The secession question to be Tested in Court.
--The St. Louis Democrat has been furnished with an extract from an answer about to be filed in the Circuit Court of that county at the suit of a well-known New Orleans Bank against a prominent city banker of
St. Louis, to recover a large sum:
‘
The defendants state in their answer that the plaintiffs are an association of persons, citizens of the
State of Louisiana, domiciled and doing business therein, and acknowledging allegiance thereto, and have abjured all allegiance to the
United States of America; that said
State of Louisiana has seceded from and revolted against the
United States of America, and is at war with the same; that the plaintiffs, and all other persons who are citizens of said State and domiciled therein and acknowledging allegiance thereto, are alien enemies of the
United States of America and of the
State of Missouri, and have no right to maintain any suit in the
Courts of the
State of Missouri.
’
This defence, if persisted in to the last resort, would carry the question of the right of a State to secede to the Supreme Court of the
United States for settlement.
Its prosecution opens the door to a variety of legal questions.