Mr. Carpenter. Will the Senator allow me to ask him a question?
Mr. Sumner. Certainly.
Mr. Carpenter. In speaking of a State of this Union, does not the Senator understand the term to apply to the corporation, so to speak,—the Government of the State?
Mr. Sumner. I do not.
Mr. Carpenter. I ask the Senator, then, in what way the State of Virginia got out of the Union, except by destroying the State Government which was a member of the Union? Her territory was always in; her people were always subject to the laws of the United States.
Mr. Sumner. There I agree with the Senator. Her people were always in; her territory was always in.
Mr. Carpenter. But her Government was not.
Mr. Sumner. Not out. Her Government was destroyed.
Mr. Carpenter. Yes, and thereby she ceased to be a member of the Union.
Mr. Sumner. Rather than say that she had ceased to be a member of the Union, I would say that her Government was destroyed. She never was able to take one foot of her soil or one of her people beyond the jurisdiction of the Nation. The people constitute the State in the just sense, and it has been always our duty to protect them, and this I now propose to do.