Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1856-12-12

of their fellow, citizens throughout the
country, who dc, not participate with then
in their assaults upon the constitution
framed and adopted by our fathers. anc
claiming for the privileges it has secured
and the blessings it has confer ed. the
steady support and grateful reverence o
their children, Tney seek an objec
wl ;ch they well know to be revolution
ary one. They are perfectly aware tha
the change in the relative condition Of th'
white and black races in the slaveholdinG
States. which they would promote. is be
yond their lawful authority that TO then
it is foreign object /; that it cannot be
effected by any peaceful instrumentaIlt!
Of theirs that for them. and the States
of which they are citizens. the only patti
10 its accomplishment is through burning
CITIES. and rayaged fields, and slaughtered
populations. and all there is most terrible
iu foreign, complicated with civil and ser
vile war and that The FIRST step in th'
nttemp. is the forcible disrupt n of 1
country embracing in its broad bosom t
degree of liberty. and an amount Of indl'
viiual and public prosperity. to which
there is no parallel i'll history, and subsll'
turing in its place hostile governments:
driven at once and inevitably into mutual
devastation and fratricidal carnage. trans
forming the now peaceful and teIlcltous
brotherhood into vast permanent camp
Of armed men, like the rival mCnarchIes
of Europe and Asia. Well knowing that
snch and such only. are the means and the
consequences Of their plans and purposes.
they endeavor to prepare the people OF
the United States for civil war by doing
everything in their power to deprive the
constitution and the laws Of moral autho-
rity, and 10 undermine the fabric Of the
Union by appeals to passion and sectional
prejudice, by indoctrinating its people
with reciprocal hatred, and by educaIing
them 10 stand face 10 lace as enemiss, ra.
Lher than shoulder to shoulder as fipnds.
II is by the agency Of such unwarrant-
able interference, foreign and domestic,
that the minds OF many, otherwiss good
citizens, have been so inf1amed into the
passionate c. inflammation Of the Domestic
institutions of the eoulhefn States as AT
length 10 pass inSensibly TO almost equally
passionate hostility towards their fellow
citizens Of those S a;es, and thus, finally,
to fall into temporary fellowship with the
avowed and active enemies OF the Cons!i
tuition. ArdenIy attached to liberty in
the abstract. III, y do not stop to consider
practically how the ohjects they would
attain can be accomplished. nor to reflect
that, even if the evil were rs great as
they deem it. they have ro remedy to
apply. and that it can be cnIy aggravated
by their violence and unconstitutional ac-
ton. A question which is one Of the
most difficult OF all the pnblcms Of social
institution, political econcmy, and states
manship. they treat withunreasoning in
temperance Of thought sad language
Extremes beYet extremes. Violent at
tack from the North finds its inevitable
consequence in the grown Of spirit Of
angry defiance at the S2u!h. Thus. in
the progress Of events We had reached
that consummatiOn whict the voice Of the
people has now so poinlsdly Eebuked, Of
the attempt Of a portion # the States. by
n sectional organization and movement,
to usurp the control of tie government Of
the United States.
confidently relieve that the great
body Of those who inconsiderately took
this fatal step are sincerely atts ched to
the consultation and The Union. They
would. upon deIiberation, shrink with un
affected horror ION ary conscious act of
disunion or civil war. But they have en-
tered into path which leads nowhere,
unless it be to civil war and disunion, and
which has no other possible outlet They
have proceeded thus fa in this direction in
consequence OF the srccrssive stages of
their progress having consisted Of a series
al secondary issues, e:ch OF which pros
fessed to be confined within constitutional
and peaceful limits, but which attempted
indirectly what few mn were willin. to
do direclly-that is. act aggressively
against the constitutional rights Of nearly
one-half OF the thi'tylne States.
In the long series acts Of indirect ag.
gression. the first was the strenuous agi-
taIion, by citizens Of he northern States,
in Congress and out O it. Of the question
OF negro emanci paLion in the southern
States.
The second step in this path of evil
consisted of acts Of The people Of the nor
thcrn states. and, in ,eVeraI instances of
their governments. aimed to facilitate the
escape OF persons he'd TO service in the
southern States. and % prevent their ex-
tradition when recl,imed according 10
law and in virtue oftxpress provisions OF
the constitution. TOprumote this object,
legislative enactments and other means
were adopted to take away or defeat
rights which the Constitution solemn!y
guaranteed. ln order to uuliify the then
existing act of Congress concerning the
ex'radltlon of fugitives from service, law.
were enacted in many States forbidding
tnelr othcers' under the severest penalties
to participate in the execution of any acr
OF Congress whatever. In this way thai
system OF harmon ns co.operstioa be.
tween the author;, al e,,,.,