The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-04-11
THURSDAY::::::::::: APRIL II
The Principle of the COnfeder-
alton.

~
for the rupture of the Union by the South
ern traitors, says the Harrisburg Dotty
Telegraph, has been, that the people Of the
South were compelled to escape into
confederacy in order to protect themselves
against the aggression of the North. Such
assertions have formed the standing argu-
ments and appeals of Northern doughtaces
while advocating the unity and principles
of the Democratic party. The dreadful
alternative of disunion is what has be-
nighted the people of the North, and here
tofore weakened their influence for good
in their own section. But it seems now
that it was neither the burden of past ag-
gression nor the fear of future injury that
induced disunion In u speech upon this
subject. delivered at Savannah, Ca, on the
21st of March, the Vice President Of the
Southern Confederacy, Hon. A. III. Ste
phens, gives to the world the Official rea-
sons which induced disnnion. He states
in his argument, that as the Creator has
made distinction in races, He has also
fixed their power and prerogative. Those
whom God has stamped as inferior, are to
be subjected to the will of the superior
the standard of inferiority to be liked by
the relative powers of the races occupying
anv territory. In this manner, Mr.. Ste
phens declares that the principle OF all
governments should be based on a system
of slavery. 1t Is the only means, IN his
opinion, of preserving the harmony OF
communities and the purity of classes
Universal freedom begets an equality
which must eventually produce degrade
ton. and, as the degeneration of one race
has its influence on another, in order to
preserve the strength Of the stronger, the
weaker race must be weakened by slavery
and kept in constant aud eternal subjuga-
tions, to prevent it from perpetrating any
mischief
With slavery as the basis of the South
ern Confederacy, and the principle itself
constituting one of the greatest monopolies
with which the world has ever contended,
Mr.. Stephens considers the protection OF
white labor as injurious to business. He
is opposed to the imposition of duties, rs
calculated to benefit one class of labor and
inlure more extensively another. With
this faliacy on his lips, he advocates free
trade, pompously declaring that the white
mechanic of the South has she independ-
ence and strength to protect himself. But
behind this sophistry we have the real
truth of Mr. Vice President Stephens de-
sign, which is nothing more nor less than
to degrade all labor to level with that of
slavery, and to make it subject to their
demands and control. If they succeed in
securing recognition for slavery, and es
tablishing it as a principle of government,
and at the same time incorporate the sys
TEN of free trade in the policy of the
country. we can imagine how long the
white mechanic and laborer will be able to
contend with the slave of his own, and the
pauper labor of any other country. But rs
we have already stated, all these arguments
in favor of free trade and the divine origin
of the institution of slavery, coming from
the leaders of the insurrection themselves,
are only so many yindications of the policy
and principle of the Republican party
They prove that the designs Of the revolu
tionisus at the South tend more to the es-
Establishments of the exploded dogmas Of
tyranny than the recognition and preser-
walton Of civil and religious liberty.
We append an extract from this frank
and extraordinary ayowal OF principle, for
the benefit Of cur readers:
"The prevailing ideas entertained by Jelfer-
son s:sd most of the leading statefmen, at the
time Of the formation of the old Constitution,
we're that the enslayeuent Of the African was
in violation of the laws Of nature: that it was
wrong in prin eipIc, socially, morally and po-
,it;cally. 1t WAS an evil they knew not well
how 10 deal with, but the general opinion of
the men of that day was that somshow Or 9TH
or in the order of Providence, the institution
gon,d he eyanesc cent and pass away. This
idea though not Incorporated in the Consfi-
tuition was the prevailing idea at that time
The Constitution, it is true, secured every es-
sential guarantee to the institution while il
should last. agd hence no argument can be
;ustir used again st the constitutional gnarnn-
T. thus secured !,ecause Of The commen sen