LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0000^143^^ sew* av ^ »©H8S* «? ^, % *b >* ..*'•• *c J T 11 E P 11 1 L S P H Y OF Tin: - AMEBICAN REBELLION. BY J. J. STEWART. Tt is tho misfortune of the Middle States, whose conservatism has so long- preserved our glorious Union, to have at length become involved in the fierce con- test of arms now waging for its destruc- tion. Word battles have, for many years, been fought over our shoulders by the two extremes, representing opinions equally at variance with the permanence of our institutions. The nationality of the United Stares was the offspring of the Constitution, which restricted the Gov- ernment to the exercise of only such powers as were conferred upon it by the States, they reserving to themselves and to the people all powers not therein del- egated. To that extent, however, the nation so created was suprertie, and de- clared so to be by the solemn ratification of the compact by the people. From the moment of that ratification the rela- tions between the United States govern- ment and the individual citizens compo- sing the body politic, were established. They were, in their nature, permanent and irrevocable. The duties, privileges and fealty of the citizens of the United States were co-extensive with the mag- nificent territory over which its protect- ing arm extended. The duties, privile- ges and fealty of each of said citizens to the State in which he resided were res- tricted within its narrow geographical limits, and confined to its reserved pow- ers. There was here no clashing of interests or powers; but as the all-power- ' ful sun sheds its beneficent warmth and light upon the revolving planets of the solar system, so the central government shed its manifold blessings upon a har- monious combination of States, each performing, in its separate sphere, the duties entailed upon it by its reserved powers, and all by their relations wii great central power, adding to the strength and dignity of the nation. To prevent any conflict of jurisdiction, the instrument creating the government pro- vided for a tribunal to decide upon its powers. By the fluency of elections, also, the people were enabled from time to time to express their approval or 'lis approval of the measures of the Govern- ment. Human foresight could go no further. The wisest statesmen and pur- est patriots of the free and enlightened States of America, after having enuncia- ted in the Declaration of Independence the grand doctrines which throbbed at the heart and inspired the intellect of the greatest era the world had yet known, and, by deeds of valor and endurance, established their right to self-government, erected this glorious temple to the Genius of Liberty, at whose altar the oppressed of all nations were invited to worship. THE DECLARATION OP INI>EPENDKN< !'. As the utterance of thirteen colonies struggling to free themselves from the yoke of oppression, notwitstanditu the a: laillta which have been made upon it, will forever occupy that lofty position in the historic literature of the world to which its own intrinsic merits and the great event lt commemorates alike entitles Thni , g l Gat P hilos P he r and statesman 1 nomas Jefferson, in setting forth as self equal; that they are endowed hy their Creator with certain inalienable rights toam^th,m^li^ 3;b ,r^a^the pursuit of happiness," certainly never could have contemplated the gross ££ ^prehension, and perversions to which fe bes »W. Comprehend: ing politics as a science based udoii ih f ac « ^ths, independent of1he P co„dr: ^.in-oundin,U>emassofmaS, ought to ff ^ m accordance with such Pnn CI ples as are legitimately substantia! maht to 1 ft ^ hlch human :lctio »« ftunl n f Ulate - d ' ai ' e the nece ^y oundations of a science which treats of the thirteen colonies gave voice to the i fictions which forced them to separate from the mother country, they disregarded the conditions established bv governments, and spoke for the w oil human **e and for all time. The Ten who signed that declaration were To such as would idly put their Tmes to »nj paper. They'were "honesT and *X££ S* WC fiQd that im -tSy toijowing the announcement of these sSJ " ghtS S ov ™ents are in- stituted amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Z orned,and that whenever any form of sryft bec °r ^^ °^ o • abo sh i ''.I J' ° f thG PG °P le t0 alter or abolish it and to institute new - ov . principles, and organizing its powers in ness" Tl! fc *$*¥"* and h ^~ forth in 1 n °, bl ° Oration stands a of heUi ? thG ^*° int aDd **"■* act ol the thirteen original States. It is 1*1 Ae voice of South Carolina and Vi Massachusetts and Pennsylvania chanting from the glorious LTtth sublime hymn to human liberty'* Vuantummutantabiilosl To da- war song-the death dealing b3 the gory sabre-tbe sullen boom o destroying artillery ! And ill for, i or causes so inadequate that the ary mind fails to Comprehend theri with a prospect of result, so disa that we shrink from their contempi I he February number of De lieview for the vear 1861 in an - headed "Past and P leseilt ,» denn Ibomas Jefferson as a « Red Repubb who "wrote for the American ^peor as it they were a nation of French; and says that the -doctrine of rrepresaible conflict is the immediat legitimate offspring of those unblm sophisms and meretricious assumr that made the Declaration of Ind, deuce an instrument more proper! pressive of the passionate aLK ST/ a /f isianmo bthanth e< dignified and deliberate utterance nation temperate even in its exciten grand even in its follies." I s this fowhxch'eisendsbacktothel ot 76? In what colored liquid with what notes of exclamation will tory record this in her "Process of Si^f 'Will she not think ra that the hand of Time has been rm st forward upon the dial of the centui or that her old eyes have grown too , to see the grand truths which undo the great Southern Rebellion? THE CONSTITUTION F T„ E , INITED STA , j . -* »"K UKITED ST1T Is not inconsistent with the principi the Declaration. It is not "a league < ueatn— a covenant with hell," as nounced by abolition agitators time again. It ls the articles of co-partner —tne leage and covenant between s ereign States, receiving all its powers delegation, and erected into the dig ot a government by the potential ? of the people. Under that constituti no one State is af all responsible tor V a sh l] •mt voic til institutions of any other State. Our ancestors were wise enough to "organize its powers in suchform as to them seemed most likely to effect their safety and happiness.'' Social Institutions, though modified and promoted by the acts of government, are not the creatures oi' government. They evolve out of the character and habits of the people. They are indicative of the stage of civilization, and are changed or abolished or strength- ened with the credence of the people. — , Our forefathers understood the political axiom that "the first duty of government is to protect society." As citizens of a, State they had a voice in their respective States towards the moulding of their domestic institutions. The general gov- ernment was not created with any such view; any interference by it with the domestic concerns of a State, so as to entrench upon its reserved powers, has always been properly resented by the ;reat body of the people. Notwithstand- ing this, certain persons in the' North, offended by the institution of slavery in the Southern States, early commenced the agitation of the slavery question as one requiring national interference. — Misapprehending the truths of the De- claration of Independence, and urged on by a fanatical zeal to realize the political niilleniuin, wherein equality of political, civil and social rights is to be accorded to all men, regardless of color or qualifi- cation, the abolitionists have overleaped the laws of nature and the experience of all time. In endeavoring to make a iteral application of an abstract truth, they have forgotten the fitness of things and those immutable laws of labor and of race which the Creator established before man learned the art of government ''at ail. "All men are created equal." — llov. '( Not equal in parts — in intellect —in physical power ; but, in the lan- j guage of Christianity, "the high aud the • low, the rich and the poor, are equal in In sight of Cod" — as an abstract truth in political soien . laws jf nature ii ■ . . . ■ is their right to establish government; which government must, of course, be only up to the standard of the aggregate intelligence of the nation. "With certain inalienable rights ; that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Man has a right to life. That is, in the equitable relations which should subsist between him and his brethren, his life should be secure from harm at their hands. But may he not forfeit that right ? May he not, by dis- turbing those equitable relations, so en- danger another life that self-defence will demand a sacrifice of his own ? May not the welfare of a community demand that he shall be restricted in his "liberty and in his pursuit of happiness ?" Again : man cannot live without labor. It cer- tainly does not interfere with his admitted right to live, that, before all rights, God • imposed upon him the necessity for labor. These rights then, assumed by our fore- fathers to be "self-evident truths" whiJi formed the basis of political science, were undoubtedly regarded by them assubject to the conditions imposed upon man by God and the necessities of government, and presuppose, as applied to a nation, ' the capacity to protect' life, to defend liberty, and keep the people free to pursue happiness. While it is quite evident, from the letters and speeches and public acts of the founders of the Republic that slavery was regarded as an evil to be endured, in the hope of its eventual ex- tinguishment, nothing is more apparent than that our forefathers intended this, to be A WHITE MAN'S GOVERNMENT. Any attempt, come from what source it may, to make this other than a white man's government must tail. Races of men are as distinct as races of animals, anu there is as great a repugnance be- tween them— a physiological fact, of whic i the dominant race is entitled to take cognizance, in establishing the status of citizenship. All men cannot truthfully exclaim with u mean, "1 know !;<"'. know h '!>;. is the offspring of labor, observation and experience, and results not from tbe culture of an individual, but a nation. There are whole communities and whole races which have not yet attained know- ledge sufficient for the maintainance of freedom. It is doubted by many sound thinkers whether the African race ever can be elevated to that degree of civili- tion essential to the establishment and maintainance of liberty. We are proud to think ourselves of the noblest race now living, and yet history records the strug- gles of our ancestors through many cen- turies of ignorance and despotism towards the attainment of our present position — a position already becoming uncertain. Freedom is not a boon which can be conferred upon any people ; it is a condi- tion resulting from the achievements of those who are to enjoy it. All govern- ments in the earlier stages of society are despotic, and they lose their despotic character only when the nation progres- ses in knowledge and combines for the advancement of its liberties. It is a trite aphorism, "Who w r ould be free, themselves must strike the blow." As this is to continue to be a nation of free- men, it would be a violation of the prin- ciples of good government to admit to citizenship those who are not qualified to exercise its franchises. Admitted, that all the slaves of the South were emanci- pated to-day, what would you do with them ? I cannot pretend to answer that question, but I can tell you very surely what could not be done with them. You could not make American citizens of them. What has all this to do with the re- bellion ? It has much to do with it. I have been commenting upon the errone- ous views and extreme propositions of that class of phllanthropico-political agi- tators who, though few in number, have for many years furnished the pabulum wherewith the giant of secession has been fed. They thought they were pouring hot shot into him, but though it was hard food, he had the stomach of an ostrich and digested it rapidly and waxed fat upon it. Worse than that, it has begotten an antagonism which has changed the credence of the South. In 1838, Henry Clay, in the Senate, remarking that "there are three classes oi' persons opposed, or apparently oppo- sed to the continued existence of slavery in the United States," says of the third class, they are "ultra abolitionists, who are resolved to persevere in the object of their pursuit at all hazards, and without regard to any consequences, however calamitous they may be. With them the rights of property are nothing ; the de- ficiency in the powers of the general government is nothing; the acknowled- ged and incontestible powers of the States are nothing; civil war, a dissolu- tion of the Union, and the overthrow of the government in which are concentra- ted the fondest hopes of the civilized world are nothing. A single idea has taken possession of their minds, and onward they pursue it, reckless and re- gardless of all consequences." In the same year, Mr. Calhoun, speak- ing to resolutions he had introduced, said : "This (slavery) is the only ques- tion of sufficient magnitude and potency to divide this Union ; and divide it ' it would or drench the country in blood if not arrested." And thus Mr. Crittenden : "It might not be exactly true that to save the Union, it was necessary to follow him (Calhoun.) On the contrary, some were of the opinion, and he for one, was much inclined to be of the same view, that to follow the distinguished mover of these resolutions, (Calhoun) — to pursue tho course of irritation, agitation and intimi- dation which he chalked out, would be the very best and surest methed that could be chalked out to destroy this great and happy Union." And thus Mr. Clay : "I hope the tendency of the resolutions may be to allay the excitement which unhappily prevails in respect to the abolition of tiluvery ; but 1 confess that, taken alto- gethcr, and in connection with other circumstances, and especially considering manner in which their author has em on the Senate, 1 tear they will has e tl site effect!" Mr. . . "i ! iouth Carolina, in the I, taking advantage of the og created by the uncalled for and impertinent speech of Mr. Slade, of Ver- mont, upon the slavery question, prepa- red two resolutions, the first declaring it "expedient that the Union should be dis- solved;" the second to "appoint si com- mittee of two members from each State to report upon the best means of peace- ably dissolving it." Both Calhoun and llhett were active projectors of disunion, and always held it up as the necessary consequence of an enforcement of measures to which they were opposed. They harped upon that single string, discordant to every ear but their own, until the delicate ear of patri- otism became accustomed to it, and at last regarded it as mere party clangor and fustian. The above "extracts show two things — that tiie abolitionists were unwarrantably addling in the domestic institutions of the Southern States, and that the apos- tles of Southern independence, anxious to accomplish the destruction of the Uni- on, welcomed the agitation as "grist to their mill," and made the most of it. The tariff question in 1882 had failed them. Stalwart old Andrew Jackson, a patriot in soul, and resolute of purpose, had met the Nullification Ordinance with the pursuasivc voijee of coercion. He ad- tished with paternal tenderness in his proclamation, but wifih the firm as- surance that they who attempted to set the at defiance must be punished by the law. In his message to Congress upon the proceedings of South Carolina, Gen- eral Jackson allluded to the ambition* and personal feelings that might be in- volved in them. Mr. Davis, of Massa- chusetts, expressed his belief "that the discontent in South Carolina had a root deeper thau that of the tariff." Mr. Webster spoke thus: "Sir, the the world will scarcely believe that this whole controversy and all the desperate measures which its support requires have no other foundation than a difference of opinion, upon a provision of the Constitu- tion, between a majority of the people* f South Carotin on one side, and a vast majority of the whole people of the Uni- ted States on the other It will not cred- it the fact, it will nut admit the possibil- ity that iri an enlightened aire, in a free, popular Republic, under a government where the people govern as they must always govern under such si/stems, by majorities, at a time of unprecedented happiness, without practical oppression, without evils, such as may uot only be pretended but felt and experienced; evils, not slight or temporary, but deep, permanentand intolerable : asingle State should rush into conflict with all the rest, attemot to put down the power oi tl. Union by her own laws, and to support those laws by her military power, and thus break up and destroy the world's last' hope. Aud well may the world be incredulous. We who hear and see it cau •urselves hardly yet believe it." In the letter recently addressed to Geo. W.Childs, Esq., by that distinguish- ed naval hero, Com. Charles Stewart, we have the earliest recorded evidence of the reasons for the statesman of that day not believing in the ostensible cause of South Carolina nullification. Tn that letter we find that as early as 1812, in his first Congress, Mr. Calhoun disclosed to the then young captain the existence of a "sectional policy" on the part of the South, which caused its representatives, though aristoeratie*in their notions, to "yield much to democracy," in order that through the great ruling party of the Middle States, the South might govern the country;" but "when from division or any other cause," said he, "that par- ty shall cease to control the government, nothing remains for the South but to dissolve the Union !" This great revolutionist was certainly no stickler at trifles, for one of the prin- ciples of that party of Jeffersonian origin, was during all this time operating to •build up a mighty nation of voters in the free States by the encouragement of im- migration. Opposition to foreigners al- ways came from the Whigs and their party successors; while that element of the body politic was fostered and petted by the Democratic party, which received substantial evidence of its gratitude in overwhelming majorities at the polls. Ordinary foresight, however, must have foretold that this was an uncertain reli- ance for permanent power. And that Mr. Calhoun distrusted it, we find in his numerous warnings against assumptions •of power by the growing majorities of the North, and his pet theory of maintaining the "political balance" by making a new slave State for every free State admitted into the Union. In the mean time the rational doctrine of States Rights, which had been consis- tently and patriotically inculcated by Jefferson and Madison was perverted by ingenious sophistry from its true purport and made to do service in the cause of treason, veiled under the name of "Se- cession." Throughout his political ca- reer, from the time he first entered Con- gress in 1812 up to the time of his death in 1850, Mr. Calhoun, the embodiment of the "sectional policy" of the South, sedulously inculcated such doctrines as were likely to weaken the bonds of the Union. Of unimpeachable private char- acter, courteous and gentlamanly in de- meanor, with a keen and logical mind, it is not to be woadered at, that he be- came the idol of an increasing party, scat- tered through the body of other parties, it is true, and organized only in his own State in such a manner as to make itself effective,'but spreading and only needing the occasion to display itself. Being my- self, always a States Rights Democrat, and as much so to-day as ever, I can well remember my own pleasure at his resis- tance of Federal encroachment. I was too young then to perceive, that his pow- erful arguments and bitter invective were the result of a settled policy to, make the "sectional issue," paramount, ami were leveled at a monster of his own creation, which, like the hidious fiend of Fran- kenstein, was to become the curse and destruction of all he held most dear, lie was the author of the doctrine of secess- ion, which in the opinion of every other contemporaneous statesman meant — dis- union and civil war. He thus expressed himself upon that subject : — "That a State as a party to the Con- stitutional compact has a right to secede — acting in the same capacity in which it ratified the Constitution — cannot, with any show of reason, be denied by any one who regards the. Constitution as a compact — if a power should be inserted by the amending power, which would radically change the character of the Con- stitution or the nature of the system ; or if the former should faiFto fulfil the ends for which it was established." And the Convention of South Caroli- na on the 80th of April 1852, prepared the way for the future course that State intended to pursue by the adoption of "An ordinance to declare the right of TiiF State to secede from the Union. Which ordinance declared that "it is her right, without let, hinderance or mo- lestation from any power whatsoever, to secede from the said Federal Union ; and that for the sufficiency of the causes which may impel her to such separation, she is responsible alone, under God, to the tribunal of public opinion among the nations of the earth." The yeas and nays being called, the vote stood for the ordinance 136, against the ordinance 19. "Coming events cast their shadows be- fore." Franklin Pierce, of New Hamp- shire was President, — to the surprise of most people, and not less to the surprise, of the bulk of the democratic party that elected him. Few of us iiad ever heard of him until he was nominated. He was like the "fly in amber,' 7 e/urious ll > ^°°' c at, but bow did it get there ? The am- ber has now been broken and we know how it got there. We know that Mr. Calhoun to clear the way for a repeal of the Missouri compromise on the 10th Feb- ruary, 1847, had introduced resolutions into the Senate denying the right of Con- gress to legislate against slavery in the territories, that these resolutions (iden- tical with those since introduced by Jef- ferson Davis and passed in 1860 as a . trial platform for the Presidential campaign,) were met by an outburst of indignation and regarded as a fire-brand. His speech in support of them was ex- treme, and looked as usual to disunion f they •were not sustained. Although he announced his intention of having them acted upon — he did not call for a vote upon them and they were laid away, a set of "rod in pickle," to be used by Mr. Jeff. Davis, to whip the Southern Democracy into line with in 1860. The Northern Democracy were not thought quite ready to swallow the whole animal ; having yet a lingering respect for the Missouri Compromise as a solemn agreement and its unconstitutionality not having been declared by the Supreme Court. In party circles, however, dis- cussions were got up as to how the in- flrmation of this new sore was to be re- duced without cutting off the limb. The resolutions were printed and sent out for adoption by the State Legislature, and out of them sprang the doctrine of "Con- gressional non-intervention with slavery in the territories." General Cass, em- bodied that idea in his famous Nicholson letter, and being an honest and patriotic old gentleman and logical with, all he thought if the power did not exist in Congress it must vest some where, and so he placed it with the people. He could not perceive how the mantle of cit- izenship fell from a man's shoulders the moment he stepped from a State into a territory, and he become a mere subject of Congressional power. His views being prepared for the convention that nomi- nated him, were, of course, adopted as the platform, to the disgust of Mr. \'an- cey, of Alabama, and (Jen. Commander, of South Carolina, who introduced the Calhoun resolutions, as a minority report, with less success than greeted his last effort at the Charleston and Baltimore Conventions. — the minority report at that time receiving only 36 votes to 216 against it. In 1S50, California, the first-begotten child of "Squatter Sovereignty," applied for admission into the Union as a free State. Horror of horrors ! What though the fourth of the Calhoun resolutions of 1847 declared, and it was unanimously conceded, "that it is afundamental prin- ciple of our political creed that a people, in forming a constitution, have the un- conditional right to form and adopt the government which they may think best calculated to secure their liberty, pros- perity and happiness ; and that, in con- formity thereto, no other condition is imposed by the federal constitution over States, in order to be admitted into this Union, except that its constitution shall be republican r" What though the 2d and 3d of those resolutions in effect de- clared the Missouri Compromise uncon- stitutional ? Mr. Calhoun, in his last speech, read by Mr. Mason, of Virginia, when its- author was too ill to deliver it himself, made the admission of California a test question, in the following language, and though he did not live to vote upon it himself, he left it as a legacy to his fol- lowers, now grown more numerous and fast becoming a power in the State : "If you admit her (California) under all the difficulties that oppose her admission, you compel us to infer that you intend to exclude us from the whole of the acqui- red territories, with the intention of des- troying entirely the equilibrium between the ttco sections. We would be blind not to perceive, in that case, that your real objects are power and aggrandizement, and infatuated not to act accordingly." The bill was passed by a vote of 38 to IS in the Senate. Im mediately upon its passage, ten of the opposing Senators, tiled a protest ,ag lins-t it, "remarkable" says Mr. Benton, "not account of any power exercised by 'Congress -ever tlie subject of slavery in a •territory, but for the non-exercise of such power, and especially for not extending the .Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific ocean ; and which non-extension •of that line was then cause for the dis- solution of the Union." This protest was signed by Messrs. Hunter and Mason, "of Virginia; Butler and Barnwell, of S. Carolina; Turney, of Tennessee; Soule, of Louisiana ; Jeff. Davis, of Mississippi ; Atchison, of Mis- souri, and Morton and Yulee, of Florida. Davis was shortly compelled to sustain •his views before the people of Mississip- pi, as a candidate for Governor. Footc, who sustained the compromise measures, ran against him, and Davis aad disunion were, for that time, beaten. Yancey led off on the same tack in Alabama, but the people of Alabama turned him down. Now we are coming to the solution of the difficulty as to how the fly got into the amber. Intrigue and the pnllingof wires at conventions were accomplish- ments at which those gentlemen had, from long practice, become adepts. The modus ojwandi it is not worth while to discuss. Mr. Pierce was nominated and elected, and Jefferson Davis came out of his retirement to take his place at the head of the War Department, in which we have every reason to suppose he did not forget his mission. A disunion organ, en titled "The South- ern Press,' was established at Washing- ton, upon contributions from the Southern States amounting to §80,000. Its daily occupation was to show the disadvanta- ges of the South any longer remaining tn the Union, and the great advantages io be derived fromjjdisuniou — how South- ern cities were to become great commer- cial marts, and manufactures were to flourish. "The ships ef all nations were to crowd their ports to carry off their rich staples and bring back ample re- turns; Great Britain was fo bo thff aiiv of the new United States South ; all the slave States were expected to join, but the new confederacy was to begin with the South Atlantic States, or even a part of them, and military preparation was tn be made to maintain by force win. ■ Southern Convention should decree." — South Carolina and Mississippi each elected representatives to the proposed Southern Congress. But the apple was not ripe yet. Wait till we are ready. Que voulcz vans? Is not Jefferson Davis Secretary of War ? Wait till we are ready. The army and navy have been polled — two-thirds of the ol will go with the South. Another Pres- idential election will test the country- — The mud-sills of the North do not believe we are in earnest, although there has been a convention of Governors in North Carolina, and Wise will have "ossossioa of Washington with his Virginia forces, and every Southern fort will be in our hands within two weeks after it shall have been ascertained that Fremont is elected. If not elected, so much the better. We shall have four years more to prepare and make surer work of it. "Pennsylvania's favorite son" succeed- ed the "fly in amber" — and the most ac- complished thief of the century succeeded Mr. Davis in the War Department. Be- sides which, the author of the "Ostend Manifesto" had called to his support such choice spirits as Cobb, great at financier- ing, and conscientious Thompson, who drew three months' pay in advance to go down and help rush his State out of the Union. What matters it how fast the old ship sinks ! — down with her ! — steal whatevor you can lay hands on, and let the old hulk go ! But the Captain ? —Pennsylvania's favorite son '/ Blast the Captain ! — he has been bought and paid for — let him look out for himself ! And .so things are getting ready dui ing all these eight years. Members of the "League of United Southerners" are being elected Governors of all the States — arms, ammunition, money 3 cannon aro being Bont South — appropriations are being made by the Southern Legislatures to arm the States.' The military fever is got up — volunteeveompaniesaro forming everywhere. The Southern mind is in- structed — the Southern heart is inflamed, and all that is wanted is the occasion "to precipitate the Cotton States into revo- lution." Ah, poor Lands at the bellow. , indeed, would they be, who. having everything prepared to their hands, should now fail to furnish the oc- i for the accomplishment of their object ! Are not Davis and Hunter, and Mason yet in the Senate.? Does not Yancey, the incompara- ble Yankee juggler, with "Alabama ultima- tums,"' still survive ? A Black Republican Pre- sident must be elected, and to do this, the De- mocratic party must be divided. Douglas, it is apparent, is the choice of the people, His nom- ination at Charleston, if acquiesced in, will secure the triumph of the Democratic party. He must be put out of the way. He is a non-in- terventionist, and cannot be got to support the doctrine of Congressional intervention with slavery in the Territories. Jefferson Davis pre- pares the resolutions which are to be thestumb- ling-block of Douglas. The United .States Sen- ate is to waste its time and the country's money in constructing a platform for the Presidential campaign. The Convention is to be forestalled, and as, of course, it will not acquiesce, Yancey will manage to present an ultimatum that will break up the Convention and destroy the party. The fact that Yancey presented "non-interven- ion" as an ultimatum in 1856 is no obstacle in he way of his presenting "intervention" as an iltimatum in 1860. " Tempora mutanter, etnos nutamuryillos." And so the programme is carried out, until it last Yancey in his exultation exclaims, "1 lave now got this accursed Union under my 'eet \" Then commences a system of studied decep- iion — of most stupendous lying. How the heart ?ickens at the remembrance of the disgusting ietails of fraud and treachery! The people were not hard to decieve. The crime was too stupendous for belief. Conviction has forced itself upon them by slow degrees and against their will. South Carolina seceded, and the ball is fairly put in motion. Two sets of people rejoice, while the whole country stands appalleh ! Keitt, the secessionist, proclaims the dearest object of his life accomplished, and is for carrying it out to the bitter end, even if it involves the whole ac- cursed Union in one common ruin. The abolitionists rejoice that the "league with death and the covenant with hell are I roken," and Wendall Phillips shouts in ecstacy, "Build her a bridge of gold and let her go !" THE STATE OP THE COUNTRY Was orua of unprecedented prosperity. Manu- factures, ooir.uierce, the various mechanic a? branches of trade.' cotton and sugar planting, were all being conducted upon such a systemat- ic and extensive scale as could only be develop- ed in a great country, after prolonged peace and under the operation of beneficent institutions. I ;» to the day of the late Presidential election, the prospect before -.he nation was of the hap- piest description. The successful candidate, whose election was made the pretext for South Carolina's precipitate withdrawal, was in a mi- nority by nearly a millicn. Ills short career in Congress proved him to hnvc been opposed to ;.ny interference with slavery in the District of Columbia, a. fair test of conservatism on the part of those opposed to the institution. The party which elected him was composed of ill- congruous material, which, in time of peace, must have become demoralized and divided upon the development of any settled policy by this administration. The distribution of pat- ronage alone would have drawn off from his support a large part of his forces. He had been supported indifferent sections of the country from various motives. We have .Senator Biglcr's authority for saying that Lin- coln received in the State of Pennsylvaniaalone forty thousand democratic votes, to secure an increased duty on iron and coal, without refer- ence to the anti-slavery issue at all. The two leading journals supporting him in New York city were as opposite as the poles in regard to the tariff question and other questions of public economy. The Tribune advocated the doctrine of the old Whig party — the Post those of the Democratic party. The Know Nothihgs of New York and Pennsylvania, eager to crush the Democratic party, which for eighty years had controlled the destinies and directed the policy of the Republic, entered into a formal alliance, offensive and defensive, with the Republican party, an i with, it is fair to presume, the same views upon the question of slavery that anima- ted them in the support of Fillmore, four years before. The C4ermans of the North-West, cp- joying the advantages of free territory, co-op- erated with the so-called American Republicans of the East, whose narrow policy would have destroyed their privileges, in support of the. Chicago platform. Thousands of Northern Democrats, who would have have voted for any regular nominee upon the Cincinnati platform, and opposed to the "sectional issue" forced at last upon their own convention for the purpose of breaking up the party, becamo so utterly dis- gusted that they voted for the Northern section- al candidate to beat the Southern sectional can- didate. In a word, tho whole country had be- come tired of "Pennsylvania's favorite soH"and his kitchen cabinet of Slidell, Benjamin, Davis & Co. Tho Democratic party was still largely Jacksonian, and opposed to Calhounism. In both houses of Congress there would have been a majority against the administration. In the present Congress that majority would have been thirty-one in the House and eleven in the Senate. The President could not hare oppointod to a single officer 'without the advice and consent of the last named body. The laws of the land were all protective of wMit were especially termed ''Southern Rights.'' The only act con- travening these rights, (which had itself been originated and passed inl820by Southern votes,) the Missouri Compromise, had been repealed. — The Constitution and the Dred Scott decision defined Southern rights as to the territories. — The Fugitive Slave Law protected them in their property to an extent far greater than it was their policy to admit. That it could be made thoroughly effective had been demonstrated by- Mr. Fillmore in tho Burns case, at Boston. Mr. Pierce and Mr. Buchanan were neither of them lacking in Southern sympathies ; if they did not enforce the law with the same vigor Mr. Fillmore had done — I should like to know the reason why. Dit a moi — oh, Jefferson Davis, chiefest amongst the advisers of tho first ! — speak! most honest Floyd! "let us not burst in ignorance.'' Were there no soldiers in the North — no arms in tho North, to back up the Marshals with military power, as in Burns' ease? Or was there no case demanding such intervention? Possibly the latter; but you can tell that better than I. Certes, the truest test of the security of that class of property for the safety of which you are trying to destroy thie Government, was the pecuniary test. The high- est prices ever paid for negro slaves were paid during the few months preceding the last Pres- idential election. In New Orleans one negro man sold for the almest fabulous sum of $3,500, and that in the autumn of 1S60, and the pur- chaser was offered $4,009 for the same man on that same day. Prices ranged for good hands from $1,400 to $2,000. Is this not so? What are they worth now ? PAST AND PRESENT VIEWS OP THE SOUTH. I have said elsewhere that the continued agi- tation of the slavery question has resulted in a change of credence on that subject in the South. I could adduce the opinions of most of the prom- inent Southern statesmen, from the revolutiona- ry era down to the present time, in support of this view; but I prefer to let Vice-President Stephens, of the Southern Confederacy, their ablest statesman, speak for me. In his last re- ported speech, delivered very recently, in Atlan- ta, Georgia, he uses the following language: — '•But not to be tedious in enumerating the many changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other, though last, not least: the new Constitu- tion has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists among us — the pro- per status of the negro in our form of civiliza- tion. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture a.yid present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the rock upon which the old Union would split. Ho was right. What was conjecture with him is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood, and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him. and most of the leading •statesmen of th« old Constitution, were, that the enslavement of the African race was in vi- olation of the laws of nature: that it w&&wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with ; but the general opinion of men of that day was, that somehow or other in the order o f Providence, the institution was to be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorpo- rated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institu- tion while it should last, and hence no argument can justly be used against the Constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiments of the day. Their ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon it ; when 'the storm came and the wind blew it fell.' Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea ; its foundation is laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man — that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natu- ral and moral condition. This, our new Gov- ernment, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical and moral truth." Were it not for the tragic importance of the subject, as exemplified in the terrible conflict now pending, we would be tempted to exclaim, "O most lame and impotent conclusion !" Never less disposed to indulge in ridicule than now, I can yet hardly refrain when, with solemn into- nation of voice, Ihear the high-sounding phrase, "Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundation is laid, its corner-stone rests — " where ? On some endur- ing principle, for which future generations will rise up and call them blessed ? — On some newly discoyered but ever-existing Truth, eternal as the ages and fraught with lasting benefit to the hnman race ? No ; I am sorry to say it, no ! — But on what Mr. Stephens calls "this great physical and moral truth," iha.t"the negro is not equal to the white man .'" Without discussing nicities of language and inquiring how truth can be "physical" at all, being in itself an ab- straction and totally independent of circumstan- ces, I must say, as Horatio said to Hamlet, "There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave, To tell us this." Was the great truth of such solemn import that a world must be convulsed to give it fitting proclamation ? Must the hands of brethren be imbrued in each others' blood and the best and freest Government on earth be overthrown, that distinct averment shall be made of un undented fact f Who ever said the negro was equal to the white man ? Not the United States Gov- ernment, surely. On the contrary, Mr. Stephens himself candidly bears testimony, in tais very speech, to the faot that "Tie Constitu,t,ion (of the United States) it is true, secured every essen- tial guarantee to the institution while it should^ last, and h-ence no argument can be justly vs»ft II titutx u*e£ guarantees thus lecte- ■ aause of the common sentiment of the day." This is certainly a recognition of inequality. i he Supreme Court has said : "In t!ie opinion of the Court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in t) <■. Declaration of indepegdence, show that neither the elass of persons who had been imported as siaves nor dants, whether they had become free or ere then acknoti ledged as a part of the people, to be included in the general words of that memorable instrument. They had for more than a century been regarded as beings of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in soci il or public relation This opinion, written by Chief Justioe 'J hi the famous Dred Scott case, refutes the as- sumption of Mr. Stephens that the founders of our Government "rested upon the assumption of equality of races." My own views regarding this matter are given in an earlier part of this paper. He carries his point further, however, and to a limit which the framers of the Govern- ment do not appear to have justified as the le- gitimate consequence of inequality — "that sla- very, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition." His social and .political condition, as thing's then existed, they recognized to bo a state of slavery ; they recog- nized the negro as property, and passed fugitive slave laws to enforce his return to his master, and by the laws excluded all but "white people" from the franchises of citizenship; but, as .Mr. Stephens truly says, they regarded slavery as "wrong in principle"' and "in violation of the laws of nature." It may be that, knowing the circumstances which brought the two races to- gether, they did not tfeinfc the "natural and moral" law had anything whatever to do with it, and therefore, in enunciating the principles upon which the governmentof a mighty nation was to be established, were unwilling to commit themselves to the absurdity of asserting that, "naturally and morally," the negro was at all essential to the white man or the white man to the negro. Born in dilferent sections of the globe, and in different climates, their natural and moral condition was evidently a state of remote separation and real independence of each other. The whole history of the revolution and the formation of the Government shows that the founders of this Republic regarded the whiu man not only as better than the negro, but they had attained that stage of civilization which caused them to believe that the white man was fni, -{Lie of self-support and self-government Without the aid of the negro. They had not the slightest idea of that profound truth subse- quently discovered by John C. Calhoun, that African slavery was essential to a republican form of government. The}' did not believe with Senator Hammond, that a'politieai and social substratum of "Mud Sills" must necessarily underlie the governmental superstructure they were about to erect, and if they could nut get negroes to frame them out of, poor whit' ; *i>6uld answer the purpose almost as • they arc rather fe'jnesS sfhd jomc^hH' _-i insubordination. In fact, being white men themselves, and having a lii^rh respect for white men, even though they should labor for a liv- ing, and being desirous of -building upon this continent a free nation of white men, t hoy took to accomplish that object. Entertaining idea that white men were capable of self-governmenl without the i ' in any way, shape or form, either as mud sill or chin op, they so mod- elled the Constitution i I Lted States as n [y to protect cites of property, but, to a i ns' mode of -expression, "its foundations are laid, its corner- eat truth that man is ea- '" How sad, indeed, that the Vice-President of what desires to estsv blish itself as a n racy, should take pride in . eminent is foun- ded upon exactly i posite idea." Worse bat — that he should announce it to the world as a new discovery ! — The only thing ex- isting on the earth that is older than the flood. "Subordination of races" — new! His govern- ment, "the first in the history of the world, ba- sed upon this great physical and moral truth!" So! ''Plus j'y penst et plus j' en suit etonne J" As the earliest work conveying information on the subject, I would refer Vice-President Ste- phens to the Book of Genesis, and afterwards to any other Sacred or profane history he can lay hands on, and if, after a careful perusal of them, he thinks this new discovery worth much, I hope he will secure a patent right for the concern in which he is interested. Really, but for the fact that it would require a volume to itself and exhaust the history of the world through all ages, 1 think I could show this new doctrine to have been applied, with variations, to and by every people that ever existed. It is true that nations have not always limited themselves to a strict construction as to color ; but even in the form in which this "great physical and moral truth" emanates from th- wiseacres of the Southern Confederacy it lacks the spice of novelty. History records not the period of time when the negro was not a slave. The Tnrhs' and other Orientals had a habit of making eunuchs Of them, which doubtless, as a principle in political economy, was "fun lamen tally wrong." Nothing is more apparent that that our fore- fathers regarded this continer ■ ^rand theatre destined in the provid< od for the development of free institutions and the They did not insh to have the country overrun by inferior race-. Slaverj was not of their creation, but was forced upon the colonies against fheir solemn protest. The South passed laws prohibiting its introduction, but they were vetoed by royalty. "Brittania ruled the wave." Het oommerce, largely i ged in the slave trade and fast growing to be the rulinL' interest in the rbtec- ted. 'i '■ ; for la bor. — White i in sufficient quantities besides. • i ^hite i: men in the colonies wwuld furnish material to form a new nation. The home government dis- regarded the wish of the colonists, and passed laws retarding emigration, and this was among the greatest of the grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independenc, as follows: "He (the King) has endeavored to prevent the pop- ulation of these States ; for that, purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing to jiass others to encourage their migration thither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of land." The statesmen of tjjat day rationally consid- ered that if they could, by a wise encouragement of emigration, get the necessary labor, they would save to themselves and to the country all the money expended in the purchase of negroes, and that instead of getting savages from Africa, of repulsive appearance, grossly ignorant and superstitious, and only to be regarded in the light of property, upon which they were com- pelled to pay taxes, and which in no way added to the military strength of the State, they would receive a population whose labor would bemore effective) who would become citizens and help bear the burdens of the State, who would be capable of bearing arms and thereby add strength to the nation. These views entered largely into the domes- tic policy of the Government at and immedi- ately after its formation. The same convention that framed the Constitution passed the famous ordinance of 1787, which concluded with six unalterable articles of perpetual compact, of which this is one : '•There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territories, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall be duly convicted " The Constitution itself provided for the abo- lition of the slave trade. The laws of the laid declared it piracy. The naturalization laws, with the short probation to citizenship of only five years, were passed for the encouragement of white emigration, not negro nor Mongolian nor Indian: and no mail can put his hand upon any public enactment which indicates any other pol- icy on the part of our ancestors than that this continent should be the home of free white men, and that, while the institution of slavery was entitled to protection as property, it was not de- sible that the negro race or any other inferior race should be increased by the slave trade or otherwise to an extent incompatible with that idea. How different are the ideas which have given an impulse to the great Southern rebellion may be learned from the perusal of the following ex- tracts, mere samples, 'picked at random, from the sermons, speeches and essays of the advo- cates of disunion. In his Thanksgiving Sermon, November 29th, 1800, the Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, of New Or- leans, uses the following language : "If, then, the South is such a people, what, at this juncture, is their providential trust ? I answer, that it is to conserve and perpetuate the institution of do- mestic slavery as now existing." * * * -'To the South is assigned the high position of defending be- fore all nations, the cause of all religion and of ail truth." *»,* * "It establishes the nature and so- lemnity of our present trust, to preserve and trans- mit our existing system of domestic servitude with the right, unchanged by man. to go out arid root itself wherever Providence and nature may carry it. This trust we will discharge in the face of the worst possi- ble peril." From a pamphlet on the subject by "A Ma- rylander," I extract the following distinct as- sertion of the Divine right of R"i>:gs : "There are ranks and grades in heaven ; and on earth God has appointed divers races of men. some to r;. and some to obey ; and the slave is put in bond- age by the same Divine Tower which puts the King on his throne.'' Mr. Russell, the correspondent of the London Times, says, "No where is the opposition to uni- versal suffrage so great as in the South," and that a great many, a majority of those with whom he.had been thrown into social connexion, especially in South Carolina, expressed their desire for a more aristocratic form of govern- ment, and wished that they had an English King to rule over them. They were well aware that the conditions of society were such at pre- sent as to prevent the accomplishment of their wishes, but that did not hinder the expression of them. I know that there are many who pro- fess to disbelieve in the aristocratic tendency of the Southern movement, but Mr. Russell's ob- servations are more than corroborated by a thousand speeches and reviews to which refer- ence could be had. From DeBows Review for February, 1861, I extract the following: "They knew that under a democratic form, with "universal suffrage" for its cardinal principle, the majority of the people, in whose hands the powers of government vested, being condemned, by the inexor- able law of necessity to material occupations, unfa- vorable to the development of thought, and as a conse- quence, precluding the attainment of that degree of intelligence and political information requisite to an enlightened exercise of the elective franchise, never selected the best men for their rulers and representa- tives." — Where can be found a more degrading opinion of labor, or" denial of the right .of the majority to govern, or of the white's man's capacity for self-government ? — "The poorer classes are born to servile labor there [in the North) as in Europe. Ever since the negroes have been liberated, and the soor whites degradated, by being substituted for negroes to wait on the rich, the women of the New England States have been breeding fanatics instead of heroes." "The imperial and autocratic dictum, 'L'etat e'est mbi,' comes with no better grace from an indolent and dictatorial majority than from the lips of an absolute monarch ; and those pestilent and pernicious dogmas, 'the greatest good to the greatest number,' 'the ma- jority shall rule,' are, in their practical application, the fruitful source of disorders never to be quieted, revolutions the most radical and sanguinary, philoso- phies the most false, and passions the most wild, des- tructive and ungovernable." "Prominent among the features about to be formed for the government of the 'Confederation of the South' \ ill be a provision for securing a, permanent repre- sentation of the landed interest in the national legis- lature." * * * "The idea will not be adopted at once, (so firm a hold upon the public mind ave the fallacious and demoralizing ^doctrines of the French philosophy,) but it will come in the natural progress of political thought." n '■ rhs insult ition of a;i hereditary Senate and ■■' •• (Is Russell right or notr) — "is the political form best auit< d to tin ■■■ ufus and most expressive of the ideas of -Southern civilizatioi ; hut al the same time a policy wholly incapable of realization, lal States retain the atl ribute of idi i i y, and party passions and interests are permitted to stifle the expression of an en i i ed and patriotic public sentiment." The fact that it "will come" La already being realized. Gov. Brown, of Georgia, frightened at tho usurpation of Davis' despotism, on tlu> 4th of August, 1861, addi ■' the returned Georgia troops of Gen. Phillips' brigade, at At- lanta, in the following significant lang tage : "He regretted to see so many indications of a dis- position on the part of many persons under the new nment to ignore the great doctrine of State and to treat the States which are the very au- thors of its existence, and which have infused breath into its nostril-:, as its mere provinces or dependencies. During the war he was willing to yield everything which could be yielded without a violation of an im- portant principle, but lie feared at the end of the con- test thai the great batt I of stoics sovereignty, which was fought in the Revolution of 177(3, had to be fought over 'again. "We have now as then two classes of statesmen, each sustained by many followers. The one class des- irous of a strong central government, probably prefer- ring, if they did not fear to risk an avowal of their sentiments, a limited monarchy similar to that of Great Britain, or other form of government which will accomplish the same object under a different name; the other class desiring and advocating the democrat- ic form established by the patriots of 1776, retaining to the States their sovereignty, and delegating to the general government only such powers as are necessary to transact their foreign affairs as a confederation of States, and such internal affairs as cannot be conduc- ted by a single State confederated with sister States, '•The preservation of the rights of the States was all that had saved the South, and enabled her to es- cape from the subjugation and degradation which awaited her in the old government, which was fast becoming a consolidated empire. He warned the peo- ple of Georgia and of the South to match with a jeal- ous eye. and to oppose with determined hostility every effort, whether by construction or by bold usurpation of powers which may be made by those in authority, or by those seeking position, to consolidate the power of the people in the hands of the few, or to destroy State sov- nty and build upon its ruins either a monarchy or a consolidated aristocracy." So soon do the usurpations of power make themselves felt. Governor Brown is right — those fellows at Richmond need watching. — '•Tho price of liberty is eternal vigilance." God grant that our brethren of the South may not learn that lesson too lato! Is not the purpose of the following unmistakeable ? "Painful as the reflection must be to all such as subscribe to the Utopian philosophy, and have an abi- ding faith in the capacity of man for continuous and enlightened'self-rule, it must be co fessed that the experiment of the Democratic Ilepublic of America has failed." "We of the South must so modify our State insti- tutions as to remove the people further from the direct exercise of power." "It is a characteristic of opinion in the South, that all men see the necessity of more and stronger gov ernment." "We are the most aristocratic people in the world. Pride of caste and color and privileges makes every white man an aristocrat ih feeling. Aristocracy is the only safeguard of liberty." God help as ! I do not intend to waste time ami paper in refuting the aforegoing "poHtiU'J Y. Let not the blind nialieo of partisanship or false theo- ries of inteiest decoy you from the : your country. There are ma) you — there will be more, resulting from i; a'ice and m'al-administration of the laws by those who have been intrusted with power. Re? memher, they are a part of the curse of disuni- on — of complications arising from wide -i treachery. The darkest hour of trial may not yet bavo come — should that be so, keep you I i ' faith fixed firmly on the glorious constel- lation of the Union, as the tempest-tossed ma- riner steers his course over the dark ocean by the aid of the polar star. Clouds may obscure it, but he knows it is there; and that when the tempest has spent its fury, the steady and un- failing light of his guiding star will again aid bim in his course to a safe hai Baltimore County, August, } 861- W60 * V ^^ A ,0 *° <^ "■' -^ ^ •"° £° ^S» •'"■ iV