Confederacies are
always weak in the centre, always lack unity, and are liable to
be dissolved by the influence of local passions, prejudices, and
interests. But if the United States are a confederation of
states or nations, not a single nation or sovereign state, then
there is no remedy.
If the Anglo-American colonies, when their independence of Great
Britain was achieved and acknowledged, were severally sovereign
states, it has never since been in their power to unite and form
a single sovereign state, or to form themselves into one
indivisible sovereign nation. They could unite only by mutual
agreement, which gives only a confederation, in which each
retains its own sovereignty, as two individuals, however closely
united, retain each his own individuality. No sovereignty is of
conventional origin, and none can emerge from the convention that
did not enter it. Either the states are one sovereign people or
they are not. If they are not, it is undoubtedly a great
disadvantage; but a disadvantage that must be accepted, and
submitted to without a murmur.
Whether the United States are one sovereign people or only a
confederation is a question of very grave importance. If they
are only a confederation of states--and if they ever were
severally sovereign states, only a confederation they certainly
are--state secession is an inalienable right, and the government
has had no right to make war on the secessionists as rebels, or
to treat them, when their military power is broken, as traitors,
or disloyal persons.
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