denial of the right would be inconsistent with the
character of American political institutions.

Another objection made to the right of secession is based upon obscure,
indefinite, and inconsistent ideas with regard to _allegiance_. It
assumes various shapes, and is therefore somewhat difficult to meet,
but, as most frequently presented, may be stated thus: that the citizen
owes a double allegiance, or a divided allegiance--partly to his State,
partly to the United States: that it is not possible for either of these
powers to release him from the allegiance due to the other: that the
State can no more release him from his obligations to the Union than the
United States can absolve him from his duties to his State. This is the
most moderate way in which the objection is put. The extreme
centralizers go further, and claim that allegiance to the Union, or, as
they generally express it, to _the Government_--meaning thereby the
Federal Government--is paramount, and the obligation to the State only
subsidiary--if, indeed, it exists at all.

This latter view, if the more monstrous, is at least the more consistent
of the two, for it does not involve the difficulty of a divided
allegiance, nor the paradoxical position in which the other places the
citizen, in case of a conflict between his State and the other members
of the Union, of being necessarily a rebel against the General
Government or a traitor to the State of which he is a citizen.

As to _true_ allegiance, in the light of the principles which have been
established, there can be no doubt with regard to it. The primary,
paramount allegiance of the citizen is due to the sovereign only. That
sovereign, under our system, is the people--the people of the State to
which he belongs--the people who constituted the State government which
he obeys, and which protects him in the enjoyment of his personal
rights--the people who alone (as far as he is concerned) ordained and
established the Federal Constitution and Federal Government--the people
who have reserved to themselves sovereignty, which involves the power to
revoke all agencies created by them. The obligation to support the State
or Federal Constitution and the obedience due to either State or Federal
Government are alike derived from and dependent on the allegiance due to
this sovereign. If the sovereign abolishes the State government and
ordains and establishes a new one, the obligation of allegiance requires
him to t