with regard to the Federal jurisdiction. If the
courts of the Union violated an important law of a State in a private
case, the real, if not the apparent, contest would arise between the
aggrieved State represented by a citizen and the Union represented by
its courts of justice. *u

[Footnote t: [This is precisely what occurred in 1862, and the following
paragraph describes correctly the feelings and notions of the South.
General Lee held that his primary allegiance was due, not to the Union,
but to Virginia.]]

[Footnote u: For instance, the Union possesses by the Constitution the
right of selling unoccupied lands for its own profit. Supposing that
the State of Ohio should claim the same right in behalf of certain
territories lying within its boundaries, upon the plea that the
Constitution refers to those lands alone which do not belong to the
jurisdiction of any particular State, and consequently should choose to
dispose of them itself, the litigation would be carried on in the names
of the purchasers from the State of Ohio and the purchasers from the
Union, and not in the names of Ohio and the Union. But what would become
of this legal fiction if the Federal purchaser was confirmed in his
right by the courts of the Union, whilst the other competitor was
ordered to retain possession by the tribunals of the State of Ohio?]

He would have but a partial knowledge of the world who should imagine
that it is possible, by the aid of legal fictions, to prevent men from
finding out and employing those means of gratifying their passions which
have been left open to them; and it may be doubted whether the American
legislators, when they rendered a collision between the two sovereigns
less probable, destroyed the cause of such a misfortune. But it may even
be affirmed that they were unable to ensure the preponderance of the
Federal element in a case of this kind. The Union is possessed of money
and of troops, but the affections and the prejudices of the people are
in the bosom of the States. The sovereignty of the Union is an abstract
being, which is connected with but few external objects; the sovereignty
of the States is hourly perceptible, easily understood, constantly
active; and if the former is of recent creation, the latter is coeval
with the people itself. The sovereignty of the Union is factitious, that
of the States is natural, and derives its existence from its own simple
influence, like the authority of a parent. Th