The Yazoo Democrat., 1851-08-13


Dorr is warning TO all rebels who may
be disposed to assert practically the ab
tract right of revolution. This case has
passed the ordeal of the Supreme Court o.
he Union, and the doctrine of Dorr and his
followers. stands condemned by every intel.
iligent statesman and iurist in the world
But il this right OF revolution, as you call it;
this "sacred right of insurrection," as the
French Jacobns called it; exist at all, you
must admit the antagonistical right oi the
actual government to put it down. All pub
licists will tell you [you are too well read
not to remember this that government is
bound 10 protect itself. IF revolution is re~
bellion, and rebellion is treason, is not gov
| ernment bound to visit the treason with the
severest punishment known to its code?
Did you ever hear ola rebellion which was
not suppressed by force. if the government
could suppress III And did you ever hear
! of foreign Intervention or remonstrance in
such easel Government must be armed
with the right to put il down and to punish
revolution if it can, without any enquiry
into the cause Of the revolution. 1t is a
right which flows from necessity, for with
out il, there would be no such thing as Or
der in the world, and the nations would be
harrassed continually, with confusion, turbu-
ence, and incessant wars. But have not
the people, at all times, right to change
their government? You will ask. Certain
ly they have; when the people, {as they are
here) are the acknowledged source OF all
political yower; because the people acting
as the sovereignty can and do often acknow
ledge the Necessity for change, and provide
for It's being made. But not even here have
Rh 10 rin fn al h@
ernment, and if they do, the fate of rebels
sssuredIy awaits theyanquished. Unsucess-
lul rebellion has always been punished by
government as duty; aud often with Sc
verify shocking to the sensibilities of men,
and wholly inexcusable if it was not ne
cessary. We read of disembowling, of
hanging. drawing and quartering. Would
punishments so feIocious and sanguinary be
tolerated by any people except for the crime
ef treasonl Historians may deny or may
lament the necessity of rigid application
of the law in the case of lady Jane Cray
or of Mary Stewart. Humanity may weep
over the fate Of the victims OF Oates or of
Bedloe; or may redden with indignation at
the excesses of the bloody assiZes. But all
viii admit, that if Dagdale and Turberville
had not been periured, Stafford would not
public act OF James, which posterlty has
justified, is the execution of his own nephew
for treason, after the battle Of Sedge> Moor.
As then it is not only the right but the du
ty of government to punish rebellion with
the halter or the axe, and since revolution
(rf against the sovereign willy is rebellion,
Of what avail is it to you or your party, to
assert the right Of State secession as a reuo-
lmionary right
Contrast with this position that OF the
State Rights party upon this subject. We
contend for the right efa State to withdraw
from the Union peacea5ly and quietly, and
without opposition or resistance or com
plant; and for the following reasons: Inde
pendently of any act of confederation, the
States have always been to 8 great extent
politically separate they were subject, II is
true, te a common Executive head prior 10
the revolution, but they never constituted
one people in the political aoceptation of the
term. They were settled at different
times; to soms extent by different races: by
men of different political and religious opin-
ions, and who were often odious and alien
to each other on account of these differenS
ces. In truth they resembled each other in
nothing but their language, and from a
point ofmetaphysical divinity, down to the
fashion of their garments, they differed
from each other; and gloried in the differ
ence. The Catholic OF Maryland could
have little in common with the Puritan OF
Plymouth. and the Cavalier of jamestown
could acknowledge no bond of political
sympathy with the Regicide of Boston.
The people of one colony owed no allegi,
ance TO the government ofany other colony,
and were not bound by its laws. The coli
onies had no common Legislature, no COM
mon Treasury, no common Military power,
no common Judiciary, they were establish
ed at different times, and were unlike in
their organization. Some Were provincial,
some proprietary, and some charter govern
ments. They were united, it is true, by al
common Executive head or King; but so
are at this time Canada and the British
East Indies, and yet Canada and the British
East Indies do not constitute one people !
N or do Jamaicaand Ireland; nor, Scotland
and the Mauritlas. They did not even unite
[strange as it may seem TO many In the
act which threw off their allegiance to the
British crown. Virginia declared her in
dependence as early as the 18th OF May.
I77s, and New Hampshire, New Jersey,
and South Carolina had each adopted pro-
visional governments several months be-
fore this period. Il is true they all uni
ted in the general Declaration of the 4lh
of July, but it was only repetition, no Z
a confirmation of what had already been
done by the four States above mention
ted. The manner of voting in the Con-
gress of '76 and in the Convention which
formed the constitution, leach State hay>
IL.