s, they show that to be consistent
they must secede from one another whenever they shall find it the easiest
way of settling their debts, or effecting any other selfish or unjust
object. The principle itself is one of disintegration and upon which no
government can possibly endure.

If all the States save one should assert the power to drive that one out
of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of seceder politicians would
at once deny the power and denounce the act as the greatest outrage upon
State rights. But suppose that precisely the same act, instead of being
called "driving the one out," should be called "the seceding of the others
from that one," it would be exactly what the seceders claim to do, unless,
indeed, they make the point that the one, because it is a minority,
may rightfully do what the others, because they are a majority, may not
rightfully do. These politicians are subtle and profound on the rights of
minorities. They are not partial to that power which made the Constitution
and speaks from the preamble calling itself "We, the People."

It may well be questioned whether there is to-day a majority of the
legally qualified voters of any State except perhaps South Carolina in
favor of disunion. There is much reason to believe that the Union men are
the majority in many, if not in every other one, of the so-called seceded
States. The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of them. It is
ventured to affirm this even of Virginia and Tennessee; for the result of
an election held in military camps, where the bayonets are all on one side
of the question voted upon, can scarcely be considered as demonstrating
popular sentiment. At such an election, all that large class who are at
once for the Union and against coercion would be coerced to vote against
the Union.

It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free institutions we
enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of our whole
people beyond any example in the world. Of this we now have a striking and
an impressive illustration. So large an army as the government has now on
foot was never before known without a soldier in it but who has taken his
place there of his own free choice. But more than this, there are many
single regiments whose members, one and another, possess full practical
knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else,
whether useful or elegant, is known in the world; and there is scarce