The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1861-06-13
Cagsius w. Clay's letter to the LOndOn
Times.
To the Editor Of The Times

SIR ) Allow me in your journal to make few
remarks upon the complications of the United
States Of America, which | am surprised to find
are so little understood this side of the Allan
tic.
l. fWhat are are fighting .for?' 'We, the poo
pie of the United States Of America Ito use the
language of our Constitution), are fighting to
maintain out nationality, and the principles Of
liberty upon which it was founded-that nation
atty which Great Britain has pledged herself
both by past comfy AND the sacred obligations
of treaty to respecti those great principl es OF
liberty, that all power is derived from the con
sent of the governed trial by jury, freedom of
speech and the press; that without LAW there
is no liberty which we inherited from Great
Britain herself, and which, having been found
to lie at the base Of all progress and civilization
we desire to perpetuate for ourselves and the
fortune of all the nations. The so-called Con
federate States of America rebel against as
against cut nationality, and against all the
principles of its structure. Citizens of the Uui-
ted States-of the one Government (not of Con
tederate States, as tAoy would have the world
believe-but of 'us " people, y they propose,
Fnot by common legal consent, but by arms, to
sever our nation into seperate independencies.
Claiming to be 'let alone they conspire against
us seize by force our forts, stores, and arms
appropriate to themselves our nnints, moneys,
and vessels at sea; capture our armies, and
threaten even the capital at Washington !
The word secession is used to cover up
treason and delude the nations. They stand to
US i'll the relation of one people the idea of
State SOVEREIGNTY is utterly delusive We
gave up the old Confederation to avoid Just
such complications as have now occurred. The
States are by our Constitution deprived of all
the rights Of Independent sovereigns, and the
National Government act not through State Or
CARNATIONS, but directly upon the citizens of
the States themselves-to that highest power,
the right of life and death. The States cannot
keep an army or navy, or even repel invasion,
except when necessity will not allow time for
national action can make no treaty, nor coin
mony, nor exercise any Of the first great essen
tial powers Of sovereignty In word, they
can no more 'secede' from the Union than Scot
land or Ireland can secede from England.
The protested friends of the independence of
nations and popular rights, they have not over
thrown the ConstitutIoa of the United States
but the Constitution Of the Confederate States
themselves, refusing in eUery case to refer their
new usurpations to the votes Of the people, thus
making themselves doubly traitors to both the
States and the nation. The despotic rulers
over 4 600, 900 of enslaved Africans, they pres
ume TO extend over us, the white race Of all
nations, the same despotism, by ignoring the
DCiltlCaI nights OI all pub lu6lP OWN Glass; Uy res
trictions upon the popular franchise, by the
suppression of the freedom of speech and of the
press, by the terrorism Of Lynch law, or ty-
TaIlical enactments, backed by standing armies,
10 crush out the independence OF thought, the
ineradcs bic instincts Of our worldwide human
.ity--with the atrocious dogma that negro sla-
very is the only basis of real conservatism and
progressive civilization, and that the true solu-
tioa Of the contest of all time between labor
and capital is that capital should Olcn the iat0Y
whether i0hite or NGck.
The success Of such demands would send tie
tide of barbarism not only over the millions of
the New World and the isles of the Western
Oceans, but roll it back over England and
emancipated Europe, and blot out from history
this, the greatest glory of our times.
2. 'BGt can gOw SHbdUe The TevoIted States p
Of course we can. The whole seven reyolIcd
States e 1853, 000) have not as much white pop
ulation as the single state ofNew York (3,85l,-
562) by 1905 GOO people. II all the Slate States
were to make common cause they have only
8 ,gO7, 694 whites, with 100000 slaves, while
the Union has about 90 ,O00,0 00 Of homogeneous
people, as powerful in peace and war as the
world has seen. Intelligent, hardy, and many
sidad.' their late apparent lethargy and weak
ness was the self-pOssession Of conscious
strength. When they had made up their minds
that FORCE IVES necessary, they moved upon
Washington with such speed, numbers, and
steadincSs as is not surpassed i'll history. We
have the money lat a lower rate Of interest
than ever before), the men, and the command
Of the seas ami the internal waters. We can
blockade them by sea, and invade them by
land and close up the rebellion in a single
year, if we are let alone = For the population
Of The Slave States is divided perhaps equally
for and against the Union, the loyal citizens be-
ING for the time overawed by the organized
cons piracy of the traitors, while the North is
united to man, the late allies of the South, the
Democratic party, being now more earnest for
the subjugation of the rebels than the Republi-
cans.
5. But can gOH go0ern a 'SuljHgateG people
and restore the Union p We do not propose
to subiugate' the revolted States-we propose
to put down simply the rebel citizens. We go
to the rescue Of the loyal Unionists of all the
States. We carry safety and peace, and liberty
10 the JniCn-loving people o. the South, who
will Of themselves THE tyranny overthrown)-
send back their representatives to Congress, land
the Union will be restored without change Ct
a letter in the Constitution of the United States.
Did England subjugate Ireland and Scotland?
AIe the united kingdoms less homogeneous then
of old, before the wars against rebellion ? So
viii the United States rise from the smoke Of
battle with renewed stability and power. In
turn, now let US ask the British public some
questions.
l. There should British honor place her ia this
contest? We overthrow that political element
in America which has all through our history
been the studied denouncer and real hater Of
the British nation, while We have been always
from the beginning, the friends of England
because, though under different FERNS Of gO0-
ernacRt we had common sympathies, and
common cause, II! d heiefore. common inter
h. too, Tf
Europe-the old world we in the new IF the
Confederate States are right, then England is
wrong. If slavery must be extended in Amer
lea, then must England restore it it the West
Indies, blot out the most glorious page of her
history and call back her freed men into chains
Let her say to the martyrs OF freedom from all
the nations who have sought refuge and mag
unanimous Veiense on her shores, return to your
scaffolds and your prison house; England is
no more England Let Tile Times cease to APP
peal longer to the enlightened opinion eff the
world nay, let the statues of the great dead
through which passed in reverence yesterday
to the House Of her political intelligence be
thrown from their pedestaIs, when England
shall forget the utterances of her Chathsms her
Wilberforces and her Broughams-that nation
al Justice is the only safe diplomacy and lasting
foundation Of the independence Of nations.
9 What IS the interest Of England nO1o? If
we may descend to such inferior appeals, it is
clearly the interest of England to stand by the
Union of the States. We are her best custom
err; no tariff will materially affect that fact
We are the best customer Of England, not be-
kcause we are c0tton-growers or cotton-spinners,
agriculturists or manufacturers, but because we
! are producers and manufacturers and have mon
en- to spend. 1t is not the South as is urged,
| but the North who are the best consumers of
English commerce. The free white laborer
and capitalist does now, and always will, con-
sumo more than the white master and the slave.
The Union and the expansion of the States and
Republican policy make US the best market for
England and Europe. What has the world to
gain-England. France, or any OF the Powers
to calmly reducing the United States to a
| Mexican civilization
g. Can England afford to offend the great ma
| ton urhich 1oH still be The United States of
america, euen should pos lose part Of the SoutL7
Twenty millions of people to-day, with Or with
out the Slave States, in 20 years we will be
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