The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-11-08
JeAn x. Psrserss Thsrough sunntng
80 mp o( the WhOle CASE aibuI

statement OF the pnl0eOpny OF tue contest % :.
tween US and the Rebels. IS is contained in these
concluding passages Of John Z. Porter's great
speech at Little Falls, New York:
Under the Constitution, we recognised and
faithfully maintained the dominion Of the mas
ter over the elave; but when the South, abjured
the protection of the Federal compact by trea-
sonable and public war,it committed all its rights
to the domain of the laO Of a0ar. sw
Under that law they have used for the subver-
sion of the Constitution, all the agencies of de-
struction they could command. Their most pow
erful auxiliary has been the institution of Sla-
very. which gave them the absolute control Of
four millions of human beings, who were bound,
without pay, to obey every command Of the trait
ors with whom we are at war. Slavery rears
their embankments-digs their trenches-feeds
and clothes their armies-supports the families,
and supplies the wants of the homicides who are
.hrustiDg their weapons at the throat of the
Republic.
The wheels of our Government are obstructed
We find it is Slavery that clogs the wheels
Shall the clog be removed? President Lincoln
and the Cabinet say, Yes. Gen. Mcclellan and
the army say, Yes. The people of the Free
States say, Yes. Horatio Seymour and Fernando
Wood say, No.
Slavery is the key that turns the lock. The
war is waged by our enemies. We fight to de-
fend the Union, and we mean to defend it to the
end, thought costs those enemies their property
and lives. If Slavery stands between US and
victory, Slavery must 60 to the wall.
The syn,patizers NTH the South hold tie claims
of 800, 900 Shareholders to property in hHnan blood
and bones, more holy than the claims Of 20, 900 900
of freemea to their heritage in the American Union
We hold, on the contrary, that rather than sac
rice the interests of ourselves and our poererity
in this blood bought Republic, it would be bet
ter that slaves and shareholders should sink to-
gether into one common grave. We value the
rights and lives Of the free and loyal millions of
the North, at higher rate than those of every
Rebel and slave on the continent. ,.
No such fearful alternative is presented. The
pretense Of slave insurrection is absurd. The
South is armed The undrmed negro neuer rises
against armed men. There has been no insured.
ton ofslaves since this war began. The temp
tation to insurrection is gone. Their masters
treason has wrought out for them proclama-
ton Of liberty, by power to which master and
slave alike must yield. The negro race never
6oht for themselves when there are Others to
fight in their behalf. If the Rebels really fear
slave instruction, let them cease their work of
butchery, and preserve peace in their own homes
They may, indeed, be embarrassed by being com.
PEELED to choose between the insurrection they
are prosecuting and that which Gov. Seymour
fears they may have occasion to suppress. Our
care is to preserve loyal lives. Let it be theirs
to keep their laborers in chains.
We have been true to the compact. They
have teen false. They confscated Northern
debts, and the SLAVES of Southern Uniomists, held
by the same constitutional tenure. The loyal
Shareholders in Rebel States will have no cause
of complaint against US. They and we alike are
subject to the perils, the burdens and the law of
war. While that law takes from them their
slaves, when public necessity demands, it forces
US to the field, and compels US to lay down our
lives. But we provide for them-what we did
not do when we emancipated our own slaves
full compensation to every loyal STAKEHOLDER.
The rebels ,osre our brothers By compact, and
not BY blood; and when they sever the compact
and scout the relation, neither they, nor others
in their behalf, can assert their former rights
under Constitution which. on oath and in arms
they abjure. That constitution will stand firm. 1t
will protect the rights and property of every
citizen, North and South, after as before the
war: but what these shall be will depend on
what rights and property may meantime have
been forfeited by treason, or swept away by the
law of war. Treason has quality of corrosion
which eats even into the manacles of the slave,
and the South must not complain if its own re-
bellion against liberty should add 1000, 900 to
the number of the free. -....
What of the futatreS One thing we know,
whatever else may rest in doubt. Whether the
temple reared by our forefathers shall remain in
its strong and beautiful proportions or whether
at the close OF this war New York shall stand
solitary and broken column, those who in this
hour palter with the public enemy will sink to
grave from which there is no resurrection.
We know, toe, that if this Government falls,
it falls forever. Let no man delude himself
with the dream of two rival Confederates The
States, if not united, will be disbanded. Be-
tween the hammer and the anvil the diamond
may be crushed; it cannot be halved; it will re-
sist the blow, OF it will be shattered to frag-
ments.
We know that consent to the subversion of the
Government is national suicide; and this con-
sent can never be obtained from twenty millions
OF freemen.
We know their numbers aud ours, their
strength and ours, their resources and ours, and
we know that we can never be conquered.
We know the fixed resolve of the American
People is, that there shall be no peace uhieh di
vides the Republic. Treason must be driven
back, wounded and baftled, to its notification
den. Our love of law is as strong as our love of
liberty, and we will yield neither to an armed
enemy. t
The question of Slavery has been Mropn open
By war. The responsibility has been cast upon
the Government of deciding whether it will
weaken the public enemy by emsDcipating those
who dig trenches tor northern blood or strength
en- them by keeping four millions Of men in
cha ns. The Government has announced its de.
cision, and left it to their masters to make their
o,cn election, before old year meets the new, be-
tween submission and emancipation. A rebel
lion which forces slavery to make war on liberty
must not complain when liberty in its own de-
tense strikes down Slavery.
But what of Slavery IN the States not then in
rebellion? Let it stand, until those States of
their own free will permit it to fall. 1t would
have fallen long since, but for the slave marts
in the Gulf States, which will then have been
closed forever. The Government tenders them
full compensation for their bondmen whenever
they choose to accept it. They will judge; and
that Judgment we can easily foresee. Slavery,
once encircled on all sides by liberty, can no
more endure than darkness when the sun pours
in upon it the beams of its warm and genial
light