tates into secession against their convictions and their
will. No doubt there were leaders at the South, as there are in every
great movement at the North; no doubt there were individuals in the
seceding States that held secession wrong in principle, and were
conscientiously attached to the Union; no doubt, also, there were men
who adhered to the Union, not because they disapproved secession, but
because they disliked the men at the head of the movement, or because
they were keen-sighted enough to see that it could not succeed, that
the Union must be the winning side, and that by adhering to it they
would become the great and leading men of their respective States,
which they certainly could not be under secession. Others sympathized
fully with what was called the Southern cause, held firmly the right of
secession, and hated cordially the Yankees, but doubted either the
practicability or the expediency of secession, and opposed it till
resolved on, but, after it was resolved on, yielded to none in their
earnest support of it. These last comprised the immense majority of
those who voted against secession. Never could those called the
Southern leaders have carried the secession ordinances, never could
they have carried on the war with the vigor and determination, and with
such formidable armies as they collected and armed for four years,
making at times the destiny of the Union well nigh doubtful, if they
had not had the Southern heart with them, if they had not been most
heartily supported by the overwhelming mass of the people. They led a
popular, not a factious movement.

No State, it is said again, has seceded, or could secede. The State is
territorial, not personal, and as no State can carry its territory and
population out of the Union, no State can secede. Out of the
jurisdiction of the Union, or alienate them from the sovereign or
national domain, very true; but out of the Union as a State, with
rights, powers, or franchises in the Union, not true. Secession is
political, not territorial.

But the State holds from the territory or domain. The people are
sovereign because attached to a sovereign territory, not the domain
because held by a sovereign people, as was established by the analysis
of the early Roman constitution. The territory of the States
corresponds to the sacred territory of Rome, to which was attached the
Roman sovereignty. That territory, once surveyed and consecrated,
remained sacred and