Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1861-03-12
rtunity being afforded the people to act


upon it.
/ | will venture to add, that to me the Conven-
ton mode seems preferable, in that it allows a.
mendments to originate with the people them
selves, instead of only permitting them to take
or reject propositions originated by others not
especially chosen for the porpose, and which
might not be precisely such as they would wish
to either accept or approve.
/ understand that proposed amendment to
the Constitution, which amendment, however,
have not seen, has passed Congress, to the effect
that the Federal Government shall never inter-
fere with the domestic institutions OF the States,
including that of persons held to service. =1
| To avoid misconstruction of what have said,
i depart from my purpose not to speak OF par
ticuar amendments, so far as to say that, holding
such provision to now be implied constitution
al law, have no objection to its being made ex-
press and irrevocabls.
/ The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority
from. the people, and they have conferred none
upon him to fix terms for the separation of the
States. The people themselves can do this also
If they choose, but the Executive, as such, has
nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer
the present government as it came to his hands,
and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his sue
cessor. 8llE sai .5sa91e
Why shonld there not be patient confidence
in the ultimate justice of the people Is there
any better or equal hope in the world2 In our
present difficulties, is either party without faith
of being in the right 2 If the Almighty Ruler of
Nations, with eternal truth and justice, be on y
your side of the North, or on yours of the South
that truth and that justice will surely prevail.
by the judgment of this great tribunal-the A
merican people.
BY the frame of the Government under which
we live, this same people have wisely given thei
L,,k l.<ko of
and have with equal wisdom, provided for the
return of that little to their own hands at very
short intervals. While the people retain their
virtue and vigilance, no Administration, by any
extreme of wickedDess or folly, can very serious
ly injure the Government in the short space OF
four years.
Ny countrymen one and all, think calmly and
soeW upon this whole subject Nothing yalua- !
BILE can be lost by taking time. If there be an
object to hurry any of you in hot haste to step
which you would never take deliberately, that
object will be frustrated by taking time, but no
good object can be frustrated by it. Such OF
you as are now dissatisfied still have the old
Constitution unimpaired; and, on the sensitive
point, the laws OF your owu framing under it;
while the new administration will have no inn
mediate power, if it would, to change either.Sf
it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied
held the right in the dispute, there still is no
single good reason for precipitate action. Intel
ligence, patriotism, Christianity, and firm rei-
aEce on Him who has never yet forsaken this
favored land, are still competent to adjust, in
the best way, all our present difficulty.
+ In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow country
men, and not in mine, is the lnomentous issue
of civil war. The Government will not assail
you.
You can have no conflict without being your
selves the aggressors. You have no oath regis q
tered in Heaven to destroy the Government,
while shall have the most solemn one to 'pre-
serve, protect and defend" it. | am 10th to
close. We are not enemies, but friends. We
must not be enemies. Though passion may have
strained, it must not break our bonds Of sffac-
ton. The mystic cords of memory, stretching
from every battlefield and patrios grave to "a
ry living heart and hearth-stone ali over tails p
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Un-
ion, when again touched, as surely they will be,
by the better angels of their nature.