"Seven or eight States have no more right to rebel against the Federal Government than has any one of them. And no state has any more right to secede from the Union, than New York City has to secede from the State of New York. The secession of a State is a disruption of the Confederacy...an abolition of the Constitution----a destruction of the Government. We have as a nation contracted debts, entered into treaty obligations, assumed duties of various kinds towards other nations. By what right can one State or ten States repudiate their share of these engagements?
The whole doctrine of peaceable secession is a delusion and a snare. If it has any foundation whatever, then we have no Government. We have only the mere skeleton----the outline and pretence of a Government.
If President Buchanan had done his duty, and had given the South, from the very outset, to understand that no such doctrine would be accepted or tolerated by the General Government, and taken steps accordingly, the whole disunion movement would have ended by this time." (New York Times editorial, December 18, 1860)
No comments:
Post a Comment