Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1861-04-04

absorbing desire to escape the fearful necessity
oil shedding blood, and that it will push its for
bearance to the utmost limit compatible with
the dictates Of imperative duty. If collision and
carnage shall ensue, it will only be because
wicked, wanton Rebellion insults the majesty Of
Law.
II treachery like that by which Gen. Twiggs
has demoralized, stripped, and all but disarmsd,
the largest division of our c9intrys little Army,
II pranks like those which Secession has PLAYED
with Federal mints. sub b-treasuries, arsenals, and
fortresses throughout the Cotton States, are to
remain unrebuked-are, il. fact, to be COM
mended and rewarded--then our Government is
hollow mask, grinning mockery of power, an
empty, shameless lie. country wherein such
crimes arc committed with impunity would not
be ht for honest men to live in. We call on
those who prate of 'ConciliatoD.' sReconstruc.
tion,' ETC., on the basis of the perfect equality
OF loyalty with Treason,to say explicitly how
they would have the President deal with such
men as Twiggs, and Chase, and Breshwood, and
hundred others, who, ater eating the bread of
the Union for half life dme, are now in arms
against it. Would YOU have Twiggs restored to
his recent rank of Brigader in tie Federal
Army Would you require good and true men
who have upheld the honor of our flag through
thirty years of faithful service and unquestion
ing fidelity to serve under and defer to him. If
you DO not mean this, what can you meant Do
you fancy that those who have seduced and
debauched the renegades will nc desert them
Could the Confederate States return to their
allegiance unrebuk cd and triumphant. vet leave
these victims of their wies, these partners in
their crime, to poverty, neglect, and shamel If
not, what sort of 'Reconstruction' is possible
but simple return to obedience to the lawsl
| Let, then, the line be distinctly drawn between
those who would uphold the Government in its
integrity, and those who are the instruments if
not the cOnfederates of the traitors who would
subvert and destroy it. There is no room for
neutraity--no middle ground between loyalty
and Treason. If Abraham Lincoln has been
fairly chosen President of the United States, he
is entitled to be respected and obeyed as such by
the people of every Stately those who opposed
equally with those who supported his election.
There is no merit in such obedience; for each
citizen defends and conserves his own rights, his
own property, in thus deferring to man, but
to the plain requirements of the Federal Con-
stitution. Gen. Jackson was never voted for by
Vermont nor Massachusetts, and was not pop
ular as President in ether but his constitutional
authority nowhere more scrupulously de-
ferred to than in those States. Mr.. Lincoln has
to day the same right to the respect and
Of - I,o
during his Presidency, had to those of Veamont
and Massachusetts,. In either case, the right to
oppose most strenuously and effectively the
policy of the Nations elected Chief is perfectly
compatible with scrupulous respect for and
Difference to his constitutional authority.
The sullen clouds that pail the Southern sky
presage 4 coming storm The master spirits OF
tee Cotton Rebellion are manfesty resolved on
pushing their treason to a bloody issue. The
stubbornness with which they, in every State but
Texas, refuse to submit the question of Secession
/ or Union to popular vote, evinces their deter
minaton to precipitate their States into n ciyal
war which the masses, even of their own blinded
mis!cd, abused fellow citizens, revolt from.
! With the Press muzzled, the Telegraph per
verted into mere instrument Of conspiracy, and
public sentiment cowed and silenced by the des-
perate appliances of worse than Jaeobinic
! terrorism, they rush upon their doom. May an
All Wise God oyerrule their madness and
crmnalty to the glory of His name, and
render them subservient to a wider diffusion, a
surer establishment, of Righteousness and
Freedom