January 14, 1861, The Charleston Mercury
The relations of adopted citizens to the Federal Government, and to the States in which they live, are the same as those of native citizens. When a foreigner is naturalized, he takes the oath support the Constitution of the United States. This renders it his right and duty to know what that instrument is, and to exercise his judgment as to whether it has been violated, or set aside by any of the parties to it. The parties who made and established the Constitution, as a compact between them, are the people of the several States, as States. The General Government is their common agent, to exercise the limited powers entrusted to it by the constitutional compact. No allegiance can be due to the agent, but must be owed by all citizens, whether adopted or native, to all these, principals–to all the States; because they are all sovereigns, possessed of supreme ultimate authority, and a man cannot have thirty odd sovereigns, at one and the same time, to whom his allegiance is due. If that were the case, then, in the event of war between these States, he would be guilty of treason whichever side he should take, and might legally be punished as a traitor, even for defending the State in which he was domiciled as a citizen, against one whose borders he had never set foot upon. This shows its utter absurdity.
A foreigner, in becoming naturalized, is put, and stands, precisely on the same footing with the native citizen. He is made a citizen of a State, with the privileges and immunities’ of citizens of the other States of the Confederacy of the United States; and like them, in consequence of these privileges and immunities, he is called a citizen of the United States. The State in which he is domiciled, or lives, is his sovereign, and obedience to the laws of the General Government, so long as they are over him, by virtue of the consent and enactment of the State.
When the State recalls her consent, and separates from the Union of Confederated States, as an independent party to the constitutional compact, on account of its violation by the other parties, she, in her sovereign capacity, by that act, expunges all obligations of her citizens to obey any longer the laws of the General Government.
Before a State has seceded, it is the duty and privilege of all citizens to judge whether her compact with other States has been broken and set aside by them. It is also their business, as citizens, to judge whether it be politic that she should take the final step of separation for the purpose of securing to citizens the enjoyment of their rights and institutions. All exercise that judgment at the ballot box. When the State has decided, then, having all the privileges and all the obligations of citizens of South Carolina, Naturalized citizens, like native, are bound by their allegiance to support her in her assertion of her rights and independence.
Thus much we have said merely to inform and strengthen the resolution of those citizens who are exhibiting their loyalty and attachment to the home of their adoption by what is nobler than words–action.