The Shasta courier., 1861-11-30
A Rock Ahead.

AsAoSt iuoruiudtcAy 10 ~ ucSlTeu tiIit tuc
rebels Of the South, and their adherents ev.
erywhere, could be brought to look the con-
sequences of their mad revolt full in the face.
A rebellion against an oppressive govern,
ment, that shows no regard for the rights and
liberties of its people, is justi6able only in
the event that no other course is open for re-
dress. Here it cannot be held that we have
such government, and even if we had, it is
not made to appear that the people thereof
had no means of redress except revolution,
for at the time of the supposed secession the
political enemies of Mr.. Lincoln's Admins
tration had practical control of the govern
ment of the United States, and could in ten
thousand ways, and all strictly legal, have
stopped Mr.. Lincoln in any attempt he could
have made to oppress any one. This fact
cannot have too much prominence, nor be
placed before the enemies of this Government
too often. 1t was not the form of our gov.
ernment, either, to which apparently they
had objection, for they make another after
the same general model. There then being
no oppression possible by Mr. Lincoln, even
had he desired it, which we do not for mo-
ment suppose, and no objection to the form
Of our Constitution, wherein consists the rea
son Of this Southern revolt? The question
need not be addressed to any of the under.
lings of the movement, for they know moth
ing of it, are not consulted, and if they were,
their opinions would not be respected Put
it to the leaders, the autocrats in this crime,
and you receive answers more or less eva
sive, but pointing exclusively and convinc-
ingly to the one overwhelming and para
mount idea of slavery, its maintenance, in
crease and indefinite extension by the strong
arm of q strongwilled nation.
The Constitution of the United States was
too narrow for such a purpose, and we see
that in the Confederate Constitution they
change it, and make their Constitution an
swer well the questionable purpose that led
to the revolt. Mr.. Stevens says that slavery
is the corner stone'' of their Constitution.
We believe him. Slavery, not as our fathers
viewed and placed it under the Constitution,
but slavery paramount, exactive and aggres-
sive, with all of its concomitants of the slave
trade and its aristocra of cotton bales.
That is the whole secret, and when shorn
of their political influence in this republic,
they looked yearningly across the Atlantic
TO the barraeoons of King Dahomy, and said,
ave will have slave republic, in which the
owners of slaves shall raie exclusively. =
Read the Confederate Constitution, and an
swer if it does not point to this.
Now of one fact we may rest assHrcd,
namely, that where people Extensively pat
forward any special idea, as the reason or
excuse for their wrong doing, they, in the
advocacy of that idea, antagonize all who
have occasion to discuss it. The histories of
the world, as well as social life everywhere,
are full of illustrations of the truth of this.
This, then, being ia its very essence, a
pro sleery revolt, Extensively intruded into
the politics of the world, the results are as
apparent as they are unavoidable. Slavery,
before, was nowhere popular. In looking
abroad for sympathy, it found it not. There
were, it is true, noble band in the North
ern States who upheld it, through storm and
shine, in all that it might constitutionally
claim. But they did not sympathixa with
it, and would not go out of the way to do it a
MADNESS. Was it the interest of the South
to strike down, as they rnthiesslT did, this
noble band? Was it to the interest of that
bewildered people, in their zeal for slavery,
to unite the world in one solid body against
it? The fulness of the answer to this will be
developed by time.
GEN. SrEvENs.-This officer, who last year