ry, it
would not authorize the inference he draws from it, because his own case
falls within the same range. He has proved, he thinks, that there was an
existing government, a paper government, at least; a rightful
government, as he alleges. Suppose it to be rightful, in his sense of
right. Suppose three fourths of the people of Rhode Island to have been
engaged in it, and ready to sustain it. What then? How is it to be done
without the consent of the previous government? How is the fact, that
three fourths of the people are in favor of the new government, to be
legally ascertained? And if the existing government deny that fact, and
if that government hold on, and will not surrender till displaced by
force, and if it is threatened by force, then the case of the
Constitution arises, and the United States must aid the government that
is in, because an attempt to displace a government by force is "domestic
violence." It is the exigency provided for by the Constitution. If the
existing government maintain its post, though three fourths of the State
have adopted the new constitution, is it not evident enough that the
exigency arises in which the constitutional power here must go to the
aid of the existing government? Look at the law of 28th February,
1795.[2] Its words are, "And in case of an insurrection in any State,
_against the government thereof_, it shall be lawful for the President
of the United States, on application of the legislature of such State,
or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), to call
forth such number of the militia of any other State or States, as may be
applied for, as he may judge sufficient to suppress such insurrection."
Insurrection against the _existing_ government is, then, the thing to be
suppressed.

But the law and the Constitution, the whole system of American
institutions, do not contemplate a case in which a resort will be
necessary to proceedings _aliunde_, or outside of the law and the
Constitution, for the purpose of amending the frame of government. They
go on the idea that the States are all republican, that they are all
representative in their forms, and that these popular governments in
each State, the annually created creatures of the people, will give all
proper facilities and necessary aids to bring about changes which the
people may judge necessary in their constitutions. They take that ground
and act on no other supposition. They assume that the popular w