exercising political privileges"; that the Union remains, but that one
party to it has thereby lost its corporate existence, and the other has
advanced to the control and government of it.

Sir, this cannot be. Gentlemen must not palter in a double sense. These
acts of secession are either valid or invalid. If they are valid, they
separated the State from the Union. If they are invalid, they are void;
they have no effect; the State officers who act upon them are rebels
to the Federal Government; the States are not destroyed; their
constitutions are not abrogated; their officers are committing illegal
acts, for which they are liable to punishment; the States have never
left the Union, but, as soon as their officers shall perform their
duties or other officers shall assume their places, will again perform
the duties imposed, and enjoy the privileges conferred, by the
Federal compact, and this not by virtue of a new ratification of the
Constitution, nor a new admission by the Federal Government, but by
virtue of the original ratification, and the constant, uninterrupted
maintenance of position in the Federal Union since that date.

Acts of secession are not invalid to destroy the Union, and valid to
destroy the State governments and the political privileges of their
citizens. We have heard much of the twofold relations which citizens of
the seceded States may hold to the Federal Government--that they may be
at once belligerents and rebellious citizens. I believe there are some
judicial decisions to that effect. Sir, it is impossible. The Federal
Government may possibly have the right to elect in which relation
it will deal with them; it cannot deal at one and the same time in
inconsistent relations. Belligerents, being captured, are entitled to
be treated as prisoners of war; rebellious citizens are liable to be
hanged. The private property of belligerents, according to the rules