This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[131]
terms, the only ones upon which she would have entered, was virtually a promise that her condition should be granted.
Nor was she the only State which made the same reservation.
New York and Rhode Island, the latter the smallest, and the former the most powerful State, next to Virginia, both ncv among the covenant-breakers, which are persecuting the Old Dominion with a malignant treachery, for claiming her covenanted right, accepted the Union on the same condition.
Their admission on such terms not only seals their right to retire at their option, but also demonstrates that all the other States understood the compact as, of course, implying such a right.
The attempt has been made to break the force of this fact, by the miserable subterfuge: That Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island, only stipulated for this right to retire if they found the Union inconvenient, because they feared it might prove a failure; and that since its splendid success, that condition had become antiquated, and expired.
It would be enough to expose this unprincipled sophism, to ask, how long a time might not be required to demonstrate that the Union had been successful?
Do not the events which are now transpiring, keep that question yet in suspense: leading the most experienced minds in Europe to doubt whether such a scheme of government is not impracticable?
But the very point of the stipulation made by Virginia was, that she was to judge for herself, when, and how far, the Union proved inadequate to confer those benefits she sought under it. And, if anything further is needed to explode the wretched pretext, it is found in the fact, that Virginia has always taken express care that this condition in her covenant should not grow antiquated, by re-affirming it from time to time, to this day, in the most formal manner.
It is thus abundantly proved that the right of the States to retire from the Federal Union, when the compact was broken, was inherent in them; and that the Constitution could neither
Scanned printed text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.