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CHAPTER VI.

IS SECESSION A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT?

IT is the main position of those who deny the claim of the Southern States to form a government of their own, that they are bound fast by the Constitution. On the other hand, able men assert that secession is no violation of its terms. An inquiry into the subject may now appear late in the day, for the onward tide of events has swept beyond this margin of debateable ground. When secession or revolution has ripened into civil war, it may appear of little value to seek whether there were clauses in the Federal compact that should have prevented this. But there is really a future and permanent interest in the question. A strenuous effort is now in progress to maintain or restore the Union; and Mr. Seward, the prime minister of the Northern Government, asserts, that after rebellion is crushed, it will stand forth "unchanged and unchangeable." If so, the elements that now exist will continue-the rights, or imagined rights, that have proved so disastrous in their consequences at the present time. If secession be a right derivable from the Constitution by

calm, logical reasoning, it will so remain; and all know that a right, real or ideal, has a peculiar tenacity of life. Not seldom we witness men who pass a long life in the pursuit of some legal right, which, when delusive, is not the less powerful in its hold upon the mind. The pertinacity of great communities is not likely to be less enduring. Though the present assertion of the doctrine should be trampled down, nothing will extinguish the belief, if founded in truth and on grounds that continue in existence. There appear to be two ways in which this insidious danger may be obviated; but before considering them, we must endeavour to determine whether the asserted right be a truth or a delusion.

The inquiry is one of some difficulty, for the Constitution of the United Sates ordains the most complex system of government ever in operation on a large scale. But an obstacle, really as formidable, exists in the fact that the mind of most inquirers is preoccupied with an opinion. They sit down to the evidence, having first arrived at a verdict. So far as general observation extends, we behold a single people, under a single government, one in all their relations with ourselves, acting, indeed, with extreme unanimity on all questions of public policy. The visitor to the Union observes no evidence of separate States or sovereignties. He passes through the whole country without seeing toll or barrier. He traverses a vast dominion peopled by men of remarkable uniformity

in language and appearance. All seem to be impelled by the same motives, to move at a pace equally rapid, and in some respects to be more thoroughly assimilated than the inhabitants of the smallest countries of Europe. Hence arises a general impression, that the people of the United States are a single political community. Indeed, so obvious does this appear, as almost to excite impatience as if it were absurd, when we are told that, in a constitutional sense, they are distinct sovereign States-thirty-four in number, and that many of them possess more inherent power than the Federal Government which appears to be so

supreme.

But we shall at once perceive that this outward appearance may be somewhat deceptive when we find that men of the highest ability, free from any imaginable bias, express such opinions as De Tocqueville, who observes: "The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and in uniting together, they have not forfeited their nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States choose, to withdraw from the compact, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so, and the Federal Government would have no means of maintaining its claims directly, either by force or right." And the condition of facts thus described, has not apparently altered, for one of the most recent authorities, Dr. Mackay, tells us : "The Federal Government exists on sufferance

only. Any State may, at any time, constitutionally withdraw from the Union, and thus virtually dissolve it. It was not certainly created with the idea that the States, or several of them, would desire a separation; but whenever they choose to do it, they have no obstacle in the Constitution." Here, secession is plainly declared a constitutional right, and this, not by excited Southerners, but by impartial men of unquestionable capacity; and we are forced to admit, that the question must be capable of being viewed in this light by sound-judging men, when we find it expressed so decidedly by such authorities.

Let us briefly consider the circumstances under which the Constitution was framed. The revolutionary war was brought to a successful termination, with the assistance of France and Spain, under the control of a government styled the Congress. This was a central body appointed by the States, with very inefficient powers, in which legislative and executive functions were blended, to the detriment of both. Although the early patriotic enthusiasm soon passed away, still so long as the war continued, the pressure of a common danger knit the States together. When peace followed, the necessity for exertion no longer supplied a stimulus; lassitude and indifference crept over the Government; the bands of the Union gradually loosened, and the fabric fell into decay. There were no funds to liquidate the war debt or to afford a provision for the officers

reduced to want; there was no excitement to keep up the attendance in Congress; there was no subject on which the States felt any strong and common interest. Conflicting views began to display themselves, feelings of jealousy crept into life, and it grew apparent to thoughtful and patriotic men, that if so unsettled a condition of affairs should long continue, the sword so lately sheathed would be drawn again for the still more melancholy purpose of fraternal war. It was, therefore, resolved that a convention should be called to amend the articles of confederation under which the Union existed.

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These "articles of confederation were similar as a framework of government to the Constitution which followed and continues. The States, retaining each of them its own government for its domestic purposes, deputed to a central body, the Congress, the charge of all those matters of a general nature, which could be regulated best by a common agent. To Congress was accorded the power of declaring war and making peace, of entering into treaties and alliances, of regulating the coinage, of establishing a postage system, of borrowing money, of equipping a navy, and appointing all officers in the Federal service; and the respective States were forbidden to undertake any of these acts. Congress had also to execute the functions of a court of final appeal in all disputes between the States. It appointed a permanent committee, under a president of its own

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