is to answer them.

The wise and brave men who had, at much peril and great sacrifice,
secured the independence of the States, were as little disposed to
surrender the sovereignty of the States as they were anxious to organize
a General Government with adequate powers to remedy the defects of the
Confederation. The Union they formed was not to destroy the States, but
to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

[Footnote 88: Parsons, "Rights of a Citizen," chap. xx, section 3.]

[Footnote 89: Ratification appended to Articles of Confederation. (See
Elliott's "Debates," vol. i, p. 113.)]

[Footnote 90: "Federalist," No. xl.]

[Footnote 91: Ibid., Nos. xli-xliv.]

[Footnote 92: See Elliott's "Debates," vol. i, p. 360.]

[Footnote 93: Ibid., pp. 361, 369.]

[Footnote 94: Elliott's "Debates," vol. iii, p. 114.]

[Footnote 95: Ibid., p. 71.]

CHAPTER XII.

Coercion the Alternative to Secession.--Repudiation of it by the
Constitution and the Fathers of the Constitutional
Era.--Difference between Mr. Webster and Mr. Hamilton.

The alternative to secession is coercion. That is to say, if no such
right as that of secession exists--if it is forbidden or precluded by
the Constitution--then it is a wrong; and, by a well settled principle
of public law, for every wrong there must be a remedy, which in this
case must be the application of force to the State attempting to
withdraw from the Union.

Early in the session of the Convention which formed the Constitution, it
was proposed to confer upon Congress the power "to call forth the force
of the Union against any member of the Union failing to fulfill its duty
under the articles thereof." When this proposition came to be
considered, Mr. Madison observed that "a union of the States containing
such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of
force against a State would look more like a declaration of war than an
infliction of punishment, and would probably be considered by the party
attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be
bound. He hoped that such a system would be framed as might render this
recourse unnecessary, and moved that the clause be postponed." This
motion was adopted _nem. con._, and the proposition was never again
revived.[96] Again, on a subsequent occasion, speaking of an appeal to
force, Mr. Madison said: "Was such a remedy eligible? Was it
practicable?