Year: 1861

The States are not the vassals and thrals of the
General Government, and at their good pleasure
may decline, especially at the call of the Execu-
tive, to urust the control of their military power
IN his hands. If President, on his own mere
motion, could seize. in defiance of State authority,
on Its arms and troops, there would be end at
once of civil liberty. We would be free only by
permission of our lord and sovereign master the
President not by any efficacy in the Constitution
or the laws, which ought to give us charter for
that free dom. We demand liberty. not by the
indulgence and favor even of onr own selected
rulers, but by indefeasible and paramount right.
The sovereignty of the States is Just that very
sttutional check which preserves and perpetuates
liberty, while it is the noblest bond Of Union.
The President does not become the commander
of the militia of the States until they are actually
in service of the United States, and before it can
be thus passed over there are legal steps to be
ken, the most important of which is tie consent OF
the State to which TIE troops owe an allegiance
that cannot be diyesed and which, in its very al
legance, implies and demands obedience rs far as
1t constltutiOnally extends. The Constitution
clearly reserves to the several States the right to
judge of the necessity of calling out its militia and
of intru, ting them to the control of the General
Government, either in repelng invasion or in
carr, ing on war, either foreign or domestic In
deed, seems condition necessarily precedent to
the Presidents calling on the Statcs for military
assistance, that he should be applied to in crush
ing domestic violence by State authorities, or be
i.lvoh ed by the Judiciary in executing and enfor
cling the laws. President, acting il disregard Of
these prelminaries, and without the special au-
thority of Congress, may well be view ed with
distrust aid suspicion. Apart from these consd-
erations, we have ample justification, in the prac-
tice of New England Executives and Legislatures.
20 show that. with te;r ultra Federal ,roclivites
they, up to the present. always insisted OH the
right to refuse to respond to the General Gore n
ment when calling for the aid Of the State Mill
tia,


1t was never intended that the State. should
possess shadow Of power, ard in reality be the
naked and de:enceless subjects of an armed and all
controlling CT rtrazation. They were not only
to be free, but secured in that freedom bv well
regulated militia" and, therefore. by Article Sec
ond of the Amendment, d" the right Of the people
to keep and bear arms was not to be infrinced.
The military despotism which is urged by fanati-
cism and supported ly pervcsions and false gloss
es on the Constitution, exumcd from the sepulcIre
of Fedora ism, looks askant at the neutral DO
stion of Kentucky, and depounces it. if not as
treason, as a species of msprision of that crime,
which s sometimes the most abominable and afro
cious of all enormties, and sometimes irradiates
the scafiold with the glories OF martyrlom. The
Administration have chosen policy Of restoring
the Union. and have selected the remedy for the
evils of the body polite We deny the wisdom Of
that choice and selection, and upon the Govern
ment must rest the fearful responsibility of what
seems the inevitable result but in pursuing that
policy let not the soveregntes of the States,
which the Constitution has guarded with caution
intended to secure perfect nviolablity be blindly
reckessly and crimin. lily crushed.-Nep York
Ne,rs.