Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-08-13

and the two parties were preparing for |
civil war, and every hour it was expected |
to blaze out, a great Tammany meeting |
was held in the city of New-York, headed |
by the leading mon of the party, the Cam
brelings, the Vanderpoels, the Aliens, &C.
with perfect knowledge that the military
power of the Union was to be employed,
if necessary, TO suppress the insurrection,
and, Notwithstanding they passed resolu-
tons tending to awe the President, and to
countenance and cheer the Treason.
Fortunately, numbers of the Dorr party
abandoned their Chief; he fled, and Rhode
Island, unaided by any actual force of the
Federal authority, proved herself able alone
to maintain law, order and government
within her borders.
l do not attribute to my fellow citizens
here assembled, from whom differ in opin-
ion, any disposition to countenance the rev.
dictionary proceedings in Rhode Island. /
do not believe that they approve it. do
not believe that their party generally
could approve it, nor some Of the other ex-
amples Of spirit of disorganization which
l have enumerated; but the misfortune is,
in time Of high party excitement, that the
leaders commit themselves, and finally
commit the body of their party, who per-
ceive that, unless they stand by and sus-
tain their leaders, a division and perhaps
destruction of the party would be the con-
sequence. OF all the springs of human
action, party ties are perhaps the most
powerful. Interest has been supposed to
be more SO, but party ties are more infu-
entail, unless they are regarded as modf-
cation of imaginary interest. Under their
sway we have seen not only individuals
but whole communities abandon their long
and cherished interests and principles and
turn round and oppose them with violence.
Did not the rebellion in Rhode Island
find for its support precedent established
by the majority in Congress, in the irregu-
lar admission of Territories, as States, into
the Union, to which have heretofore allu-
ded! Is there not reason to fear that the
example which Congress had previously
presented encouraged the Rhode Island re-
bellion?
1t has been attempted to defend that re-
bellion upon the doctrines Of the American
Declaration of Independence, but no coun-
tenance to it can be fairly derived from
them. That Declaration asserts, it is true
that whenever Government becomes de-
structive of the ends of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, for the security
of which it was instituted, it is the right
of the people to alter or abolish it, and
institute a new government; and so I'M
doubleday it is. But this is a right only
to be exercised in grave and extreme cases
prudence indeed will dictate" says tina,
venerated instrument, shat Governments
long established should not be changed fol
light and transient causes" But when
long train of abuses and usurpations, pur.
suing invariably the same object, evince.
a design to reduce them under an absolute
despotism, it is their right, their duty, te
throw off such Government"
Will it be pretended that the actual Gov
ernment of Rhode Island is destructive O.
life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness
That it has perpetrated long train Of abu
ses and usurpations, pursuing the same in
variable object, to reduce the people under
absolute despotism? Or that any other
cause of complaint existed but such as
might be peacefully remedied, without vic.
Ience and without blood! Such as, in poin
of fact, the legitimate Government had
regularly summoned a Convention to re.
dress, but for the results of whose deliber
atoms the restless spirit Of disorder ant
rebellion had not the patience to wait
Why, fellow citizens, little Rhody Goo
bless and preserve her) is one of the mos
prosperous, enterprising, and enlightened
States in this whole Union. No where
life, liberty, and property more perfect.
secure.
How is this right of the People t.
abolish an existing Government and t.
set up a new one to be practically exer
cised? Our Revolutionary ancestors di
not tell us by words, but they proclai me
it BY gallant and noble deeds. Who ar
the People that are to tear up the Who'll
fabric of human society, whenever an
as often as caprice or passion may promE
theml When all the arrangements an
ordinances of existing and organized SC
ciety are Frustrated and subverted, {
must be supposed in such lawless an
irregular movement as that in Rhode |:
land, the established privilege and distinC
tons between the sexes, between the color
between the ages, between natives and fol
eigners, between the sane and insane, an
between the innocent and guilty convic
all the offspring of positive Institutions, al
cast down and abolished and society
thrown into one heterogeneous and unreg
ulated mass. And is it contended that Ia
major part of this Babel congregation
invested with the right to build up at il
pleasure, a new Government! That as o.
ten, and whenever society can be drumme
I'D and thrown into such shapeless mas
the major part of it may establish anothC
and another new Government in endle
al