The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-01-16


termIned, to resist by armed force, any a.
tempt to=hold South Garoiiua, or any othe
( seeding State, in the Union, by mean
of the military and naval forces Of th
United States. But Notwithstanding tn
extraordinary and reasonable proceeding;
and partial success Of large class Of dis
unionists, ! do not, at present, believe
| W i'll become necessary to use any cOnsidera
BILE part Of the military power of the Ma
tional Government, in order to punish over
acts of treason in any part of the Union
Every citizen OF the Uuion is under an obi
cation to defend the country, and its Con
/ stitution and laws, against the attacks o
| foreign enemies and the assaults Of domestic
traitors and if ever a majority of the PEG
pie of the United States shall deliberately
repudiate this patriotic obligation, and shall
wilfully and submissively permit treason tC
walk abroad in our fair land, defy our Con
stitution and laws, and assail our National
! Government, then our once magnificent
powerful, and fraternal Union will sink into
a state of hopeless anarchy and decay, and
thus expose to the nations of the earth g
chaotic mass Of mighty ruins, upon which
| the friends of free popular government
throughout the world, may look with sor-
! row and despair.
Ny faith in the power of American patri-
otism eompels me to hope that majority
| of the citizens of those States in which the
| greatest amount of angry excitement now
prevails, will be found, in the hour of trial,
ready to support and defend the constitu-
tional authorities of the government of the
| United States, to battle and defeat all the
| mad schemes of the traitors and disunion-
lists, to re-esta5lish, in their respective States,
the majesty of the laws and the supremacy
of the Constitution, and to save our beloved
country from the horrors of civil warfare
and fraternal bloodshed.
However alarming the present crisis in
our affairs may be, still hope, by prudent
firm, and patriotic action on the part of the
people and their representatives, the rights
of every individual and State in the Confed-
eracy may be preserved inviolate, and that
order, law, and justice may soon be permit
ted to resume authority in those portions of
the Republic where mob law has been too
long tolerated in its murderous assaults on
the persons and constitutional rights of
American citizens. The novel, alarming
and reasonable assumption that any State
in the Union has a right under the Federal
Constitution to secede at pleasure, is a doc.
trne unknown to the Constitution, at war
ment was established, and destructive of
those high and sacred objects sought to be
accomplished by the Confederation. If the
anti-Democratic and anti-Republican posi-.
ton now assumed by a large party at the
South be true, f" that the result of Presi-.
Dental election, legally and constitutionally
conducted in all respects, is to be held a
good reason for dissolution of the Union =
then the Union can only be preserved by a
base surrender of the right of the majority
to rule, and by striking down that liberty
and equality which the Constitution was
ordained and established to guarantee and
perpetuate. The present disastrous agta-
ton now existing in the Southern portion
of the United States, has been caused by
the disingenuous and dishonest charges of
INSCRIPTIONS and reckless partizans; who,
in their madness and folly, have given to
party thatlo which the patriot only be-
slows upon his country. Our Southern
brethren have been taught to believe that the
party lately triumphant in the Presidential
election meditate an attack upon their domes-
tic institutions and violation of their con-
stitutional rights. The history of that great
party shows the utter groundlessness of
these charges. A remote cause of the pre-
sent hostile attitude of South Carolina may
be found in the reasonable doctrines taught
in 1882 and 1888 by the leaders of the Null
LITIGATION movement. These doctrines were
temporarily crushed out by the frmness
and patriotism of President jackson, and
by the almost universal disposition shown
in all parts of the country to support him
in the execution of the laws, and in the pre-
sergation of the Union. But, in an evil
hour for the Republic, under a weak and
wicked administration of the General Gov
eminent, similar doctrines have again found
utterance and support. Butthe immediate
cause of the present crisis was the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise. That act of bad
faith and worse craftsmanship, that sin
against the cause of freedom and the cause
of peace, raised the storm which now threat
ems to destroy the freest, happiest and
grandest government upon earth. Another
cause which has contributed largely to the
present state of things in the South is this:
Appeals made by speeches and papers
sent from the North, and freely circulated in
the Southern States conveying q false inn
preston as to the objects, aims and doctrines
of the great body of the Northern people,
The answer to these incendiary and treason
able appeals is never suffered to reach the
Southern States, and hence many honestly
believe that large and organized party ex-
ISIS ut tue NOflD, OituuSu together 10 make
war upon the interests and institutions of
the Southern people, when every Intelligent
man here knows that no such party does or
can exist. If secession in South Carolina
be treason, and no one doubts that it is,
to aid and abet secession in other parts of
the Republic is no less treason. If the
South has her peculiar grievances the North
also has many and just causes of complaint.
Many of her citizens have been deprived of
property, liberty and life without evidence,
without trial, without crime. Mob violence
has perpetuated such outrages upon Ameri-
can citizens as would lead inevitably to a
state of war if committed by the subjects of
a foreign power. Ifpermanent peace is to
be restored to our unhappy and distracted
country, it must be done by the removal of
all real causes of ofense North and South
The doctrine of secession, peaceable or
forcible, now, or at any other time, is a dan
gerous heresy fraught with all the terrible
consequences of civil-war and bloodshed
and leading directly to the utter ruin of all
our free institutions. This heresy has not
yet poisoned the public sentiment of Indiana,
and NAV Cod in his hind y,rovidepco ,,ut