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Page 64
The most wicked and disastrous experiment of the age has been tried upon
the grandest scale. It was a bold undertaking to break up the American
Union, and to arrest the progress of its benign principles. To the great
relief and joy of almost universal humanity, the monstrous attempt is
about to result in disgraceful failure. Yet this prodigious enterprise
of destruction was initiated under the most favorable circumstances,
with the most auspicious promise for its fatal success. The malignant
envy of all the instruments of despotism throughout the whole civilized
world were brought to bear against us for the accomplishment of a work
of stupendous ruin--the annihilation of American nationality, American
power, and American freedom. All the bad, restless, retrogressive
elements of our own population sought alliance with the foreign enemies
of human liberty; and, for the most selfish and detestable of all social
and political schemes, attempted to prostrate the paternal government of
their country, before the expiration of the first century of its
unexampled career. Vast armies of deluded citizens, led by degenerate
sons of the republic--ingrates, educated at her own military
schools--have impiously defied her lawful authority, and sometimes
assailed her with unnatural triumph over her arms; while foreign
capital, subsidized by prospective piratical plunder, has filled the
ocean with daring cruisers to destroy her commerce, and thus to weaken
the right hand of her power. Feathers from the wing of her own eagle
have plumed the arrows directed at her heart; while the barb has been
steeled and sharpened by the aid of mercenary enemies in distant
lands--aid purchased by means of the robberies which have desolated one
half the land. Deep and dangerous have been the wounds inflicted on our
unhappy country through this shameless combination of traitors at home
and enemies of humanity abroad; but she still stands erect, though
bleeding, with her great strength yet comparatively undiminished, and
with her foot uplifted ready to be planted on the breast of her
prostrate foes. She holds aloft the glorious banner, its stars still
undimmed, and with her mild but penetrating voice, she still proclaims
the principles of universal freedom to all who may choose to claim it;
and with the sublimity of the most exalted human charity, she invites
even the fallen enemy--the misguided betrayers of their country--to
return to her bosom and share the protection of her generous
institutions. In the hour of her triumph she seeks no bloody vengeance,
but tenders a magnanimous forgiveness to her repenting children, wooing
them back to the shelter of re-established liberty and vindicated law.
All hail to the republic in the splendor of her coming triumph and the
renewal of her beneficent power!
It has not been within the ability of reckless treason and armed
rebellion to break down the Constitution of the country and permanently
destroy its institutions; so will it be as far beyond the capacity, as
it ought to be distant from the thoughts of the men now wielding the
Federal authority, to operate unauthorized changes in the fundamental
law which they have solemnly sworn to support. The strength of the
people has been put forth, through the Government--their blood has been
profusely poured out, for the sole purpose of maintaining its legitimate
ascendency, and of overthrowing and removing the obstacles opposed by
the hand of treason to its constitutional action. To uphold the
supremacy of the Constitution and laws, is the very object of the war;
and it would be a gross perversion of the authority conferred and a
palpable misuse of the means so amply provided by Congress, to use them
for the purpose of defeating the very end intended to be accomplished.
Neither the legislative nor the executive department of the Government
could legitimately undertake to destroy or change the Constitution, from
which both derive their existence and all their lawful power. It is true
that pending a war, either foreign or civil, the Constitution itself
confers extraordinary powers upon the Government--powers far
transcending those which it may properly exercise in time of peace.
These war powers, however, great as they are, and limited only by the
laws of and usages civilized nations, are not extra-constitutional; they
are expressly conferred, and are quite as legitimate as those more
moderate ones which appropriately belong to the Government in ordinary
times. But when there is no longer any war--when the Government shall
have succeeded in completely suppressing the rebellion--what then will
be the proper principle of action? Will not the Constitution of itself,
by the simple force of its own terms, revert to its ordinary operation,
and spread its benign protection over every part of the country? Will
not all the States, returning to their allegiance, be entitled to hold
their place in the Union, upon the same footing which they held prior to
the fatal attempt at secession? These are indeed momentous questions,
demanding a speedy solution.
If we say that the Federal Government may put the States upon any
different footing than that established by the existing Constitution,
then we virtually abrogate that instrument which accurately prescribes
the means by which alone its provisions can be altered or amended. But,
on the other hand, if we concede the right of each State, after making
war on the Union until it is finally conquered, quietly to return and
take its place again with all the rights and privileges it held before,
just as if nothing had happened in the _interim_, then, indeed, do we
make of the Federal Government a veritable temple of discord. We subject
it to the danger of perpetual convulsions, without the power to protect
itself except by the repetition of sanguinary wars, whenever the caprice
or ambition of any State might lead her into the experiment of
rebellion. Between these two unreasonable and contradictory
alternatives--the right of the Government to change its forms, and the
right of the rebellious State to assume its place in the union without
conditions--there must be some middle ground upon which both parties may
stand securely without doing violence to any constitutional principle.
The Federal Government is clothed with power, and has imposed upon it
the duty, to conquer the rebellion. This is an axiom in the political
philosophy of every true Union man, and we therefore do not stop to
argue a point disputed only by the enemies of our cause. But if the
Government has power to conquer the domestic enemy in arms against it,
then, as a necessary consequence, it must be the sole judge as to when
the conquest has been accomplished; in other words, it must pronounce
when and in what manner the state of internal war shall cease to exist.
This implies nothing more than the right claimed by every belligerent
power, and always exercised by the conqueror--that of deciding for
itself how far the war shall be carried--what amount of restraint and
punishment shall be inflicted--what terms of peace shall be imposed.
The Constitution of the United States does not seem to contemplate the
holding, by the Federal Government, of any State as a conquered and
dependent province; but in authorizing it to suppress rebellion, it
confers every power necessary to do the work effectually. It authorizes
the use of the whole military means of the Government, to be applied in
the most unrestricted manner, for the destruction of the rebellious
power. If a State be in rebellion, then the State itself may be held and
restrained by military power, so long as may be necessary, in order to
secure its obedience to the Federal laws and the due performance of its
constitutional obligations. It would be contradictory and wholly
destructive of the right of suppressing rebellion by military power, to
admit the irreconcilable right of the State unconditionally to assume
its place in the Union, only to renew the war at its own pleasure.
Acting in good faith, the Federal Government has the undoubted right to
provide for its own security, and to follow its military measures with
all those supplementary proceedings which are usual and appropriate to
this end. This principle surely cannot be questioned; and if so, it
involves everything, leaving the question one only of practical
expediency and of good faith in the choice of means.
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