Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1861-11-29
What are the Americans Fighting
AbOut2

Lincoln and Seward, their secretaries and
their generals, have all held the same Ian
guage; have all asserted, as solemnly as words
can affirm any thing, that they have no desire
to interfere with slavery that they are fight
ing, not to emancipate the negroes, but to en-
force Constitution which binds the free
States to assist in maintaining and perpetual
ting the system of negro servitude, a Consti-
tuition which embodies in a most carefully
worded clause distinct and unequivocal flu
gltive slave law
The men of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts,
cared as rule very little about the domestic
institution" of the South until this war broke
out. The merchants of New York were bitter
partisans of slavery. But the ironmasters of
Pennsylvania and the manufacturers of New
England have taxed the South for their bene-
mt so long that they cannot bear the thought
of losing the power of doing so for the future
the brokers ofthe Empire City are furious at
| the prospect of seeing their lucrative trade
diverted to Charleston or New Orleans, and
carried on with English capital The lust of
money has had ten times more TO do with the
sudden patriotism of the North than their
love cfliberty.
Every act of Mr.. Lincolns since the taking
of Fort Sumter, has been violation of that
- fundamental law of the Anglo-Saxon race
beyond the Atlantic Or would be so, but
that the Constitution has ceased to exist, and
therefore, cannot be correctly said to be vio-
lated Secession, perhaps, is unconstituton-
al, but coercion is equally so. Mr.. Davis 60
verns by the authority of a successful revou-
/ ton. Mr.. Lincoln governs in the name of an
authority which forbids every thing that he
does and cannot help doing and if the Con-
stitution were in yigor he must be impeached
| for high treason, without a chance of defend
| ing himself, and would be liable at the same
time to actions for false Imprisonment which
would ruin Rothschild.
! He has ordered his officers to set at defiance
the Supreme Court of the Republic. lie has
suspended the habeas corpus. He has pro-
claimed martial law. He has set up a new
Legislature in Western Virginia in opposition
to the authority of the lawful Governor. He
has suppressed the Constitution and impris-
oned the collective Legislature of Maryland
He has put down freedom of the press and an
nulled the right of petition. In a word, he
has committed many hundred distinct acts of
! high treason, or what would be such had
America any longer law or a legal Govern
memt. u
! Are we, then, to believe that war under
taken in defiance of every constitutional priE-
ciple, is a war in defence of the Constitution
that President, Ministers and Generals are
! fighting for a law, the operation of which, if
really enforced, would be to hang them all2
We waive the obvious impossibility of consti-
tutionally governing the South, if recon
quered, because the contingency is too i'm
probable TO be worth discussion. But we
think it is too bad to accuse Sir John Pack
ington Of "hatred to free institutions" because
hodcsires to see stop put to the war. In the
4 frs; place, free institutions in the North mean
mob law, and in the South vigilance commit
tees what we understand by the phrase is
-
next place, the necessary effect of the restora-
ton of constitutional law in the North would
be to stop the war at once.-Londoh Morning
| Herald.