pursuance of the Constitution,
to be for her the supreme law of the land. The States have their status in
the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this,
they can only do so against law and by revolution. The Union, and not
themselves separately, procured their independence and their liberty. By
conquest or purchase the Union gave each of them whatever of independence
or liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and, in
fact, it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made
the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for
them, and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had
a State constitution independent of the Union. Of course, it is not
forgotten that all the new States framed their constitutions before they
entered the Union nevertheless, dependent upon and preparatory to coming
into the Union.

Unquestionably the States have the powers and rights reserved to them in
and by the national Constitution; but among these surely are not included
all conceivable powers, however mischievous or destructive, but, at most,
such only as were known in the world at the time as governmental powers;
and certainly a power to destroy the government itself had never been
known as a governmental, as a merely administrative power. This relative
matter of national power and State rights, as a principle, is no other
than the principle of generality and locality. Whatever concerns the whole
should be confided to the whole--to the General Government; while whatever
concerns only the State should be left exclusively to the State. This
is all there is of original principle about it. Whether the national
Constitution in defining boundaries between the two has applied the
principle with exact accuracy, is not to be questioned. We are all bound
by that defining, without question.

What is now combated is the position that secession is consistent with the
Constitution--is lawful and peaceful. It is not contended that there is
any express law for it; and nothing should ever be implied as law which
leads to unjust or absurd consequences. The nation purchased with money
the countries out of which several of these States were formed. Is it just
that they shall go off without leave and without refunding? The nation
paid very large sums (in the aggregate, I believe, nearly a hundred
millions) to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just that s