If every treaty may be
overthrown by which states have been settled into a nation, what form of
political union may not on like grounds be severed? There is the same
force in the doctrine of secession in the application of counties as in
the application to states, and if it be right for a state or a county to
secede, it is equally right for a town or a city. This doctrine of
secession is a huge revolving millstone that grinds the national life to
powder. It is anarchy in velvet, and national destruction clothed in
soft phrases. No people with patriotism and honor will give up territory
without a struggle for it. Would you give it up? It is said that the
states are owners of their territory! It is theirs to use not theirs to
run away with. We have equal right with them to enter it. I would like
to ask those English gentlemen who hold that it is right for a state to
secede when it pleases, how they would like it if the county of Kent
would try the experiment. The men who cry out for secession of the
Southern States in America would say, "Kent seceding? Ah, circumstances
alter cases.
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