reservation. erection of West It vetoes at once and at all times the idea of the partition of a State unless by consent of its legislature. The Virginia was a bad precedent. There is no guarantee that other partitions may not follow in the future. Every violation of the Constitution leads to a similar result, in the same or other directions. The magnificent cession by Virginia to the United States, and accepted in Congress assembled, March, 1784, of its portion of the great Northwest Territory, should have prevented its partition. This territory, save a narrow northern strip, composes the now powerful States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Virginia was followed by cessions of Northwest Territory belonging to Massachusetts in 1785, and Connecticut in 1786 and 1800. Virginia made a deed to its northwestern domain on strict conditions that it should be converted into States, and "that the States so formed be distinct republican States, and admitted as members of the Federal Union, having the same right of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other States;" also, that the land should be held as a common fund for the use and benefit "of such of the United States as have or shall become members of the Confederation or Federal Alliance." Congress solemnly approved the provisions of the deed of cession by legislative action. It was a crime to partition the grand old "mother of States and of statesmen," whose Sic Semper Tyrannis is "the proudest motto," said the eloquent S. S. Prentiss, "that ever blazed upon a warrior's shield or a country's arms." What is treason? The Constitution defines it thus: "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." This is also a clear definition of the Union called the United States. (See Art. II., Sec. 1. "the United States, or any of them." Them, not it, is the explicit plural. Treason, therefore, is a crime against united sovereigns, not a sovereign. Can States commit treason? No. Equal States cannot rebel against equal States. Co-equal States cannot rebel against coequal States. Sovereign States cannot rebel against sovereign States. Individuals acting independently of their State can commit treason against the States-Union or the United States. In a strict constitutional sense, in 1861-65 there were no United States save those that were united to fight each other. They were nearly equal in number. Each party was in revolt against the Constitution. One repudiated it entirely and formed a new one; the other disobeyed it while pretending to be guided by it, and asserted that there was a "higher law." In 1865, after the battle of the Titans, the disunited States became again the United States of America. Reconstruction was a mad partisan effort to prevent harmonious reunion. It failed. To-day the Union is consent. States cannot be arrested, imprisoned, tried, and reduced to territories, and readmitted into the Union they constructed. a State always a State. Once Burke told George III. that he could not arrest three millions of people for treason. Reconstruction was a futile attempt to arrest four times that number of people, who were sovereign corporators of sovereign corporations called States. States are perpetual chartered corporations. Individual corporators die, States survive. What of the location of a seat of government? The States must cede the territory to the Congress, and thereafter that body shall "exercise. exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district, not exceeding ten miles square." (See Art. I., sec. 8.) Maryland and Virginia ceded the District of Columbia in 1790. In 1800 the seat of government was removed from Philadelphia. The site was selected by Washington by authority from Congress. The territory south of the Potomac, containing Alexandria, was afterwards retroceded to Virginia. As to removal, if States refuse to cede territory for a new district, the capital must remain where it is. Can the President transact official business outside of the District? His official residence and office are confined to the District of Columbia, where Congress and the Supreme Court assemble. If he transacts the business of his agency on the soil of any State, he becomes an intruder. The State reserves its own territory for the discharge of the duties of officials under its own Constitution. In exceptionally necessitous cases the President might act officially on such land as a State may have sold to the United States, or in a Territory over which Congress exercises jurisdiction. How are the United States to acquire sites for public buildings within States? By purchase, with the consent of the legislatures of the several States. The State legislatures make reservations for the enforcement of the service of civil process and the arrest and punishment of persons charged with crime against their laws. Otherwise, Congress have exclusive authority over forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings within the purchased territory. Who are electors? They are elective State officers. In a body called usually the Electoral College they are the States in special council. The theory of the framers of the Constitution was that the electors should be intermediaries between the presidential candidates and the suffragants of the several States. The electors, acting as States, were to choose a President and Vice-President. This would, it was thought, avoid unseemly wrangling, demagogism, and consequent excitement which might end in bloodshed. It was clear at first that the appointment of electors, being an act of a sovereign State, would keep alive the idea of sovereignty. Immemorial usage has overridden the original design of the Constitution-makers. The present method was thought by Andrew Jackson to be a sham, yet it protects the smaller States. A more direct vote for President and Vice-President might appease vanity, but it has its evils, which arise in |