Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-06-13

States" II would not now be claimed
by Congress that these grants authorized
an interference in the sale of slaves be-
tween the people of different States nor
would il be claimed that they authorized
the abolition of slavery in'the District of
Columbia, while Maryland and Virgini,
remained slave States, nor tho like aboli-
ton in f rts and other places within slave
States. But what will be claimed in the
future we cannot know. SO, also, in re-
lation to the Territories belonging to the
United States. While We are aware that
all the Territories, then unorganized, were
organized by the acts of the last Congress
which contain no prohibition of slavery
and while we know that this was .he ac-
ton of Congress in which the free
States had the control Mt the the time the
acts were passed, still these are but acts of
Congress subject to repeal or alteration,
as public feeling may change their tempo
rary excitement.
tbs Just that the rights of the slave
States, now in small minority of the
whole States, should be guarded in the
particulars mentioned by such constitu-
tional guarantees as shall render them
secure against future legislation in times
of excitement. Our distinguished fellow
citizen, Hon. John j. Crittenden, for the
purpose of securing by constitutional
guarantees rights already possessed, pre-
sented to Congress certain propositions
to amend the Constitution, which met
with general approval, and those propo-
sitions, as originally offered, or any that
are equivalent, would be now satisfactory,
and would quiet apprehensions that exist
to some extent in the minds ofreal friends
of the Union, and which are Industrious
ly excited by those who are enemies of the
Union and Of the people. Whether any
such constitutional guarantees would have
the effect of reconciling any of the
seeded States to the government from
which tney have torn themselves away
we cannot say, but we allow ourselves
to hope that the masses in those States
will in time learn that the dangers they
were made to fear were greatly cxaggcra-
ted, and that they will then be disposed
to listen to the calls of interest and Of
patriotism, and return to the family from
which they have gone out. One effect of
giving such guarantees, certainly, will be
to prove to the world, bv the frank rec
ogniton of the rights of the few slave
States adhering to the Union, that the
States which have seeded have abandon
ed the best government in the world with.
ont any good or sufficient cause.
1t may be urged that there are not now
sufficient number of States remaining
in the Union to ratify any such constitu-
tonal amendments rs will furnish the
guarantees we require. But it is TO be
remembered that there is no time fixed
by the Constitution for such ratification,
and if they should be ratified by the free
States, then at the end Of the present civil
war, terminate as it may, either in the
restoration of the seeded States to the
Union, or the establishment of their sep.
aratc national existence, there will be the
number of States required for the ratifica.
ton.
Fellow-ci of the United States
You are about to be engaged in war in
which the horrors that ordinarily attend
that state are likely to be aggravated by
the fact that you are of the same family,
and have long lived together in intimate
intercourse and in friendly relations
The kind feelings that once existed have
been changed to her bitterness. soon to
degenerate, it may be, into deadly animos-
ity. We desire to remind you that you
are contending about question of prin-
ciple, upon which we would fain belive
that you are on each side convinced that
you are right 1t is no longer a question
of party politics. no longer question
about the right to hold slaves in terrific
ries, or to retake them when they escape
the question now to be settled is, whether
we shall live in the same Union as for
merly, or whether our fathers formed a
government upon such principles that any
one State may at her own pleasure, with.
out the consent Of the others, and with.
out responsibility to any human power
withdraw from her connection with the
|, Government and claim to be sovereign as
a separate nation. 1t will be readily seen
thas this, as a question Of principle, is
not affected by the number of States that
have withdrawn. 1t would have been
well if this question could have deem solv.
} ed in some other mode than by resort tc
! war but it may be that nothing but a
Divine interposition now can determine
: it by other means. A war upon such &
question ought not to produce any higher
, eXasperation or excite any greater degreC
of animosity than is incident to all wars
In the meantime, let the spirit of human
ity and of the high civilization of the agt
strip this war of the horrors that general
ly attend such civil strife.
Our States desire, and have indicated
purpose to take no part in this war
and we believe that in this course we vii
J ultimately best serve the interests of on
common country. 1t is impossible tina
we should be indifferent spectators W,
consider that our interests would be irro
trevably ruined by taking part in tho
conflict on the side where the stronges
sympathies Of our people are. and that
our sense Of honor and of duty requires
} that we should not allow ourselves 10 bt
drawn or driven into war in which 9th
er States. without consulting us, have de
liberately chosen to involve themselves
Our safety and our dignity, as among the
most powerful of the slave States, de
mands of us that we take this position
Ifthe time shall come when our friend