The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-06-26

LAW, lcyaIy enforced by the Government
and it is this law, effective in its power o
recapture, but infinitely more potent in it
!; m oral agency in preventing the escape o
slaves, that alone saves that institution il
the Border States from utter extinction. Sh,
3 cannot carry this law with her into the new
Confederacy. She will virtually have Can,
ada brought to her doors in the form of Ere,
States, whose population, relieved Of al
moral and constitutional obligations to de
liver up fugitive slaves will stand with oper
arms inviting and welcoming them, if neet
4 be, at the point of the bayonet. Under sucf
influence, Slavery will perish rapidly away
in Kentucky, as a ball Of snow would nell
in summers sun.
Kentucky, in her soul, abhors the African
slave trade, and turns away with unspeaka
BILE horror and loathing from the red altars
of King Dahomey. But although this traffic
has been temporarily interdicted by the Sc
ceded States, it 10 we'll understood that this
step has been taken as a mere measure o.
policy for the purpose Of impressine The
Border States, and of conciliating the Europ
can powers. The ultimate legalization o.
this trade, by Republic protesting to be
based upon African servitude, must follow as
certainly as does the conclusion from the
| premises of a mathematical proposition. Is
\
dial plate of her civilization rudely thrust
back a century, and to stand before the world
| the confessed champion of the African slave
hunter? Is she, with her unsuilied fame,
ready to become pander to the rapacity of
the African slave trader, who burdens the
very winds of the sea with the means Of the
wretehed captives whose limbs he has loaded
with chains, and whose hearts he has broken
! do not, | cannot believe IT,
For this catalogue of what Kentucky must
suffer in abandoning her present honored and
secure position. and becoming member of
the Southern Confederacy, what will be her
indemnity Nothing, absolutely nothing.
The ILL weven ambition of some of her sons
may possibly reach to the Presidency of the
now Republic that is all. Alas alas! for
the dream of the Presidency of Southern
Republic, which has disturbed so many piie
lows in the South and, perhaps, some in the
West also, and whose lurid light, like a
demons torch, is leading nation to perdi-
| tion.
| The clamor that in insisting upon the south
obeying the laws, the great principle that
all popular Governments rest upon the con-
sent of the governed is violated, should not
receive q moments consideration. Popular
government does, indeed, rest upon the con-
sent not Of all, but of a naajority Of the goo-.
eraed Criminals are every day punished
and made to obey the laws, certainly against
! their will, and no msn supposed that the
principle referred to is thereby invaded. A
bill passed by a Legislature, by the majority
| of single vote only, though the constituents
| of all whe'voted against it should be in fact,
as they are held to be in theory, opposed to
| its provisions, still is not the less operative
as law, and no right of, self government is
| thereby trampled upon. The olau.or alluded
to assumes that the States are separate and
| independent governments, and that laws
enacted under the authority of all may be
resisted and repelled at the pleasure of each
The people of the United States, so far as
the, powers Of the General Government are
Concerned, are unit, and laws passed by q
majority Of all are binding upon all The
laws and Constitution, however, which the
South now resists, have been adopted by her
sanction, and the right she now claims is
that of a feeble minority 10 repeal what a
majority has adopted. Nothing could be
more fallacious. ..s ~
Civil war, under all circumstances, is a
terrible calamity, and yet, from the selfish
ambition and wickedness of men, the best
Governments have not been able to escape it,.
In regarding that which has been forced upon
the Government Of the United States, Ken
lucky should not look so much at the means
| which may be necessarily employed in its
prosecution as at the machina tions by which
this national tragedy has been brought upon
US. When look upon this bright land, a
few months since so prosperous, so tranquil
ana 50 free, and now behold il desolated by
war, and the firesides of its thirty millions
of people darkeded, and their bosoms wrung
with anguish, and know, as do, that all this
is the work of score or two Of men, who
ever all this national ruin and despair, are
preparing 10 carve with the sword their way,
To seats of permanent power, l cannot but
feel that they are accumulating upon their
souls an amount of guilt hardly equaled in
all the atrocities of treason and of homicide
that have degraded the annals of our race
! from the foundations of the world. Ken
| lucky may rest we'll assured that the conflict,
which is one of self defense, will be pursued
on the part Of the Government in the pattern
al spirit in which father seeks 10 reclaim
his erring offspring. No conquest, no effu-
sion of blood is sought. In sorrow, not in
anger, the prayer of all is that the end may
be reached without loss of life or waste Of
property. Among the most powerful instru-
| mentalities relied on for reestablishing the
authority Of the Governments. is that Of the
Uncin sentiment of the South, sustained by
/ a liberated press. 1t is now trodden to the
earth under a reign of terrorism which has
no parallel but in the worst days Of the
French Revolution. The presence Of the Gov
ernment will enable it to rebound, and look
its oppressors in the face. At present we
are assured that in the seeded States no
man expresses an opinion opposed to the rev.
olution but at the hazard Of life and property.
The only light which was admitted into po,
litical discussion is that which flashes from
the sword orglcams from glistening bayonets
. few days since one of the United States
Senators from Virginia publisheda manifesto
; in which he announced, with oracular selem
nity and severity, that all citizens who woult
,, not vote for Secession, but were in favor o
the Union-not should or ought to- bu
aMusr leave the State" These words hav,
in them decidedly the crack Of the oyerseer
whip The Senator evidently treats Virgini,
as great negro quarter, in which the lasl
, is the appropriate emblem of authority, an
the only argument he will condescend TO use
Z However the freemen Of ether parts of tn
State may abase. themselves under the exer
else of this insolent and proscriptive tyrran
ny, should the Senator, with this scourge Q
saves, endeavor to drive the people q
Western Virginia from their homes, I wi
, only say, in tie Language Of The narrative {
Gilpin's ride
e !" May be there to scc.' f
e I. would sertainly prove deeply interestin
= spectacle. S'.,, 40 Is
a It is true that before this deliverapce
the popular mind of the South from III
:. threatening aad alarm which have subdue
n it, can be accomplished, the remorseles