Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-11-15
BRECKINRIDGE's ADDRESS.

The address of John G.. Breckenridge
to the people of Kentucky, on resigning
his seat in the United States Senate, i,
a long document written in his peculiar
vein of sophistry. He begins by declar.
| ing that the Union had been dissolved
last March by the withdrawal Of seven
States, but in obedience to the will OF
Kentucky he had proceeded to Washing
ton aud resisted the usurpations of the
executive. He resigns now, he says,
simply because there is no place left
where a Southern Senator may sit in
council with the Senators from The North
| Indeed, according to him there is no Sen.
ate, no United States, no Union-neither
can there be in the future. He adds
" Coercion has been tried, and has
failed. The South has mustered into
the field nearly as many combatants as
the North, and has been far more victori-
Gus. The fields of Manassas and Bethel,
of Springfield and Lexington, have work
ed with terrible and sanguinary line
the division between the old order OF
things and the new"
The substance of his reasoning on this
point is thus expressed:
1t is the right of Kentucky, and her
peculiar duty, to recognize these great
facts, and TO act on them. / he constitu-
tional compact which created and upheld
the old Union is at an end. A large
number of the original and additional
parties have Withdrawn from it. So large
number that its stipulatons can no lon
ger be executed and under such circum-
stances no court has decided that con-
tract is binding between the remaining
parties, or attempted to enforce its exc
cuton. The Constitution requires posi-
lively th / each State shall have at least
one representative in Congress, but now
twelve States have none; that each State
shall have two Senator'S but now twelve
States have none; that all duties, i'm posts
and eXciSes shall be uniform throughout
the United States, but now in more than
one third Of them none are or can be col
lected. Commerce cannot be regulated
between the respective States. Uniform
rules Of naturalization and bankruptcy
cannot be adopted. Post offices aud post
roads in nearly half the States have been
given up, and preference is given to
parts of one State over those of another
Even the election of President has be-
come impossible"
Thence Mr.. breckenridge goes on to
repetition Of his old speeches in the
Senate about the awful manner in which
the President violates an extinct Consti-
tuition, and wields the power Of govern
ment which Mr.. Brekinridge claims to
be foreign government so far as he is
upon which, therefore, be need
not be so sensitive. Among the new
grievances he euumerates is, that q" the
gallant little State Of Maryland has been
utterly abolished" lie then dJvotes a
column to an effort at inhaming the peo-
pie Of Kentucky TO resist the Federal
government, using his utmost ingenuity,
but saying nothing important to the gen
eral reader. The following is his view
of the future:
Whatever may be the future rela
tions of the two confederacies, the idea
of the restoration of the Union under
the old Constitution is wholly visionary
and delusive If the North should con-
quer the South (Which it will perceive to
be impossible after few hundred mill
ions more shall have been expended, and
few hundred thousand lives lost the
character of the government would be
radically changed. 1t would probably
not take the form of even a mixed gov
ernment, but would soon end in militia
ry despOtism. 1t must soon become ap
apparent to all thoughtful men that the
last hope of constitutional liberty lies in
the early recognition of these great truths
in an honorable peace and friendly in
tercourse."
He concludes as follows:
when the Northern invaders shall be
sent back across the Ohio river-when
the State shall be relieved of all troops
from abroad, and the people Of Kentucky,
by fair election, shall determine their
destiny, it will be the clear duty Of every
citizen 10 acquiesce or to retire from the
State.
For those who denied by the Legisla-
ture the protection due to the humblest
citizen. have been delivered over to the
tender mercies of foreign mercenaries,
and hunted like partridges on the noun
tains, what remains but Imprisonment,
exile or resistance As one of them,
intend to resist. / will avoid conflict