The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-01-19

1.-THE oSnstitussen is eve movable chosen model
FLOR e organisation of the newly Using conSei.
terides u
The occasion is the election OF President OF
the United States who Is unacceptable to por.
ton of the people. l state the case accurately.
There was no movement OF disunon before the
balots which expressed that choice we're cast.
Disunion began as soon rs the result was an
nounced. The Justification, rs assignee, was
that Abraham Lincoln had been elected, while
the success of either one of the three other
candidates would have been acquiesced ill.,
Was the election illegal? No; it is unmpeach.
able. Is the candidate personally offensive
No; he is man of unblemished virtue and
| amiable manner. Is election OF President
| an unfrequent or extraordinary transaction
| No; we never had Chief Magistrate otherwise
| designated than by such an election, and that
form of chpice is renewed every four years.
Does any one even propose to change the mode
of appointing the Chief Magistrates No; cleo
| ton by universal suffrage, as modified by the
| Constitution, is the own browning franchise of
| the American people. To save it, they would
! defy the world. r . ge t....a 20 In, 81
Is it apprehended the new President will
| usurp despotc power? No. while he is of all
| men the most unambitious, he is by the partial
success of those who opposed his election,
| subjected to such restraints that he cannot,
| without their consent, appoint minister, or
even police agent, negotiate treaty, or pro-
| cure the passage of law, and can hardly draw
a musket from the public Arsenals to defend
| his own person. ri. g. .... .rar
| DIFFERENCE OF OPINION THE TRUE GROUND OF
| THE SECESSION MOVEMENT.
What, then, is the ground Of discomfort? 1t
| is, that the disunionists did not accept as con
elusive the arguments which were urged in be-
| half of the successful candidate in the canvass
This is all. Were their own arguments against
him more satisfactory to his supporters? OF
course they were not They could not be-
Does the Constitution, in letter spirit, require
| or imply that the arguments OF one party shall
| be satisfactory to another? No; that is i'm
possible. .
What is the constitutional remedy for this in
evita5le dissatisfaction? Renewed debate and
ultimate rehearing in subsequent election
Have the now successful majority perverted
power to purposes of oppression? No, they
have never before held power. ..-.-
OUR OWN AN UNGRArEFUL PEOPLE.
Alas, how prone we are to undervalue privi-
eges and blessings, How gladly, how proudly,
would the people of any nation in Europe accept,
on such terms az we enjoy it, the boon of elect
ing Chief Magistrate every four years. by free,
equal and universal suffrage How thankfully
would they cast aside all their own systems of
| Government, and accept this Republic Of ours,
with all its shortening and disappointmcnts
maintain it with their arms and cherish it in their
heart. Is it not the very boon for which they
supplicate God without ceasing and even wage
war with intermssons only resulting from ex-
| haustion?
| ITALY AN ExEMPLAR FOR AMERICA. .....
How strange are the times in which live ?
| he 40 of fl,a
Atlantic, will open on general conflict waged
| to obtain, through whatever ndirection, just
such system ours, and on this side of the
| Atlantic, within the same parallels of latitude,
1t will open on traternal war, waged III a moment
| OF trenzed discomfort, to overthrow and annihi-
late the same institutions. Do men, indeed, live
only for themselves, to revenge their own wrongs
or Justify their own ambition Rather, do not
men live least of all for themselves, and chiefly
for posterity and for their fellow men.
| DISSOLUTION ROBBERY OF PoSTERITY.
Have the American people then become all
of a su den unnatural well as unpatro,ic /?
And will they dsinherit their children of the
precious estate held only in trust for them, and
deprive the world of the best hopes it has
| enjoyed since the human race began its slow
and painful, yet needful and wisely appointed
| progress
ALLEGED SOUTHERN GRIEVANCES.
Here might close my plea for the American
Union; but it is necessary if not to exhaust the
argument at least to exhibit the whole case The
disunioniSts, consciously unable to stand on their
mere disappointment in the recent election, have
attempted to enlarge their grounds For more
than thirty years there has existed considerable,
though not formidable, mass of citizens in Ger
tain States, situated near around the delta of
the Mississippi, who believe that the Union is
| less conducive to the welfare and greatness of
| those States than smaller contederacy en-
bracing only Slave States, would be- This class
has availed itself of the discontents resulting
from the election to put into operation the ma
chinery of dissolution, long ago prepared and
waiting only for an occasion. In other States
there is 4 soreness, because of the want of sym-
pathy in the Free States with the efforts of slave
| holders for the recapture Of fugtives from ser
| vice. In all the Slave States there is FESTIVE
ness resulting from the resistance which has been
so detcrminedly made within the few years in the
| Free States to the extension of Slavery in the
common Territories Of the United States
| THE REPUBLICANS DENIED HEARING
| The Republican party, which cast its votes for
the successful Presidential candidate on the
ground OF that policy, has been allowed practi-
| caiIy no representation, no uttcrance by speech
or through the press, in the Slave States; while
its policy. principles and sentiments, and even
Its temper, have been so misrepresented as to
excite apprehension that it denies important con-
| atltutlonal obligations, and even aims ut inter
ference with Slavery, and its overthrow bv State
authorities or Intervention of the Federal Gov
ernment Considerable Masses even in the Free
States, interested in the success of these misre-
presentations as a means of partizan strategy,
J have lent their sympathy to the party claiming
to be aggrieved, while the result of the election
| brings the Republican party necessarily into the
fore ground in resisting disunion.
| THE REPUBLICANS MsREPRESENTED AND UNAIDED.
The prejudiccs against them, which have
| described, have deprived them of the co-opera.
ton OF MANY good and patriotic citizens On n
complex issue between the Republicans and the
| Disunonsts, although it involves the direst ma
tonal crlamities, the result might be doubtful,
for the Republican party is weak in large part
| of the Union; but on direct issue, with all who
cherish the Union on one side and all who de-
| sire its dissolution on the other, the verdict
| would he prompt and almost unanimous de-
sire thus to simplify the ISSUE and for that pur.
pose 20 separate from it all collateral quest tons,
and relieve it of all partisan passions and preiu-
dices.
| A COTTON AND SOUTHERN CoNFEDERACY
consider the idea of the withdrawal of the
Gull States, and their permanent organization,
| with or without others, in a distinct confedera-
certainly unwise and so obviously impossible OF
execution when the purpose is understood, that
dismiss it with the discussion have already be-
| slowed upon it,
| The case is different, however, in regard to
the other subjects which have brought in this
| connection before the Senate
THE UNION NECESSARY TO ALL PARTIES.
Beyond doubt, Union isvitalIy important to
the Republican citizens of the United States, but
| it is just as important to the whole people Re-
publicanism and Union are therefore not con
vertble terms. Republicanism is subordinate to
Union, as everything else is and ought to be. Re-
pnhlicansm, Democracy, every other political
name and thing, all are subordinate, and they
ought to disappear in the presence of the great
question of Union .. ..-...
MI. sEwARD'S INDIVIDUAL POSITION
So far as am concerned, it shall be SO. 1t
| should be so, if the question were sure to be
tried at it ought only to be determined, by the
peaceful OF deal of the ballot 1t shall be so all
the more since there is oR-one side preparedness
to refer to the arbitratement of civil war have
such faith i'm this republican system of nprs th,t