Show THERE ican CAN BE NO SECESSION ex arldt nr harrlson ison declares declare that it ik would ise bean our government Is noi nota a confederation of states butas strictly a government of the people as Is any state government ern ment writes ex president harrlson discussing this country of ours in ladles home adu journal anil 0 1 I 1 it t Is true that the vote voje upon n the adoption originally and the to vote e upon amendments Is by states in 4 tate ate conventions or in state legislatures and that in various other ways the states are recognized and used in the administration of the national government it could hardly have been otherwise but the construction of mr calhoun and of the secessionists that our constitution Is a mere compact between independent states elates that any state may withdraw from the union for any breach of condl conditions of the compact and that each state to is to judge tor for itself whether the compact has been broken has no support either in the history of the adoption of the constitution or in the text I 1 of the dinst instrument aument itself the constitution and laws of the united states take holof hold of and olzai daal with each individual not as a citizen of this or that state but as a citizen of ci the united states SI each of us owes to th the united states to obey and support its constitution and laws and no act nor ordinance of any tate state can absolve us or make it lawful for us as to disobey the laws or resist the authorities of the united states we owe another allegiance legi ance each to his big own state to support and obey its constitution and laws provided those do not conflict with the constitution and laws of the united states the question whether an act of congress is unconstitutional or whether an act of any officer of the united states done officially official Ix is unauthorized must of course be decided by the courts of the united states in the thelast last resort by the supreme court A power in a stats court to finally declare a law of the united states invalid would be destra destructive I 1 of national authority and indeed of the national existence there can be in a proper constitutional tense sense no secession and no war between a state and the united states for no ordinance repudiating the national authority or organizing resistance to itcan it can have any legal sanction even when passed by a state legislature |