freedmen will be rescued from the hands that
threaten to cast them back into Slavery.

But this jurisdiction, which is so completely practical, is grandly
conservative also. Had it been early recognized that Slavery depends
exclusively upon the local government, and that it falls with that
government, who can doubt that every Rebel movement would have been
checked? Tennessee and Virginia would never have stirred; Maryland and
Kentucky would never have thought of stirring. There would have been no
talk of neutrality between the Constitution and the Rebellion, and every
Border State would have been fixed in its loyalty. Let it be established
in advance, as an inseparable incident to every Act of Secession, that
it is not only impotent against the Constitution of the United States,
but that, on its occurrence, both soil and inhabitants will lapse
beneath the jurisdiction of Congress, and no State will ever again
pretend to secede. The word "territory," according to an old and quaint
etymology, is said to come from _terreo_, to terrify, because it was a
bulwark against the enemy. A scholiast tells us, "_Territorium est
quicquid hostis terrendi causa constitutum_," "A territory is something
constituted in order to terrify the enemy." But I know of no way in
which our Rebel enemy would have been more terrified than by being told
that his course would inevitably precipitate him into a territorial
condition. Let this principle be adopted now, and it will contribute
essentially to that consolidation of the Union which was so near the
heart of Washington.

The necessity of this principle is apparent as a restraint upon the
lawless vindictiveness and inhumanity of the Rebel States, whether
against Union men or against freedmen. Union men in Virginia already
tremble at the thought of being delivered over to a State government
wielded by original Rebels pretending to be patriots. But the freedmen,
who have only recently gained their birthright, are justified in a
keener anxiety, lest it should be lost as soon as won. Mr. Saulsbury, a
Senator from Delaware, with most instructive frankness, has announced,
in public debate, what the restored State governments will do. Assuming
that the local governments will be preserved, he predicts that in 1870
there will be more slaves in the United States than there were in 1860,
and then unfolds the reason as follows,--all of which will be found in
the "Congressional Globe"[29]:--

"By your ac