The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

194 THE LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND
into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas
And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated:l
State. The lnew otnc. only took the (lesignation of States on corning intc;
the Union, while that name was first adopted by the,ld ones inr and by
the Declaration of Independence. Therein tlie "United ('olonies" weere
declared to be "free and independent States;" but, evell tlherl, the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one another, o.r of
the Union, but directly the contrary; as their mutual pledge and their
mutual action before, at the time, and afterwards, abundantly show. The
express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen in the
Articles of Confederation, two years later, that the l'nion shall be perpetual, is most conclusive. Having never been States, either in substsance
or in nane, outside of the Union, whence tlis magic:ll,mnil)otcn(.c of
" State Rightts," asserting a claim of power to lawfully dlestroy tlhe tnion
itself? Much is s;iid abolut the "sovereignty" of thle States; 1,)t tlie
word even is not in the National Constitution; nor, as is believed, in any
of the State constitutions. What is "sovereignty" in the political sense
of the term? Would it lbe far wrong to define it "a political coinmunuity
without a politic:tl superior.?" Tested by this, no one of our Stltes, except Texas, ever was a sovereignty. And even Texas gave up the character on coming into the Union; by which act she acknowledged the
Constitution of the United States, and the laws and treaties of the United
States made in pursuance of the Constitution, to be for her the supreme
law of the land. The States have their status in the Union, and they
have no other legal status. If they break from this, tley can only do so
against law and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or
purchase tlie Union gave each of them whatever of independence or
liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it
created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the
Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for them,
and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a
State constitution independent of the Union. Of course, it is not forgotten that all the new States framed their constitutions befo-re they entered the Union; nevertheless dependent upon, and preparatory to, coming into the Union.
Unquestionably the States have the powers and rights reserved to them
in and by the National Constitution; but among these, surely, are not
included all conceivable powers, however mischievous or destructive;
but, at most, such only as were known in the world, at the time, as governmental powers; and, certainly, a power to destroy the Government
itself had never been known as a governmental-as a merely adlninistrative power. This relative matter of National power and State Rights.
as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality and locality.
Whatever concerns the whole should be confided to the whole-to the