Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1861-01-04

'u'ion us success must at least depend
upon the good faith of the parties to the
constitutional compact in enforcing them.
1t is not in tire power of human language
to exclude false differences, constructions,
and perversions in any constitution; and
when vast sectional interests are to be
subserved, involving the appropriation of
countless millions Of money, il has not
been the usual experience of mankind
that words on parchments car arrest
power. The Constitution Of the United
States, irrespective of the :nterpositiou
OF the States, rested on the assumption
that power would yield to faiih-that
integrity would, be stronger than in
terest and that thus the limitations
of the Constitution would be observed.
The experiment has been fairly made. 49,
The Southern States, from the COM
mencement of the Government, have
our fathers in dissolving a Union with
striven to keep it within the orbit pre-
scribed by the Constitution. The cxpe-
riment has failed. The whole Constitu-
ton, by the constructions of the North
ern people, has been absorbed by its pre-
amble. In their reckless lust for power
they seem unable to comprehend that
seeming paradox, that the more power is
given to the General Government The
weaker it becomes. Its strength consists
in the limitation Of its powers to objects
of common interest. To extend the scope
Of its power over sectional or local inter
ests is to raise up against it opposition
and resistance. In all such matters the
General Government must necessarily be
despotism, because all sectional or local
interests must ever be represented by a
minority in the councils of the General
Government, having no power to protect
itself against the rule Of the majority
The majority constituted from those who
do not represent these sectional or local
interests, will control and govern them
A free people cannot submit to such in
government. And the more it enlargcs
the sphere Of its power, the greater must
be the dissatisfaction it must produce,
and the weaker it must become. On the
contrary the more it abstaius from usurp.
ed powers, and the more faithfully it adj
heres to the limitations Of the Constitu-
ton, the stronger it is made. The North
ern people have had neither the wisdom
nor the faith to perceive that to observe
the limitation Of the Constitution was the
only way to its pcrpetuity.
Under such a Government there must
of course, be many and endless, "irre.
pressiblc conflicts" between the two greai
sections Of the Union. The same filth
lcssness. va oh has abolished die go5ati:
tutien Of the United States viii not fail
to carry out the sectional purposes for
which it has been abolished. There must
be conflict; and the weaker section Of the
Union can ouly find peace and liberty in
au Independence of the North. The re.
peated efforts made by South Carolina
IL wise conservatism, to arrest the pro.
gress of the General Government in it,
fatal progress to consolidation, have been
unsupported and denounced as faith!ess
to the obligations Of the Constitution by
the very men and States who were de.
stroying it by their usurpations. 1t is
now too late to reform or restore the Co
vernment of the United States. All con-
fidence in the North is lost by the South
The faithessness of the North for hall
century has opened a gulf Of separation
which no promises or engagements can fill
1t cannot be believed that our aDces-
tors would have asscnted to any union
whatever with the people of the North,
If the feelings and opinions now existing
amongst them had existed when the Con-
stitution was framed. There was then
no tariff, no fanaticism concerning me-
groes. l. was the delegates from New
England who proposed in the Conven-
ton which framed the Constitution, to
the delegates from South Carolina and
Georgia, that if they would agree to give
Congress the power of regulating com
merce Jy a majority, that they would
support the extension of the African
slave trade for twenty years. African
slavery existed in all the States but one.
The idea that the Southern States would
be made to pay that tribute TO their
Northern confederates which they had
refused to pay to Great Britain, or that
the institution Of African slavery would
be made tue grand basis Of a sectional
organization Of the North TO rule the
South, never crossed their imagiDations.
The Union Of the Constitution was
union of slaveholdiDg States. 1t rests on
siayery by prescribing a representation
in Congress for three-nf,hs ,s 49, slavos
There is nothing in the proceedings Of
the convention which framed the consti-
tuition to show that the Southern States
would have formed any other Union !;
and still less that they would have formed
Union with more powerful non-slave-
holding States, having majority in both
branches Of the Legislature Of the Co
vernmcnt. They were guilty Of no such
folly. Time and the progress Of things
have totally altered the relations between
the Northern and Southern States, since
the Union was established. That ideDti-
ty Of feelings, interests, and institutions,
which once existed, is gone. They are
now divided between agricultural, and
manufacturing, and commercial States
between States holding and non-slave-
holding States. Their institutions and
industrial pursuits have made them TO-
tally different peoples. That equality in
the Government between the two sections
Of the Union which once existed no longer
exists. We but initiate the policy Of
non-slaveholding confederates, and seek
ing a confederation with slaveholding
States.
Experience has proved that slaychold-