That the Government claims, and practically maintains, the right to decide in the last resort, as to the extent of its powers, will scarcely be denied by any one conversant with the political history of the country.  That it also claims the right to resort to force to maintain whatever power it claims against all opposition is equally certain.  Indeed it is apparent, from what we daily hear, that this has become the prevailing and fixed opinion of a great majority of the community.  Now, I ask, what limitation can possibly be placed upon the powers of a government claiming and exercising such rights?  And, if none can be, how can the separate governments of the States maintain and protect the powers reserved to them by the Constitution—­or the people of the several States maintain those which are reserved to them, and among others, the sovereign powers by which they ordained and established, not only their separate State Constitutions and Governments, but also the Constitution and Government of the United States?  But, if they have no constitutional means of maintaining them against the right claimed by this Government, it necessarily follows, that they hold them at its pleasure and discretion, and that all the powers of the system are in reality concentrated in it.  It also follows, that the character of the Government has been changed in consequence, from a federal republic, as it originally came from the hands of its framers, into a great national consolidated democracy.  It has indeed, at present, all the characteristics of the latter, and not of the former, although it still retains its outward form.

The result of the whole of those causes combined is, that the North has acquired a decided ascendency over every department of this Government, and through it a control over all the powers of the system.  A single section governed by the will of the numerical majority, has now, in fact, the control of the Government and the entire powers of the system.  What was once a constitutional federal republic, is now converted, in reality, into one as absolute as that of the Autocrat of Russia, and as despotic in its tendency as any absolute government that ever existed.

As, then, the North has the absolute control over the Government, it is manifest that on all questions between it and the South, where there is a diversity of interests, the interest of the latter will be sacrificed to the former, however oppressive the effects may be; as the South possesses no means by which it can resist, through the action of the Government.  But if there was no question of vital importance to the South, in reference to which there was a diversity of views between the two sections, this state of things might be endured without the hazard of destruction to the South.  But such is not the fact.  There is a question of vital importance to the southern section, in reference to which the views and feelings of the two sections are as opposite and hostile as they can possibly be.