Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/128

 122 Southern Historical Society Papers.

they, respectively, formed a constitution and State government and were admitted into the Union, the sovereignty passed to them res- pectively, and they stood in the Union each upon an equal footing with the original States, parties with them to the constitutional com- pact.

In the case of a partnership between persons for business pur- poses, it is a familiar principle of law, that its existence and contin- uance are purely a voluntary matter on the part of its members, and that a member may at any time withdraw from and dissolve the partnership at his pleasure; and it makes no difference in the appli- cation of this principle if the partnership, by its terms, be for a fixed time or perpetual — it not being considered by the law sound policy to hold men together in business association against their will. Now if a partnership between persons is purely voluntary and sub- ject to the will of its members severally, how much more so is one between sovereign States; and it follows that, just as each State separately, in the exercise of its sovereign will, entered the Union, so may it separately, in the exercise of that will, withdraw therefrom. And further, the Constitution being a compact, to which the States are parties, "having no common judge," "each party has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress," as declared by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, in the celebrated resolutions of '98, and the right of secession irre- sistibly follows. But aside from the doctrine either of partnership or compact, upon the ground of State sovereignty, pure and simple, does the right of State secession impregnably rest. Sovereignty, as defined by political commentators, is "the right of commanding in the last resort." And just as a State of the Union, in the ex- ercise of this right, by her ratification of the Constitution, delegated the powers therein given to the Federal Government, and acceded to the Union; so may she in the exercise of the same right, by repeal- ing that ratification, withdraw the delegated powers, and secede from the Union. The act of ratification by the State is the law which makes the Union for it, and the act of repeal of that ratification is the law which dissolves it.

It appears, then, from this review of the origin and character of the American Union, that when the Southern States, deeming the constitutional compact broken, and their own safety and happiness in imminent danger in the Union, withdrew therefrom and organized their new Confederacy, they but asserted, in the language of Mr. Davis, " the rights of their sires, won in the war of the Revolution,