PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



G51 





the Constitution imposed, and entitled to all 

 . ,.. -es. Was lint tins their OOOdltiOD ''. 



M ju>li!\ I'm- denial of 



.L:I| j>ri\ ilexes. TliutuStuteciftlu-lni.il 



.; tin-Ill is inconsistent 



me i.f til.- Government and terms 

 uiioii. In its nuturo the Government 

 mi \>\ Si. ii<--. possessing equal rights 

 i.-i|ii:il uro unknown to tliu 

 ..ual I'lirniiitiiin perfect equal- 

 :,.!. Th.-\ were granted the same repre- 

 ..ii in tin.- Senate, and the same right to be 

 . in tin- lli.u-e of Representatives the 

 II lli.- latter beinj.' regulated only by u dif- 

 |"i|iulatiiin. Hut e\ 'TV Stair, h 

 MIL ill its population, \viis secured one representative 

 in thut brunch. Each Slate \\as given the right, and 

 the same i i^lit, to participate in the election of l'rc-i- 

 dent a: -ident, ami all alike were secured 



aelit (.(' the judicial department. The Consti- 

 . ton, was submitted to the people of each 

 tcly, and adopted by them in that capa- 

 | '.invention which framed it considered, 

 i> bound to do, each as a separate sov- 

 iv that could not be subjected to the Constitu- 



: by its consent, 



Tiiat cou-fiit was consequently asked and given. 

 The equality, therefore, of Tights was the condition 

 of the original thirteen States liefore the Government 

 was formed, and such equality was not only not in- 

 I with, but guaranteed to them as well in re- 

 gard to the powers conferred upon the General Gov- 

 ernment as 10 those reserved to the States or to the 

 people of the States. 



The same equality is secured to the States which 

 have been admitted" into the Union since the Consti- 

 tution was adopted. In each instance the State ad- 

 I has been "declared to be one of the United 

 States on an equal footing with the original States in 

 all ratpectt whatever." 



The Constitution, too, so far as most of the powers 

 it contains are concerned, operates directly upon the 

 people in their individual and aggregate capacity, 

 und on a'l alike. Each citizen, therefore, of every 

 State, owes the same allegiance to the General Gov- 

 ernment, 'and is entitled to the same protection. The 

 obligation of this allegiance it is not within the legal 

 power of his State or of himself to annul or evade. 

 It is made paramount and perpetual, and for that 

 vason it is equally the paramount duty of the 

 : .il Government to allow to the citizens of each 

 State and to the State the rights secured to both, 

 and the protection necessary to their full enjoyment. 

 A citizen may, no doubt, forfeit such rights by com- 

 mitting crime against the United States, upon con- 

 viction of the same, where such forfeiture by law an- 

 ntly passed is made part of the punishment. 

 But a State cannot, in its corporate capacity, be 

 made liable to such a forfeiture, for a State, as such, 

 under the Constitution, cannot commit or be in- 

 dieted tor a crime. No legal proceeding, criminal 

 in- civil, can be instituted to deprive a State of the 

 benefits of the Constitution by forfeiting as against 

 In i any of the rights it secures. Her citizens, be 

 tm-y few or many, may be proceeded against under 

 the law and convicted, but the State remains a State 

 of the Union. To concede that by the illegal con- 

 duct of her own citizens she can bo withdrawn from 

 the Union is virtually to concede the right of seces- 

 sion- for what difference does it make as regards the 

 result, whether a State can rightfully secede (a doc- 

 trine, by the by, heretofore maintained by statesmen 

 North as well as South), or whether, by the illegal 

 conduct of her citizens, she ceases to be a State of 

 th.- Union? 



In cither case the end is the same; the only differ- 

 ence is, that by the one theory she ceases by law to 

 be such a State, and by the other by crime, without 

 and against law. But the doctrine is wholly erro- 

 neous. A State once in the Union must abide in it 



forever. She can never withdraw from or be ex- 

 polled from it. A tu/lerent principle would subject 

 .ion (> dissolution at any moment. It u, 

 therefore, alike perilous and unsound. 



Nor do we see that it has any support in the meas- 

 ures recommended by the majority of the committee. 

 The insurrectionary States are by these measure* 

 d to be States of the Union. The proposed 

 constitutional amendment is to be submitted to them 

 us well as to other States. In this respect each is 

 placed on the same ground. To consult a State not 

 in the Union on the propriety of adopting a consti- 

 tutional amendment to the Government ofthe Union, 

 und which is necessarily to affect those States only 

 composing the Union, would be an absurdity ; and to 

 allow an amendment which States in the Lnion might 

 desire to be defeated, by the votes of States not in 

 the Union, would be alike nonsensical and unjust. 

 The very measure, therefore, of submitting to all the 

 States forming the Union before the insurrection 

 a constitutional amendment, makes the inquiry 

 whether all at this time are in or out of the Union a 

 vital one. If they are not, all should not be consult- 

 ed. If they are, thev should be, and should be only 

 because they are. "The very fact, therefore, of such 

 a submission, concedes that the Southern States are 

 and never ceased to be States of the Union. 



Tested, therefore, either by the nature of our Gov- 

 ernment or by the laws of the Constitution, the in- 

 surrection, now happily and utterly suppressed, has, 

 in no respect, changed the relations of the States 

 where it prevailed to the General Government. On 

 the contrary, they are to all intents and purposes as 

 completely States ofthe Union as they ever were. In 

 further support of this proposition, if it needed any, 

 we may confidently appeal to the fact just stated, 

 that the very measure recommended, a constitu- 

 tional amendment to be submitted to such s 

 furnishes such support. For looking to and regard- 

 ing the rights of the other States, such a submission 

 has no warrant or foundation except upon the hy- 

 pothesis that they are as absolutely States of the 

 Union as any of the other States. It can never be. 

 under any circumstances, a " profitless abstraction, 

 whether under the Constitution a State is or is not 

 a State of the Union. It can never be such an 

 abstraction whether the people of a State once in 

 the Union can voluntarily, or bv compulsion, es- 

 cape or be freed from the obligations it enjoins, or 

 be deprived of the rights it confers or the protection 

 it affords. 



A different doctrine necessarily leads to a dissolu- 

 tion of the Union. The Constitution supposes that 

 insurrections may exist in a State, and provides for 

 their suppression by giving Congress the power to 

 call "forth the militia' 1 for the purpose. The power 

 is not to subjugate the State within whose limits the 

 insurrection may prevail, and to extinguish it as a 

 Stat.-. but to preserve it as such by subduing the 

 rebellion, by acting on the individual persons en- 

 gaged in it, and not on the State at all. The power 

 is altogether conservative. It is to protect a State, 

 not to destroy it; to prevent her being taken out of 

 the Union by individual crime ; not in any contin- 

 gency to put her out or keep her out. 



The continuance of the Union of all the States is 

 necessary to the intended existence of the Govern- 

 ment. The Government is formed by a constitu- 

 tional association of States, and its integrity depends 

 on the continuance ofthe entire association. If one 

 State is withdrawn from it by any cause, to that ex- 

 tent is the Union dissolved. Those that remain may 

 exist as a government, but it is not the very Govern' 

 inent the Constitution designs. That consists of all, 

 and its character is changed and its power is dimin- 

 ished by the absence of any one. 



A diti'ercnt principle leads to a disintegration that 

 must sooner or later result in the separation of all, 

 and the consequent destruction of the Government. 

 To suppose that a power to preserve tuay, at th 



