The Van Buren press., 1861-03-01
Louisiana.

lh9I tue AoeIties Vi tne people Will De II
properly guarded and protected under 8
Southern Confederacy. as in our present
Federal Government. we beg leave to refer
them to the columns of the New Orleans
Bulletin. paper which has strongly sup
ported the movement, the late editorials oi
which clearly Indicate the uneasiness which
is felt that the leaders who now control af-
fairs without consulting the people, may
establish a government in which the power
shall rest with the few, and the interests OF
the masses be wholly disregarded. We ap-
pend some remarks of the editor of the True
Delta, and also the protest of member OF
the Louisiana Convention against the pro-
ceedings of that body:
Extremes Meet.
In late number of the Charleston Mer-
curry. the following paragraph heads an edi-
torial:
The grand foundation principle of all govern
ment in this country lies in the consent of the gov
erned- Take away this cornerstone of princi-
pie, and all laws fall of themselves and govern
nent exists, by its own will, as a monstrous
usurpatiOn."
A truer o: more applicable or a clearer
definition of the present position of the Sc
ceded States of this country could not have
been penned than is contained in this para
graph from the organ par excellence of the
purists of notification and yet it will be
believed that it is offered by a contemporary
to its readers as its sober judgement of the
proceedings in South Carolina and the other
revolted commonwealth since their with
drawal from the federal Union. The Mer-
curry well knows that the popular sanction
to the revolution in great measure con-
summated, has nowhere, in no solitary in
stance, received the sanction. indispensable
to its validity and binding force upon the
loyalty and consciencies of republicans,
namely, the approval Of the people at the
ballot boxes. Take for instance, this state
OF Louisiana as an illustration of what we
assert. A legislature, chosen by the people
for objects very different in their contempla-
ton at the time they elected them, from the
overthrow of the national government. un-
dertakes to call convention that conven-
tion was accordingly called, and the people
in voting for its members, recorded their in
structions to them by a majority of all the
vOtes cast, that their action should be in har-
mony with that of all the slave States. And
yet what has it done? Why it has ignored
both The people and the Legislature-the
creature of the people /; has declared Louis
lana out of the confederation of United
States has abolished the State constitution
and selected from its own members delega-
tion to represent its desires in the revolution
arv CnnnroSS
which revolutionary body has constituted it.
self the government of the new nation it has
extemporised, and in imitation of Bona
parte and other modern tyrants, has abolish
ed the forms of representative government
hitherto deemed essential to the maintenance
Of equal, just and impartial government
among men, and selected from its own BODY
one of the officers who is to administer the
supreme authority under the system they
have arbitrarily. and without any warrant
from the power alone capable of extending
it, seen fit to establish. In all these procee-
dings the people will perceive an intention to
supersede by usurped and wholly presump-
tuous authority, their well understood wish
es: and in this subversion Of the recognized
safeguards of republican government which
the wisdom of the fathers of the republic had
devised, a deliberate intention of undermin-
ing and destroyinga government of which
the people, and the people alone, are sover-
eign and supreme, without check, hindrance
or limitation. No revolution ever was or
can be sanctioned as legitimate which the
people do not approve in such modes as are
recognized in the overthrow of the Stuarts
in England and OF British domination in
these States |; and the attempt now being
made to impose upon the inhabitants of the
seceesied States, forms of government, polit-
ical principles and usages unknown since
the foundation of republicanism in America
without their approval, and in fragrant def
ance of their we'll understood wishes, de-
mands unqualified reprobation and organic
ed and effectual resistance. Looking from
an Independent and dispassionate point OF
view at what has already been accomplished
by the men who have precipitated us into rev.
olution. we are constrained to conclude that
the whole disorganizing and extraordinary
programme yet presented, had but one obie,
in contempiation--that of providing for
the office-holders, who, being certain of ex-
trusion On the accession of men to power
who knew not Joseph" took time by the
forelock by conspiring to overthrow the
government they could no longer abuse or
disgrace. If our connection with States of
this Union where slavery does not exist and
with the frontier States wherein it is estab-
lished. had become insupportablc and intol-
erable; and that this incompstibility, and
not the schemes of the office-holders, as
seems probable, led to our extemporised pre-
cipitation into revolution, surely it will not
be contended that, in order to effect our de-
liverance, we should sacrifice our liberties,
or transfer to irresponsible individuals, how
ever gifted or deserving they may be regar-
ded, power which can never, without the
greatest risks. be even delegated by The di-
rect act of the people themselves. If we
are to change our form of government be-
cause the fanaticism of the free States has
made the labor upon which our prosperity
depends insecure if the end aimed at o,
pretended to be desired, be the greater secu-
/, rity of our property in slaves, can no othe,
mode of accomplishing it be devised thar
the emasculatio of the power Of the people
for, if this be so, it may as well be enqu r
ed whether the benefits we promise our
selves be not too dea:-ly purchased, and par
ticularly when in the en,t the evils they vii
inflict will be certain and ilemediable whil'
the good will be as problematic.L as ever
Meantime will the people tamely endure I
r Al