The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1861-05-31


IDENTIFY desired it. Such Is the Government
in its relations with the South; such the
circumstances under which she thinks herself
justified in revolving against it!
/ say "revolting against it," although Mr..
jefferson Davis, in his inaugural address,
declares it an abuse Of language to call it q
revolution" l cannot 60 into that argu-
ment at this late hour, nor would 1t be ap-
propriate to tho occasion to do 50, but l
believe 1t to be as demonstrablo as any prop
osition of Euclid, that this doctrine of "se-
ccssion," that is the constitutional right Of
State to sever at will her connection with
the Union, is, il possible, still more unfound-
ed, still moro fallacious, than that of its i'll.
omened and now universally discrcdited pre-
docessor, qualification" which was crushed,
never to rise again, thirty years ago, by the
iron mace of Webster, in the Senate Of the
United States.
Twill only say at present, that this mon
strous pretended right Of "socession," tho
called preserved right" is notoriously no.
where expressly reserved in the Constitution,
although every one feels that nothing but an
express reservation, in the plainest terms,
would bc sufficient ground for claiming
such stupcndous power. What is main-
taincd by the politicians Of tho secesson
school is, that the right may be inferred
from one Of the amendments to the Consti-
tuition, by which ii is provided that "the
powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the
States, arereserved 70 the States respective
ly, or the people," II is to maintain sub
tie and sophistcal and utterly unwarranta-
bio inference from this amendment, that
the South is now striving to break up the
government, and If resisted in that unhal-
lowed attempt, to drcnch the country in
blood.
But am willing to stake the great issue
on this amendment. The Constitution does
expressly delegate to the United States oil
the powers of the sovereign State, with re-
spect to international and Interstate affairs
tho whole war power; the whole Admiralty
power tho whole commercial power to reg
ulats and dispose of public territory; the
power over the Indians; over the Post or
fees and Post roads; over the army, tho
navy, the dock-yards, the arsenals. AL these
powers and many others are expressly dele
gated to the United States, and as expressly
prohibited In the individual States Ito which
the people of South Chrolina assentcd on
the 23d of May, l77S, as much as they ever
assented to their State Coustitution), dis
trnctly provides that no State shall keep
troops or ships of war, issue letters of marque
and reprisal. or enter into any treaty, alli-
ance, or confederation and yet, in the face OF
this express delegation Of powers to the Uni.
ted States and the express prohibition to the
States, the seeding States have undertaken
to exercise them all; have entered into a
"conicderation" to raise an army, issued let
tcrs of marquc ard rcprisal, and plunged In
to a war against the government, which every
magistrate and officer among them was under
oath to support, and all in virtue of having
first uttered the magic words, "wc secedc."
The history of tho world does not furnish
another such monstrous usurpation.
Such is the nature and foundation OF the
war in which wo are engaged. AS you per-
ceiye, it is for the very existence OF the Gov
ernmcnt it is contest in which no good
citizen can remain neutral. | am often ask
cd how long think 1t will last; but that is
u question that the South alone can answer.
She makes the war she has seized by sur
prise each of the strongholds Of the country
as she was able; she mas possessed herself OF
the Navy Yard at Norfolk, which guards the
entrance to Chesapeake Bay; Of Harpers
Ferry, which commands one Of the great
highways from the Ohio river to the Attain
tic ocean, and, above all, Of tho most extern
sivc system of internal communication on
the face of the globe. There will, in my
judgment, never be peace, till the flag OF the
Union again floats from every stronghold
from which it has been stricken down. DO
you think, fellow-ctizens, that Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois will allow their most direct COM
munication with the seaboard to be obstruc-
ted at the pleasure of an alien State, at Har-
per's Ferry? Do you imagine that Eastern
Pennsylvania and Southern New York, whose
tributary waters flow through the Susque-
hanna into Chesapeake Bay. to say nothing
of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, will
tolerate foreign master in Hampton Roads, 7
Above all, do you believe that the Giant OF
the W est will accept his pathway to tho Gulf
of Mexico as privilege granted by this
mushroom Confederacy? Yes, they will sub.
NIT to this degrading yoke, they will ac'
knowledge this CALLING usurpation but it
will bs when the Alleshanics shall bow their
imperial head to the level of the sc,, and the
current of the Mississippi and Missouri shall
aow backward to the mountains.
My friends, l .deprccate war,-no man
more so and, Of all wars, most deprccate
civil war. And this, IL prosecuted by the
South in tho spirit in which she has COM
mcnccd it, will be what the stern poet OF the
civil wars Of Rome called beiltm pfrsqudm
irile-a moro than civil war. deprecate
more than l can confess, q war with the
South. You know my political course
Logan, the Indian chief, mournfully eIclaim'
ed; "Such was my love for the whites, that