t the
words of warning were not perishable utterances signifying nothing.

'SECESSION.

'The first popular error that we shall venture to assail, is that
connected with the prevalent notion of the sovereignty of the States. We
do not believe that the several States of this Union are, in any
legitimate meaning of the term, sovereign at all. We are fully aware
that this will be regarded as a bold, and possibly as a presuming
proposition, but we shall endeavor to work it out with such means as we
may have at command.

'We lay down the following premises as too indisputable to need any
arguments to sustain them: viz., the authority which formed the present
Constitution of the United States had the legal power to do so. That
authority was in the Government of the States, respectively, and not in
their people in the popular signification, but through their people in
the political meaning of the term, and what was then done must be
regarded as acts connected with the composition and nature of
governments, and of no minor or different interests of human affairs.

'It being admitted, that the power which formed the Government was
legitimate, we obtain one of the purest compacts for the organization of
human society that probably ever existed. The ancient allegiance, under
which the colonies had grown up to importance, had been extinguished by
solemn treaty, and the States met in Convention sustained by all the law
they had, and backed in every instance by institutions that were more or
less popular. The history of the world cannot, probably, furnish another
instance of the settlement of the fundamental contract of a great nation
under circumstances of so much obvious justice. This gives unusual
solemnity and authority to the Constitution of 1787, and invests it with
additional claims to our admiration and respect.

'The authority which formed the Constitution admitted, we come next to
the examination of its acts. It is apparent from the debates and
proceedings of the Convention, that two opinions existed in that body;
the one leaning strongly toward the concentration of power in the hands
of the Federal Government, and the other desirous of leaving as much as
possible with the respective States. The principle that the powers which
are not directly conceded to the Union should remain in first hands,
would seem never to have been denied; and some years after the
organization of the Government, it was solemnly recognized in