business, and expend their surplus philanthropy on the poor at their own doors, rather than on the happy and contented slaves!

The Slave Power, having resolved to destroy the Union-having taken decided steps to that end-several States having definitively seceded, or prepared to secede, from the Union, without giving the least intimation that they could be swerved from this purpose by any pledge or act whatever, on the part of the Free Stateswhat was the North to do?

"Let us try the virtue of new protestations, new prostrations, more groveling abasements," was the instinctive, urgent, unanimous response of that large portion of the politicians and traders of the Free States who had already reduced servility to a science. Without the least warrant, in defiance of the most explicit declarations, it was assumed that Secession was but a (6 'strike" of the Slave Power for more complete, unresisted sway over the Union, rather than for utter and final escape from it.

Whoever has carefully considered the platforms and the action of the

At a great public meeting held at Mobile, Alabama, November 15, 1860, a Declaration of Causes," twenty-two in number, was put forth; from which we select the following:

"The following brief, but truthful history of the Republican party, its acts and purposes, affords an answer to these questions:

"It claims to abolish Slavery in the districts, forts, arsenals, dockyards, and other places ceded to the United States. To abolish the interState Slave-Trade, and thus cut off the Northern Slave States from their profits of production, and deprive the Southern of their sources of supply

of labor. * * *

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respective parties which confronted each other during the canvass and in the election of 1860, must realize that Secession could be met in but one of four ways:

1. By substantial acquiescence in the movement, and in its proposed result.

2. By proffering such new concessions and guarantees to Slavery as should induce the conspirators to desist from their purpose, and return to loyalty and the Union.

3. By treating it as Rebellion and Treason, and putting it down, if need be, by the strong arm.

4. By so acting and speaking as to induce a pause in the movement, and permit an appeal "to Philip sober" from the South inflamed by passionate appeals and frenzied accusations,* to the South, enlightened, calmed, and undeceived, by a few months of friendly, familiar discussion, and earnest expostulation.

The first of these alternatives had few open advocates in the Free States; but there were some who even went the length of declaring Secession a constitutional right, to be exercised by any State whenever her own con

the ground of positive legislation, hostile to the Southern States.

"It opposes protection to Slave property on the high seas, and has justified piracy itself in the case of the Creole.

*

prompt her to that resort-or, if not exactly a right, then a heroic remedy for grievous wrongs, which could not be practically resisted."

The second was urgently advocated by the entire "Democratic" and "Conservative" strength of the Free States, and by nearly all that still openly clung to the Union in the Slave States.

The third was the natural, spontaneous impulse of the great mass of Republicans, who could not see why their adversaries should not submit unqualifiedly to the result of a fair and honest election, as they had uniformly done, constitutionally resisting any unwarranted act or attempt of the President elect or his supporters, whenever the occasion should arise. But they found it difficult to realize that those who still retained predominance in both branches of Congress, and in the Supreme Court-who might have had, moreover, a Democratic President, had they chosen to support the candidate of a majority of that party—and who had still the active and earnest sympathy of a large majority of the American Peo

likely, Connecticut, would separate from those New England and Western States, where the black man is put upon a pinnacle above the white. New York City is for the Union first, and the gallant and chivalrous South afterward."

5 A correspondent of the Boston Courier, of November, 1860, after contending that the South has ample cause for seceding, says:

"It is perfectly competent for South Carolina to notify the President officially, that she no longer belongs to the confederacy. This she can do at any moment. The Federal officers, from the district judge, collector, and marshal, to the humblest postmaster, can resign their places. Everybody agrees that this can readily be done at once, and without difficulty or any quarrel. Suppose so much to be done, and that President Buchanan should appoint a new Judge and a new Collector, who should repair

usurpation and aggression from the numerical minority, or the President they had been permitted to choose. It was with little patience that the great body of the Republicans heard suggestions from any of their leaders or oracles of overtures looking to "conciliation" and "peace" through new concessions, in the face of the now chronic menace of Disunion.

The asserted right of Secession is one which no government or nation ever did or can concede without signing its own death-warrant. When the Federal Constitution was before the States for ratification, vehemently and formidably opposed, and its adoption, in several States, for a time successfully resisted, there was manifest danger of its failure in New York, as well as in two other great leading States, Virginia and Massachusetts. To the New York Convention, sitting at Poughkeepsie, the people had returned a majority of delegates hostile to ratification. The friends of the Constitution were constrained to resort to delay, to policy, and to propositions of amendment, to overcome or wear out the resistance they had

to Charleston and demand the payment of duties upon any imported goods. Suppose, upon a refusal to pay the duties exacted, the Collector should do what all the Collectors are bound to do-seize the goods. The owner would have to furnish a bond to the government for their value. The owner would protest against giving one, and only give it, as the lawyers say, when in duress. In any suit upon such a bond, when the question of coërcion in making it was tried, who would compose the jury? They must belong to South Carolina. long to South Carolina. We have made these suggestions simply to satisfy any reader how very easily the mere matter of peaceable secession can be accomplished, and how futile would be all attempts to enforce Federal laws in any State by the aid of officers appointed from abroad.

"Practically, therefore, a peaceable secession will be very apt to work a final separation of the State which desires it, and, ultimately, a general dissolution of the confederacy."

encountered. In this dilemma, Alexander Hamilton wrote to James Madison to ask if the Constitution might not be accepted provisionally, with liberty to recede from the Union formed by it, if experience should justify the apprehensions of its adversaries. Mr. Madison promptly and wisely responded in the negative, stating that such conditional acceptance had been agitated at Richmond, and rejected as, in fact, no ratification at all. In the same spirit, Mr. Clay likened our Constitutional Union to a marriage, which is either indissoluble at the pleasure of one or both parties, or else no marriage at all.

The Virginia Convention which ratified the Federal Constitution, in the preämble to its Ordinance of Ratification, declared that it was the 'impression" of the People of their State that the powers granted by said Constitution, being derived from the People of the United States, may rightfully be resumed by them, whenever those powers shall be perverted to their injury or oppression. But

• Col. Hamilton, having first set before Mr. Madison the formidable obstacles to ratification, proceeded as follows:

"You will understand that the only qualification will be the reservation of the right to recede, in case our amendments have not been decided upon in one of the modes pointed out by the Constitution within a certain number of years-perhaps five or seven. If this can, in the first instance, be admitted as a ratification, I do not fear any further consequences."

But Madison knew no ifs in the ratification of our federal pact. His reply, in full, is as follows:

"NEW YORK, Sunday Evening. "MY DEAR SIR:-Yours of yesterday is this instant come to hand, and I have but a few minutes to answer it.

"I am sorry that your situation obliges you to listen to propositions of the nature you describe. My opinion is, that a reservation of a right to withdraw, if amendments be not decided on under the form of the Constitution within a certain

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this is nothing else than the fundamental doctrine of the republican system-that governments are made for the People, not the People for governments; and that the People, consequently, may, from time to time, modify their forms of government in accordance with their riper experience and their enlightened convictions-respecting, of course, the limitations and safeguards they may have seen fit to establish. This right had been set forth, with remarkable clearness and force, in the preämble to the Declaration of Independence, and by many of our patriot sages in later days. John Quincy Adamsnever remarkably inclined to popularize forms of government—had distinctly affirmed it in a speech in Congress; so had Abraham Lincoln, in one of his debates with Senator Douglas. But the right of a people to modify their institutions is one thing, and the right of a small fraction or segment of a people to break up and destroy a Nation, is quite another. The former is Reform; the latter is Revolution."

time, is a conditional ratification; that it does not make New York a member of the new Union; and, consequently, that she could not be received on that plan. Compacts must be reciprocalthis principle would not, in such a case, be preserved. The Constitution requires an adoption, in toto and forever. It has been so adopted by the other States. An adoption for a limited time would be as defective as an adoption of some of the Articles only. In short, any condition whatever must vitiate the ratification. What the new Congress, by virtue of the power to admit new States, may be able and disposed to do in such case, I do not inquire, as I suppose that is not the material point at present. I have not a moment to add more than my fervent wishes for your success and happiness. The idea of reserving a right to withdraw was started at Richmond, and considered as a conditional ratification, which was itself abandoned as worse than a rejection. Yours, JAMES MADISON, JR."

we remember how we felt, when Adams | was defeated; and Clay, and Scott, and Fremont. It is decidedly pleasanter to be on the winning side, especially when-as now-it happens also to be the right side.

"We sympathize with the afflicted; but we cannot recommend them to do any thing desperate. What is the use? They are beaten now; they may triumph next time: in fact, they have generally had their own way: had they been subjected to the discipline of adversity so often as we have, they would probably bear it with more philosophy, and deport themselves more befittingly. We live to learn: and one of the most difficult acquirements is that of meeting reverses with graceful fortitude.

"The telegraph informs us that most of the Cotton States are meditating a withdrawal from the Union, because of Lincoln's election. Very well: they have a right to meditate, and meditation is a profitable employment of leisure. We have a chronic, invincible disbelief in Disunion as a remedy for either Northern or Southern grievances. We cannot see any necessary connection between the alleged disease and this ultraheroic remedy; still, we say, if any one sees fit to meditate Disunion, let him do so unmolested. That was a base and hypocritic row that was once raised, at Southern dictation, about the ears of John Quincy Adams,

because he presented a petition for the dissolution of the Union. The petitioner had a right to make the request; it was the Member's duty to present it. And now, if

the Cotton States consider the value of the Union debatable, we maintain their perfect right to discuss it. Nay: we hold, with Jefferson, to the inalienable right of communities to alter or abolish forms of government that have become oppressive or injurious; and, if the Cotton States shall decide

that they can do better out of the Union

than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless; and we do not see how one party can have a right to do what another party has a right to prevent. We must ever resist the asserted right of any State to remain in the Union,

and nullify or defy the laws thereof: to withdraw from the Union is quite another matter. And, whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve

to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope never to live in a republic, whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets.

แ

But, while we thus uphold the practical liberty, if not the abstract right, of secession, we must insist that the step be taken, if it ever shall be, with the deliberation and gravity befitting so momentous an issue.

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Let ample time be given for reflection; let the subject be fully canvassed before the people; and let a popular vote be taken in every case, before Secession is decreed. Let the people be told just why they are asked to break up the confederation; let them have both sides of the question fully presented; let them reflect, deliberate, then vote; and let the act of Secession be the echo of an unmistakable popular fiat. A judgment thus rendered, a demand for separation so backed, would either be acquiesced in without the effusion of blood, or those who rushed upon carnage to defy and defeat it, would place themselves clearly in the wrong.

"The measures now being inaugurated in the Cotton States, with a view (apparently) to Secession, seem to us destitute of gravity and legitimate force. They bear the unmistakable impress of haste-of passion-of distrust of the popular judgment. They seem clearly intended to precipitate the South into rebellion before the baselessness of the clamors which have misled and excited her, can be ascertained by the great body of her people. We trust that they will be confronted with calmness, with dignity, and with unwavering trust in the inherent strength of the Union, and the loyalty of the American people.'

Several other Republican journals, including some of the most influential, held similar language, and maintained a position not unlike that of The Tribune. None of them countenanced the right of a State to secede from the Union, or regarded it as more defensible than the right of a stave to secede from the cask which

it helps to form; nor did they regard

the effervescence now exhibited at the South as demonstrating a real desire on the part of her people to break up the Union. But they said impressively to that people: "Be calm; let us be heard; allow time for deliberation and the removal of

prejudice; unite with us in calling a Convention of the States and People; and, if that Convention shall be unable to agree on such amendments to the Constitution as shall remove existing discontent, and your people shall still, with any approach to