Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1856-12-18

States of the Union as States; the,
have affirmed the constitutional e
quality of each and all of the citi
zens of the United States as citizens
whatever their religion, whereveI
their birth, or their residence; they
have maintained the inviolability O
the constitutional rights of the differ
ent sections of the Union; and they
have proclaimed their devoted and
unalterable attachment to the Unior
and 20 the constitution, as objects Of
interest superior to all subjects oI
local or sectional controversy, as the
safeguard of the rights of all, as the
spirit and the essence of the liberty,
peace, and greatness of the Repub.
lie.
In doing this, they have, at the
same time, emphatically condemned
the idea of organizing in these Uni
ted States mere geographical parties;
of marshalling in hostile array to-
wards each other the different parts
of the country, North or South, East
or West.
Schemes of this nature, fraught
with inealculable mischief, and which
the consiierate sense of the people
has rejected, could have had counte-
nance in no part of this country, had
they not been disguised by sugges-
tions plausible in appearance, acting
upon an excited state of the public
mind, induced by causes temporary
in their character, and it is to be ho-
ped transient in their influence.
Perfect liberty of association for
political objects, and the widest scope
of discussion, are the received and
ordinary conditions of government
in our country. Our institutions,
framed in the spirit of confidence in
the intelligence and integrity of the
people, do not forbid citizens either
individually or associated together,
to attack by writing, speech, or any
other methods short of physical force,
the Constitution and the very exist
ence of the Union. Under the shell
ter of this great liberty, and pro-
tected by the laws and usages of the
government they assai, associations
have been formed, ia some of the
States, of individuals, who, pretend
ing to seek only to prevent the spread
of the institution of slavery into the
present or future inchoate States Of
the Union, are really inAamed with
desire to change the domestic insti-
tutions of existing States. To ac-
their objects, they dedicate
themselves to the odiOus task of de-
preciating the government organiza-
ton which stands in their way, and
with indiscriminate in.
vective. not only the citizens of par
ticular States. with whose laws they
find fault, but all others of their
fellow citizens throughout the coun-
try, who do not participate with them
In their assaults upon the Constitu-
tion, framed and adopted by our
fathers, and claiming for the priyili-
ges it has secured, and the blessings
it has conferred, the steady support
and grateful reverence of their chill
dren. They seek an object they we'll
know to be revolutionary ONE
They are perfectly aware that the
change in the relative condition of
the white and black races in the
slaveholding States, which they
would promote, is beyond their law
ful authority; that to them it is for,
eign object; that it cannot be effect
ed by any peaceful instrumentality Of
theirs; that for them, and the States
Of which they are citizens, the only
path to its accomplishment is through
burning cities, and ravaged fields,
and slaughtered populations. ADD all
there is most terrible in foreign,
complicated with civil and servile
war; and that the first step in the
attempt is the foreible disruption of
a country embracing in its broad DO:
som degree of liberty. and an a
mount of individual and public pros
perity, to which there is no parallel in
history, and substituting in its place
hostile governments driven at once
and inevitably into mutual devasta-
tion and iratricidal carnage, trans
forming the now peaceful and felic-
itous brotherhood into vast perma-
nent camp of armed men like the