nue to exist, until a new code of things
shall be established either by law or force.

"Whether Congress has the constitutional right to make war against
one or more States, and require the Executive of the Federal
Government to carry it on by means of force to be drawn from the
other States, is a question for Congress itself to consider. It
must be admitted that no such power is expressly given; nor are
there any words in the Constitution which imply it. Among the
powers enumerated in Article 1, Section 8, is that 'to declare war,
grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to make rules concerning
captures on land and water.' This certainly means nothing more
than the power to commence and carry on hostilities against the
foreign enemies of the nation. Another clause in the same section
gives Congress the power 'to provide for calling forth the militia,'
and to use them within the limits of the State. But this power is
so restricted by the words which immediately follow that it can be
exercised only for one of the following purposes: 1. To execute
the laws of the Union; that is, to aid the Federal officers in the
performance of their regular duties. 2. To suppress insurrection
against the State; but this is confined by Article 4, Section 4, to
cases in which the State herself shall apply for assistance against
her own people. 3. To repel the invasion of a State by enemies
who come from abroad to assail her in her own territory. All these
provisions are made to protect the States, not to authorize an
attack by one part of the country upon another; to preserve the
peace, and not to plunge them into civil war. Our forefathers do
not seem to have thought that war was calculated 'to form a more
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.'
There was undoubtedly a strong and universal conviction among the
men who framed and ratified the Constitution, that military force
would not only be useless, but pernicious, as a means of holding
the States together.

"If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of general
hostilities carried on by the Central Government against a State,
then it seems to follow that an attempt to do so would be _ipso
facto_ an expulsion of such State from the Union. Being treated
as an alien and an enemy, she would be compelled to act