John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion

[6] masterpiece. It could, of course, quote no direct warrant from the Constitution for secession, but sought to deduce one, by implication, from the language of the Declaration of Independence and the Xth Amendment. It reasserts the absurd paradox of State supremacy-persistently miscalled “State rights” --which reverses the natural order of governmental existence; considers a State superior to the Union; makes a part greater than the whole; turns the pyramid of authority on its apex; plants the tree of liberty with its branches in the ground and its roots in the air. The fallacy has been a hundred times analyzed, exposed, and refuted; but the cheap dogmatism of demagogues and the automatic machinery of faction perpetually conjures it up anew to astonish the sucklings and terrify the dotards of politics. The notable point in the Declaration of Causes is, that its complaint over grievances past and present is against certain States, and for these remedy was of course logically barred by its own theory of State supremacy. On the other hand, all its allegations against the Union are concerning dangers to come, before which admission the moral justification of disunion falls to the ground. In rejecting the remedy of future elections for future wrongs, the conspiracy discarded the entire theory and principle of republican government.

One might suppose that this exhausted their counterfeit philosophy-but not yet. Greatly as they groaned at unfriendly State laws-seriously as they pretended to fear damage or spoliation under future federal statutes, the burden of their anger rose at the sentiment and belief of the North. “All hope of remedy,” says the manifesto, “is rendered vain by the fact that the public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanctions of a more erroneous religious belief.” This is language one