North: we 11. To the Government, and what are the rights and wrongs of its Administration, and what the rights and wrongs of these Sovereign States. must have Union, Our good men Nor will our great and good men be backward in their duty to their will teach us. beloved country, in this its period of most imminent danger. Had not errors been made by the fathers, their sons would not have gone so far astray, and our teachers have only followed in the paths of their wise and The examina- excellent predecessors. Nor need we fear that the examination will injure tion to be of no injury. the reputation and influence of our great and patriotic statesmen, either past or present. As a friend remarked of Webster, "You may strike out all there is in the least degree faulty, and yet is there more of wisdom and excellence, than any ten ordinary statesmen could produce." And though the wise and honored Madison shall be proved to have committed the error that has actually led us to this civil war, we shall love and revere him far more than ever before, when a candid examination shall show how much he has done for his beloved country. will restore us and reconstruct our broken Union. Our statesmen If our living statesmen find that serious misconceptions have led to to Federalism, our present calamities; if the mistakes that are fancied shall be found to have a real existence, they will rejoice in the opportunity afforded, and by magnanimously acknowledging and correcting the mistakes, they will become our noble leaders in measures soon to end this war, to take back these wandering Peoples to the blissful fields of Federalism, and speedily to reconstruct our broken Union. All our States entitled to the tions. See p. 45. Mason and Dixon's line unknown. not only to restrain and instruct power § 12.-TO THE SOUTH: BENEFITS OF EXAMINING INTERNATIONAL Law. As we have seen, the Declaration of Independence declared a neverLaw of Na- dying truth, that the original Thirteen States were to have and enjoy "the separate and equal station to which THE LAWS OF Nature and of NaTURE'S GOD entitle them." There was never a word said about such a line as "Mason and Dixon's," and the States north as well as south, and south as well as north, are supposed to be entitled to all the benefits resulting from "THE LAWS OF NATURE AND OF Nature's God." If Laws of value these laws are good and efficacious, their will be seen, as in every punish but to other system of law, not only in punishing the subjects who do evil, but in praising them who do well; not only in preventing wrong by the forcible exercise of authority, but in the instructing of the law-abiding in the path of duty. The observance of law by the good and virtuous, is the especially rule; the punishment for its breach, is the exception. Preeminently is this the case in International Law, the parties subject to the Code being of such a nature, that no earthly authority can be instituted over them, with the right and power of punishment. The entire system rests on rectitude and honor, and on the principle, that what is for the best good of all States, is truly for the best good in the end of every State; and therefore that self-interest will lead every Christian State to careful observance, to faithful obedience of International Law. The right of punish. ment has very little potency in this Code, though, as we shall find, these the Interna tional, which gives no right of coercion. South: Exam. tional Law. greatest moral persons have a natural right to enforce compliance from $12. To the delinquent parties, and so far to punish as to guard against like wrongs in ining Internafuture. The chief value, then, of International Law, is in its being cor- Knowledge rerectly practised, and this depends chiefly upon the amount of knowledge quisite to prac of its provisions. tice. disregarded Having seen, in some measure, how sadly the North has failed, through The North has failed through ignorance and misconception, to avail itself of the immense benefits that ignorance. should result from a perfect knowledge and thorough practice of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD;" seeing some of the States which declared the never-dying truth, actually in war with some of the very states have States who joined in making the Declaration, and only by whose joint the Law and efforts was it possible to maintain the momentous Declaration; and that gone to war. this war is in direct violation of every principle of those "Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD;" and the wrongs in a controversy being seldom Wrongs selaltogether on one side, it would seem reasonable to examine a little, and side. measure the conduct of Southern Sovereignties by the Laws to which, in Examine the their beginning, they declared themselves entitled. A law is nothing but a rule, and "it is a poor rule that will not work both ways; so that if A Law a rule these "LAWS OF NATURE AND OF NATURE'S GOD," must govern us to ways. their benefit, they should also govern them to our benefit. dom on one South by rule. to work both seem to have some laws. teaching. Its excellence. While they have far better than we understood the nature of our The South Union, and the application to it of "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's disregarded GOD," some fundamental principles in those Laws, of special importance to States united by a league, seem not to have received due consideration. Their great teacher left, to be published after his death, one of the Calhoun's very best treatises on the Science of Government that has been written. Americans will be prouder than ever of the memory of their fellow countryman, whose philosophic mind has presented more clearly and concisely the right, the necessity, and the objects of Government, than any author I have examined. The extracts from this posthumous work of Calhoun, will be among the most interesting in these volumes, to Northern as well as Southern readers. So far as he goes in the presentation of principles, Correct as far he is irresistible on almost every point, and puny would be the effort to put my feeble intellect against this giant to prove that he had not wholly comprehended his subject, and that there were points beyond his argument, fundamental and omnipotent, which he had not reached. But Cumberland will be found a match even for Calhoun, and he establishes the obligations of pact and faith as being sufficient to bind even Sovereign States, a little intimation of which is perceptible in the quotation already made. as it goes. Cumberland goes farther See pp. 14-16. State bound The South will probably discover, on further examination, that States A Sovereign like these of ours, each perfectly sovereign, free and independent, and as by law to keep such unaccountable to any human authority, are nevertheless bound by pact and faith. "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD," to fulfil their every engage. A promise ment rightly made; every one not contravening the end and objects for contrary to a which States are instituted. Any promise that would tend to the destruc- terest, is void. State's true in. South: Exam tional Law. § 12. To the tion or injury of a State, it has no right to make, and any such is void in ining Interna- its origin upon first principles of International Law, that "Law of Nature and of Nature's GOD;" all others are obligatory, particularly those that are reciprocal. The South wrong as to the Judiciary. Another subject, concerning which the North has been equally igno rant with the South, and yet against which the South have manifested the more determined hostility, is the Federal Judiciary. These States, these greatest moral persons, composed of those same erring mortals, rulers and ruled continually going astray from ignorance or malice, have the same liability with their constituent members to error and wrong. The honorable, Christian Citizen, the main supporter of authority, law Its correction and order, wishes to live in a State whose blunders can be best corrected, States liable to error. desirable. its wrongs soonest righted. Such a State gives him best protection for himself, his property, his family, his every interest. But the wit of man We nearest in has been insufficient to devise an efficacious means of State control. We, providing means without without being aware of the fact, have come nearer than any recorded knowing it. example, to a peaceful mode of correcting the wrongs of Commonwealths. Our Federal Judiciary is a wonderful improvement in the science of Gov. ernment, which in our theoretical confusion we have never appreciated. Dignity of our De Tocqueville better comprehended the dignity of our Supreme Court, and its importance to our Union, than any American writer that I have examined. He remarks: Supreme Court. DE TOCQUE- In the nations of Europe the courts of justice are only called upon to try the conracy in Amer- troversies of private individuals but the Supreme Court of the United States sumica, i, 160. mons sovereign powers to its bar. When the clerk of the court advances on the steps of the tribunal, and simply says, "The State of New York vs. the State of Ohio," it is impossible not to feel that the court which he addresses is no ordinary body; and when it is recollected that one of these parties represents one million [now two millions], and the other two millions of men [now over three millions], one is struck by the responsibility of the seven judges whose decision is about to satisfy or to disappoint so large a number of their fellow-citizens. South Carolina agreed that the &c., should be law." The United South Carolina in 1788 ratified the league between these States unitConstitution, ed; one provision of which, as previously observed, was, that the Consti"the supreme tution, and the laws and treaties "made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land." The laws and treaties were, it is true, to be only those "which shall be made in pursuance Arst to judge. thereof," i. e. of "this Constitution; " and had no common arbiter been appointed to decide whether they were in conformity with the Constitution, each State must of necessity have been its own judge. The impolicy of leaving each State to be its own judge in the first instance, was selfevident, and the Sovereign States therefore agreed further in the league, to institute an arbiter between them of higher dignity than any court ever established, as follows: CONSTITUTION, The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers, and Consuls;-to all Cases of Admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction ;-to Contro versies to which the United States shall be a Party;-to Controversies between two or § 12. To the South: Exammore States;-between a State and Citizens of another State;-between Citizens of ining Internadifferent States;-between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of tional Law. different States, and between a State or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens, or Subjects. sued States. Constitution tect U. S. from apply to Court So sweeping was this extent of authority, that individual Citizens Individuals brought suits against States, as in Georgia and Massachusetts, and on further consideration, it being regarded beneath the dignity of a Sovereignty to allow itself to be sued by individual subjects, the eleventh amendedamendment of the Constitution was ratified by the States; but being only restrictive of "any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted does not proagainst one of the United States," it does not extend to the Federal suit. Agency; and that may still be sued by any individual, as well as any State, which shall judge a law or treaty to be unauthorized by the Constitution, or any act of United States officials improper.' And so long as any State remained part of "the land" of the United States, so long as any Each State to Citizen of the United States remained subject to any one of the Sovereign- for redress. ties, by which the Constitution was ordained and established, the State or Citizen was bound by the compact, and by the principles of the International Code, to resort to the court of the States united, for the redress of any grievances. Failing there to get its wrongs righted, if the Confed- Failing there, erates persisted in the wrong, and the best good of the State, according to its own free and independent judgment, required resistance to the wrong, the State would fail in its duty to itself and its subjects, if it did not offer that resistance. For this purpose, its first step is to cease to be a part of "the land" of the Confederacy. So long as it is part of " land," the laws and treaties are to be "the supreme law," and it must adhere to its compact. It violates no compact in withdrawing, because Such secession the league is void for one of two reasons; either, 1st, that it has already pact. the may resist Must first se cede. no violation of be sued. 1 I am aware that the opposite of this declaration is the general belief. It is supposed that It is supposed somehow or other, a Sovereignty has been imparted to the United States, which exempts it from U. S. cannot suit, for the same reason that the Monarch of Great Britain cannot be prosecuted. But a slight examination into principles will show, that the Sovereignty which in Britain abides in the Monarch, in these free States is in the People, the People by States; and it would be a remarkable A strange anomaly, that Sovereign States should have subjected themselves to answer writs of their courts, error. and that their Federal Agency, this mere creature of the Sovereign wills of these States, should be so far exalted above its masters, as to be exempt from suit. We need to look no farther for evidence of the necessity of recurring to first principles in order to understand our governmental system, than this absurd notion that the United States cannot be sued, which is the prevalent belief of our statesmen, alike in the South and in the North, so far as I have examined, and that, too,. against the clear and explicit provision of the Constitution itself. It has been to me one of the most inexplicable points in this examination, how Southern states- Southern men, with their correct ideas of the Federal character of our Government, could have so miscon- errors as to judiciary inceived this important question of the Judiciary. Jefferson and others well versed in ancient Govexplicable. ernments, had fears of this branch overshadowing the Executive and Legislative; but apprehensions of danger should not have prevented a trial of any plain and palpable provisions. As before remarked, the Constitution is to be carried out as it is, till changes are properly made, without consulting hopes or fears. It must be there are reasons not apparent on the surface, why the parties failed to put in What are the full operation the Supreme Court, according to the extent of authority in the Constitution. Sure reasons. are we that nothing in International Law could have interfered with the operation of the courts as evidently designed, and which was much the most important improvement we made. No doubt Southern statesmen have been led by our common calamities to study more thor- Southerners oughly than we in the North, into principles of Government, and this interesting and important have no doubt question of the Judiciary, has probably been by them already completely unfolded. examined. Bouth: Exam 12. To the been violated by the Sovereignties in acquiescing in, or failing to correct, ining Interna- unjust, unauthorized acts of their Agencies, State or Federal; or, 2d, tional Law. South chief in error as to Judiciary. Secession, though right ly practised. tween old and new States. that the Compact has failed to promote the best good of the seceding State, to attain which object only had it the right to join the league. The South, we shall find, more than any part of our country, have misapprehended, undervalued, this our greatest improvement in Federal, ism, the adjudication of wrongs done by these States or by their Federal Agency, in courts of law, as we shall endeavor to substantiate in Part IV, Wrongs by the South. § 13.-TO THE SOUTH: AS TO THEIR PRESENT SECESSION. It also appears that the South need to look deeper into International in the abstract, Law and understand the doctrine of State-rights in all its bearings, in may be wrong order to judge with correctness, whether due regard has been paid the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD," in the present Secession. Although a Sovereign State must be possessed of an absolute right to revoke its compact and secede from a Federal Union, yet may it not wrongfully No right to do exercise that right. Even the absoluteness of Deity is insufficient to justify a wrong; and what a State might rightfully do under certain circumstances, it could not do under other circumstances. For instance, a Difference be- distinction seems quite possible to be made, between the rights of the old Thirteen, and the new States. As to the former, it may be doubtful whether they have not a right, at will, to withdraw from the Confederacy, forfeiting their rights therein by withdrawal, and if not forfeited, the Natural right questions become very complicated; although the other States have a force treaties, natural and legal right to compel compliance with treaty obligations, if Secession they have the power, and have themselves fulfilled their covenants. The complicated, particularly as right of Secession, in either case, seems quite involved; but, as to the new States, the complication and difficulties are immensely enhanced, by the important rights acquired individually and equally by these Sovereignties in their common territory, and antecedent to States being formed within it. of States to en to new States. overlooked their common The South has Strenuous advocates of State rights as are Southern statesmen, and State rights in no more earnest and determined than their transcendent importance reterritory. quires, this weighty branch of the subject is not to be disregarded. Yet, if it has ever been examined by the South, it has been my misfortune not to have met with the treatise. Notwithstanding their inseparable connection with the doctrine of Secession, the pregnant and equal rights of these Sovereign States in all the territory that ever belonged to them jointly, seem never to have been deemed worthy of consideration. Rights east of the Mississippi. We have alluded to the common rights of the States in the territory ceded to the United States, by the original Thirteen States, and lying east of the Mississippi. It is, however, quite possible, that the Compact of Union failing to fulfil its purpose, of which in the last resort every free and independent State is its own judge, the rights in the Southern |