fidelity, or the deeper, and therefore far more dangerous German
pantheism, or the untaught serfdom of Austria and Russia? It may, perhaps,
be said, that the mere dissolution of our Union would not involve any such
eventful issue. It is only a temporary expedient (it might be maintained),
not belonging to the essence of our nationality, and the real sovereignty,
or sovereignties would not be impaired by its loss. Our State governments
would remain, and other lesser confederacies might be formed, if political
exigencies should require them. This suggests the _third aspect_ under
which we would consider the problem that has presented itself for our
editorial contemplations.

_The Value of our Union_ as THE KEY-STONE OF STATE AUTHORITY, and of all
that may be legitimately included under the idea of State sovereignty. Who
shall estimate it in this respect? We are too much inclined to regard our
general government, as in some respects, a foreign one, as something
outside of our proper nationality, as an external band, or wrapper, that
may be loosened without much danger, rather than what it really is, or, at
least has become in time, a _con-necting_, interweaving, all-pervading
principle, constituting not merely a _sum_ of adjacent _parts_, but a
_whole_ of organic _membership_; so that a severance would not leave
merely disintegrated fractions, possessing each the same vitality it would
have had, or might once have had, if there had never been such membership.
The wound could not be inflicted without a deep, and, perhaps, deadly
injury, not only to the life of the whole, as a whole, but to the vital
forces through which the lower and smaller sections of each several member
may have been respectively bound into political unities. It is true, our
general government had a peculiar origin, and stands, _in time_,
subsequent to the State authorities. It might seem, therefore, to some, to
derive its life from them, instead of being itself a proper fountain of
vitality. This is _chronologically_ true; but such an inference from it
would be _logically_ false, and could only proceed from a very superficial
study of the law of political organisms. Whatever may have been the origin
of the parts, or the original circumstances of their union, we must now
regard the body that has grown out of them as a living organic whole,
which can not suffer without suffering throughout. It is _alive all over_,
and you can put the amputating knife in no