The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1861-09-28

The opinions or GEN. sewIs Case.
4 statement was recently made BY Tres
ident Fairfield of Michigan, relative to
the sentiments of Gen. Cass, in reference
to the slavery question and the war
The Detroit Free prers, (the old home
organ of General Cass, in its issue of
Wednesday has the following authorized
statement
GEN, CAss AND MIR. TAIRcHILD.
In reference to our remarks in the Free
Press of the lth inst, we are requested
BY Gen. Cass to state, and we do soln his
language, that his opinions as private
citizen are of no Importance to the public.
Yet that he has not the slightest objection
to comply with our suggestion. His
opinions upon the subject Of slavery have
been heretofore often expressed, while In
the public service, and remain unchanged
He believes the General Government has
no power under the Constitution to abol-
ish slavery in the respective States OF the
Union, nor to interfere with It's status
therein. What measures, affecting the
condition of the slaves, may be rlghtfully
adopted, fagrante betto, in hostile opera
tons in resisting State, is very differ
ent question, and one which he is not
called upon to consider, but which well de-
manded the grave consideration of the
insurrectonary States, before they aban
doned the safeguards Of the Constitution
and engaged in the unholy effort to break
up the best and freest government ever
given by Providence to man.
Some two months since the condition of
our country was the subject of the CONVEX
sation referred to between President Fair
field and Gen Cass, in which the latter
expressed his condemnation of the course
of the South in the commencement and
prosecution ofhostilities againstthe Consti
tuition, and his conviction that it was the
duty of every citizen to support the Gov
eminent in its efforts to assert theauthorl-
IT, of the laws, and to defend and main
tain the Union in its integrity as it came
from the hands of our fathers. Gen. Cass
fully concurs in the views presented by
the present able Sec'y of the Treasury,
that the war is s'not war for their subju-
CATION, hut war for national existence,
and that an suspicious result to the Union
will benefit as largely the States in insur-
rection as the States which remained 10y
al Tie believes, indeed, that though
this suspicious result is important for
all the States, it ii still more important
for the South than for the North. No
man who regards the signs Of the times
can fail to anticipate that should this 70.
bellion against the Union prove success
full, which God forbid, the alienated sec-
tons would be Influenced by bitter ami
mostly towards each other; the feeling in
favor of abolition would be rendered still
more powerful by the course of events,
aud being freed from the restraints which
now control its action, would soon be in
active operation all along the extensive
border, everywhere open to ncursions,
producing the most fearful consequences,
which it would be equally painful and I'M
nessary to describe. As to any conyen
tional arrangement for the surrender Of
fugitive slaves, the effort would simply be
impossible. 1t was with reference To this
state of things that Gen. Cass expressed
the doubt whether permanent pence
could be maintained under such consider
atoms, and the impression that tho result
would lead to emancipation. This was the
view he 1ntended to present to President
Fairfield.
If the various members of our confed-
eracy connot live III peace together under
a common government, empowered to reg
ulate their mutual intercourse, and to pre-
vent collisions among them, il would be
in vain to try to live together with the
cause of the difficulty in full operation
when force becomes the only arbiter.
Looking especially to their relative geo
graphical position, by which they are in
terlocked, ana to that unrestricted access
to the ocean vitality important to the West,
which the United States bought and paid
for, ii would be about as rational to at
tempt to stop the Mississippi and its trb-
utAries, as to attempt to stop the people
living upon those waters from going freely
to the ocean and returning by those routes
of communication In adj the history Of
human pretensions, there has scarcely been
one less Unsuitable than this.
The President the froyidcnttaI Man