Year: 1860




doctrine is invoked that each State has rig


peacefully to secede-tha notification of al
particular law of Congress is to be resist,
and punished by the government, but that s


eessiorl, i. e.. the absolute notification and d


fiance of all such laws, and of the Constitute


and of the Union, is perfectly right aud will


in the power, at all times, of each and ever


State. The faithless members of the cabine


seek thus to shelter themselves and their PAL


tisaus in disunion from resistance by the ger
eral government, while the imbecils aim in th


same way TO find an excuse from shrinkin


from their duty of affirmative and energeti


action for which they lack courage if not prin


ciple. s-
A more monstrous and absurd doctrine thai


that of the right of any State at its plcasur,
to secede from the Union, has never been pu


forth. The government in such case would in
deed be mere rope of sand. According tc
| this dogma, Cuba, after We shall have paid
200,000,0OO for her purchase, as a State may
| at once secede, and leave the United States
Treasury to place that small item to the ac-
count of profit and loss" Texas, when she
came into the Union, after we had paid many
millions to discharge her debts, and other mil
lions to go into her Golfers, was and is entirely
at liberty TO secede with the booty. Each
and all of the States carved out of the Louis
lana purchase, for which we also paid such all
immense sum, may do the like. =af 773 f7'


So, too, States in which the largest amounts
of the public property may be situated may
at any time secede with that property. When
the Pacific railroad shall be constructed at an
expense of countless millions, paid from the
common treasure, the two or three States
through which it will run may dccamp with
the piuDder. and plant custom-house on the
site of our store houses. Vermont, New
Hampshire, Indiana illinois, Ohio, Kentucky
Tennessee, and the other inland States, which
will have contributed to these great disburse-
ments, and in which States, hardly dollar of
the public treasure is ever expended, and to
look quietly and approvingly on the exodus Of
those which have been thus purchased and ell
riched at their expense, and To- recognise the
right OF each of them to secedc and take the
property with them. R-a 70 g. <s"ss9as @Gk7a


Again, if this right exists. it exists at all
times, until no two States remain united
W hat, then, would become of the national
debt and the national credit? To whom
would the creditors of the government look
for payment Should the government be.
it may at any time be, indebted on its stocks
hundreds Of millions Of dollars, its creditors
could look, in case of secession, only to the
Stat which should remain united Those
which should have seeded, and established in
dependent governments, could not be reached.
The creditor could claim of them no percent
az e OF liability. They would plead that they
had never contracted and they had been only
Stockholders in corporation i'll which there
was no individual liability.
: Nor could the continuing government Of the
United States compel The payment by the se
ceding State OF portion of the public debt.
There would he NO data from which a definite
percentage coull he assigned to it, nor would
it hssreethe ability topuy. If South learolina
finds it necessary to repudiate at the onset by
suspending specie payments, and las already
fortshadowed) by amulling even private debts
due by its citizens to those of other States it is
pain that both ability and principle will be
hacking for payment of her share Gf it could
be alloIedl Of the public debt. There is no
court by which any fixed amount could be Is
tablished as due from her on account of that
debt, or Which could Issue execution for its
payment. II results therefore that the scced- |
ing State could only be compelled to pay any
share of the national debt contracted on her
account, as well as that Of the other States)
by war and reTmisals by the general govern
ment. This puts an end to the idea of peacea-
bic secession and the right of secession. g."


But can any of the Democratic book-keep-
ers tell us how (if payment could be compelied)
they could make out the account current be-
tween the seeding State and the government,
SO as to strike balance between the debt and
the credit sides ? Large amounts have been
expended by the government on her account
and within her borders. Forts for her har-
bors, light houses, court houses, coast surveys
custom houses, non-paying post Offices and post
routes, and salaries of the swarms of officers
and leeches attendant upon all these in addi-
ton to her vi definable share of the public
debt, have all been paid. But then she has a
credit side of the account also, which it will
be impossible to adjust. How are we to as
certain the values and the proportions thereof
to which she is entitled of the public arms and
ammunitions of war, arsenals, ceded places
public edifccs, ships of war, and of the public
lands ? Is there any count, or is there any
form of action by which partition can be made
of the territories This last item is very
material one, for the only point of principle on
which the secessionists take issue with the Re
publicans as to the platform of the party
adopted at Chicago is that of carrying slave
ry into the territories. What foothold or
property in the territories will the seceders re-
tain on leaving the Union? They will be for
eign States, and we believe it has not yet been
claimed, even by Judge Taney, that the laws
of foreign States extend proprie uigore over
the territories.


Another difficulty in making up the account
with South Carolina would result from her
claiming an almost incalculable credit for the
tlisproportion of the public burdens which she
Gancies she has borne in the eonfederacy, by
reason of what she considered the unequal OPP
Grafton of the various revenue laws. a; I srrs1I


Now, this right of secession. if it exists at
all, is an absolute one, and State has as
much right to exercise it at one time as an
other. If she may secede at will, she may do
so ia anticipation of war and in time of war.
If she can secede when she chooses, she owes
no allegiance to the government an hour after
she chooses to sccede, but will then be just Us
independent of the government as she is of any
other nation. In the midst of war, then, it
will be the right Of any State not only to de-
scrt eur own government, but at the same
time to ally herself to the enemy. The Hart
ford Convention claimed that New England
was heavily taxed but not defended by the
general government, and merely proposed to
ask their consent to expend in New England
the taxes raised in New England. .r


This WAS not claimed as right, but the
consent Of the government was TO be sought.
This was hardly an approach to secession, hut
the democracy of that day did not even tolerate
4i,e,- IL Iopffnr1 fif,