Litchfield enquirer., 1861-07-18

E to exercise these very powers thus expressl delegated to Congress and thus expressly pro 7 hbted to the States
 The Constitution declares, that the Congres of the United States shall have power to de clare war, grant letters of marque and reprisa to raise and support armies, to provide an, maintain navy and it provides that the Pres dent of the United States, by and with the ad vice ard consent of the Senate, shall make Urea ties with foreign powers.
 These express grants of power to the govern ment of the Unite States are followed by pro hibitions as express to the several States =
 "No State shall enter into any treaty, all ance, or confederation grant letters of marqu or reprisal no State shall, without the consen of Congress, lay any duty on tonnage, kee troops or ships of war in time of peace, ente into any agreement ors compact with anothe war; unless actually invaded or in such immi nent danger as will not admit of delay"
 These and numerous other express grants o power to the general Government, and expres prohibitions to the States are further enforced by the comprehensive provision, already reef ted, that the constitution and laws of the Uni ted States are paramount to the laws and con stitution of the separate States.
 And this Constitution with these express grants and express prohibitions, and with this express subordnaton of the States to the gen eral Government has been adopted by the peo pie of all the States and all their Judges and other officers and all their citizens holding office under the Government of the United States, el the individual States, are solemnly sworn to sup port it.
 In the face of all this, in defiance of all this in violation of all this, in contempt of all this the seeding States claim the right to exercise every power expressly delegated to Congress and expressly prohibited to the States by that Constitution, which every one of their promi- nent men, civil and military, is under oath to support. They have entered into a confcdera. ton, raised an army. attempted to provide ma ", issued letters of marque and reprisal, waged war, and that war-Alerciful Heaven forgive them mot with foreign enemy, not with the wild tribes which still desoate the unprotected frontier; (they, it is said are swelling, armed with tomahawk and scalping knife,) but with their own countrymen, and the mildest and most beneficent government on the face of the earth!
 WHY SHOULD WE NOT RECOGNIZE THE sEcEDIsG
 STATES.
 And now let us rise from these disregarded appeals to the truth of history and the wretched subtletes of the secession school of argument and contemplate tie great issue before us in it's solemn practical reality. "Why should wenot, y it is stated, "admit the claims of the seeding states acknowledge their independence, and put an end at once to the War?'' <" Why should we not ?'' I answer the question by asking anoth- CT, "w why should we?': What have we to hope from the pursuit of that course? Peace? The 1 \ \orth has not wagcd the war, it has been forced upon us in self-detencc and if while they had the constitution and tie laws, the executive Con- gress and the courts all controlled by themselves H. constitutional remedies, has grasped the sword. when the bonds of Union are broken and amica- ! bic meaus of adjustment are repudiated? Peace is the very last thing which secession, if recog- nized, will give Us it will give us nothing but d hollow truce-time to prepare the means of new outrages. It is iu it's very nature a perpe- tual cause of hostility an eternal, never cancel led letter of marque and reprisa. all everlasting proclamation of border war. How can peace exist. when all the causes of dissenson are inde- tinitnly multiplied when unequal revenue laws shall have led to q gigantic system of smuggling, when a general stampede of slaves shall take i place along the border, with no thought of ren- tliton, and all the thousand causes of mutual r- rta,ion shall be called into action, oli frontier of fifteen hundred miles not marked by natural boundaries and not subject to a common jurs diction or a medating power? We did believe in peace; fondly, credulously believed that ceme:tad by the mild umpirage of the Federal Union, it might dwell forever beneath the folds of the Star-Spanged Banner and the sacred shield of common nationality That was the great arcanune of policy; that was the state mystery into which men and angels desired to look hidden from ages but revealed to us:
 Which kings and prophets waited for, And sought, but never found:
 ,nilv of Statas ind fnrI Inco1 united under one government for the manage ment of common interests and the prevention of internal feuds. There was no limit to the pos | sble extension of such system It had already comprehended half of North America, and it night in the lapse of ages have folded the con- 1 tinent in its peaceful. bvnefcent embrace. We fondly dreamed that, in the lapse of ages, it would have been extended till half the western hemisphire had realized the vision of universal, pevpetu peace. From that dream we have been rudely started by the array of ten thousand armed men in Charleston harbor, and the roar of eleven batteries raining storm of iron hail on one poor siegeworn company, because, in obedience to lawful authority, in the performance of sworn duty, the gallant Anderson resolved to keep his oath. That brave and faithful band. by remaining at their post did not hurt hair of l the head of Carolinian, bond or free. The l United States proposed not to reinforce, but to feed them. But the Confederate leaders would not allow them even the boon of being starved into surrender; and because some laws had been passed somewhere. by which it was alleged that ! the return of some slaves, (not one from Caro- | lina,) had been or might be obstl lucted, South Carolina disclaiming the protection of courts and of Congress, which had never been withheld l from her, has inaugurated ruthless civil war; If, for the frivolous reasons assigned, the seced- ing states have chosen to plunge into this gulf, while all the peaceful temperaments and consti- tutional remedies of the Union were within their reach, and offers of further compromise and additional guarantees were daily rendered to them, what hope, what possibility of peace can there be, when the Union is broken up, when in addition to all other sources of deadly quarrel, general exodus of the slave population begins i las beyond all question it will), and nothing but war remains for the settlement of controversies The Vice President of the new confederacy states that it rests on slavery; but from it's very nature it must rest equally on war; eternal war, first between North and South and then between the smaller fragments into which the disinteg- rated parts may crumble. The work of demons has already begun. Besides the hosts mustered for the capture or destruction of Washington Eastern Virginia has let loose the dogs of war on the loyal citizens of Western Virginia; they are straining at the leash in Maryland and Ken lucky; Tennessee threatens to set price on the head of her noble Johnson and his friends :: a civil war rages in Missouri. Why in the name of Heaven has not Western Virginia, separated from Eastern Virginia by mountain ridges by ixEx b,,+ of b,,r L- ii