ited by the Constitution; but whether they are the
most prudent or the most effectual means, or in what degree they are
necessary, are matters over which the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction.
As Chief-Justice Marshall has elsewhere in this decision expressed it, for
the Supreme Court to undertake to inquire into the degree of their
necessity "would be to pass the line which circumscribes the judicial
department and to tread on legislative ground."

There must, of course, be congruity or relevancy between the power to be
enforced and the means proposed to enforce it. While Congress is to judge
the degree of necessity or propriety of these means, they must not be such
as to be devoid of obvious connection with the object to be attained.

In this case, the object to be attained is the enforcement, in the
insurrectionary States, of laws without which no government can exist, and
the suppression in these States of an insurrection of which the object is
the dismemberment of the Union.

But these laws are resisted, and this insurrection prevails, in those
States, and in those States only, in which the life-long claims to the
service or labor of persons of African descent are held under State laws.
In States where slaves are comparatively few, as in Delaware, Maryland,
Missouri, disaffection only prevails; while in States where the number of
slaves approaches or exceeds that of whites, as in South Carolina,
Alabama, Georgia, insurrection against lawful authority is flagrant and
outspoken: the insurrectionary acts of these States being avowedly based
on the allegation that Slavery is not safe under the present
constitutionally elected President, and that its permanent preservation
can be insured by the disruption of the national unity alone.[9]

[Footnote 9: The Secession Ordinance passed the Convention of
South Carolina December 20, 1860. The next day, December 21, the
Convention adopted the "Declaration of Causes" which led to that
Secession. This document declares, as to the non-slaveholding
States, that they have "denounced as sinful the institution of
Slavery"; that they have "united in the election of a man to the
high office of President of the United States whose opinions and
purposes are hostile to Slavery," and who declares that "the
public mind must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course
of ultimate extinction." And it winds up with this
assertion:--"All hope o