ly
inapplicable to our political system, then the seat of Andrew Johnson
was not in any respect affected by the subsequent madness of his State,
nor can the legality of his seat be any argument for his State.

We are also reminded that during the last session of Congress two
Senators from Virginia represented that State in the Senate; and the
argument is pressed, that no such representation would be valid, if the
State government of Virginia was vacated. This is a mistake. Two things
are established by the presence of these Senators in the National
Senate: first, that the old State government of Virginia is extinct,
and, secondly, that a new government has been set up in its place. It
was my fortune to listen to one of these Senators while he earnestly
denounced the idea that a State government might disappear. I could not
but think that he strangely forgot the principle to which he owed his
seat in the Senate,--as men sometimes forget a benefactor.

It is true, beyond question, that the Acts of Secession are all
inoperative and void against the Constitution of the United States.
Though matured in successive conventions, sanctioned in various forms,
and maintained ever since by bloody war, these acts--no matter by what
name they may be called--are all equally impotent to withdraw an acre of
territory or a single inhabitant from the rightful jurisdiction of the
United States. But while thus impotent against the United States, it
does not follow that they were equally impotent in the work of
self-destruction. Clearly, the Rebels, by utmost efforts, could not
impair the National jurisdiction; but it remains to be seen if their
enmity did not act back with fatal rebound upon those very State Rights
in behalf of which they commenced their treason.

STATE SUICIDE.

It is sometimes said that the States themselves committed _suicide_, so
that as States they ceased to exist, leaving their whole jurisdiction
open to the occupation of the United States under the Constitution. This
assumption is founded on the fact, that, whatever may be the existing
governments in these States, they are in no respect constitutional, and
since the State itself is known by the government, with which its life
is intertwined, it must cease to exist constitutionally when its
government no longer exists constitutionally. Perhaps, however, it would
be better to avoid the whole question of the life or death of the State,
and to content ourselves wit