They were rejected by the Federal
officers."
These demanded not only the disorganization and disarming of the State
militia and the nullification of the military bill, but they refused to
disarm their own "Home Guard," and insisted that the Government of the
United States should enjoy an unrestricted right to move and station its
troops throughout the State whenever and wherever it might, in the
opinion of its officers, be necessary either for the protection of its
"loyal subjects" or for the repelling of invasion; and they plainly
announced that it was the intention of the Administration to take
military occupation of the whole State, and to reduce it, as avowed by
General Lyon, to the "exact condition of Maryland."
We have already stated that the revolutionary measures which the United
States Government had undertaken to enforce involved the subjection of
every State, either by voluntary submission or subjugation. However much
a State might desire peace and neutrality, its own will could not elect.
The scheme demanded the absolute sovereignty of the Government of the
United States, or, in other words, the extinguishment of the
independence and sovereignty of the State. Human actions are not only
the fruit of the ruling motive, but they are also the evidence of the
existence of that motive. Thus, when we see the Governor of the State of
Missouri offering such generous terms to the government of the United
States in order to preserve peace and neutrality, and the latter,
rejecting them, avow its intention to do its will with the authorities,
the property, and the citizens of the State, and proceed with military
force to do it, its actions are both the evidence and the fruit of its
theory.
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