These last comprised the immense majority of those who voted
against secession. Never could those called the Southern leaders
have carried the secession ordinances, never could they have
carried on the war with the vigor and determination, and with
such formidable armies as they collected and armed for four
years, making at times the destiny of the Union well nigh
doubtful, if they had not had the Southern heart with them, if
they had not been most heartily supported by the overwhelming
mass of the people. They led a popular, not a factious movement.
No State, it is said again, has seceded, or could secede. The
State is territorial, not personal, and as no State can carry its
territory and population out of the Union, no State can secede.
Out of the jurisdiction of the Union, or alienate them from the
sovereign or national domain, very true; but out of the Union as
a State, with rights, powers, or franchises in the Union, not
true. Secession is political, not territorial.
But the State holds from the territory or domain. The people are
sovereign because attached to a sovereign territory, not the
domain because held by a sovereign people, as was established by
the analysis of the early Roman constitution. The territory of
the States corresponds to the sacred territory of Rome, to which
was attached the Roman sovereignty.
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