they
renounce their allegiance; they repudiate our authority over them,
and they assert that they have assumed--some of them that they have
resumed--their position among the family of sovereignties, among
the nations of the earth.... To-day, even while I am speaking,
Georgia is voting upon this very question. And unless the signs of
the times very much deceive us, within three weeks other States
will be added to the number."

Mr. Pendleton might also have said that prior to that date, forts,
arsenals, dock-yards, mints, and other places and property
belonging to the United States, had been seized by organized and
armed bodies of rebels; the collection of debts due in the South to
Northern creditors had been stopped; South Carolina had declared
that any attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter by the United States
would be regarded by that State as an act of hostility against her
and equivalent to a declaration of war; the Star of the West, an
unarmed vessel, with the American flag floating at her mast-head,
carrying provisions to the famishing garrison of Fort Sumter, had
been fired on and driven from Charleston harbor; in short, at that
date the rebels were engaged in actual war against the Nation, and
the only reason why blood had not been shed was that the National
government had failed in its duty to defend the Nation's property,
and to maintain the sacredness of the National flag.

At that crisis Mr. Pendleton delivered and sent forth a speech
bearing this significant motto: "But, sir, armies, money, blood,
can not maintain this Union--justice, reason, peace, may." The
speech was according to its motto. Accustomed as he is to speak
cautiously, and in a scholarly and moderate way, we can not be
mistaken as to his drift. On the authority of the National
government he says:

"Now, sir, what force of arms can compel a State to do that which
she has agreed to do? What force of arms can compel a State to
refrain from doing that which her State government, supported by
the sentiment of her people, is determined to persist in doing....
Sir, the whole scheme of coercion is impracticable. It is contrary
to the genius and spirit of the Constitution."

These extracts sufficiently and fairly show Mr. Pendleton's notion
of the duty and authority of t