The London “Times” informs the people of England, that “the resolution of the North to crush Secession by force involves a denial of the right of each one of the seceding States to determine the conditions of its own national existence.”  Precisely so.  It involves all that; but the whole fact comprehends a great deal more.  Not one of the States of the American Union has any national existence, or ever had any, in the sense in which the “Times” uses the phrase.  Not one of them has any of the functions or qualities of a nation.  In the case of the greater part of the States in which the rebellion exists, the United States bought and paid for the territory which they occupy, made States of them under its own Constitution and laws, upon certain conditions made irrevocable by the act which created them, and reserved the forts, arsenals, and custom-houses which their treasonable citizens have since undertaken to steal.  The fundamental idea of the American system is local self-government for local purposes, and national unity for national purposes.  Our national union is synonymous with our national existence.  When we speak of sovereign and independent States, the phrase has no other just meaning than that each State is independent of every other in all matters exclusively appertaining to its own powers and duties, and sovereign upon all subjects which have not been committed exclusively to the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.  Any encroachment by the Government of the United States upon the lawful jurisdiction of the several States would be resisted as a usurpation; but the “reserved rights” of the States, ex vi termini, cannot include any of the attributes of power which the people of the whole country have conferred upon the Union.  But further,—­and this is a point of great practical importance,—­the Federal Government has no relation to the several States as States, and they have no relations to it, or to each other, except so far as these relations are expressly defined and specified in the National Constitution.  Beyond these, the authority and jurisdiction of the nation address themselves and are applied to the individual citizens of all the States alike.  “The king can do no wrong,” is the maxim of English law.  A State of the American Union cannot secede, or commit treason, or make war upon the United States.  So the United States cannot, and do not, make war upon any State.  Virginia, for all national purposes, belongs to the United States,—­exactly as it belongs to the State, for the purposes of local administration.  In theory, and in practice, the State of Virginia is at this moment a peaceful and faithful member of the American Union.  Her Senators and Representatives, except so far as individuals among them may have disqualified themselves by resignation, or, what may be held to be equivalent, by deserting their posts to array themselves in active hostility to their country, are still entitled to their seats in Congress.  The State may be overrun by armed