Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/153

 LifCy Services and Character of Jefferson Davis, 145

sion, though he believed in the right, approved the act of Mississippi after it had been taken, felt himself bound by his State allegiance whether he approved or no, and then, like all his Southern country- men, did his best to make it good. Remember that the Federal Constitution was silent as to secession ; that the question was one of inference only, and that implications radiated from its various provisions in all directions.

If one argued that the very institute of government implied per- petuity, as Lincoln did in his first inaugural address, another answered that reservations to the States of powers not delegated rebutted the implication ; another that the government and the Constitution had come into being in that free atmosphere which breathed the declara- tion that they must rest upon the consent of the government ; and yet another answered, in Lincoln's own language, that any people anywhere had the right tp shake off government, and that this was the right that ** would liberate the world."

RIGHT OF SECESSION NOT DENIED UNTIL RECENTLY.

Remember that this right of secession had never been denied until recent years ; that it had been preached upon the hustings, enunciated in political platforms, proclaimed in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, embodied in our literature, taught in our schools and colleges, interwoven with the texts of jurisprudence, and main- tained by scholars, statesmen and constituencies of all States and sections of the country.

SECESSION AN OPEN QUESTION IN 1 86 1.

Remember, furthermore, that secession was an open question in 1 86 1. No statute had ever declared, no executive had ever pro- claimed, no court had held, it to be unconstitutional. The States had declared themselves to be free and independent. American sov- ereignty was hydra-headed, and each State had its own statute, defining and punishing treason against itself. No man could have an independent citizenship of the United States, but could only acquire citizenship of the federation by virtue of citizenship of one of the States. The eminent domain of the soil remained in the State, and to it escheated the property of the intestate and heirless dead. Was not this the sovereign that " had the right to command in the last resort" ?

Tucker had so taught in his commentaries on Blackstone, writing

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