"vacated," Mr. Johnson hit upon the very term
which, in the famous resolution of 1688, was held to be most effective
in dethroning King James. After declaring that he had abdicated the
government, it was added, "that the throne had thereby become _vacant_"
on which Macaulay happily remarks:--

"The word _abdication_ conciliated politicians of a more timid school.
To the real statesman the simple important clause was that _which
declared the throne vacant_; and if that clause could be carried, he
cared little by what preamble it might be introduced."[22]

And the same simple principle is now in issue. It is enough that the
Rebel States be declared _vacated_, as _in fact_ they are, by all local
government which we are bound to recognize, so that the way is open to
the exercise of a rightful jurisdiction.

TRANSITION TO RIGHTFUL GOVERNMENT.

And here the question occurs, How shall this rightful jurisdiction be
established in the vacated States? Some there are, so impassioned for
State rights, and so anxious for forms even at the expense of substance,
that they insist upon the instant restoration of the old State
governments in all their parts, through the agency of loyal citizens,
who meanwhile must be protected in this work of restoration. But,
assuming that all this is practicable, as it clearly is not, it
attributes to the loyal citizens of a Rebel State, however few in
numbers,--it may be an insignificant minority,--a power clearly
inconsistent with the received principle of popular government, that the
majority must rule. The seven voters of Old Sarum were allowed to return
two members of Parliament, because this place,--once a Roman fort, and
afterwards a sheepwalk,--many generations before, at the early casting
of the House of Commons, had been entitled to this representation; but
the argument for State Rights assumes that all these rights may be
lodged in voters as few in number as ever controlled a rotten borough of
England.

Pray, admitting that an insignificant minority is to organize the new
government, how shall it be done? and by whom shall it be set in motion?
In putting these questions I open the difficulties. As the original
government has ceased to exist, and there are none who can be its legal
successors, so as to administer the requisite oaths, it is not easy to
see how the new government can be set in motion without a resort to some
revolutionary proceeding, instituted either by the citizens or