“I say, then, that we may admit West Virgnia as a new State, not by virtue of any provision of the Constitution, but under our absolute power which the laws of war give us in the circumstances in which we are placed. I shall vote for this bill upon that theory, and upon that alone; for I will not stultify myself by supposing that we have any warrant in the Constitution for this proceeding.
This talk of restoring tho Union as it was, under the Constitution as it is, is one of the absurdities which I have heard repeated until I have become about sick of it. This Union can never be restored as it was. There are many thing’s which render such an event impossible. This Union shall never, with my consent, be restored under the Constitution as it is, with slavery to be protected by it.”
No one doubts that this is the sentiment and the programme of the administration. We are told, “this Union shall never be restored under the Constitution as it is.” We have not for a long
time doubted that such is the determination of Mr. Lincoln and the whole party in power. But had they announced their real designs in the beginning they could have never raised a respectable army for such a purpose. Mr. Lincoln had no right to call soldiers into the field for such an object....
...If the President attempts to use the militia for unconstitutional purposes; it is clearly the duty of the States to recall their troops from the fleld, and to refuse to allow any further drafting, until the administration returns to the Constitution and the laws. It is within the power of State Executives and Legislatures to force a usurping President to abandon such career
of crime, by withholding and withdrawing the State troops...
Horatio Seymour, January 1863.
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So Lincoln was not alone, the Republican Party and selected Governors of the certain states were also as guilty as Lincoln.
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David Upton