with itself. Can any reasonable man be well disposed towards a Government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?—a Government that can exist only by the sword? Every such war must involve the innocent with the guilty. This single consideration should be sufficient to dispose every peaceable citizen against such a Government."

On the same subject, GEORGE MASON, of Virginia, said: “The most jarring elements of nature, sin and malice, are not more incompatible than such a mixture of civil liberty and military execution. Will the militia march from one State into another, in order to collect the arrears of taxes from the delinquent members of the Republic? Will they maintain an army for this purpose? Will not the citizens of the invaded States assist one another till they rise and shake off the Union altogether? * * * To punish the non-payment of taxes with death, is a severity not yet adopted by despotism itself; yet this unexampled cruelty would be mercy, compared to a military collection of revenue, in which the bayonet could make no distinction between the innocent and the guilty."-See Mr. MADISON'S views on this subject, page 49.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, in his special Message, Feb. 5, 1827, in respect to the resistance of Georgia to Federal requisitions, said: "In abstaining at this stage of the proceedings from the application of any military force, I have been governed by considerations which will, I trust, meet the concurrence of the Legislature. Among these, one of prominent importance has been, that these surveys have been attempted and partly effected under color of legal authority from the State of Georgia; that the surveyors are, therefore, not to be viewed in the light of individual and solitary transgressors, but as the agents of a sovereign State acting in obedience to authority which they believed to be binding upon them."

Mr. MADISON, on the 8th of June, 1787, said in convention: Any Government for the United States formed on the supposed practicability of using force against the unconstitutional proceedings of the States, would prove as visionary and fallacious as the Government of Congress," evidently meaning the then existing Congress of the Confederation.

Mr. BUCHANAN in his annual address, 1860, discusses the

question, "Has the Constitution delegated to Congress the power to coerce a State into submission which is attempting to withdraw, and has actually withdrawn from the confederacy? If answered in the affirmative it must be on the principle that power has been conferred upon Congress to declare and to make war against a State. After much serious reflection, I have arrived at the conclusion that no such power has been delegated to Congress, or to any other department of the Federal Government. It is manifest upon an inspection of the Constitution, that this is not among the enumerated powers granted to Congress; and it is equally apparent that its exercise is not 'necessary and proper for carrying into execution' any one of these powers. So far from this power having been delegated to Congress, it was expressly refused by the convention which formed the Constitution." See MADISON papers, p. 761.

"Without descending to particulars, it may be safely asserted that the power to make war against a State is at variance with the whole spirit and intent of the Constitution.

"But if we possessed this power would it be wise to exercise it under existing circumstances? The object doubtless would be to preserve the Union. War would not only present the most effectual means of destroying it; but would banish all hope of its peaceable re-construction."

* * *

"The fact is that our Union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war. If it cannot live in the affections of the people, it must one day perish. Congress possesses many means of preserving it by conciliation, but the sword was not placed in its hands to destroy it by force." These views he repeats in a special Message on the subject.

President BUCHANAN, in his special Message, Jan. 8, 1861, after denying the right of secession, on the part of the States, and the right of coercion on the part of the General Government against seceding States, says: "But the right and duty to use military force defensively against those who resist the Federal officers in the execution of their legal functions, and against those who spoil the power of the Federal Government, is clear and undeniable."

To this Senator DAVIS, of Mississippi, Jan. 10, 1861, replies:

"Is it so? Where does he get it? Our fathers were so jealous of a standing army that they would scarcely permit the organization and maintenance of any army. Where does he get the 'clear and undeniable' power to use the force of the United States in the manner he then proposes? To execute a process, troops may be summoned as a posse comitatus; and here in the history of our Government, it is not to be forgotten that in the earlier, better days of the Republic—and painfully do we feel that they were better indeed—a President of the United States did not recur to the army; he went to the people of the United States. Vaguely and confusedly, indeed, did the Senator from Tennessee (ANDREW JOHNSON) bring forward the case of the great man, Washington, as one, in which he had used a power which was equivalent to the coercion of a State, for he said that Washington used the military power against a portion of the people of a State; and why might he not have used it against the whole State?

"Let me tell that Senator that the case of General Washington has no application as he supposes. It was a case of insurrection within the State of Pennsylvania; and the very message from which he read communicated the fact that Governor MIFFLIN thought it necessary to call the militia of adjoining States to co-operate with those of Pennsylvania. He used the militia not as a standing army. It was by the consent of the Governor; it was by his advice. It was not the invasion of the State. It was not the coercion of the State; but it was aiding the State to put down insurrection, and in the very manner provided in the Constitution itself.

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But, I ask again, what power has the President to use the army and navy except to execute process? Are we to have drumhead courts substituted for those which the Constitution and the laws provide? Are we to have sergeants sent over the land instead of civil magistrates? Not so thought the elder Adams. * * * I say then, when we trace our history to its early foundation under the first two Presidents of the United States, we find that this idea of using the army and the navy to execute the laws at the discretion of the President, was not even entertained, still less acted upon, in any case."

DECLARATION BY THE CONVENTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA OF CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE SECESSION OF THAT STATE.

Dec. 24, 1860.

The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 2d day of April, A. D. 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in their withdrawal from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

And now the State of South Carolina, having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.

In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the Government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, free and INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

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They further solemnly declared, that whenever any of Government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of

the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of Government in all its departments— Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. For purposes of defence they united their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League, known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to intrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first article, "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."

Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on; and on the 3d of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definite Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the Independence of the Colonies in the following terms:

"ARTICLE 1. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz.: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN, AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and, for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the Government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."

Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely, the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother country as a FREE, SOVEREIGN, AND INDEPENDENT STATE.

In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the articles of Confederation; and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended, for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the Constitution of the United States.