"I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR (or affirm) THAT I WILL FAITHFULLY EXECUTE THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND WILL, TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY, PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES."
We have thus far enumerated some of the _powers_ delegated by the Constitution _to the_ federal government in the precise language of that constitution, and have shown that the chief executive of the government is sworn to exercise those powers by enforcing the constitution, and, of course, the laws, &c., which are made under its sanction and by its authority.
This constitution was adopted by a vast majority of the people of every State in the Union--adopted too with the understanding that it was _perpetually_ binding--adopted _without any proviso for withdrawal or secession_ in case of dissatisfaction--adopted when it was known that, even to amend it, either two-thirds of both houses of Congress must "propose amendments, or two-thirds of all the State Legislatures unite in an application to call a convention of States for proposing amendments," and that, when such amendments were proposed, they must "_be ratified_" by "the legislatures of _three-fourths_ of all the States, or by conventions in _three-fourths_ thereof." This shows clearly and conclusively that our fathers considered that they were establishing a government indissoluble--a government for all time, incapable of disruption by separate State action or by the violence of local faction.
In the strong light of these facts how are we to regard the present attitude of South Carolina? As treasonable and rebellious to rightful authority, which she herself assisted to establish. She has no right whatever, under the existing compact, to withdraw herself from the Union, or to annul that compact into which she voluntarily entered, when she adopted that constitution. By that adoption she forever signed away such a right--voluntarily she sets her signature to a compact having no such proviso of choice. If she secede then--if she break, or attempt to break, that compact, she engages in a revolution, and revolution is rebellion--revolution is _treason_. Of that capital crime she, or rather her citizens, are even now guilty. "What constitutes treason? The constitution defines it in Article 3, Section III: