Is any portion
Of the people bound to contribute their money
or their blood to carry on contest like that :?


The right Of the General Government 10 pre-.
serve itself IN its whole constitutional vigor by
repelling direct and positive aggression up on
its property or its officers cannot be denied. But
it is totally different thing from an offensive
war te punish the people for the political mis-.
deeds Of their State government, or to prevent
a threatened violation Of the Constitution, or to
enforce an acknowledgment that the Govern
nent oft the United States is supreme The
States are colleagues Of one another, and il
some of them shall conquer the rest and hold
them as subjugated provinces, i, would totally
destroy the whole theory upon which they are
now connected,


If this view Of the subject be as correct as ]
think it is then the Union must utterly perish
at the moment when Congress shall arm one
part Of the people against another for any pur-
pose beyond that of merely protecting the Gen.
eral Government in the exercise of its proper
constitutional functions.


am, very respectfully, yours, &c.,


j. s. BLACK.


NEGRoEs IN SEARCH OF Roosr--FRsT
FRUITS or "HoNEsT OLD ABE's" ELEcTroY.---