Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-03-31
wha, DOCS the sou,h wan.,

We look to restoration of the Union. For
that our soldiers die. For that the North is will
ling to pay. For that we should be ready to make
all necessary sacrifices. Is it too much to ask,
for the sake of restoring the Union. that the
North should also seek to deserve the confidence
of the loyal men of all the States, South as we'll
as North
Some DAYS since we asserted thatthe people of
the South entertain fear that the laws will not
be impartaly administered by the dominant party
of the North, and that this more than any other
reason, prevents the voluntary return of the ma
jority of the Southern people to the Union. This
proposition is denied by lie ending Republican
presses. To prove its truth, we recur briefly to
past history.
Governor Moore, of Alabama, less than sew
enteen months ago, addressed the Legislature of
that State thus:
al am no secessionist per Sc, and would like
to contemplate our future glory as a nation
could have the assurance that the Union, upon
the basis of the Constitution, would be as durable
as the hills and valleys embraced within the vast
territorial limits of its jurisdiction"
Gov. Letcher of Virginia, in letter written just
seventeen monthsago, said:
"If the North will respect and uphold the
rights of the States, the Union will be perpetu-
al"
A H. Stephens about the same time. said in the
Georgia Legislature:
"I say to you, don't give IN the ship; don't
abandon heryet. lfshe can be possibly preserved
and our rights, interests and security maintained,
the object is worth the effort"
John B. Floyd then said in a letter:
"For one, am not for secession as long as any
honorable effort can be made to preserve the Union
on Constitutional basis. | believe
that the great material interests ofthe country de-
mand a reconciliation of the sections and the
preservation of the Union"
/ Ia. o. p Nicholson of Tennessee, said, fifteen
months ago:
"If / am not mistaken in the sentiment OF
Tennessee, our people require an honest effort to
be made to save the Union"
Gov. Brown of Tennessee, at the same time,
said:
81 am for the Union as long as it can be MAIN
tanned consistently with the compromises of the
Constitution; and am for redressing the wrongs
of the South in the Union by peaceful remedies,
and until such remedies are exhausted by fair
trial Let our war cry be: The Union and the
rights of all under it; its undivided fortune and
glory"
Said Mr. Cobb of Alabama, year ago last
fall:
81 am not Secessionist. / desire peace.
peace predicated on the principles of the Consti-
tuition"
Said Jefferson Davis himself year ago in De-
cember: -
1.-The union of the States forms in my judg-
ment the best government Instituted among men.
It is only necessary to carry it out in the spirit
in which it was formed"
Long have offered propositions of equality in
the Union. Not single Republican has voted
/ for them"
We might quote sentiments of this purport
without limit. They were then the honest SEN
tments of the great majority of the Southern
leaders. We belieye they are to-day the senti-
ments of the mass ofthe Southern people. What
are we to infer from this? Simply that the mass
of Southern men instinctively love the Union aud
| the Constitution; that they are not per Sc seces
sionists; and they actuated in the present re-
belion, not by hostility to the nature Of Gov
eminent and its constitutional principles, but by
fear that the dominant party of the North in
tends to deny them the rights guaranteed them
/ by the fundamental law.
1t becomes a solemn duty of the people of the
North, therefore. to remove this apprehension,
those whose hostility the unconstitutional meas
/ ures of Northern States and the disunion senti-
ments of Northern presses have encouraged. To
cerely constitutional purposes Of the North is to
thus be accomplished worthy any sacrifice OF
| feeling which the Punishment of sectionalisn
| from among might involye2 We have only
I to adopt the counsel of Washington, and invest
ourselves with the spirit which actuated our faith
ers in the adoption of the Constitution, and the
great work of restoring the Union is already
more than half accomplished Who that is a
real patriot can Observation-Disclosures Mems