s faith, the
inherent right to secede. The argument assumes that the States were
originally each in its individuality a sovereign state, but by the
convention which framed the constitution, each surrendered its
sovereignty to the whole, and thus several sovereign states became one
sovereign political people, governing in general matters through the
General government, and in particular matters through particular or
State governments. This is Mr. Madison's theory, and also Mr.
Webster's; but it has been refuted in the refutation of the theory that
makes government originate in compact. A sovereign state can,
undoubtedly, surrender its sovereignty, but can surrender it only to
something or somebody that really exists; for to Surrender to no one or
to nothing is, as has been shown, the same thing as not to surrender at
all; and the Union, being formed only by the surrender, is nothing
prior to it, or till after it is made, and therefore can be no
recipient of the surrender.

Besides, the theory is the reverse of the fact. The State does not
surrender or part with its sovereignty by coming into the Union, but
acquires by it all the rights it holds as a State. Between the original
States and the new States there is a difference of mode by which they
become States in the Union, but none in their powers, or the tenure by
which they hold them. The process by which new States are actually
formed and admitted into the Union, discloses at once what it is that
is gained or lost by admission. The domain and population, before the
organization of the Territory into one of the United States, are
subject to the United States, inseparably attached to the domain of the
Union, and under its sovereignty. The Territory so remains, organized
or unorganized, under a Territorial Government created by Congress.
Congress, by an enabling act, permits it to organize as a State, to
call a convention to form a State constitution, to elect under it, in
such way as the convention ordains, State officers, a State
legislature, and, in the way prescribed by the Constitution of the
United States, senators and representatives in Congress. Here is a
complete organization as a State, yet, though called a State, it is no
State at all, and is simply territory, without a single particle of
political power. To be a State it must be recognized and admitted by
Congress as a State in the Union, and when so recognized and admitted
it possesses, in union wi