Was It Legally
Within The Power Of New York To Place The Six States Of New England
In Such A Position?
And why should it be assumed that so suicidal
a power of destroying a nationality should be inherent in every
portion of the nation?
The Slates are bound together by a written
compact, but that compact gives each State no such power. Surely
such a power would have been specified had it been intended that it
should be given. But there are axioms in politics as in
mathematics, which recommend themselves to the mind at once, and
require no argument for their proof. Men who are not argumentative
perceive at once that they are true. A part cannot be greater than
the whole.
I think it is plain that the remnant of the Union was bound to take
up arms against those States which had illegally torn themselves
off from her; and if so, she could only do so with such weapons as
were at her hand. The United States army had never been numerous
or well appointed; and of such officers and equipments as it
possessed, the more valuable part was in the hands of the
Southerners. It was clear enough that she was ill provided, and
that in going to war she was undertaking a work as to which she had
still to learn many of the rudiments. But Englishmen should be the
last to twit her with such ignorance. It is not yet ten years
since we were all boasting that swords and guns were useless
things, and that military expenditure might be cut down to any
minimum figure that an economizing Chancellor of the Exchequer
could name.
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