Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1861-06-08
Our Country and cur Duty.

tiOns now going on IN the East, OF
which, Washington City, our beautiful
National Capitol, is the scat and centre,
aud the unfnrling Of our country's glo-
rious standard over the forts and other
government property 50 wantonly, 20
unjusti6able, and SO traitorously seized
and occupied by a rcbellious portion Of
our republic, the end aud object indi-
Gates clearly the magnitude of the &C.
casion, aud the wise, dauntless charac-
ter of the Administration. Our coun-
try is now imperiously required to
prove its own self-sustaining capacity,
and that it will rise equal, and if neccs-
sary far superior to the emergency, We
have not a particle of doubt. The
North, East and West, with incxhausti.
bic resources Of men, money, and all
the appliances of war, arc irrevocably
united in defense of their country and
its institutions, against distracted and
disunitcd South in arms, under the
banner of misguided fanaticism, to re-
dress purely imaginary wrongs, or as
sert the might and power Of rebellion
and treason. No candid man, who is
acquainted with the political history of
our country, can point to one single act
of positive aggression by the govern
ment for which the South has right
to complain; we are therefore not as.
eonishcd when Mr.. A. H. Stephens,
Vice President of the Southern league,
asserts the principle of that league to
be. that the nineteenth century must
acknowledge alaycry as one of the fun
damcntal civil and political institutions
of the age, thus overriding and far sur
passing all the previously supposed
constitutional issues, aud virtually de-
claring war against the public senti-
ment of the Christian world. We
agree, and so docs the present Admin
istration most cmphatically, that this
institution shall exist and be protected
within the limits where it is now cstab-
lishcd by State laws, but we can never
consent that an issue, so local and linn
tied in its consequence and importance,
shall triumph over and rend in pieces
that Constitution framed for such en-
tirely different purposes and objects.
For all real and positive injuries, our
Constitution and courts of law provide
ample and ctfectual remedies; they who
fail to seek redress from these acknowl-
edged fountains Of justice, but prefer
to take up arms to assert their indc-
pendencc of all law and constitutional
obligations, cvincc the weakness and
injustice of their cause, prove their reck-
less. revolutionary spirit, and sanction
absolute treason under the miserable
subterfagc of State Sovereignty
The history of the civilized world, cs-
pecially Of our elder sister, England,
during the reigns Of Henry III and his
immediate successors, is pregnant, with
similar revolts, with such upheavings
of the discontentcd, lawless, disordered
elements of society; but in every in
stance the might and majority of truth
and justice, Of law aud order, have pre-
vailed, and the body polite has received
increased inauguration from such pur-
cations. God first maddcns those
whom he wishes to destroy, and the
page of history is replete with cxempli-
tications Of this latinism.
Our own beloved country is now
threatened with intestine, internecine
war, forces Of armed men menace with
fire and destruction the Capital of our
country, and piratical vessels are of.
fercd commissions, by the unrecognized
authority of Jefferson Davis, to prey
upon our commerce on the high seas.
Tho President Of the United States,
within the perfect scope of his authori-
ty, in obedience to his high sense of
duty, and in the execution of his SOL
cmn oath Of Office, calls upon his fsl-
low.countrymen, upon all true patriots,
upon all men who perfer the welfare
Of their country to sorlid prejudices,
and time.serving opinions, to come for
ward and maintain inviolate the su-
prcmacy Of our G institution and lava