The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-09-13

VI UcIWccu SEVENTY duu ciSuty yoo'o' LUZ
ing this time its Executive Administration
was enjoyed by the Sonth for fifty-two
years. No Northern President has ever
been reelected. Washington, Jefferson,
Madison, Monroe, and Jackson, have each
discharged that Office for term OF eight
years. The conclusion is, then, that out of
seventy or eighty years of the admlnstra-
ton of our government, ffty-two years have
enCred to our patriotic men of the South.
This fact involves the potentialities and
powers of the government as having been
exercised by supremacy on the part of the
South. The Navy, the Army, the incum~
bents of the Supreme Court, were not ignO-
rant OF or insensible to this fact. Now, l
put it to your candor to say whether, after
such history of the administration OF our
country, the South might not have tolerated
the occupancy of the Presidential Chair by
the present incumbent. who, with his North
ern predecessors in that Office, could hardly
expect to survive officially the ordinary four
years of Northern supreme magistrate?
You say that President Lincoln was
elected by Black Republicans of the
North. l am inclined to think that he was
indirectly or negatively elected by Demo.
Gratis North and South. The Black Re-
publicans presented one candidate, and, in
order to defeat his election, the Democrats
North and South presented three. II the
latter had elected only one candidate it is
probable that tie Black Republicans, as
you call them, would have been found as
minus lab entes. But when the Democrats
distributed their votes, apparently with a
view OF rendering them Inefficient, then, OF
course, the one man of choice was elected
over the three candidates and competitors
that had been placed 10 rivalship with each
other, and in the aggregate all ag inst him
alone. That he was COnstitutionally elect
ed under these circumstances was not denied
either in the South or in the n Orth. Then
if so elected, he is the Chief Magistrate OF
all the United States of America, and by
his very oath of Office, is bound by their
own common consent to see that neither
Maine on the northeast, nor Texas on the
southwest, shall be permitted to overthrow
the original Federal compact agreed upon
in the constitution OF this government. II
States shall be allowed, in the face of that
Federal constitutional kick over the traces
of common Union, as agreed upon in the
primitive days of our government, then it is
difficult to see why counties and townships
and villages may not be at liberty to do the
same thing just as often as the freak or FAM
cy to do so may or shall have come upon
them.
There appears to be an idea in the
South that the Federal Government and the
people of the North are determined to con.
quer and subjugate them. This, think is
a great mistake. First, in the sterner
sense OF the word " conquer" it seems to me
to be utterly impossible; and, if possible,
1 think it would be undesirable and ipjuri-
GUS both to the North and to the South.
Unless l have been deceived by statements
considered reliable, 1 would say that the
mind of the North looks only to the pur-
pose of bringing back the seeded States to
their organic condition ante bellum.
There remains now scarcely hope of
peace, and the issue is apparently that the
North must triumph on the fed of Mars,
or that the South shall prove itself victori-
Gus on the same bloody arena. But, after
all, we must not despair in reference to a
coming peace. The idea of an armistice,
even for six months, is now utterly hopes
less, but l think that the North, if the
chance were presented, would be as willing
to enter on terms of peace as the South it.
self. Still, am bound to say, under deep
conviction of the truth, that of both Sec
tions unhappily launched on the swelling
torrent of our domestic troubles, the North
will be the latter to sink or swim in the
sanguinary tide on which both are now
afoat.
You make mention of the Commissioners
sent to Washington at an early period OF
the struggle, with kind, fair and liberal
propositions, as you consider them, for the
arrangement of the whole difficulty. Be-
fore reaching the point of settlement, there
would be found vast amount of principle
involved. Commissioners should have some
recognized authority to warrant them in at
tempting to discharge the duties of their Of
fetal Office. Those OF the South, in the cir
cumstances, so far as can see, had no au-
thority whatever.
The people of your region (when l say
people, of course l mean the voters, as com.
monty understood in this country bad
scarcely been consulted on this vital ques-
ton. Their Government, so called, was un-
recognized by any civil principally on the
face of the earth. Commissioners presented
themselves before the public servants of
Government universally recognized by all
nations. The terms of these Southern
Commissioners were more of dictation than
of petition. The Government at Washing
ton had to choose one or another of two
alternatives. The President and his Cabi-
net might have chosen the alternative of
perjury, and acceded to the demand of those
Commissioners, or they might, as they
surely did, decline every official intercourse
with them.
They chose the latter course. And now
it only remains to see whether the Govern
ment is what it calls itself-the Government
of the United States, or merely the Cow
ernment of fraction thereof-and that
fraction measured out to them by Southern
Commissioners who could not show legit.
innate title for the commission which they
protested to execute.
You think it hard and unnatural that
foreigners and Catholics should be deluded
into the service of the recognized Federal
Government in order to be inundated in the