Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/40

12 condition the people of the several States were in no proper political sense a nation, or &quot;one people;&quot; by the declaration and the treaty of peace each State became a complete sovereignty within its own limits ; the revolutionary government was a government of the States as such through Congress as the common agent, and by the Articles of Confederation each state expressly reserved its entire sovereignty and independence. In all this succession of history there was no trend to consolidation and the most conspicuous feature was the jealous retention by the States of their separate sovereignty.

In forming the Constitution of the United States, from whose ratification our &quot;more perfect union&quot; resulted, did the States surrender their equality and sovereignty and transfer to a central government the powers and rights which in all previous history had been so care fully maintained? This is the crucial question determining the right of the Southern States in 1860 and 1861 to secede from the Union and to establish for their own defense and welfare a new federal union. Obviously this question should be approached and considered and decided, not by prejudice, or passion or sectionalism, or interest, or expediency, or wishes of men; but by the Constitution, in its proper meaning as to rights and powers delegated and rights and powers reserved. Whether secession was wise or unwise, expedient or in expedient, approved or disapproved by a majority of the States, or of the inhabitants, has no relevancy, nothing whatever to do with this discussion. The naked matter is one of right. Was there a supremacy in Congress, or in any other department of the government of the Union, or did the States assert and retain their sovereignty, as against the world?

The States were not created by the government of the