Is Davis a Traitor: Or Was Secession a Constitutional Right Previous to the War of 1861? Annotated.

by Albert Taylor Bledsoe

For, having specified the stipulations in this case, he proceeds to say, “I know no form of legislation which can strengthen this. I know no mode of recognition that can add a tittle to the weight of it. I listened respectfully to the resolutions of my friend from Tennessee. He proposed to recognize that stipulation with Texas. But any additional recognition would weaken the force of it; because it stands here on the ground of a contract, a thing done for a consideration. It is a law founded on a contract with Texas.” There is, then, after all, no incompatibility between a contract and a law! On the contrary, the very highest form of legislation may be that of a compact between sovereigns States. It was thus, that Texas came into the Union; and, in consideration of certain things promised to her, agreed to accept the Constitution of the United States as the supreme law of the land.