The people, Sir, in every State, live under two governments.  They owe obedience to both.  These governments, though distinct, are not adverse.  Each has its separate sphere, and its peculiar powers and duties.  It is not a contest between two sovereigns for the same power, like the wars of the rival houses in England; nor is it a dispute between a government de facto and a government de jure.  It is the case of a division of powers between two governments, made by the people, to whom both are responsible.  Neither can dispense with the duty which individuals owe to the other; neither can call itself master of the other:  the people are masters of both.  This division of power, it is true, is in a great measure unknown in Europe.  It is the peculiar system of America; and, though new and singular, it is not incomprehensible.  The State constitutions are established by the people of the States.  This Constitution is established by the people of all the States.  How, then, can a State secede?  How can a State undo what the whole people have done?  How can she absolve her citizens from their obedience to the laws of the United States?  How can she annul their obligations and oaths?  How can the members of her legislature renounce their own oaths?  Sir, secession, as a revolutionary right, is intelligible; as a right to be proclaimed in the midst of civil commotions, and asserted at the head of armies, I can understand it.  But as a practical right, existing under the Constitution, and in conformity with its provisions, it seems to me to be nothing but a plain absurdity; for it supposes resistance to government, under the authority of government itself; it supposes dismemberment, without violating the principles of union; it supposes opposition to law, without crime; it supposes the violation of oaths, without responsibility; it supposes the total overthrow of government, without revolution.

The Constitution, Sir, regards itself as perpetual and immortal.  It seeks to establish a union among the people of the States, which shall last through all time.  Or, if the common fate of things human must be expected at some period to happen to it, yet that catastrophe is not anticipated.

The instrument contains ample provisions for its amendment, at all times; none for its abandonment, at any time.  It declares that new States may come into the Union, but it does not declare that old States may go out.  The Union is not a temporaly partnership of States.  It is the association of the people, under a constitution of government, uniting their power, joining together their highest interests, cementing their present enjoyments, and blending, in one indivisible mass, all their hopes for the future.  Whatsoever is steadfast in just political principles; whatsoever is permanent in the structure of human society; whatsoever there is which can derive an enduring character from being founded on deep-laid principles of constitutional liberty and on the broad foundations of the public will,—­all these unite to entitle this instrument to be regarded as a permanent constitution of government.