the doctrines now ascribed
to him. What are the consequences of this right of a State to secede
from the Union?--this right of revolution, without the power of the
General Government to _preserve the Union_? Any one State may arrest,
to-morrow, the mail of the Union, and its passage from State to State,
and refuse it a passage forever. Pennsylvania, a central State, may
separate the North from the South, prevent all intercommunication,
render our country a republic divided and indefensible. Louisiana,
purchased by taxes imposed upon the people of all the States, may secede
and establish a separate and independent government, lay protective or
prohibitory imposts on the imports and exports of this State and of the
West, carried through her ports and the outlets of the Mississippi. She
might say, I will protect my own cotton planters, by prohibitory duties
on the cotton of Mississippi or the West, or the imports designed to be
exchanged for it, shipped through my ports or through the outlet of the
Mississippi: it is my interest to do so; for thus I can deprive the
cotton planters of Mississippi and the West of a market; thus compel
them to abandon the culture of that staple, and sell my own cotton at a
higher price. Louisiana asserts no such doctrines; but, if she did,
could Mississippi, could the West admit them? and, in the last resort,
would not the Government _force_ a passage for our imports and exports
by the _sword_? Yes; for as well might you take the heart from the human
body and bid it live, as sever Louisiana from the States that border on
the Mississippi, and bid these States to prosper. No; Louisiana holds
the outlet of that stream through which the life blood of their commerce
and industry must forever flow; and we never could admit her right to
secede from the Union, and dictate the terms on which we should use the
outlet of that stream, whose banks were destined by heaven itself as the
residence of a united people. Not only Louisiana, but State by State
that borders on the Atlantic or the Gulf, might secede, seclude the West
from the ocean, and render them the tributaries of the seaboard States,
by laying prohibitory duties on their imports and exports. Could we
submit to this? _Not while the West contained a gun to use, or a man to
shoulder it._

And may Carolina secede and establish an independent government? Did she
establish her own independence? No, it was achieved by the arms and
purchased by the bl