subdivisions of our great territory should be bold and demonstrative. Falsely assuming that States were primary, and that the authority of the General Government was derived from the States, to justify the denial of any new claim of the nation, it was deemed sufficient to show that the States severally had never made that concession. In the mean time, the General Government was cautious and paternal, moving forward slowly, and even timidly, when it might have asserted its rights peremptorily as the paramount law of the land. It was not from the States, but from the people, that the Republic derived its powers. Not a third of the future States had existence when the people, by the choice of presidential electors, and members of the House of Representatives, formally assumed the government under the Constitution. While the House of Representatives, without which government would, of course, be impossible, came directly from the people, the States, as such, were represented by the Senate. But the functions of senators were derived from the people, and they would be compelled to act as component parts of a popular government; for the people, not as isolated members of a State, but as American citizens, as freemen having rights in common with the whole American nation, which these senators would be bound to respect, would reach and control them. Congress would therefore make States, not be dependent upon and governed by them; and when, in the last resort, it became necessary to test and forever settle the question of relative prerogatives, the people, as Americans, would rise up, and put down all sectional assumptions as against the nation.

It was necessary not only that this security of the Government should be in the original inherent and asserted rights of its citizens, regardless of state, county, city, and town boundaries, but gradually the forms of constitutional and statute law must be adjusted to this high necessity, so that disorders might be suppressed, or rebellion put down, in accordance with the highest dignity and demands of pub

lic order. Hence the Constitution expressly declares Congress shall have power "to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; to raise and support armies; to provide and maintain a navy; to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia ; " finally, " to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof."

These are fundamental provisions for a strong government; but the actual strength of the government will depend upon the legislation under this constitution, and the administration of the laws it enacts. Now, the history of Congress shows the caution to which we have already referred; and when the fears of the people were roused, and a central despotism began to be dreaded, amendments were adopted which would secure the people their just rights against all usurpation: and Congress joined with the several States, to say, in effect, that no form of religion should be established by law; the freedom of speech and the press, and the right of petition, should not be abridged; the people should have a right to bear arms; the houses of citizens should not be invaded by quartering soldiers upon them in times of peace, nor, in war, contrary to law. Amendments were adopted to guarantee the people against unreasonable search; to secure the rights of justice through a grand jury, and of trial by a jury of their countrymen; to forbid that they should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; and to save them from excessive bail, fines, and cruel and unreasonable punishment. The rights enumerated should "not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;" and it was said ex

pressly, that "the powers not delegated to the United States. by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Let it thus be observed, that with the highest sense of justice, and with the utmost paternal care, the Government of the United States guards the rights of the people. But let it also be observed, that it does this in such a manner as to reserve and strengthen the central power required to vindicate those rights, and secure the integrity of the nation inviolate. For instance, the right of the people to bear arms still left the Articles intact conceding to Congress the control of the militia, and making "the President commander-inchief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service of the United States." The reserved rights not to be infringed were those "retained by the people ;" and, what all fair construction must allow to be completely destructive of the absurd doctrine of State sovereignty as against the General Government, the Tenth Article of Amendments speaks of "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it (the Constitution) to the States;' or, in other words, the powers not necessary for the full and vigorous exercise of the General Government "are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." But the sovereignty was in the Constitution, and the General Government the judge. Fully to sustain the argument of this chapter, to show that this permanent sovereignty of the nation was derived from the people, and not from the States, we have only to refer to the preamble of the Constitution,-"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States. of America." "The people" ordain the Constitution: the Constitution, with its necessary and ample provisions for

amendments, is the definition of the powers delegated to the United States by the people, and of the acts which the States are not permitted to do. All other powers" are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

In the light of these amendments, the prohibition of all State acts, and the exercise of all powers which could in any wise interfere with the permanent sovereignty of the nation, becomes very evident.

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Article I., section 10, reads, " No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligations of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.

"No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspectionlaws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress.

"No State shall, without consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay."

How utterly incompatible all this is with every act of secession, and all such assumptions of "State rights" as have been relied upon to justify treason, all who can read or • understand must know.

One thing more. "The writ of habeas corpus" is a very sacred privilege; but the founders of our government foresaw that contingencies might arise in which this privilege would seriously interfere with the administration of justice or the prompt suppression of rebellion. The Constitution

therefore provided that "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." Then, of it may and ought to be suspended.

course,

Let the provisions for an effective government now be carefully summed up as follows: The people as a nation are an organic unit. They are so, not by the loss of their individuality or personal rights, but by the maintenance of them. They have made their own government, and are pleased with it. They have thrown around it such guards, and so imbued it with their own life, that no man, nor number of men, can by any possibility destroy it, unless by actual force. It is invested, therefore, with the strength of all our growing millions, acting under control of common principles and one common life. In its fullest expression, this is the will of God as manifested in the mental constitution and fortified by revelation, the free responsible action of the human soul. "With Christianity came individual rights as the necessary consequence of individual responsibilities; the right of deciding and acting for self in civil society, as a necessary consequence of the obligation to answer for self at the bar of God."* How these freemen have considered it proper to use this right, we have seen; and a grand consolidated Republic rises up before us as the result.

It is now more distinctly understood than heretofore that our government must be strong as well as free. Our extended domain, and still more extended commercial and diplomatic relations, suggest it, and the ambition of sectional leaders demonstrates it. The government of the United States is strong in the freedom, the affections, the union, the moral power, of its people: hence it is, that, when the exi- ' gencies of the nation demand it, immense armies, sustained by inexhaustible resources of wealth, intelligence, and virtue, can be commanded with unprecedented promptness, and concentrated in unparalleled energy. If the people find

*Greene, p. 109.