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land, anything in the Constitution and laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
We have seen one of these Conventions assume and exercise the right of revoking a fundamental compact between the State and the Union, which is, by its express terms, irrevocable.
We have seen State Legislatures, in default of Conventions, usurp, practically, this tremendous power of secession; and have heard a now loyal Governor proclaim that a popular majority for Secessionists, in an election of members
of Congress, might serve to nullify the obligation of the citizens of that State to the Federal Constitution and Union.
We are now to contemplate more directly the spectacle of a State plunged into secession and civil war, not in obedience to, but in defiance of; the action of her Convention and the express will of her people — not, even, by any direct act of her Legislature, but by the will of her Executive alone.1 Gov. Jackson,
1 Pollard, in his “Southern History,” says:
Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Border States were unwilling to rush into dissolution until every hope of a peaceful settlement of the question had vanished. This was the position of Missouri, to whose Convention not a single Secessionist was elected. Gov. Price was elected from his district as a Union man, without opposition; and, on the assembling of the Convention, was chosen its President.
Hartford. Published by O. D. Chase and Company. 1866.
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