declined and died out; but its power and influence in the State of New York, for several years, drove nearly all the masons of that State into the democratic party. Anti-Masonry formed too narrow a base on which to found and maintain a political party, and therefore the party declined after a few years, and the most of the Anti-Masons united with the national republicans, and were finally merged in the whig party. Such are the natural tendencies and ordinary effects of fanaticism. No apparent good resulted from the organization of the Anti-Masonic party. SEC. 23. NON-INTERVENTION, AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY OVER MUNÍ- * The principles of non-intervention recognize the equality of nations, and the right of each to form their own government and to change it at pleasure-to adopt and maintain such form of government as they see fit-to legislate for themselves upon all internal and municipal subjects, and also upon external subjects of navigation, commerce, and commercial contracts, in any manner not inconsistent with the laws of nations. The principles of non-intervention, in fact, form the main corner stones of international law, and the independence of nations. They require every nation to abstain from invading the dominions, or interfering in the affairs of neighboring nations, so long as the latter do not commit any flagrant acts against their rights. The safety and security of small and weak nations depend upon the principles of non-intervention, and the public opinion of the christian nations of the earth, to protect them from the ambition and the aggressions of their more powerful neighbors. The principles of non-intervention form also the main corner stone of religious liberty and American Protestantism. They recognize the equality of the several churches; the liberty of the people, individually, to form their own opinions upon religious matters; the right of each church to adopt their own creed, system of discipline and mode of worship; and that neither the government nor any other church has any right to interfere with them, or to assume any power or jurisdiction over them, so long as they * This and the next section should have been put after section 10, in chapter three. do not infringe the equal rights of others, nor violate any sound principle of morals. Our Savior taught the doctrines of non-intervention by the clergy and christian churches, in matters of law and govern ment. His commands were, snbmit to the civil government; "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Our federal government is also based upon the principles of nonintervention with the states and state governments, in matters of municipal legislation and power, not specially granted to congress. The constitution of the United States creates a government for national, and inter-state purposes only; and recognizes the several states as independent sovereignties, in nearly all matters of an internal and municipal character. Congress may pass laws upon a few subjects of a national or inter-state character, in accordance with express grants of power contained in the constitution, which are purely subjects of munici-. pal legislation in independent nations. The federal government also guarantees to each state a republican form of government; and the constitution declares "That the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens of the seueral states." Congress may also levy taxes, for national purposes, in the several states. With these few exceptions, the several states are as independent of the federal government and of each other, and have as absolutely sovereign and supreme powers within their respective limits, over both persons and property, and all subjects of municipal law and legislation, as the nations of Europe have. The privileges and immunities which citizens of one state are entitled to in other states are stated more fully in No. 4, of the Articles of Confederation. [Ante. pages 21 and 22.] They include the privilege of free ingress and regress to and from any state at pleasure; the privileges of trade and commerce; the right of making contracts, doing business, acquiring, holding, enjoying, and conveying property therein, both real and personal; and of dwelling or settling therein, with a view to become citizens thereof. But it does not give them the rights of voters; which can be acquired in each state only, in accordance with the constitution thereof. Nor does it give them any greater privileges, immunities, or exemptions from taxation or other burthens, restrictions, and state laws, than are allowed to citizens of the state. Because a citizen enjoys certain privileges in his own state, it does not follow that he can go into other states and enjoy the same, unless the citizens thereof enjoy them. The principle and rule of non-intervention is founded upon the sovereignty of the people of every state or country, in local and municipal matters, subject to the laws of nations, in inter-national matters, and in confederacies, subject also to the dominion of a national government in matters of national concern. It is founded on the absolute and unqualified right of the people of every country to choose their own form of government-whether it be monarchy, aristocracy or democracy, or the mixture of any two, or all. three of those forms, and to change the same at pleasure; denies the right and propriety of any other nation or people interfering with them. It is not intended to give sanctity or strength to the claims of one nation or people to the permanent exercise of jurisdiction and dominion over an other-which is capable of self-government, even though the latter may be colonists of the former. The rule of non-intervention properly applies only to a country or adjoining countries, occupied by the people of one nation, and denies the right of other nations to interfere in their affairs; it does not properly apply to foreign conquests, nor to distant colonies; for the exercise of permanent dominion of one nation or government over the people of another nation or country, is directly contrary to the principles upon which the rule of nonintervention is founded. When the people of a colony, at a distance from the mother country, have become sufficiently numerous and enlightened to form and sustain, properly, a national government, and occupy a country of sufficient size and resources for the support of an independent nation, any aid given to them by foreign nations to enable them to throw of the yoke of colonial bondage, and to govern themselves by means of a government of their own, is not a violation of the rule of non-intervention; the rule does not properly apply to such a case. The aid so generously given by France to the American colonies during the revolutionary war, was no violation of the great principle of non-intervention. The secessionists and their European friends and sympathizers have endeavored to justify this secession, revolutionary movement and rebellion of the south, and their claims to the intervention of France and England in their behalf, upon the principles and doctrines of the American revolution; but the analogy between the two cases fails, in the most important particulars. First, the seceding states had a fair and equal participation in the federal government, and were subjected only to laws, in making which, they largely participated; whereas the colonists had no participation in the British government, and were subjected to laws, in making which, they had no voice whatever. Secondly, the broad ocean rolls between Great Britain and the United States-which rendered it proper for the latter to form an independent nation; but there are no natural boundaries between the northern and southern states. On the contrary, the course and magnitudeof the Mississippi river and its tributaries, and the formation of the country is such, as to fit the whole country, from the Atlantic ocean to the Rocky mountains, and from the great northern lakes to the gulf of Mexico, for the occupancy of one nation, and unfit it for division. It can not be divided without subjecting the people of the north-western states to very great inconveniences and evils, and to unjust restrictions and embarrassments. Furthermore, the people of the northern and southern states have had the same origin and national history, speak the same language, and have the same religious institutions and character. Nearly a century since, they formed the most solemn league that ever united a people, and for about seventy years they lived together harmoniously, under the most perfect constitution and system of government ever formed by man. Such being the condition of things, there were no better grounds for secession and the separation of the south from the north, than there is for the separation of Scotland from England, or the south of France from the north part of that empire; and there is no more ground on which to justify the intervention of France and England, or either of them, in our civil war, than there would be to justify foreign countries in interfering to aid Scotland or the south of France in a similar revolutionary movement. It has long been the policy of the monarchs of Europe to marry their sons and daughters to princesses and princes of other reigning families-to render their governments stronger and safer by marriage relations and family affinities. By reason of that policy, there is much more sympathy of feeling between the monarchs of the different countries of Europe and their families, than there is between the people of different nations. On that account, the violations of the principle of non-intervention have usually been by one sovereign in favor of another, and against the people. Such interventions have generally resulted in the overthrow of popular rights, constitutions, and governments-and in the establishment of despotism, and of monarchies nearly despotic; and such has been their natural tendency. Foreign intervention led to the first partition of Poland, in 1772, and to the final partition and destruction of that kingdom, about twenty years afterwards. The interference of Austria, England, and other nations of Europe in the affairs of France during the first revolution, drove the French people to a state of phrenzy, and was one of the principal causes of their great excesses during that unhappy period, and of the murder of the king. Shocking evils, but no good, arose out of the violation of the principle of non-intervention in France; the statesmen of Europe became so well satisfied of the evils, and of the importance of maintaining that great principle of international law and public policy, that when the revolution occurred in 1830, again in 1848, and again in December, 1851, there was no foreign interference, and the people and army of France were allowed to settle their own quarrels by civil war or otherwise, and to establish their own government in their own way, and to change it at pleasure, without foreign interference. Non-intervention is a rule generally adopted and acted upon by Christian nations, in their intercourse with each other; it has never been extended to Mahometan uations, which do not recognize it. The Mahometans have warred against the Christian nations and peoples of the old world more than twelve centuries, and have endeavored to propagate Mahometanism by the sword, and to extinguish Christianity. They have imposed the yoke of Mahometan despotism and fanaticism, indiscriminately upon Christians and Pagans, wherever they could carry their military con |