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‘ [490] ways in the people, and never in the government.’ And, as no change whatever was provided as to name, geography, people, organism, mode of mental action, or political will, of these societies, we may consider all assertions of their degradation as falsehoods, and not mistakes of interpretation!

Why did not the great Republican leaders, Chase, Seward, Andrew, Wilson, Stevens, Wade, Trumbull, and others, when they shaped the amendments the conquering States dictated, prohibit secession? Because they knew their sovereigns, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois preferred the old union of free societies of people to a nation of counties; and they could not even have hinted at preventing secession, and thereby chaining States; and they reflected that risks and burdens must always go with ‘the blessings of liberty.’ Freedom is not freedom if restrained or qualified. We cannot, if we would, get rid of a right essential and vital to a sovereign mind; but we can behave ourselves, as Washington besought us to do, and preserve justice, amity and mutual interest, which he said were the original motives and ‘sacred ties’ of union. If these be preserved, as written and consecrated in the solemn preamble, the ‘domestic tranquillity,’ founded on content, preserves the intended union. Only tyrants and robbers want tied and helpless victims.

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