But perhaps the constitution itself, if rightly understood,
solves the problem; and perhaps the problem itself is raised
precisely through misunderstanding of the constitution. Our
statesmen have recognized no constitution of the American people
themselves; they have confined their views to the written
constitution, as if that constituted the American people a state
or nation, instead of being, as it is, only a law ordained by the
nation already existing and constituted. Perhaps, if they had
recognized and studied the constitution which preceded that drawn
up by the Convention of 1787, and which is intrinsic, inherent in
the republic itself, they would have seen that it solves the
problem, and asserts national unity without consolidation, and
the rights of the several States without danger of disintegration.
The whole controversy, possibly, has originated in a
misunderstanding of the real constitution of the United States,
and that misunderstanding itself in the misunderstanding of the
origin and constitution of government in general. The
constitution, as will appear in the course of this essay is not
defective; and all that is necessary to guard against either
danger is to discard all our theories of the constitution, and
return and adhere to the constitution itself, as it really is and
always has been.

There is no doubt that the question of Slavery had much to do
with the rebellion, but it was not its sole cause. The real
cause must be sought in the program that had been made,
especially in the States themselves, in forming and administering
their respective governments, as well as the General government,
in accordance with political theories borrowed from European
speculators on government, the socalled Liberals and