Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-09-17

taiu VI, hot onIy VI THIS SUBJECT, but OF q
great many others about national sins,
which, according to its solution of Pagan
ethics or OF Christian duty, every human
being rs bound to correct. Yet, the big
! gest sin in our day known to the NORTH. is
not what occurs in its own immediate
neighbcrhood or State, but the monster in>
| EQUITY of the South, which, between Won
and me, and as the world goes, might have
been permitted TO manage its own affairs
| in it's own way, so that its acts should be
| found either in harmony with, or not in
! violation of, the Constitution of the United
| States.
am an advocate for the sovereignty of
every State in the Union within the limits
Recognized and approved Of its own repre-
sentative authority when the Constitution
was agreed upon. As a consequence,
bold that South Carolina has no State right
to interfere with the internal right of Mas
| sachuseets. And, as further consequence,
that Massachusetts has no right to interfere
with South Carolina, or its domestic and
civil affairs, as one of tie sovereign States
of this now threatened UniOr. But the
Constitution having been adopted by the
common consent Of all the sovereign par
ties engaged in the frame work and approx
| al thereof maintain that no State has
right to secede, except in a manner provid.
ed for in the document ITSELF
The revolt Of the Colonies against the
authority Of Great Britain is another
| thing. If England had extended to these
COlCEies the common rights and privileges
nominally secured by the British Constitu.
ton, we have high authority for believing
that the Colonies would Tot have gone, at
least when they did, into rebellion. In>
deed, it might be asserted and maintained,
that it was not the Americans, but the
British Ministry and Government. that sup.
piled legitimate reasons for the American
Revolution.
In the present case il would be difficult,
by parity Of reasoning. to Justify the
grounds on which the South have acted.
think few remarks viii! satisfy you of
the correctness of this statement. You say
that for many years the South has pro-
claimed its dissatisfaction, and announced
its determined purpose of secession, if GER
tain complaints should not De attended to,
and their causes redressed /; that the South
was always in earnest, and the North
would never believe in their sincerity Of
their predictions. This may be so ; but it
gives me occasion to remark that the Ma.
tional Government, as such, had no special
time more than the there was ten or fifteen
years ago. The Personal Liberty bill was
unconstitutional in the Few States which
adopted it. New York was too wise and
too patriotic to be caught in that trap
! The so called Personal Liberty bill was
never adopted, SO far as documents are evil
dence, either directly or indirectly, by the
| Government at Washington. Indeed, / am
not aware of any statute passed by the ma.
! tional authority which could give the South
! additional reasons for discomfort or com
! plant within the last ten or fifteen years.
| l have thus alluded to the unofficial
! causes for Southern resentment. Even in
! your own letter the cause alleged is the
! election of the Chief Magistrate. This
! does not seem at all sufficient to warrant
| the course which the South has adopted.
| The Government originally agreed upon
| by all the States has lasted during a period
of between seventy and eighty years -
During this time its executive administra-
ton was enjoyed by the South for fifty two
| years. No Northern President has ever
been re elected. Washington, Jefferson,
| Madison. Monroe, and jackson, have each
| discharged that office for a term Of eighty
years. The conclusion is. then, that out of
! seventy or eighty years of the administra-
ton of our Government, fifty two years
have enured to our patriotic men Of the
| South. This fact involves the potentaIities
and powers of the Government as having
been exercised by supremacy on the part
of the South. The Navy, the Army, the
! incumbents Of the Supreme Court, were
not ignorant of or insensible to this fact.
Now put it to your caDdor to say whether
after such history of the administration
J Il A.
tolerated the occupancy of the Presidential
chair by the present incumbent, who, with
his Northern predecessors in that Office.
could hardly expect to survive officially the
ardinary four yeaIs of Northern Supreme
| Magistrate?
You say that President Lincoln was
elected by Black Republicans in the North.
! am inclined to think that he was indi-
rectly or negatively elected BY Democrats
| North aud South. The Black Republicans
presented one candidate. and in order to
defeat his election, .he Democrats, North
and South, presented three. If the latter
| had selected only one candidate, it is prob
| able that the Black Republicans, as YOU
call them, would have been found as minus
/ hdbect,s. But when the Democrats dis
tri5utec their votes, apparently with
view OF rendering them inefficient, then, of
| course, the one man of choice was elected
| over the three candidates and competitors
! that had been placed in rivalship with
| each other, and IN the aggregate all against
! him alone. That be was cOnstitutonally
! elected under these circumstances is not
| denied in the South or in the North. Then.
| if so elected, he is the Chief Magistrate
| of all the United States of America, and.
! by his very oath of Office, is bound by their
! own common consent to see that neither
! Maine, on the northeast, nor Texas, on the
| southwest, shall be permitted to overthrow
| the original national compact agreed upon
! in the Constitution Of this Government If
| States shall be allowed, in face of that Ma
tional Constitution, to kick over the traces
Of a common union, as agreed upon in the
| primitive days of our Government, then it
is difficult to see why counties and town.
ships and villages may not be at liberty 10
do he same thing just as often as the freak
| or fancy to do SO may or shall have come
upon them.
There appears TO be an idea in the South
that the National Government and the peo
pie OF the North are determined to conquer
and subjugate them. This. / think, is a
great mistake. First, in the sterne sense
of the word Conquer" it seems to me ut,
terly impossible, and, If possible, | think
it would be undesirable and Injurious both
to the North and the South. Unless have
been deceived by statements considered re.
liable, would say that the mind Of the
North looks only to the purpose of bring
ing back the seeded States to their organic
coEdition-GHtebellttm.
There remains now scarcely hope of
peace, and the issue is apparently that the
North must triumph on the field Mars, or
that the South shall prove itself victorious
on the same bloody arena. But, after all,
we must not despair in reference to a COM
ing peace. The idea Of an armistice, even
Tor SIX months. is now utterly hopeless, but
/ think that the North If the chance ware