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tensely English, she is a very great unity-Russia is a very great unity-so is France-so shall be the United States. This war is making us so, so there will be no escape from it; we must be very great.

Before the rebellion, neither South nor North well understood each other. Now they are getting acquainted. We have half a million of our men down there on a visit. They will take observations while they are gone; spy out the land, and discover the genius and character of the people. The newspapers and the magazines teem with new political information, social and industrial information. The South will be lifted up out of its Dismal Swamp, and Northern character will fertilize it, and Northern enterprise will make it rich. The plough of the farmer and the wheel of the manufacturer already lean that way, and seek to go where nature awaits them to spring into affluence. Lands and houselots at Beaufort, house-lots in Savannah,and Charleston, and Richmond, will be advertised in our Northern papers-sothrift and new life shall come from new knowledge.

The last and great gain of this war will be the strengthening of the American faith in self-government. The Revolution was no test; the period of peace since the war of 1812 has been a test; and this rebellion is the greatest test. Before, men doubted. Our political corruptions were more than political moralist or good citizen could bear. We were thought to be fast declining towards a monarchy. But the response of the North to the call to arms, has brought us all up again to our old faith; has aroused the people from their lethargy, and brought them up to a stout standing upon old revolutionary principles. Massachusetts and Illinois can stand together, shoulder to shoulder, forget tariff and antitariff, forget credit and anti-credit, and fight as friends for one idea. This unity of action between the far extremes of the country is beautiful. This capacity for that greatness which will drop all minor issues, and seize upon the great one, shows that we may live as one people, and that for a long period, we will say forever. Then let us not mourn the dead, as though their work was finished too soon; they are still working, and will reach live hands out of their graves and fashion the pillars of our temple into strength and beauty for ever.

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I. D. V.

ART. XVI.

Allegiance to Government.

In all the past ages of the world, governments have been established and exercised among men. They have been regarded as a necessity. Doubtless they are a necessity still. And although the oft-repeated remark, that those governments are the best which govern the least, may be true, yet it is quite evident that the race has not made that progress and advancement which may supercede the necessity of organized government. When, therefore, we affirm that we, the American people, are seeking to demonstrate, by actual experiment, that man is capable of self-government, we do not mean that we are trying to prove that he can live without law - that he can flourish and carry on trade and commerce, and develope art, without being amenable to some central, organized power, outside of his individuality, but we mean that this central power shall originate in himself, or in other words, that government shall be the creature, and be by the consent of the governed. This is what we mean by self-government.

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On this principle, have the people of this country been working for more than eighty years. The people are the source of power, and hence the government is a government of the people. Foreign nations are slow to understand this system. They do not readily comprehend what it is that cements us together. They have been looking for jarring, discordant, and belligerent States. We have them now, it is true, but the event will demonstrate the strength of free institutions, and prove that we needed some such discipline as we are now having to show us more clearly our duties as members of the body-politic, and to what, as citizens, we owe our first and highest allegiance.

The practical operation of our system of government has been not inaptly compared to the working of a wheel within a wheel, or rather we might say, a series of wheels within wheels. First, is the Federal government, with its Constitution extending over the whole domain, as the fundamental law. All laws in conflict with this, are null and void. Then comes the State organization, with its Constitution,

extending its jurisdiction only as far as the boundaries of the State. Next we have the county, with its local legislation, which must be in conformity with the legislation of the State of which it forms a part. Still, again, the township, which also has a legislation of its own, but must be made to conform to that of the county-wheel within wheel, and all so arranged as to run in harmony, and to accomplish the purposes for which they are designed.

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Now comes the very important question, to which of these does the citizen owe his first and highest allegiance? Does he owe it to the Federal, the State, the County, or the Town authorities? Very much depends upon the answer given to this question. There is an intimate connection between all these departments of government; and if we can repudiate one, we can repudiate them all. If we have the right to say that we will no longer recognize the Federal authority, we have the right to say we will not recognize the State authority. So also we could repudiate, with the same propriety, the County and Town authorities. Unrestrained anarchy would be the result of the practical application of such principles. Wherever they predominate, stable government must disappear.

Now we maintain that our first and highest allegiance is due to the government which gives us name and character -which throws its broad shield of protection over the whole people- - protecting its citizens at home and abroad -on the land and on the sea, and which is recognized as a power among the nations of the earth. We are people of Illinois, and we rejoice in our citizenship; but does Illinois do all this for us? Is she recognized as a great and independent power among the nations? When we travel in foreign countries, do we receive our passports from the State? And when any citizen of our State, travelling abroad, gets into difficulty and is required to show his colors, and give his nationality, does he exhibit a State flag and exclaim, "I am a citizen of Illinois, and claim her protection?" Nay, Illinois is not known abroad as an independent power, and he might as well call upon the moon to come to his assistance and protection. But when he unfurls "the Star Spangled Banner," and proclaims himself an American citizen, and shows his passport as coming from the government which has its seat at Washington, he finds

himself in possession of a shield and buckler more potent than the rifle, the revolver, or the bowie knife.

New York is a great and mighty State. She is known, the world over, as a powerful member of a great Confederacy; but what would it avail any one of her people away from home, to demand protection and respect for his rights on the plea that he is a New Yorker? Suppose a citizen of South Carolina were abroad and should be thrown into circumstances that make it necessary for him to call for protection, and for a redress of grievances; to what power, and to what government, would he address his demand? What would it avail him to announce himself a citizen of South Carolina-the land of Hayne, of Sumpter, and of Marion? He would be told that South Carolina is not known among the nations. But let him announce himself as an American citizen, and it matters not whether he hails from glorious New England, the land of the Puritans, and of Plymouth Rock, or from Quaker Pennsylvania, or from Catholic Maryland, or from the chivalrous South, or from the great North West, the land of prairie and of plenty, or from California-it matters not what the locality may be, provided only the American flag waves over it, and he finds himself clothed in a complete armor that is adequate to every emergency.

These things being so, to what but to the Federal government is the first and highest allegiance of the citizen due? Great pretentions are made on the score of the doctrine of State rights, or State sovereignty. States have rights to be sure counties have rights-townships have rights; but as township rights are limited to county rights-as county are bounded by State rights, so are State rights bounded by Federal rights, all of which are bounded by a constitution which is the fundamental law of all the States. The wheel is within the wheel. All State legislation must be in harmony with the fundamental law: otherwise it is null and void.

What an atrocious sentiment, therefore, was that uttered by Mr. Mason, of Virginia, on the floor of the United States Senate, that he recognized no allegiance whatever to the Federal government, but that all his allegiance was due to Virginia! A more atrocious sentiment was never uttered on American soil, and he who uttered it stands be

fore the world a self-convicted, perjured traitor: for he had taken a solemn oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and when he was speaking the traitorous words, he was under the protection of the flag he was dishonoring, and receiving pay from the very government he was repudiating! Think of the figure this famous ambassador would cut in a foreign country, so circumstanced as to make it necessary for him to call upon the home government for protection. When required to show his colors, and declare his nationality, he hauls out a State rights flag and proudly exclaims, "I am a Virginian! I know no government but that of Virginia! I know no country but the Old Dominion! To the State that gave me birth, and to that alone, do I owe my allegiance!" A United States official hearing this, says, "Then you do not call on me for protection, as a representative of the American government?" "No, sir! I will see that Government in Tophet first. I owe it no allegiance, and ask of it no favors!" "Well, then, sir, let Virginia take care of you."

The truth is, if the Senator from Virginia, after having taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, owed the Federal government no allegiance, then the Senators from Illinois owed it none. The Senators from New York and from New England owed it none. Allegiance was due either from all the Senators or from not any. And if Senators were exempt from allegiance, then the President and Cabinet were exempt. Not an officer in the whole country was under any obligation, and the whole business of government was a farce, and the Constitution not worth the parchment on which it is written.

And what is this government, which was so coolly repudiated, and against which some of the States have attempted to revolt? It is the only representative government in the world that has made itself felt and respected as a power among the nations. Its foundations were laid by great and good men, for the establishment of justice, and the promotion of human rights. It throws its broad shield of protection over the New Englander, the South Carolinian, the Georgian, the Virginian, the Californian, without respect of person, whether he is in China or Japan, in Africa or Asia, on the isles of the ocean, or on the hill-tops and in the valleys of his native State. Its ships of commerce

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