Arkansas true Democrat., 1861-08-15
Declaration of Independence of the State
 of Missouri.

In the exercise of the right reserved to the people of Missouri by the treaty under which the United States acquired the tenn porary dominion of the country west of the Mississippi river, in trust for the several sovereign States, afterwards to be formed out of it, that people did, on the twelfth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, "mutually agree to form and establish free and independent republic by the name of the State of Missouri "- On the tenth day of August, eigteen hun dred and twenty one, the State was duly admitted into the Union of the United States of America, under the compact call ed the Constitution of the United States, and " on an equal footing with the origin al States in all respects whatever" The freedom, independence and sovereignty of Missouri, and her equality with the other States of the Union, were thus guaranteed, not only by that Constitution, but by the law of nations requiring the sacred obser- vance oftreaties
 In repeated instances, the government and people of the States now remaining in that Union, have grossly violated, in their conduct toward the people and State of Missouri, both the constitution ofthe Unit ed States and that of Missouri, as we'll as the general great and essential principles of liberty and free government. Their President, Abraham Lincoln, in avowed defiance of law and the constitution of the United States, and under the tyrants plea of necessity, assumed to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the sever- al States, stopping by violence our trade with our southern neighbors, and depriv- ing our citizens of the right, secured to them by a special, solemn compact with the United States, to the free navigation of the Mississippi river. He has usurped power granted exclusively to congress in declaring war against the Confederate States; to carry on this unholy attempt to reduce free people into slavish subjec- tion to him, he has, in like violation of the constitution, raised and supported armies, and provided and maintained navy. Re gardless of the right reserved to the States respectively, oftraining the militia and ap- pointing its officers, he has enlisted and armed, contrary to law, under the name of Home Guards, whole regiments of men, foreigners and others, in our State, to de- fy the constitutional authorities, and plum der and murder our citizens. By armed force and actual bloodshed, he has even at tempted to deprive the people of their right to keep and bear arms, in conformity to State laws, and to form a we'll regulated militia necessary to the security of a free | C1J ho, been uuartered in houses without the con- sent of the owners thereof, and without any authority of law The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been habitually and grossly violated by his officers acting under his orders. He has utterly ignored the binding force of our constitutional State laws, and carried his insolence to such an extent as to introduce, from other States, free negroes into our midst, and place them in positions of authority over our white citizens He has encouraged the stealing of our slave property. In these and other proceedings the government and people of the northern States have un- mistakably shown their intention to over turn the social institutions of Missouri, and reduce her white citizens to an equal ity with the blacks In the execution of his despotic wishes, his agents, without even rebuke from him, have exhibited a brutality scarcely credible of nation pre- tending to civilization. Even women, and children of tender age, have fallen victims II l.. la,l of io soldiery. He has avowedly undertaken to make the civil power subordinate to the military and with the despicable and cow ardly design of thus protecting himself and his accomplces, by binding the conciences of the unhappy vctims ofhis tyranny, he has exacted from peaceful citizens, guilty of no crime, an oath to support his detest- able government. To crush out even peace full and lawful opposition to it. he has forci- bly, and unconstitutionally suspended the privalige of the writ of habeos corpus, and abridged the freedom of speech and of the press, by subjecting innocent citizens to punishment for mere opinions sake, and by preventing the publication of newspa- pers independent enough to expose his treason to the world.
 These manifold and inhuman wrongs were long submitted to in patience, and al- most in humility, by the people of Missouri, and their authorities. Even when the con duct of the Lincoln government had culmi- mated in an open war upon us, those au- thorities offered to it's military comman- der in Missouri to refer to the people of the State for decision the question of our separation from government and nation thus openly hostile to us. Those author ites relied on the principles consecrated in the Declaration of Independence of the United States, that, to secure the rights of the citizen, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form ofgovernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish 1t, and to in- stitute new government, laying its foun- dation on such principles, and organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness" Missouri having an admitted equality with the original States which had made this declaration, 1t was hoped that the rights therein asserted would not be denied to her people. Her authorities also relied on the clause in the very constitution with which she was admitted into the Union, asserting as one of the general, great and essential principles ofliberty and free government. "that the people of this