Year: 1861

| pension OF the privilege OF the writ, Whlcl


was authorized to be made. Now it i
insisted that Congress, and not the Executive
| is vested with this power But the COnsti


tuition itself is silent us to who is TO exercise it


and as the provision was plainly made for &
/ dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed
that the trainers of the instrument intended
| that in every case danger should run 1t:
course till Congress should be called together
| the very assembling Of which might be pre-


vented, as was intended in this case, by the
! rebellion, No more extended argument i,


now offered, as an opinion at some length


will probably be presented by the Attorney
Gen raj. Whether there shall be any legiS-


lation on the subject. and if SO, what, is sub


mltted entirely to the better Judgment oi
Congress.


The iorbearance Of this Government has


been so extraordinary and 50 long continued


as to lead some foreign nations to shape their


action as if they supposed the early destruc-


tion of our national Union was probable.


While this on discovery gave the Executive


some concern, he Is now happy to say that


the sovereignty and rights of the United


States are now everywhere practically re-


spected by Foreign Powers, and general





tested throughout the world.


The reports of the Secretaries Of War,


Treasury, and Navy, will give the inlorma-


ton in detail deemed necessary for your de-


liberation and action, while the Executive


and all the Departments will stand ready to


supply omissions, or to communicate new


facts considered important for you to know.


1t is now recommended that you give the


legal means for making this contest short
and decisive one that you place in the
control Of the Government at least 400 900
men, and S40G 600, 600. That number of
men is about one tenth of those of proper
age within the regions where apparently
all are willing to engage, and the sum of
money Is less than a twenty-third art Of
the money value owned by the men who
seem ready to devote the whole. \ debt Of
5000 GOO 600 now is a less SUM per head
than was the debt of our Revolution when we
came out of that struggle, and the money
value in the country bears even u greater
proportion to what it was then than does the
population. Surely each man has rs strong
a motive now tO preserve our llbeitIeS as each
had then to establish them. \ right re-
suit at this time will be worth more u the
W rid than ten times the men and ten times
the money. The evidence reaching us from
the country leaves n doubt that the ma
terial for the work is ahundI mt, that 1t needs
only the hand Of legislation To give 1t legal
sanction. and the hand of the Executive to
give it practical shape and efficiency.
One OF the greatest perplexties of the Gov
ernment is to avoid receiving troops faster
than 1t can provide iar them. In word,
the people viii save their Gov rnment
if the Government Itself will do its part
only nditfircntly well.


Itmight seem at first thought to be ot lit
tie difference whether the present movement
in the SOUTH be calleiSece,Si0n ur Rebellion.
The movers however, well understood the
difference. At the beginning they knew
they could never raise their treason toany re-
spectable magnitude by any name that I'M
plies violation OF law. They knew their
people possessed as much of moral sense,
as much OF devotion t. law aud order, and
as much pride in its reverence for the history
and Government of their common cOunTy,aS
any other civilized and patriotic people.
they knew they could make DO advance
mcut directly IN tue teeth Of these strong
and noble seutim ents accordingly they
an insidious debluchIng Of the
public mind. TEoy invented an ingenious So
phism, which, il s0nledcd, was followed
bv perfectly logical steps through all the n
cidents OF the complete destruction OF the
Union. The sophism itself is, that any
State of the Union may consistently with
the Nation 5 constitution, and therefore law
fully and peacefully, withdraw from the
Union without the consent of the J. mon, or
Of any other State. The little disguise, that
the supposed right Is TO De exercised only for
Just cause. themselves To be the sole judges
of its Justice, is too thin to merit any notice
With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have
been drugying the public mind Of their sec
ton for more than thirty years, and at
length they have brought many good men
to willingness to take up arms against the
Government, the day after some assemblages
Of men have enacted tarcicl pretence OF
taking their State out of the Union, who
could have been brought to no such thing !
the day before. This sOphism derives much, !
perhaps the whole, of its currency from the |
assump ption that there is some omnipotent |
md sacred supremacy pertaining to each |
State of our Federal Union. Our States |
have neither more nor less power than that !
reserved 10 them in the Union by the C0nstl- |
tuition, not one of them ever having been a !
State out of the Union. The original ones |
passed into the Union even before they cast off |
heir British colonial dependence, aud the |
new ones came into the Union directly from /
condition Of dependence, cSceptlng |
Texas


And even Texas, in It's temporary indie |
pendence. was never designated a State
The new ones only took the designation OF
Sac on ming into the Union, while that |
name was first adopted for the old ones, IN |
md bv the Declaration of Independence
Therein the United Colonies were declared to
be free and independent States, but even |
then the object plainly was not to declare
their independence OF one another or OF the |
Union, but strictly the contrary, as their |
mutual pledge and mutual action before, at |
the time, and afterwards, abundantly show. |
The express plighting of faith by each and |
al of the original thirteen States III the ar |
.icleS of confederation two years later, that
.he Union shall be perpetual is most conclu-
live, having never been states either IN SUBJ
lstance or IN name outside OF the Union.
" hence this magical omnipOtence oi |
state rights, asserting a claim OF powe- .
10 lawfully destroy the Union itself |
Much is said about the sovereignty Of the
States. but the word, even, is not in the Ma
.ional Constitution, nor, as is believed, IN
my of the State constitutions. What is a
sovereignty, in the political sense Of the
term Would it be far from wrong to de-
ine it as political community with
put a political superior? Tested by
this, none of our States, except Texas, was
i sovereignty; and even Texas gave up the
character on coming into the Union, 5y
which act she acknowledged the Constltu-
ton of the United States, and the laws and
treaties of the United States, made in pursu-
ance thereof to be her supreme law.


The States have their status in the Union
and thus have no other legal status. Ii
they break from this they can only DO so
against law and by revolution. The Union,
and not the States separately, procured their
and liberty by conquest or by
purchase. The Union gave eacn of them
whatever independence and liberty it has
The Union is older than any of the States,
and in fact, called them States originally
Some dependent colonies made the Union,
and in time the Union threw off their old