Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1861-01-16

Il
node of conducting elections are not suffi-
lent TO protect the purity Of the ballot
'ox, nor to preveat frauds upon the ines
Unable privilege of the elective fran |
hiss; and therefore recommend such
revision and change of the election laws
Is will most effectuall accomplish the OBJ
ecLs.
Within the last few months, gentlemen
Of the Senate aud House of Representatives
we have been compelled 10 be unwilling
witnesses Of the rapid progress Of certain
events which have seriously threatened
the integrity of the Constitution and dis
turbed the harmony of the Union. In
few of the southern States a reasonable
originated by pestilent dema-
gogues, has been allowed to grow and
spread unpublished aud even unrebuked,
until, overrating its own strength and
vastly undertaking the patriotism of the
people. il assumed form and boldness i'm
nediately after the late Presidential cleo
ton, aud now declares its objects TO be
The ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the United States
and the founding of Southern confedera
cy of seeding States. To those who have
carefully observed the rise and progress of
this scheme of treason, it is eyilent that no
compromises or concessions, which the
people of the United States onght to make
10 order to preserve the peace Of the coun-
try, would be sufficient TO satisfy the dis
unionists OF South Carolina; and / regret
to say that il seems TO be almost certain
that The people Of few of the southern
States are inclined, if not determined, to
resist, by armed force, any attempt to hold
South Carolina, or any other seeding
State, in the Union, by means of the mill
tary and naval forces of the United States.
But, notwithstanding the extraordinary
and reasonable proceedings, and partial
success. of large class of disunionists,
do not, at present, believe il will become
necessary to use any considerable part oil
the military power of the National Govern
ment. in order 10 punish overt acts Of trea.
son in any part of The Union. Every citi-
ecu of the Union is under obligation to de-
fend the country, and its constitution and
laws, against the attacks of foreign enc
mics and the assaults of domestic traitors
and If ever a majority of the people of the
United States shall deliberately repudiatt
this patriotic obligation, and shall wilful-
ly and suhmissively permit treason &c
walk abroad 10 our fair land. defy our con
stitution and laws, and assail our Nation
al government, then our once magnificent
powerful, and fraternal Union will sink in
TO a state Of hopeless anarchy aud decay
and thus expose to the nations Of the earti
a chaotic mass of mighty ruins, upor
which the friends Of free popular govern
ment, throughout the world, may look will
sorrow and despair.
NV faith in the power of American pa
triotism compels me to hope that a MAORI
ty of the citizens of those States in which
the greatest amount of.angry exeitsmen
now prevails, will be found, in the hour O
trial, ready to support and defend the con
stitutional authorities OF the government
of the United States, to battle and defea
al the mad schemes of traitors and disun.
ionists, to re-estabiish In their RESPECTIVE
States, the majesty of the laws and the su
premacy of the Constitution, and TO saw
our beloved country from the horrors G
civil warfare and frsternal bloodshed.
However alarming the present crisis il
our affairs may be, still / hope, by pru
dent, firm, and patriotic action on the par
of the people and their representative:
the rights of every individual and Stat
in the Confederacy may be preserved in
violate and that order, law and iustic
| may SOON De peTiulIIcQ 10 resume author
Ity in those portions of the Repnbli
where mob law has been too long tolel
sted in its murderous assaults on the BEL
sons and constitutional rights of Amer
can citizens. rhe novel alarming an
reasonable assumption that any Stat
in tbs Union has right under the Fed
eral Constitution to secede at pleasure
a doctrine unknown to the Constitution
at war with the principles on which on
Government was established, and destruc
tive of these high and sacred object
sought to be accomplished by the Confed
Grafton. If the anti-Democratic and ant
Republican position now assumed by
large party at the South be true, s'tha
the result of Presidential election, LEG
| ally and constitutionally conducted in a
respects, is to be held good reason for
dissolution of the Union" then the Unio
can only be preserved by a base surren
der of the right of the majority to rule
and by striking down that liberty an
equality which the Constitution was OF
dained and established to guarantee an
perpetuate. The present disastrous agi
tation now existing in the southern Dol
ton of the United States, has been cause
| by the disingenuous and dishonest charge
of INSCRIPTIONS and reckless partizan.
| who, in their madness and folly. hav
given to party that love which the patri
OF only bestows upon his country. Gu
Southern brethren have been tvught I
believe that the party lately triumphan
in the Presidential election mediate a
attack upon their domestic institution
and violation of their constitutions
rights. The history of that great part,
shows the utter groundlessness of thes
charges. A remote cause of the presen
hostile attitude of South Carolina may b,
found in the reasonable doctrines laugh
in 1882 and 1888 by the leaders of tn,
Modification movement. These doctrine
were temporarily crushed out by the firm
ness and patriotism of President Jack
son, and by the almost universal dispos
ition shown in all parts of the country
to support him in the execution of the
laws, and in the preservation of the
Union. But in an evi, hour for the Reput
lie, under a weak and wicked administra-
ton of the General Government, similar
doctrines have again found utterance and
support. But the immediate cause of the
present crisis was the repeal of the Mis-
souri, Compromise. That act of bad faith
and worse craftsmanship, that sin against
the cause of freedom and the cause OF
peace raised the storm which now
threatens to destroy the freest, happiest
and grandest government upon earth. p
Another cause which has contributed
largely to the present state of things in
the South is this: Appeals are made by
speeches and papers sent from the North
and freely circulated in the Southern
States, conveying false impression as to
the objects, aims and doctrines of the
great body of the Northern people. The
answer to these incendiary and treason
able appeals is never suffered to reach the
Southern States, and hence many homes
tly believe that large and organized
party exists at the North, banded togcth-
or to make war upon the interests and
institutions of the Southern people, when
every intelligent man here knows that no
such prrty does or can exist. If seces-
sion in South Carolina be treason, and no
one doubts but that it is, to aid and abe.
secession in other parts of the Republic
is no less treason. Ii the South has her
peculiar grievances, the North also has
many and just causes of complaint.
Many of her citizens have been depri-
we'd of property liberty and life without
evidence, without trial, without crime.
Mob violence has pcrpetrsted such out