The subjugation of the Southern States, and their acceptance of the terms dictated by the North, may, if the reader please, be considered as having shifted the Federal Government from the basis of compact to that of conquest; and thereby extinguished every claim to the right of secession for the future. Not one word in the following will at least be found to clash with that supposition or opinion. The sole object of this work is to discuss the right of secession with reference to the past; in order to vindicate the character of the South for loyalty, and to wipe off the charges of treason and rebellion from the names and memories of Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, Albert Sydney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and of all who have fought or suffered in the great war of coercion. Admitting, then, that the right of secession no longer exists; the present work aims to show, that, however those illustrious heroes may have been aspersed by the ignorance, the prejudices, and the passions of the hour, they were, nevertheless, perfectly loyal to truth, justice, and the Constitution of 1787 as it came from the hands of the fathers. The radicals themselves may, if they will only read the following s, find sufficient reason to doubt their own infallibility, and to relent in their bitter persecutions of the South. The calm and impartial reader will, it is believed, discover therein the grounds on which the South may be vindicated, and the final verdict of History determined in favor of a gallant, but down-trodden and oppressed, PEOPLE. Contents: CHAPTER I. Opinions respecting Secession determined by passion, not by reason CHAPTER I. The Issue; or Point in Controversy CHAPTER II. "The Great Expounder" CHAPTER IV. The first Resolution passed by the Convention of 1787 CHAPTER V. The Constitution of 1787 a Compact CHAPTER VI. The Constitution of 1'787 a Compact CHAPTER VI. The Constitution of 1'787 a Compact CHAPTER VII. The Constitution of 1787 a compact between the States.-The Facts of the Case CHAPTER IX. The Constitution a Compact between the States.-The Language of the Constitution. CHAPTER X. The Constitution of 1787 Compact between the States.-The Language of the Constitution CHAPTER XI. The Constitution of 1787 a Compact between the States.-The views of Hamilton, Madison, Morris, and other Framers of the Constitution CHAPTER XI. The Convention of 1787 describes the Constitution formed by them as a Compact between the States CHAPTER XII. Mr. Webster Mr. Webster CHAPTER XIV. The absurdities flowing from the Doctrine that the Constitution is not a Compact between the States, but was made by the People of America as one Nation CHAPTER XV. The Hypothesis that the people of America form one Nation CHAPTER XVI. Arguments in favor of the Right of Secession CHAPTER XVI. Arguments against the Right of Secession CHAPTER XVII. Was Secession Treason? CHAPTER XIX. The Causes of Secession CHAPTER XX. The Legislators of 1787 as Political Prophets This pre-1923 publication has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting process.