There are others who contend that the Rebel States, though in rebellion, have lost none of their rights as States,—­that the moment they submit they may choose members of Congress and Presidential electors, and demand, and we must concede, the same position they formerly held.  This theory has been partially recognized by the present Administration, but not to an extent that precludes the other from being adopted, if it is right.

If the people of the States which have seceded, as soon as they submit, have an absolute right to resume their former position in the Government, with their present constitutions upholding Slavery, it certainly will be a great, if not an insurmountable, obstacle to the adoption of those measures which may be necessary to secure our peace in the future.  That they have no such right, it is believed may be made perfectly clear.

If we triumph, we shall have all the rights which, by the laws of nations, belong to conquerors in a just war.  In a civil war, the rights of conquest may not be of the same nature as in a war between different nations; but that there are such rights in all wars has already been stated on the highest authority.  If a province, having definite constitutional rights, revolts, and attempts to overthrow the power of the central government, it would be a strange doctrine, to claim, that, after being subdued, it had risked and lost nothing by the undertaking.  No authority can be found to sustain such a proposition.  A rebellion puts everything at risk.  Any other doctrine would hold out encouragement to all wicked and rebellious spirits.  If they revolt, they know that everything is staked upon the chances of success.  Everything is lost by defeat.  By the laws of war, long established among the nations,—­laws which the Rebel States have themselves invoked,—­if they fail, they will have no right to be restored, except upon such terms as our Government may prescribe.  The right to make war, conferred by the Constitution, carries with it all the rights and powers incident to a war, necessary for its successful prosecution, and essential to prevent its recurrence.

But without resorting to the extraordinary powers incident to a state of war, the same conclusion, in regard to the effect of a rebellion by a State Government, results from the relations which the States sustain to the Federal Government.  Though they cannot escape its jurisdiction, their position, as States, is one which may be forfeited and lost.

It has been objected that this doctrine is equivalent to a recognition of the right of Secession, because it concedes the power of any one State to withdraw from the Union.  But the fallacy of this objection is easily demonstrated.