The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1861-10-25

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istration I'm Regard to the Insta.
tuition of slavery.
II In the Inaugural Address of President
LINCOLN, after alluding to the apprehension
which seemed then to exist among the
people Of the Southern States, that, by the
accession of Republican Administration,
their property, peace, and personal security
were to be endangered, the President said
There has never been any reasonable cause
for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ann
pie evidence to the contrary has all the while
existed. and been open to their inspection. 1t
is found in nearly all the published speeches
of him who now addresses you. do but
quote from one of those speeches, when de.
clare that " have no purpose, directly or in
directly, to interfere with the institution of
Slavery in the States where it exists l be.
lieve have no right to do 80, and have no
inclination to do so.
Elsewhere, in the same Address, the
President refers to a proposition for amend
ing the Constitution, which bad shortly
before passed Congress, and which the
President understood to be,-to use his own
language
to the effect that the Federal Government
shall never interfere with the domestic institu.
| tions of the States, including that of persons
held to service. TO avoid misconstruction of
what l have said, | depart from my purpose
not to speak OF particular amendments, 80 far
| as to say, that, holding such provision now
no one will object to its being made expressly
| irrevocabe.
The proposed amendment to the Consti.
tuition, alluded to by the President, passed
both Houses, few days before his inaugu.
ration, by more than the requisite TWO,
thirds vote, and reads as follows:
ARTICLE XII. No amendment of this Consti.
tuition, having for its object any interference
within the States with the relation between
their citizens and those described in section
second of the first article of the Constitution,
| as " all other persons" shall originate with
any State that does not recognize that rela.
tion within its own limits, or shall be valid
| without the assent of every one of the States
composing the Union.
Prior to the passage of the above propo.
sition for amendment, the House of Rep
resentatives, under the inspiration of the
confidential friends of the incoming Presi,
dent, adopted the following resolution:
Resolved, That neither Congress nor the
people or government of the non. .slaveholdng
States, have constitutional right to legislate
upon or interfere with slavery in any slave.
holding State of the Union.
The above resolution was proposed by
Hon. JOHN SHERMAN, Chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means, and the
recognized leader of that body; and adopted
by a Republican House, presided over by a
Republican Speaker, unanimously--there
being 161 votes IN its favor, and none in
opposition.
The above declarations, both of the Pres
ident and his partizan friends, were made
before the outbreak of actual hostilities
between the Government and the South !;
and were they not sustained by later ex
pressions, might be held as inapplicable to
the present condition of affairs, and as not
revealing the present attitude of the Ad'
ministration. We therefore bring forward,
from members of the Cabinet and the Pres
ident, official and non official declarations
made during August and September. when
the war was in full progress, and the status
of the country was, in all respects, as it
now remains. And first we quote from the
instructions of Secretary CAMERON to Gen
eral BUTLER. A number of fugitive slaves
had made their way to Fortress Monroe,
aud question had arisen as to what dispo-
sition should be made of them. The posi-
ton of the President in regard to the insti-
tuition of slavery, and the objects of the
war, is, in those instructions, succinctly
stated, as we find in the two sentences fol.
lowing:
1t is the desire of the President that all ex.
listing rights in all the States be fully respected
the part of the federal government is war for
the Union, for the preservation of all the con-
stitutional rights of the States, and the cit.
zens of the States in the Union.
A few days after Secretary CAMERON had
issued his instructions to General BUTLER,
another member of the Cabinet, Secretary
SMITH, of the Interior, addressed public
meeting at Providence, Rhode Island. In
the course of that speech, Mr.. SMITH said:
For the last ten years an angry controversy
has existed upon this question of slavery. The
minds of the people of the South have been
deceived by the artful representations of DEM
agogues, who have assured them that the peo-
pie of the North were determined to bring the
power of this government to bear upon them
for the purpose of crushing out this institution
of slavery. ask you, is there any truth in
this charge? Has the government of the Uni.
ted States, in any single instance, by any one
solitary act, interfered with the institutions of
the South? No, not one. The theory of the
government is, that the States are sovereign
within their proper sphere. The government
of the United States has no more right to in
terfere with the institution of slavery in South
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