Union was menaced; and always _in the name of State Rights_. The menace was constant; and it sometimes showed itself on small as well as great occasions, but always _in the name of State Rights_. When it was supposed that Fremont was about to be chosen President the menace became louder, and mingling with it was the hoarse mutter of war; and all this audacity was _in the name of State Rights_. But in the autumn of 1860, on the election of Abraham Lincoln, the case became much worse. Scarcely was the result known by telegraph, before the country was startled by other intelligence, to the effect that certain States at the South were about to put in execution the long pending threat of Secession, of course _in the name of State Rights_. First came South Carolina, which, by Ordinance adopted in a State Convention, undertook to repeal the original Act by which the Constitution was adopted in this State, and to declare that South Carolina had ceased to be one of the States of the Union. At the same time a Declaration of Independence was put forth by the State, which proceeded to organize as an independent community. This example was followed successively by other States, which, by formal Acts of Secession, undertook to dissolve relations with the Union, always, be it understood, _in the name of State Rights_. A new Confederation was formed by these States, with a new Constitution, and Jefferson Davis at its head; and the same oaths of loyalty by which the local functionaries of all these States had been bound to the Union were now transferred to this new Confederation, of course in utter violation of the Constitution of the United States, but always _in the name of State Rights_. The Ordinances of Secession were next maintained by war, which, beginning with the assault upon Fort Sumter, convulsed the whole country, till, at last, all the States of the new Confederation were in open rebellion, which the Government of the United States is now exerting its energies, mustering its forces, and taxing its people to suppress. The original claim, _in the name of State Rights_, has swollen to all the proportions of an unparalleled war, which, _in the name of State Rights_, now menaces the national life.